1. A plunge in the price of
gasoline over the past six
months has drastically
changed the result of the cal-
culation new car buyers and
drivers perform every week:
How much is it going to cost
me to fill this thing up?
The national average price
of gasoline Monday was
$2.13 a gallon, according to
AAA, after falling for a re-
cord 109 days in a row. Six
months ago it was $3.63 a
gallon.
The national average price
of gasoline Monday was
$2.13 a gallon, according to
AAA, after falling for a re-
cord 109 days in a row. Six
months ago it was $3.63 a
gallon.
That Chevy Tahoe you
were eyeing will cost $39 less
to fill up than it did in July.
The Honda Fit now costs you
just $23 to fill the tank. May-
be you can afford to throw in
the booming premium stereo.
Here are some examples:
Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015 THE DERRICK. / The News-Herald – 13
DETROIT (AP) — Ameri-
cans are ready to let their tops
down and feel the wind blow
through their hair.
That’s the feeling among
automakers as they roll out
new convertible models at a
time when many consumers
are gaining confidence in the
economy and have more mon-
ey to spend on less-practical
big-ticket items thanks to juicy
stock market returns.
At the Detroit auto show
Buick, Alfa Romeo and BMW
are all showing off glitzy open-
air models to capitalize on that
newfound confidence, and in-
dustry analysts expect more to
come.
IHS Automotive, an indus-
try consulting firm, predicts
there will be 60 different con-
vertible models in the U.S. by
2020, 15 more than last year
and the most since at least
2000. “New models drive sales
up,” said IHS senior analyst
Stephanie Brinley, whose firm
expects convertible sales to rise
63 percent from 152,400 last
year to 248,000 in 2020.
Following the recession,
sales of convertibles tailed off.
Automakers, realizing that it
wasn’t socially acceptable to
flaunt wealth while others were
struggling, rolled out few new
ragtop models after the reces-
sion. There were 48 six years
ago; now there are 45. As ve-
hicle development budgets
were cut during the recession,
convertibles were early casual-
ties, says Brinley.
But now, with unemploy-
ment down and the stock mar-
ket and luxury car sales up,
automakers are looking for
niches such as convertibles to
increase sales in a competitive
market. IHS estimates that
convertible sales grew nearly 9
percent last year.
“The fear of conspicuous
consumption is dead,” says
Michelle Krebs, senior analyst
with AutoTrader.com. “Every-
body’s getting back into per-
formance and the sexy, flashy
mode. Convertibles play into
that.”
Convertibles range in price
from around $20,000 to about
$850,000 for a Porsche 918
Spyder.
Indeed, there’s more money
available for such frivolity.
U.S. household wealth recov-
ered to $81.3 trillion by the end
of September, the latest gov-
ernment figures available. It
plummeted in early 2009 to
$54.9 trillion as the stock mar-
ket and home values tanked.
But the market has grown dra-
matically since the recession
ended, with the Standard &
Poor’s 500 index more than
doubling. Also, a well-known
measure of consumer confi-
dence shows that consumers
feel the best they have about
the economy in the last seven
years.
However, data shows that
the gains have mostly helped
wealthier households, leaving
middle-class wealth largely
unchanged. Luxury car sales
rose 15 percent last year, the
biggest gain since the reces-
sion, according to Autodata
Corp.
At the Detroit show, Gen-
eral Motors unveiled the Cas-
cada, a Buick version of a
stylish Opel convertible from
Europe.
Fiat Chrysler is showing a
bright yellow Alfa Romeo 4C
Spider with a removable carbon
fiber hardtop. The Spider will
be hand built in limited num-
bers in Italy, and can shoot from
zero to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds.
The Spider goes on sale
this summer, but will be dif-
ficult to get. Reid Bigland,
the brand’s North American
chief, says only about 3,000
Alfas will be produced for
global sale this year; around
40 percent of those will be
convertibles. Pricing wasn’t
released, but will run be-
tween $60,000 and
$85,000.
BMW is also revealing a
refreshed M6 high-perfor-
mance convertible at the De-
troit show.
The four-seat Buick is the
brand’s first convertible in 25
years. It has an insulated soft
top that can be opened in 17
seconds with the car traveling
at up to 31 miles per hour. It
also has a turbocharged 200
horsepower engine and a safety
system that deploys rollover
protection bars behind the rear
seats if the car detects that a
crash is possible.
