SUV Profit addiction Killing Detroit

Really I just want to post the following news item in response to the analysts who think Americans still want SUV's. Big S.U.V.'s Lag in Sales

In September, industrywide sales of large S.U.V.'s were down 43 percent from a year earlier, according to Ward's AutoInfoBank. That is particularly bad news for General Motors and the Ford Motor Company, which are dependent on truck-based S.U.V.'s.

Last month, G.M.'s overall sales fell 24.2 percent and Ford's declined 20.3 percent, compared with the same month a year earlier.

In contrast, Japanese carmakers reported increases last month, propelled by passenger cars and smaller S.U.V.'s known as crossover vehicles. Toyota's sales rose 10.3 percent, Honda's increased 11.7 percent and Nissan's, 16.4 percent.

For years I think GM and Ford have been addicted to the profits from SUV's and gave up the passenger car market to Toyota and Honda. That reliance on SUV's with little to no development effort spent on passenger cars is going to kill them as long people remember $3 a gallon gas. Sure it might be "just a temporary issue" having to do with bad hurricanes, but hurricane season happens every year. And we are on the up swing of the hurricane cycle that could last 10 or 20 years! Makes you think...