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Title: As Gas Prices Rise, Detroit Is Ready
Source:
Associated Press
URL Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic ... /03/01/national/a151833S16.DTL
Published: Mar 1, 2012
Author: Associated Press
Post Date: 2012-03-01 19:22:03 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 1230
Comments: 2
(03-01) 16:18 PST DETROIT (AP) -- Gas prices are spiking. But this time, Detroit is ready. When prices soared in 2008, the city's three U.S. automakers were caught flat-footed. They didn't have competitive small cars and relied on trucks and SUVs for profits. When gas prices peaked at $4.12 in July of that year, sales from the Big Three plummeted more than 20 percent. That same month, sales of the fuel-sipping Toyota Corolla jumped 16 percent. Fast forward to February 2012. Overall U.S. auto sales rose 16 percent to 1.1 million last month, largely on the strength of Detroit's small cars. The annual sales pace hit 15.1 million, the best rate in four years. This time, the Detroit Three saw a 13-percent sales increase. The difference: They have spent billions since 2008 to roll out new models such as the Dodge Dart and Chevrolet Cruze. The timing is fortunate. Buyers are shifting to small cars again. Twenty-three percent of new-car sales were small cars in February, up from 17.9 percent in December, according to auto information site Edmunds.com. So far, the shift isn't as dramatic as it was in 2008, when small-car sales leaped to 27 percent of the market in May as gas suddenly spiked to near $4 per gallon. But prices have never been as high for this time of year. The price of a gallon of gas is up 46 cents this year to an average of $3.74. Analysts say gas could hit $4.25 by late April. It bodes well for Detroit, which has a newfound confidence that it can weather the pain at the pump. "We are very well positioned as a company to thrive in a world of escalating gasoline prices," Bill Ford, chairman of Ford Motor Co, told The Associated Press in a recent interview. Sales of the Focus small car, which Ford rolled out last year, more than doubled to 23,350, making it the best February for the Focus in 12 years. The new Focus gets up to 40 mpg on the highway, seven miles per gallon better than the 2008 model. The company's sales were up 14 percent in February compared to the same month last year. The story is the same at General Motors Co. In July 2008, Honda Motor Co. sold 12,266 Fit subcompacts, besting the Chevrolet Aveo by nearly 5,000 cars. But GM recently replaced the unappealing, underpowered Aveo with the sportier Sonic, which gets up to 40 mpg on the highway and has luxurious options like heated side mirrors. The company sold 8,000 Sonics in February, outselling the Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris combined. Don Johnson, GM's U.S. sales chief, said that three years ago, just 16 percent of the cars and trucks GM sold got over 30 mpg on the highway. Now, it's close to 40 percent. "We believe that this puts us in a very strong competitive position," Johnson said Thursday. GM's sales rose 1 percent in February. Even Chrysler Group, whose lineup is weighted toward SUVs and big cars, will become a bigger player in the small car market this spring, when the new Dodge Dart goes on sale. In the meantime, its Fiat 500 subcompact had its best month ever in February, helping Chrysler's sales climb 40 percent. Carl Galeana, who owns a Fiat dealership north of Detroit, said sales were flat in the first part of the month but picked up the last two weeks as gas prices jumped. Shoppers were constantly asking about the fuel economy of the 500, which can get up to 38 mpg on the highway, Galeana said. "All of the sudden, boom! We're starting to sell Fiats," Galeana said. Japanese carmakers are also benefitting. In 2008, they saw sales slide because they couldn't make their most efficient cars, like the Toyota Prius hybrid, quickly enough to satisfy demands. But this February, Toyota's sales rose, led by a 52-percent jump in the Prius hybrid. Honda's sales were also up, thanks to a 36-percent increase for the small Civic.
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
And where will all of these people get the money to buy these new cars? Fed Res going to bail us all out?
They did that to the Dodge Dart!!!! what a bunch of nimrods...... "The trouble with our liberal friends are not that they're ignorant: It's just that they know so much that isn't so."
#2. To: Brian S (#0)
They have spent billions since 2008 to roll out new models such as the Dodge Dart
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