The pols are gone — bring in the trucks.
Few pictures better illustrate the gulf between America’s elites and the public than the cars displayed in the Ford displays during the press and public weeks of the Detroit Auto Show. As my Detroit News colleague Manny Lopez notes, Ford trucks — the engines of Ford profits — are virtually non-existent during press week when pols and the press (and Ford’s uber-green chairman Bill Ford) demand politically correct electric and small cars. Ford execs oblige, pushing trucks to the corners of the display.
But as the pols depart and the gates open to the public, the best-selling Ford F-150 & Co. are back with a vengeance. At Saturday’s public opening, Ford trucks dominated the North Entrance of Ford’s display.
And no wonder, Ford’s iconic F-150 is by far the biggest-selling U.S. vehicle at a time when SUVs have once again taken over the majority of the market. Even the green New York Times admitted that “visitors to the show . . . might trip over all the cords to the plug-ins on display, perhaps a disconnect from a market where buyers cooled to costly electric alternatives as gas prices ebbed.”
Goodbye, green. Hello, greenbacks.
I wonder how long it will take for the elite to ban pickup truck's and SUV's (or highly restrict them)? The public just isn't interested in the green machines and I think nothing will.
Ironically, the SUV craze was created due to how automakers reacted to government regulation. SUV's were a niche vehicle until CAFE was forced on automakers in the 1970's. CAFE largely banned the building of large V8 powered station wagons, the car of choice for most families. By the early 1980's they were extinct. However most families need a larger vehicle, or barring that, two smaller ones. So the idea of getting rid of large cars is ridiculous, since one large car with a family is more efficient then a family using two cars no matter how small the car is.
For a while many turned towards the minivan during the 1980's. However they are seen as uncool, they cannot tow much and are underpowered as no mini-van offers more then a V6. So people turned to the SUV. Since SUV's are largely seen as trucks to regulators, they were not subjected to CAFE like cars. The SUV's has been king since. My guess, had large station wagons not disappeared, they would have been less of a gas hog as most SUV's are today. However the elite took that choice away from consumers and the automakers.
I doubt the SUV would have been nearly as popular had they not created CAFE.
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