Buyer's Guide: New Car Class of 2010
What a difference a year can make. As 2008 wound down, we were reeling under the impact of record gas prices and wondering just how much higher they might go. The good news is that fuel prices have dropped sharply — to little more than half the $4-plus levels of July '08 — though the bad news is that this decline has been driven by a slumping economy, and when things turn back up, fuel prices are expected, yet again, to begin their upward climb.
How high is up? No one knows for sure, though General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson is "planning on $4 a gallon," at the very least. And we may be lucky. In some parts of Europe, motorists are already paying double that amount.
Even for those who have a short commute, it's painful. For those, like the typical real estate pro, who can spend much of the day running from appointment to appointment, clients in tow, the impact is substantial — all the more so at a time when business is slow and commissions are low.
Short of telling those clients to "go have a look for yourself," what can you do? Plenty. For the first time in two decades, the auto industry is taking fuel economy quite seriously — driven, of course, by Washington, which plans to increase the mileage of the average passenger car to 35.5 mpg by 2016. But consumers, not government, are really in the lead when it comes to the high-mileage trend. Buyers are demanding clean, fuel-efficient vehicles that deliver high quality with lots of features — and don't break the bank.
It's not an easy target, yet the automakers, pressed by tough competition, seem ready and willing to deliver. According to industry experts like J.D. Power and Associates, the overall quality of the latest vehicles is by far the best it has ever been. Even the industry laggards have cut their defect rates to less than what the best brands boasted about a decade ago.
http://www.realtor.org/rmotechnology/buyersguide/guides/0911_buyersguide_2010autos
