This thread reminds me of a story .....my friend Bob (whose about 18 years older than me) bought a brand new 1967 Corvette 427 tri power 4 speed convertible. He told me he really wanted the 67 427 Cobra in the showroom at Levittown Ford, but the Cobra was 7500 and the Vette was 5500. He couldnt swing the extra 2000. His dad didnt want to lend hm the extra 2 g's because the Cobra didnt have a heater or a radio. Bob's dad thought the Cobra wasnt much of a car. Anyway, Bob drove the Corvette till the Arabs did us in in 73. Bob couldnt give the corvette away. Nobody wanted it!! He eventually found someone willing to give him 2500 for it. He said he couldnt take the money fast enough! Imagine....selling a 427 tri power Vette for 2500? Seems almost incomprehensible. I guess another moral to this story is "Dont let your father go car shopping with you". Gas in my area today is up to 2.49 a gallon for premium. Its making the 100 octane low lead AV gas I pay 3.42 a gallon for seem cheap.
Remember, a lot of folks who drive these monsters wouldn't normally be able to afford them but as of late can do so because the interest rates are next to nothing. If rates go up there are going to be fewer and fewer people who can manage the monthly cost of these things plus put gas in them. Sales on new ones will decline and there's already a glut of used ones. Have you seen the ads lately? The people that have driven these things for 130K plus miles actually believe they can still get half of what they paid originally out of it. That's where the glut is currently.
Rates can't stay this low forever unless we want an inflation rate that's crippling. Anohter year or two at most before the feds have to clamp down.
I disagree. Surprised? :grin: :beer Wrong in my humble opinion. People are the cause of skyrocketing insurance rates. It's the same old theory, if someone shoots someone, ban guns. If an out of control SUV kills someone, ban SUV's. God forbid we make the people accountable. Big SUV's I agree many times are not utilized fully for their intended purpose, i.e. Caddillac Escalade, Lincoln Navigator etc. These are often times just driven as status vehicles by soccer moms or just single women. Or by guys who just like big trucks. However, millions of people actually have families of 5 or 8 with tons of "stuff", be it luggage or whatever, not to mention pets, who hate the God awful minivan and believe bigger is better and want 4wd to go with it. I looked at minivans myself when I bought my Durango in 2000. For what I wanted the price was equal between the Durango and Grand Caravan, plus I could tow like 3,000 more pounds with the Durango. The easy fix of course, since you can't change human behavior, would be to limit the size and/or weight of these vehicles, but where does that leave tractor trailors? You wanna see carnage? Drive up 287 in NJ on any given day to find one pointing wheels up with crushed cars all around. Some of these truck drivers drive like psychopaths. It's just a matter of time before they wipe out.
You are correct, Ken. People who drive the suv's are the problem. Around here, I notice that the majority of red light runners drive Furd exploders (hehe) and Chebby Blazers. The really big ones are sometimes driven by a different class of people who generally have more respect for the rules of the road. Or else pimped out with obnoxious stereos. :bglasses:
If anyone is wealthy enough to afford a musclecar or a new SUV, then they can afford the gas. I say nothing will change. My $02.
To bring us back to the main topic of this post, I *fondly* remember the gas crunch of the 70's.... We lived right down the road from the largest Ford/AMC dealership in Kentucky, and several of my neighbors were employees at that dealership. Now, I was just a kid, but I knew and "hung out" with all the kids of those employees. Any-way, to make a long story short, the dealer would take gas guzzling muscle cars in on trade for ford pintos and AMC pacers, but naturally, could not re-sell them. Once the cars had sat on the lot for 60 days, they would GIVE THEM AWAY.... Quite literally, we all got GREAT muscle cars for free!!! All we had to do was pay the dealers fee, and transfer costs. If I remember correctly, it was $22.80, and that was the TOTAL cost for the car! I'd "go down the line" and look for the car that had the most gas in the tank, and that was my new ride!!! Just back and forth to school, and a little cruising on saturday night, and I could get 2 weeks use from 1/2 a tank of gas. When the gas ran out, I'd call the junk yard to come and get it. They would give me $15 for it, and I'd go pick out another free car! To be perfectly honest, I feel REALLY guilty about some of the FANTASTIC cars I junked,,,, But back then, they were just un wanted gas guzzlers without a home Over a 12-18 month period, I'll bet I went thru 50+ cars, and junked every one of them simply because they ran out of gas. Please dont hate me
Darryl that is one of the best illustrations I have heard of how worthless so many became overnight. You really had to be there to appreciate the impact the gas situation had on the muscle car.
One of the interesting things about the oil embargo was from what I read in the book "The Decline and Fall of the American Automobile Industry" was that big cars sales INCREASED after the oil embargo ended, which meant that people actually knew of the risk of driving such a big car and didn't really care about it. Plus one of the funny ironies; the van craze (wow what a weird time for that, high gas prices and vans which probably got as bad a gas mileage as a SS 396 Camaro). Also I'm curious did muscle cars sell for extremely cheap after the embargo and did the prices of gas return to close to pre-embargo levels? There isn't much info about it that I could ever find. Chao, Patrick
