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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Chispas who wrote (34201)	7/26/2005 12:54:56 AM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

Large SUVs, pickups see resale value take tumble Sunday July 24, 10:41 pm ET SUV and pickup 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 values of large SUVs and pickups are slumping in response to a supply glut, higher gasoline prices and lower sales of new SUVs and pickups. According to Edmunds.com, an online shopping guide, trade-in values on pickups 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 is $24,374, down about 5% from a May 2004 average of $25,651. Trade-in value for a 3-year-old SUV has fallen 8%, from $19,075 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 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, a suburban Detroit resident who has a 20-mile commute. But many large SUV owners are finding it hard to unload their rides, with gas prices above $2 a gallon and 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, a firm that tracks wholesale used vehicle prices. While no one is ready to pronounce the death of the Chevy Tahoe or Toyota Sequoia, owners trying to sell large SUVs are seeing firsthand that Americans are not as interested as they once were. "I thought for sure I'd sell right away," Holderbaum said. "But nobody wants to pay for that kind of gas." AutoTrader.com, an online vehicle seller, has 100,000 more SUVs listed in online classified ads today than a year ago, spokeswoman Louise Barr said. Owners of SUVs might be trying to dump their vehicles because they foresee trouble in new SUV sales, which are plummeting despite hefty rebates. Demand for new full-size SUVs has declined 12% this year. As automakers pump up rebates, the side effect has been that the value of large SUVs has fallen. The value of used compact cars such as Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic has risen in each of the last 11 months and is now 14.2% higher than a year ago. That's compared with a year-over-year decline of 4.2% in the wholesale price of full-size SUVs, the steepest drop of any vehicle product segment, according to Adesa. "When you look at the contrast between compacts and full-size (SUVs), it has to be driven in part by gas prices," Kontos said. "Why else would there be such polarity?" biz.yahoo.com