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By James R. Healey, USA TODAY
Sat Nov 5, 6:53 AM ET
The pain of $3 gasoline is only a month old, but rapidly falling fuel prices seem to have made Americans less interested in fuel economy.
Buyers haven't re-embraced big, gas-thirsty SUVs. But several measures show waning enthusiasm for fuel-sipping.
That's probably because motorists have accepted and absorbed higher fuel prices and no longer fear shortages, says Philip Reed, consumer advice editor at car-shopping site Edmunds.com. "People will pay almost anything for gas. What freaks them out is when they just flat can't get it," he says. Today's prices are about 60 cents a gallon less than the September peak. "They don't like it, but it isn't as bad," he says. (Photo gallery: Popular small cars)
Among the signs that conservation is less important than it was a month ago:
• This week's government report on gasoline use says that we're getting ever-closer to burning as much gasoline as we did last year, when prices were typically less than $2 a gallon. The nationwide average for regular now is about $2.45, according to travel club AAA.
Gasoline consumption the past four weeks was just 1.7% lower than it was a year earlier, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It had been down as much as 2.8% after Hurricane Katrina disrupted energy operations in the Gulf of Mexico and sent gasoline prices to a nationwide average peak of about $3.07.
• Three popular Internet car-shopping sites report notable drops in users seeking information on gas-electric hybrids and other fuel-efficient cars.
Edmunds.com says interest peaked Aug. 29 when Hurricane Katrina hit. That week, 19,500 users went to Edmunds' page on fuel economy. But that's dropped to about 3,000 views a week, the same as it was in early August.
Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com reports that the proportion of site users interested in information about hybrids and economy cars dropped a few percentage points each of the last two months. It wouldn't give details because its survey results aren't final.
Cars.com, partly owned by Gannett, which publishes USA TODAY, says searches for fuel-efficient used cars have fallen, too. The biggest decline is in searches for used Toyota Prius hybrids.
But that doesn't mean interest in fuel economy has vanished, Cars.com says: "Honda's fuel-efficient models drove more e-mail inquiries to dealers than any other used vehicles" in a recent survey period.
The switch shouldn't be read as a wholesale return to gas guzzlers, says AAA spokesman Geoff Sundstrom. "We'd be a little surprised if consumers turned on a dime - in this case 50 cents - and went back to big SUVs; $2.50 a gallon, on average, is still awfully high for most people," he says.
Sat Nov 5, 6:53 AM ET
The pain of $3 gasoline is only a month old, but rapidly falling fuel prices seem to have made Americans less interested in fuel economy.
Buyers haven't re-embraced big, gas-thirsty SUVs. But several measures show waning enthusiasm for fuel-sipping.
That's probably because motorists have accepted and absorbed higher fuel prices and no longer fear shortages, says Philip Reed, consumer advice editor at car-shopping site Edmunds.com. "People will pay almost anything for gas. What freaks them out is when they just flat can't get it," he says. Today's prices are about 60 cents a gallon less than the September peak. "They don't like it, but it isn't as bad," he says. (Photo gallery: Popular small cars)
Among the signs that conservation is less important than it was a month ago:
• This week's government report on gasoline use says that we're getting ever-closer to burning as much gasoline as we did last year, when prices were typically less than $2 a gallon. The nationwide average for regular now is about $2.45, according to travel club AAA.
Gasoline consumption the past four weeks was just 1.7% lower than it was a year earlier, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It had been down as much as 2.8% after Hurricane Katrina disrupted energy operations in the Gulf of Mexico and sent gasoline prices to a nationwide average peak of about $3.07.
• Three popular Internet car-shopping sites report notable drops in users seeking information on gas-electric hybrids and other fuel-efficient cars.
Edmunds.com says interest peaked Aug. 29 when Hurricane Katrina hit. That week, 19,500 users went to Edmunds' page on fuel economy. But that's dropped to about 3,000 views a week, the same as it was in early August.
Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com reports that the proportion of site users interested in information about hybrids and economy cars dropped a few percentage points each of the last two months. It wouldn't give details because its survey results aren't final.
Cars.com, partly owned by Gannett, which publishes USA TODAY, says searches for fuel-efficient used cars have fallen, too. The biggest decline is in searches for used Toyota Prius hybrids.
But that doesn't mean interest in fuel economy has vanished, Cars.com says: "Honda's fuel-efficient models drove more e-mail inquiries to dealers than any other used vehicles" in a recent survey period.
The switch shouldn't be read as a wholesale return to gas guzzlers, says AAA spokesman Geoff Sundstrom. "We'd be a little surprised if consumers turned on a dime - in this case 50 cents - and went back to big SUVs; $2.50 a gallon, on average, is still awfully high for most people," he says.