Americans Switch To Smaller Cars

The Washington Post points to a rapid change in the way Americans are buying cars. Apparently Americans are ditching their guzzler trucks and SUVs for smaller cars after fuel price hikes and artifically spiked summer sales through ‘employee pricing for everyone’:

While small car sales are helping to lift the Japanese automakers,
Detroit’s General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. are sinking under the
weight of large sport-utility vehicles, once the industry’s cash cows.
The two automakers have reported substantial slides in profits in their
North American operations this year, and their bonds have junk status
on Wall Street. The interest in small cars has caught the two
automakers unprepared, said Dave Healy, an auto industry analyst at
Burnham Securities Inc. in New York.

Washington Post
<via Treehugger>