Analog
Lifer
SUV and pickup truck owners -- already stung by rising gasoline prices -- are paying another penalty when it comes time to trade in or sell: falling resale values for the gas-thirsty vehicles.
The resale value of large SUVs and pickup trucks is slumping in response to a supply glut, lower demand, higher gasoline prices and lower sales of new SUVs and pickup trucks, analysts say.
Automakers now have to boost discounts on new SUVs, hurting prices for new and used models.
According to www.edmunds.com, an online shopping guide, trade-in values on trucks and SUVs have dipped while dealers are offering larger incentives to people trading in compact cars. The average trade-in value of a year-old SUV, for example, is $24,374, down about 5 percent from a May 2004 average of $25,651. Trade-ins for 3-year-old SUVs have waned nearly 8 percent, from $18,097 in May 2004 to $17,573 today.
Roy Holderbaum's love affair with his 1993 GMC Yukon recently came to an abrupt end when his gas bill shot to $100 a week. Now, he just wants someone to take the hulking SUV off his hands.
"It's a gas guzzler. I'm selling because I can't afford to drive it back and forth to work," said Holderbaum, 23, of Lenox Township, who has a 20-mile commute to his job in Chesterfield Township.
But many owners of large SUVs are finding it harder than ever to unload their rides with gas prices above $2 per gallon, a glut of used SUVs on the market and consumer tastes shifting toward smaller, more fuel-efficient models.
"If the rebate on a Chevy Suburban goes up $1,000 this month, usually the Suburbans sitting out there in our auction lane all of sudden lost, maybe, $500 worth of value," said Tom Kontos, chief economist at ADESA Inc., a Carmel, Ind.-based firm that tracks wholesale prices of used vehicles.
The drop in trade-in values for large SUVs is another indication that large SUVs are losing their appeal with American consumers. http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0507/11/A01-243409.htm
The resale value of large SUVs and pickup trucks is slumping in response to a supply glut, lower demand, higher gasoline prices and lower sales of new SUVs and pickup trucks, analysts say.
Automakers now have to boost discounts on new SUVs, hurting prices for new and used models.
According to www.edmunds.com, an online shopping guide, trade-in values on trucks and SUVs have dipped while dealers are offering larger incentives to people trading in compact cars. The average trade-in value of a year-old SUV, for example, is $24,374, down about 5 percent from a May 2004 average of $25,651. Trade-ins for 3-year-old SUVs have waned nearly 8 percent, from $18,097 in May 2004 to $17,573 today.
Roy Holderbaum's love affair with his 1993 GMC Yukon recently came to an abrupt end when his gas bill shot to $100 a week. Now, he just wants someone to take the hulking SUV off his hands.
"It's a gas guzzler. I'm selling because I can't afford to drive it back and forth to work," said Holderbaum, 23, of Lenox Township, who has a 20-mile commute to his job in Chesterfield Township.
But many owners of large SUVs are finding it harder than ever to unload their rides with gas prices above $2 per gallon, a glut of used SUVs on the market and consumer tastes shifting toward smaller, more fuel-efficient models.
"If the rebate on a Chevy Suburban goes up $1,000 this month, usually the Suburbans sitting out there in our auction lane all of sudden lost, maybe, $500 worth of value," said Tom Kontos, chief economist at ADESA Inc., a Carmel, Ind.-based firm that tracks wholesale prices of used vehicles.
The drop in trade-in values for large SUVs is another indication that large SUVs are losing their appeal with American consumers. http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0507/11/A01-243409.htm
