Thursday, June 18, 2009

SUVs: High Demand, Short Supply...

...I guess even the best-laid plans of the smartest socialists can sometimes go awry. Poor Baracky bought Chrysler and GM (with our money, of course) and declared the future of American automobiles would be smaller, lighter, more fuel-efficient, and less safe.

How dumbfounded he must be, as he envisions a Euo-American future of two-seaters and magnetic trains in suburbia, to see Americans searching high and low for...more SUVs:

Even with the auto industry mired in depression... big vehicles such as the Ford Expedition and Chevy Tahoe are in tight supply because of drastic production cuts that automakers imposed last year as sales began to plummet.

Now, a year after $4-a-gallon gas nearly killed SUVs, some dealers in this market are selling them for window-sticker prices.
Moreover, most late-model used pickups and SUVs have regained all of the thousands of dollars in trade-in value they lost last summer, dealers say.


....the back three rows at Five Star Ford in Carrollton – the store's SUV sector – were empty recently because the dealership had sold all of its Expeditions and Explorers....The dealership is contending as well with occasional shortages of compact Escape SUVs and a fairly tight supply of full-size F-150 pickups.

...Meanwhile, at Toyota of Richardson, Steve Grogean grapples with a limited supply of Tundra pickups and Sequoia SUVs.

So despite a full-court press by the media and the government to demonize SUVs, the American consumer continues to purchase what it needs/wants. However, as we can see already, government pressure can limit supply of certain vehicles, thus forcing the consumer to pay more.

I'm sure the government is shedding no tears, after all, rising prices should be a deterrent to purchase. Of course, when Obama's new CAFE standards kick in, auto makers by default will have to make less trucks to meet the new average MPG for their fleet. So the prices will go even higher.

What will Obama and the Demcorats do if consumers still demand their SUVs? Expect product-specific taxes and fees to be slapped on top of an already-inflated purchase price, and then perhaps, an outright ban? First, they came for the Hummers....

The question is, of course, why is Obama launching an attack on suburban housewives (who bear the burden of moving masses of kids place to place day after day) and small business owners, who use vans, pickup trucks, and large SUVs in the course of their trade? Why must the backbone of the American family - middle-class families and local businessmen - bear the financial burden of Bbarack's climate fantasies, while the political class flies in private jets to personalized airports?

Ah, I've never seen a socialist who didn't despise the "proletariat" for trying to better themselves. Stay poor, pure, and serve the state.

We'll see, Baracky, we'll see...

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