Survey Says Shoppers Reconsidering SUVs

Despite angst over high gas prices, a new study finds that new-vehicle shoppers are giving SUVs and trucks a look thanks to increased incentives.

According to a survey by Kelley Blue Book. consideration for SUVs and trucks are at 32 percent and 22 percent respectively, which is higher in both categories compared to the past few months since gas prices rose earlier this summer.

"Auto manufacturers are 'buying their way' back into the SUV and truck segments with attractive incentives as a temporary fix to their sales crisis situation, driving more car-buyers to consider purchasing these larger vehicles, which has led to stabilization in the current marketplace," said Rick Wainschel, senior vice president of marketing and analytics for Kelley Blue Book and kbb.com. "However, in this situation what the manufacturers really seem to be buying is time until they can increase production of more fuel-efficient models, which the latest Kelley Blue Book Marketing Research indicates the American car-buying public wants."

While the availability of attractive incentives on larger vehicles has increased, traffic has dropped on kbb.com for vehicles that are not heavily incentivized. Kbb.com traffic to hybrid vehicles was down 33 percent from July to August 2008, and interest in sedans also dropped 11 percent in the same time period.

On the other hand, the increase in traffic for the 2008 Dodge Ram 1500 Regular Cab and the 2008 GMC Yukon was up 21 percent, and the 2008 Ford Expedition was up 9 percent.

Thirty-four percent of in-market new-vehicle shoppers said that incentive and rebate offers have shortened the timing of their next vehicle purchase, and 21 percent said the availability of incentives has convinced them to consider a vehicle they normally would not have considered. An additional 28 percent said that incentives availability caused them to purchase a vehicle they already had in mind.

The majority of people -- 61 percent -- said they are concerned that gas prices will either stay the same or go higher in the next 30 days, new-vehicle shoppers are still very interested in more fuel-efficient models.

"The residual angst over gas prices and the increased desire for more fuel-efficient cars appears to be here to stay, no matter how attractive the current incentives are to buy a large vehicle," Wainschel said.