One Good Thing About Higher Oil Prices

Like Mish, I say good riddance to the SUV era. Higher oil prices are taking a toll on big vehicle sales:

High fuel prices are causing the value of used SUVs to plummet, often below what’s listed in the buying guides many shoppers use to negotiate with dealers.
. . .
Webb’s figures show wholesale prices on big SUVs such as Chevrolet Tahoes, Ford Expeditions and Toyota Sequoias are down 17% from a year ago. Full-size pickups have fallen as much as 15%, Webb says.

Predictably, consumers are downsizing:

Sales of large SUVs plummeted 28% in the first quarter this year, while subcompact sales rose 32%, according to Autodata Corp. Thriftier four-cylinder engines, once despised by Americans for their perceived lack of power, are selling in record numbers.

I say this was predictable, though clearly American auto manufacturers didn’t see it coming:

The trend away from SUVs started well before gas prices began climbing in 2005, in part because of the introduction of “crossover” vehicles – those with SUV styling but built on the more nimble and fuel-efficient car chassis. SUV sales peaked at 3 million in 2003; they’re expected to fall to half that number this year, and the change caught Detroit unprepared.
“It happened too rapidly for the American automakers to take sufficient action,” said Aaron Bragman, an auto analyst for the Waltham, Mass.-based consulting firm Global Insight. For example, 74% of the vehicles Chrysler sold in the U.S. last year were trucks and SUVs, compared to 42% at Toyota Motor Corp.

I shed no tears for the death of the SUV. It’s a status symbol I never understood. Admittedly, it’s a bit silly assigning values to this kind of thing. But I view SUVs as one of the most ostentatious symbols of American consumerism of our era. They’re a gaudy means of transportation that wastes resources and pose a greater danger to other motorists on the roads (like me).
So if, as Mish predicts, “SUVs are headed for the scrap heap of history,” that will be fine with me.