I made a survey of automotive commercials last night on prime time television. Aside from things crashing into Volkswagens and BMW’s SUV avoiding things to crash into, some of the automakers appear to be giving away profit to move metal:
-0% financing for six years on Explorer and Expedition by Ford.
-Up to $3,500 combined rebates on Jeep
-Up to $5,000 combined rebates on Dodge Trucks
These rebates are all on large SUV vehicles capable of below 20 mpg. Commercials and rebates are an indicator of what needs to sell and a precursor of market trends.
It will be interesting to see the vehicle sales data during this recent gas price spike. I am guessing that sales of vehicles like the Ford Expedition and Jeep Commander will be down.
And why in the world did Jeep debut the Commander this year with a 5.7 liter V-8? Why not a small retro Jeep Willys with a small direct injection Daimler diesel. Now that would be a cool Jeep! They already have the engine in a concept car that gets 70mpg and meets strict emissions requirements in California and several other states.
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Took notice to these "car/truck" ads for the past week or two. Heavy on the trucks or safety/powerful autos in the evening hours (primetime) and during the early afternoons more like the "van style".....those ads for "high-mileage" cars kinda lost or not being "promoted" in the shuffle right now. I got a good bit of time to watch TV and I noticed this trend last week.
Maybe the "new commericals" will appear next week...you know, GM introduces a "new-high mileage import auto" from Brazil for the US domestic market. Priced at $16,000US but can be bought in Brazil for $6,000. Can't wait for those ads!!
You don’t see the high mileage small cars promoted because they are selling or they don’t have them to promote.
General Motors is comparing their Cobalt to the Corolla in a recent commercial, what they don’t mention is that the highway mileage for the Cobalt is almost 10 mpg lower than the Corolla, 34 vs. 41. True the Cobalt has 20 more horsepower on paper, but this is their economy car in the same class that they are comparing in commercials and it was just redesigned beginning it’s product cycle. You would think fuel economy would be a priority.
Detroit needs some relevant products for these times.
Paul,
It may be viewed as a small and gimmicky first step, but Ford has partnered with Terrapass in an attempt balance out climate impact, carbon offsets, manage greenhouse gas emissions, along with encouraging conservation and more fuel-efficient technologies in a program the call "Greener Miles". The idea was not hatched in a Ford advertising lab, but was actually developed by professor Karl Ulrich and his students in an Operations & Information Management department at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Interesting. Terrapass...
I plug in a 05 Ford Expedition and I get.
Your car emits 14,673 lbs of CO2 per year.
You should get a Utility TerraPass.
A Utility TerraPass offsets 20,000 lbs of CO2,
enough to balance one year of your driving.
Pay $79.95 for 1 year
I plug in my car, an 05 Civic Hybrid manual and I get
Your car emits 4,891 lbs of CO2 per year.
You should get a Hybrid Terrapass.
A Hybrid TerraPass offsets 6,000 lbs of CO2,
enough to balance one year of your driving.
Payl $49 for 1 year
I’m all for anything that highlights awareness particularly showing how much CO2 some vehicles produce.
My only problem with it is that it reinforces the idea that we can “buy� our way out of global warming and oil consumption and doesn’t place that responsibility directly on the consumer to research and drive the most eco-friendly car they can find forcing the market to comply.
Incidentally, I admire Ford for the Escape Hybrid. Although the price point is a bit off, it’s the only real attempt by a domestic manufacturer to get something on the road sooner rather than later, gets pretty good mileage for a small SUV and has had very good reliability.
I live in 60738 Las Vegas, Nevada. Have you been here before?
Sorry, never been to Nevada... was in Seattle this weekend and all the rest of the states around it, but never Vegas