Image: A Siegel
Fuel prices are dropping, following oil prices down. They're near 4 year lows lately.
I read a good phrase recently describing car buyers who have "high gas price amnesia". (It's about the U.S., though it probably applies to many other countries as well.) When fuel prices drop, they buy a lot fewer efficient cars and head for thirstier crossovers, SUV's and pickups, without thinking of what's happened in the past and is likely to happen again:
Quote:
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Consumers, Krafcik says, just seem to have short-term memories. "I think it's fairly interesting from a cultural memory standpoint, that American car buyers, for the most part, don't seem to have memory of gas prices two, three or six months ago," he says.
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The comment was made in
an article specifically about hybrids, because sales are off ~5% while overall auto sales are increasing.
Of course, right now we're seeing the same trend here in the forum: Overall activity (post/threads and visitors/searchers) tracks oil prices very closely, so it's no surprise there's less activity now than there was a few months ago.