Car Sales in the US Outpace Trucks in April

According to edmunds autoobserver, car sales outpaced truck-based sales for the first time in at least 20 years. That's a shift of six percentage since last April.

April Car Sales: U.S. Consumers Flock to Cars, Gouging Detroit Three - AutoObserver

As U.S. consumers definitively reacted to $3.50-a-gallon gasoline, passenger cars outsold truck-based vehicles for the first time in at least 20 years. The move comprised a shift of six percentage points for the industry compared with last April, to 54 percent car sales.

Demand for cars rose 5 percent, to at least 655,000 units in April, compared with 2007, while sales of light trucks including pickups, traditional SUVs, car-based crossovers, and minivans plummeted by more than 17 percent, to about 716,000 from 591,000.

Analysts are pointing to oil being over $120 a barrel, which has led to high gas prices. At $3.50 or better a gallon, people are moving away from big and tall. The other economic indicators are improving, but customers are starting to show some belt tightening even there. Trucks, especially, are feeling the heat as 'lifestyle' choices are going down. "at last one pickup is on the top-10 trade-in list for nearly every small car model, according to George Pipas, chief U.S. sales analyst for Ford."

While all of this is pointing to another banner month for hybrid car sales, it is not good news for the auto industry as a whole or especially with the Big Three.