Despite near-record high gas prices, Canadians buying more trucks, fewer small cars
 

Gas prices in Canada flirted with near record highs a couple of weeks, ago, and they're only barely below that level now. We're paying around $1.30 CAD per liter -- roughly $5 USD per US gallon.

Canadians have long had a love affair with sensible sub-compact & compact cars. Much more so than Americans, for a variety of reasons. But recent numbers show a trend going in the other direction.

Comparing the first half of 2013 to the first half of 2012 ...

Compare that to trucks:

Yikes.

Full article: "Gas prices are high, and Canadians are buying... more large trucks?" ... Gas prices are high, and Canadians are buying... more large trucks? - The Globe and Mail

(That link will probably only be available for a few weeks until it disappears behind the paywall.)

Why?

Probably because credit is so cheap these days -- in the past few years, Canadians for the first time have surpassed our American cousins in the amount of personal debt they carry as a ratio vs. disposable income. And cheap money can cause people to buy what they want, rather than what they need.

Also, gas prices have more or less crept up, rather than surged up, during the recovery from the financial crisis. People tend to respond less to gradual increases than sudden spikes. (Frog in the pot of boiling water story, anyone?)

It's an interesting development, anyway.

You know, I noticed the very same thing in my area a few years ago when gas hit $4 for the first time- it was as if everybody was protesting (or celebrating? :confused: ) record high gas prices by running out and buying new Silverados and Suburbans. There was simply such a huge flood of brand new full-size pickups running around, I was wondering if they were giving them away. :rolleyes:

Well its not like car/truck buying is ever driven by much rational thought. Usually its fuelled by what people want not what people need. It could aslo be the star bellied sneetches effect. Status is everything!

Trucks, trucks, trucks
 

Sat in the parking lot in Timmies recently on a saturday morning and was just astounded by the number of full size, crew cab, 4X4 pick up trucks going through the drive up window with one person inside.

"Stop trying to throw your logic into my emotional decisions!"

:)

Once again, Canada proves that it is Uhmerica Lite. So much for moving there. :/

Hey listen Metro, I don't like your attitude! How do you know all those pickups aren't for hard work like transporting a single passenger across level terrain on a highway for 20 or more miles?

Clearly that is what pickups and SUVs are made for. Plus you need all that 4 wheel drive for whenever you get snow---it's not like compact cars can just put chains on or something.

Besides, how do you expect me to drive over rough terrain like parking lot dividers without an F-550 with duallies, a crew cab and smoke stacks in the short bed?

Duh!

You forgot to mention the need to have Mud tires and a winch with a truck/suv that will never see anything but pavement.

I would be interested to see if the incidence of road rage and tailgating have gone up as well. Big car, big ego, big problem!

Oh that's right! I might need that winch someday, but I want to make sure it doesn't get dirty or scuffed in the mean time, so don't touch it. I just waxed it.

I hope the Canadian rednecks are doing muffler deletes like their southern kin. The Hardley-Ableson women say it's all about safety and I believe it.

Why would you ever want a muffler any way Frank? The louder the faster it goes. Not to mention the improved mpg at 80+ on the highway.

But... but... it's about SAFETY! Right?

In spite of what they claim, I suspect it's about trying to attract members of the opposite sex. Or maybe the same sex. Or sheep and goats. :confused:

Hey, leave the sarcasm to me....... who was thrown over for someone 14 years younger than herself & a truck with KC lights above the cab.

Big & Rich explain that one makes a lot of noise cuz the girls they are so pretty.

Hard to argue with that.

Also understand that 2wd pickups that are "more" eco (though not much) are completely incapable of driving in the winter apparently.

I'm glad I found out since i have never owned a 4wd of any type only RWD, i wonder how i drove hundreds of thousands of winter miles with 2wd?

I can hear it now " I'm sorry honey there will be no eating out or red wine this week... I just fueled up the 4x4 pickup truck..."

I have been working with a company that sells truck accessories for a month or so. I can't believe how many brand new, full load pick ups roll into that place, and leave after dropping another $2k on doo-dads. And here in Vancouver it's not exactly high paying job central, so that makes it even harder to believe how much money some of these people are spending! Apparently one of their big stores in Northern Alberta sells $2500 aftermarket/oversized fuel tanks and $2000 grills on a daily basis for new F350s and Sierras. Good thing those guys work on the oilsands, they are pretty much keeping themselves employed! Luckily I am out of there in a few weeks, it's starting to give me bad ideas about how much I need a new Duramax that is too big to fit in my parking spot at home ha ha. :snail:

It is common to see decked out Escalades in the parking spots of apartment dwellers, and brand new snowmobiles and pickups and such in mobile home parks. The kids load up their mud trucks with- obviously- lift kits and big tires and such, plus 50,000 watt amplifiers, LED headlights, and so on. The two major employers in this town pay $13-$22/hr to the vast majority of the local serfs. I guess they just have different priorities.

It's all roses when the monthly paychecks keep rolling in, you can borrow until you are blue in the face...should a hiccup occur in that monthly paycheck flow, reality steps in and the monster that never sleeps (aka interest and debt) has you by the short and curlies.

In Alberta it's called "Financial combustion". My buddy managed one of the salvage car auctions out there for years, and business would be OK for a few years, then all of a sudden oil prices would fall. So the oilsands would lay people off. And suddenly, a few weeks later, the auction yard would be full of 6 month old, $60k full load diesel trucks that had been financed out the rear, but had suddenly "been stolen, and then found torched". Riiiiight, and I'm a Chinese jet pilot (I'm not BTW lol).

But we can't blame the manufacturers, they are just financing people that want to spend money on things they don't need. A perfect example is this - I think I am into my Civic CX with 292k Kms for about $750 after auction fees, taxes etc. It's a great little car, gets decent FE, isn't rusty, and I think it's pretty cool. But it's a 23 year old Civic with no stereo in it. I'd be lucky to break even with it. Today at an auction I bought a 2002 Suburban. Gas here is $1.45 a liter at the moment by the way. But, it's black, has grey leather interior, sunroof, DVD, and it's lowered. It has more KMs than my Civic does, but it "looks the part" as it were. I paid $1100 for it. I haven't even picked it up yet, and just from a crappy cell phone picture I took of it someone offered me $3k. I'd love to sell little eco cars for a living, but man they just don't pay the bills. And I guess manufacturers see it the same way. So they make sweet financing deals on the Silverados so that any clod with a pulse can buy a new shiny one, but the Volts get shuffled to the back of the lot. I don't like it, but I totally understand it. :snail:

Yay, I'm a statistic!!!

Interesting anecdote: I receive more flak on the simple fact that I use studded tires in the winter then for the fact that I spent $35K on a 4x4 crewcab that gets (according to my Fuelly) 13.4L/100kms average.

And Gas is $1.119/L here.

Uh, aren't studded winter tires a good idea in an Alberta winter? Granted the last time I was there in the winter I was in an AWD Suzuki Aerio with all seasons on it, but at least I had a set of chains in the back ha ha.

I asked a guy at work how much it cost to fill up each week in his truck and he answered with a smugness just as if i was talking about his daughter winning a beauty contest.

People want to feel rich, even if the object that makes them feel this way constantly makes them poor.

"Economy cars" are synonymous with "poor persons car".