Howdy Webriders! Dr. VW here once again to bring you up to speed on all the happenings in the auto world. Many of you… well probably ALL of you, have been feeling the pinch at the pump these days, and while I’m not going to preach to the choir here about driving slower and all that jazz, after paying over 40 dollars for the first time in my life for a full tank of gas (this is in a small, efficient ‘71 VW mind you) I started to really wonder how on earth people cope with less efficient vehicles- namely the whales of the wide open road, SUV’s. Hit the jump to see some of the crazy things people are doing to save at the pump!

Buying up older vehicles:

And no, I’m not talking about that sweet Mach 1 Mustang that’s been sitting collecting dust on the street corner, begging for a restoration. CNN recently ran a report of several different people snapping up Geo Metro’s on Ebay. Crazy as it sounds, the little clunker was getting nearly 50mpg back in the day, and as big a pile as it is, its gaining a pretty serious following amongst people trying to save a few bucks. Brand new, Geo Metros in the mid 90’s were selling for about 9k, give or take. Recently several Ebay auctions have ended as high as $7,300! Sounds like those Geo owners are having the last laugh.

Dumping the SUVS

Another report from CNN highlighted the rising number of SUV’s that are just sitting in car lots across the country. With gas in many places reaching unheard of prices, (like here in SLO- $4.17 a gallon for regular!), many SUV owners are desperately trying to get rid of the beasts, even if it means eating a considerable loss on the sale; cars that were worth over 40k are now worth less than half of that. Meanwhile new sales on SUV’S have dive bombed by almost 33 percent, a considerable loss to Domestic automakers whose SUV sales used to be their bread and butter. Jay Leno recently remarked that American automakers make some of the best trucks and SUV’s on the planet, but also commented that fuel efficient economy cars from the same American companies were… well crap. “It’s just horrible. Every time you use the turn signal, it’s like breaking a chicken’s leg.” Look out Detroit… the guy who was slated to be the host of Top Gear USA is calling you out!

So this begs the question… what are the rest of you doing to save at the pump? Be sure to head down to the forums and check out the discussion going on here. In the meantime, I’m going to look into scoring an old Geo on Ebay. I’ll be sure to let you guys know when it’s “cool” enough to buy one. This is Dr. VW, signing off.