SUV Owners : Unable To Trade Down

Observations from a conversation with a Saturn car sales guy from Chicago at an airport bar in Newark:

So you buy your large ’safe’ tank of an SUV a few years back when gas was $2 a gallon and enjoy the open road. Then gas doubles in price and keeps going up. So you want to get a smaller version - maybe not go back to a car but a medium size Saturn SUV because it’s got better mileage - but you can’t buy it because you haven’t the cash because no one wants to buy your old SUV….