PLEASE, no flames for making unfounded and dire predictions. Just wanting to stir a little debate and take your temperature on this:

Do you think the current trend in gas prices heralds the end of the KR era? Of course there will always be nice interior packages, etc. But do you think the market will continue to support a luxury truck that weighs over 7k pounds in an environment where gas is in the $3-6 dollar range?

My take: yes, but at an even higher price point, due to much lower sales.

On a related note, if you're interested to comment, do you think permanently higher gas prices will kill the resale values of these babies? Are we left to hope our KRs will last forever, as we'll never get anything near our price back out of them?

BTW, on a loosely related note to the above related note, I asked my wife if she wanted a new car too while prices are still down. She said yes, but she wants a hybrid. Can you imagine? A hybrid and a KR side-by-side in the driveway! I think that fillup for the KR while I was gone shocked her into this hybrid idea.

 

Why does your KR weigh 2000 lbs more than mine?

 

You will continue to use the same vehicles.

In the gas crisis of the early 70's Americans tried downsizing by buying small compacts...it just didn't work. They couldn't cope with the huge mileages you are all used to doing.
(Plus you couldn't fit in them....ONLY JOKING!)

As I am always saying in Europe we pay 4 times what you pay for gas but it has made no difference to the luxury vehicles we buy...The latest Range Rovers have very poor gas mileage.

I think what you must do though is be a little more circumspect about how you use vehicles.
For instance occasionally walk or bike short distance...don't always automatically jump in the car or truck.
Also one thing that bugs me over here is the way someone will pull up in a large truck and leave it ticking over for 30 or 40 minutes while they chat to a neighbour, or go into a store.
If everyone stopped doing just that one thing the saving would be huge.

No...it won't change the vehicles....just the way you use them.

 

I agree. I am trying to be more aware of both my driving habits and route. On a typical weekend, my wife and I wouldn't think about where we needed to go, we would just drive wherever we needed something, even if that meant retracing our steps. Now we plan the errands, and complete them in the most efficient manner possible. I've even stopped going through fast food drive-thrus, if there's more than a couple of cars in line ahead of me. (Maybe the walk into the restaraunt will compensate eating there in the first place! ) Same with the drive-in bank, etc. Like Lenny said, if we would all just do some little things, it makes a huge difference, IMHO.

I think Americans are too much in love with their automobiles to stop buying what they want. Yes, maybe sales will go down a bit, and resale will drop some also, but I bought my baby for the long haul so I don't worry too much about it.

 

I agree with Lenny on this. I enjoy my KR too much to give it up. I have always been a bit frugal with the gas in the KR but even a bit more so now. My wife drives a Ford Escape, so on the weekends we have been using her car insteasd of my truck. Little trips here and there, 200 miles or so, we use her Escape too. I get about 23-24mpg on the highway with her vehicle, so it is not the greatest mileage, but definitely better than my KR. But we still are camping with the travel trailer and I use the KR for that obviously. Those weekends hurt as the best I can ever get with KR when pulling the trailer is 10 mpg. Those put a crunch on the pocketbook. But, I won't give up my KR just because of the gas prices. I knew buying the truck what the mileage was and I always say if I wanted to get good mileage I would have bought a Focus. I use my truck as a daily driver, but I also use it as a truck. I haul wood, pull the trailer, etc. It's a truck! I use it as one. Just so happens it's a King Ranch truck, and I like it!

 

We need to start another thread about drilling more holes in Alaska and creating more refineries

 

Maybe it's that darned Rhino Liner!? Seriously, that was my error. The 7k figure is actually the GVWR, which stuck in my head as the weight somehow.

 

In a thread a few weeks back, I reported seeing people fully loaded with boat trailers, etc, passing us at 75 mph. But I noticed with the threat of Rita and $5 gas, people are talking about gas everywhere you go and my wife is talking hybrid. And on a trip back down to Pueblo the other day, only two people passed us (but then again, it wasn't a weekend this time either). Only time will tell, I guess, but I suspect you're correct. I do think demand will take a dent, though. A few hundred bucks a month going out the tailpipe can really hurt some lifestyles. Then add the ripple effect that reaches out to your groceries, etc...

 

An interesting article:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/AUTOS/09/23/...eut/index.html