Buyers Seeing Less Utility in Big SUVs

See you later, SUV?

Stung by high gas prices, consumers are beginning to shy away from sport utility vehicles, according to a survey released Monday. The Kelley Blue Book poll found that the number of people considering an SUV fell 5% since the last survey in early January, before anxiety over the impending invasion of Iraq sent pump prices climbing.

The poll of 500 shoppers using kbb.com for pricing and information, was conducted March 5-12, and Kelley Blue Book executive editor Charlie Vogelheim said he sees the trend continuing -- especially for full-size, gas-guzzling SUVs.

“These responses were based on gas prices, and while they’ve come down a few pennies, they haven’t changed enough,” Vogelheim said. “The heyday of large SUVs is about over.”

At Felix Chevrolet and Cadillac in Los Angeles, sales of the brawny Cadillac Escalade have shrunk by about 20% in the last three weeks, according to general manager John Antoun. He said gas prices, now averaging $2.130 for a gallon of regular in California, are the culprit.

“People have been asking for smaller SUVs and that’s understandable,” Antoun said, adding that sales of the smaller and less expensive Chevy Trailblazer are up by about 20%.

The first hard data on car sales since regular gas prices topped the $2-a-gallon mark will be the March passenger vehicle sales reports released by automakers today and Wednesday.

After rising 6.3% in 2002, SUV sales fell 2.9% for the first two months of this year, to 25.1% of the market, with full-size models such as Chevrolet’s Tahoe and Suburban taking the biggest hits. Full-size SUVs -- almost all are made by U.S. auto companies -- accounted for 4.6% of all passenger-vehicle sales last year.

Sales data collected by the J.D. Power and Associates auto marketing research firm also show a shift from bigger, truck-based SUVs that often get less than 15 miles a gallon.

“We are expecting a move into the smaller SUVs starting this year and continuing into next,” said Jeff Schuster, director of North American market forecasting at J.D. Power.

That share is expected to fall to 4.3% this year and to about 4.2% in 2004, Schuster said. “It is not a significant decline, more a leveling off, and the buyers are still staying with SUVs, just a different type,” Power analyst Schuster said. “We see the big growth in the smaller luxury SUVs like the Volvo XC 90, [the forthcoming] Cadillac XRS and the new Lexus RX330.”

Still, for those who don’t want a big SUV, there are incentives to help ease the pain of high gas prices. General Motors Corp. is offering zero-percent financing plus a cash rebate of about $3,000 on its largest models.

“Suburbans and Tahoes and full-size pickups are about all we sold all weekend,” said Tracy Allen, sales manager at Don Steves Chevrolet, a mid-size dealership in La Habra. But he acknowledged that discounts are driving sales these days.

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Times staff writer Karen Robinson contributed to this report.