Cars pull out from the SUV shadow

Cars pull out from the SUV shadow

Higher gas prices help autos gain market share

By Micheline Maynard
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

January 5, 2006

DETROIT – Last year will go down as the one when cars made a comeback and sport utilities stumbled.

It will also be remembered as the year Detroit's automakers held their lowest market share, although Chrysler broke from its Motor City rivals and posted the only sales increase among the old Big Three. Sales by the major automakers, tallied yesterday, reflected shifting consumer tastes and the effect of higher gasoline prices, which spiked above $3 a gallon in much of the country last summer.

For cars, long overshadowed by hefty pickups and powerful SUVs, the share of the American market climbed for the first time since 1992, according to figures from the automakers. Cars picked up about 1 percentage point, giving them 45.1 percent of the market, their largest share in two years.

Sales of SUVs fell to their lowest level since 1998. And big, expensive SUVs that once commanded a premium, like the Lincoln Navigator, Cadillac Escalade and Toyota Land Cruiser, all posted double-digit sales declines in 2005.

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I drive a car that rides low to the road and I can never see around those
moving billboards.