The Cascada is just what
Buick needs to keep its sales
momentum going, especially
in the prime convertible mar-
ket of Florida, says Ed Wil-
liamson, who runs a Buick-
GMC-Cadillac dealership in
Miami.
Currently, Williamson says
he has no convertible cars to sell
against the ubiquitous German
and Japanese models. “We see
an awful lot of Lexus convert-
ibles in this market,” he says.
AP photos
Automakers are rolling out new convertible
models at a time when many consumers are
gaining confidence in the economy and have
more money to spend on less-practical big-
ticket items thanks to juicy stock market re-
turns.
As cheap gas shifts car buyers’
habits, automakers power on
Convertibles poised to make a comeback
A look at how much money car owners are saving
Fuel tank: 26 gallons
Fill-up cost 6 months ago:
$94.38
Fill-up cost now: $55.38
Savings: $39
DETROIT (AP) — Inside
the auto show here, automak-
ers are showing off electric and
other vehicles designed to cut
our dependence on fossil fuels.
Outside, car buyers are paying
the lowest prices in years for
carbon-based fuels.
That dichotomy has the in-
dustry scrambling to sell alter-
native vehicles and buyers
making choices that seemed
impractical just a short time
ago.
Some of the cars that will
tease visitors to the North
American International Auto
Show include a new all-electric
Chevrolet Bolt, hybrid and
plug-in versions of the Hyun-
dai Sonata and other vehicles
aimed at easing pain at the fuel
pump.
But cheap gas prices across
the country, driven by a sur-
prising plunge in oil prices, are
tempting potential buyers away
from the small and economical
and toward comparatively
more gas-guzzling trucks and
SUVs. That’s leading auto-
makers to take the long view,
adjust production and hope big
research and development bets
still pay off on better mileage
to meet stricter government
emissions standards. They also
want to appeal to consumers,
who once were anxious about
high gas prices.
The plummeting pump
prices — now pegged by AAA
at $2.13 per gallon on average,
compared with $3.31 a year
ago — have had an “immedi-
ate impact on consumer
psyche,” according to Ed-
munds.com senior analyst Jes-
sica Caldwell. According to
the car-shopping site, SUVs
and pickups outsold cars in
2014 for the first time in a de-
cade. It helps that SUVs are
now built on car rather than
truck platforms and have vastly
improved fuel efficiency com-
pared with their forebears.
“People want to buy these
cars and low gas prices give
them the justification they need
to do so,” Caldwell said.
High gas prices and stricter
fuel-economy rules forced the
industry to improve existing
gas-powered engines — and to
develop new vehicles that re-
lied less on carbon for power,
or not all. Hybrids came to
prominence at the turn of the
millennium with the Toyota
Prius. But last year sales of
Prius models dropped 11.5
percent, compared with the
previous year.
It’s tough to predict a turn-
around. The lower gas goes,
the longer it will take to make
the purchase pay off for a
higher-priced, better-mileage
Prius instead of, say, a Corol-
la.
The Prius costs approxi-
mately $4,300 more than a
comparable gas-powered ve-
hicle. Back in July, when gas
was around $3.60 a gallon, a
Prius buyer could expect it to
take about 8 years to recoup
the extra cost in the form of
gasoline savings. At current
prices, the payback doesn’t
come for nearly 14 years.
Fill ‘er up!
Fuel tank: 20 gallons
Fill-up cost 6 months ago:
$72.60
Fill-up cost now: $42.60
Savings: $30
Fuel tank: 17 gallons
Fill-up cost 6 months ago:
$61.71
Fill-up cost now: $36.21
Savings: $25.50
Fuel tank: 10.6 gallons
Fill-up cost 6 months ago:
$38.48
Fill-up cost now: $22.58
Savings: $15.90
Approximate price premium:
$4,300
Annual fuel savings based on
July gas price: $534
Payback years: 8.1
Annual fuel savings based on
current gas price: $313
Payback years: 13.7
Approximate price premi-
um, including electric vehicle
tax credit: $7,330
Annual gasoline savings
based on July gas price: $796
Payback years: 9.2
Annual gasoline savings
based on current gas price:
$281
Chevy Tahoe Dodge Grand Caravan Toyota Camry
Honda Fit Toyota Prius Nissan Leaf
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Detroit Auto ShowDetroit Auto Show
AP
The Chevrolet Bolt EV electric concept vehicle is
driven onto the stage at a presentation during the
North American International Auto Show.
‘Everybody’s getting back
into performance and
the sexy, flashy mode’