I’m in!! This is exactly what we need to do to fight back!

Week 1: Nobody buys their fuel from Exxon (US) or Esso (Canada).

Week 2: Nobody buys fuel from Chevron or PetroCan. Week 3: Shell

This would be like wildcat strikes or rolling blackouts.

If PetroCan didn’t sell much fuel for a whole week, competition will soon kick in.

So not only is there the fuel price hike, but also the luxury car price bracket hike. More aussies are down-sizing to compact cars from the oil price hike alone.

If MINI gets the numbers and marketing right, they could find and potentially dominate a market niche down under, but may need to drop prices a bit to capture more market share to compete in the small to medium vehicle segment.

I respect your opinion and you may be one of the many that “actually needs an SUV”. But the same could not have been said 20-30 years ago.

Instead of tooling around in a Honda Pilot, you may well have been driving a Ford Crown Victoria Country Square wagon or an Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser wagon.

Certainly there are many SUVs driven by people who don’t need them, but in what sense do people need a Corvette or RX-8, both of which use as much gas as my Pilot? Or how about a WRX or a MCSa convertible, which aren’t much better?

Another point that is often missed: it’s not just the MPG but also the miles driven that determine total fuel usage. I have one co-worker who drives a Tahoe 4 miles to work, and another who drives a Prius 20 miles to work. Guess who burns more gas and produces more CO2 on his daily commute?

You must own Exxon stock. I am with Kurt regarding a $40 Billion dollar profit while many companies close their doors and people can’t afford to pay their mortgages.

I guess if things get tough enough, I can live in one of my SUVs…

And here’s one for you.. Let’s look 40 years into the future at Meecum or some other auto auction…

“Comming to the podium now is a rotissary restored Caddilac SUV complete with period correct 24″ spinners! I remember when you couldn’t trade these in due to gas braking $4/gallon sometime near the turn of the century.” (Other announcer breakes in…. “I remember that too! Now we’d be happy to pay twice that!” “Lets start the bidding at $100k!” ;)

Matt

Wouldn’t $20 Billion have been enough? No? $30 Billion? How much is enough? What about shaving a few dollars here and there in the interests of what’s best for Americans? Naw. What about some gov’t cap? Isn’t price fixing sort of illegal?

That this profit occurred in an era of government malfeasance is no coincidence. It’s a result of a “screw everyone else” mentality that pervaded from the highest elected office on down. It’s corrupt. And it’s the result of oil-men running the White House.

I don’t see SUV’s dying anytime soon. They’ll continue to become more efficient, more flexible in terms of fuel options, etc. Smaller, better designed too. Didn’t BMW just launch a new one recently? Realistically, there is no reason for ill-concieved, ugly and wasteful behemoths like the GMC Yukon and its ilk to exist.

I own a MINI and an SUV. I like them both, each for their unique qualities. That said, I’d be fine with a day when the majority of cars on the roads of America are of a reasonable size and efficiency. Y’know, like Europe. Let’s get some of those hot hatches over here!

Nah, it’ll never happen.

“Quite a number of you are acting like it’s the end of the world because MINI will be building a replacement for the Ford Excursion. “

Oil is high and getting higher because demand is growing and will continue to grow (e.g. India/China plus us & others) and supply is static or declining. End of cheap oil forever? Yep! End of the world? Nope. High cost oil provides just the incentives we need to develop alternatives; and we will.

Are Hummers dead? Yep, especially H1 and H2 models. Are SUVs dead? Nope. Sales will drop but their versatility guarentees continuing demand from all segments. Plus, they will get more ecomomical. With Prius’ getting in the mid 40s its not unrealistic to imagine a more streamlined RAV 4 sized SUV getting 35 mpg in 3 to 5 years. I can’t wait to see a Mini 4×4 SUV on 30 inch risers! (just kidding).

All this trickles down to the world market.

Bottom line is we need to be drilling in ANWAR and the Gulf of Mexico using OUR oil reserves and get off saudi source. The author is right. There really is no oil shortage other than the one we have artificailly created.

Another favorite of the time was the Jeep Cherokee that had been introduced years earlier.

Many people like to blame Detroit for the proliferation of these type of vehicles. In truth, everyone and their mother benefited from them. Japan, Germany, Korea, et al all made and continue to manufacture their own renditions of the SUV theme.

Like it or not, the truck based (or frame on body) SUV is a dead duck. I will go back to fulfill its previous life duty of being the exclusive realm of farmers and trailer/boat owners.

But be prepared… After 2010 no one is going to be making these animals any longer. Someone is going to have to restore these old vintage SUVs to keep ‘em running.