Car Buyers Scaled Down Last Month

With Gas Prices Soaring, Small Cars Trump SUVs

Consumers reacted sharply to rising gasoline prices last month and turned away from large sport-utility vehicles and other trucks in favor of small cars and gas-electric hybrid vehicles.

Ford Motor Co. said sales of its two hybrid models -- the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner -- more than doubled in April from the previous month, while sales of larger SUVs and pickup trucks tumbled. Toyota Motor Co. said it couldn't produce its Prius hybrid fast enough to keep up with demand.

Consumers also showed a growing appetite for subcompact cars, including tiny new entries such as the Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris. James E. Press, Toyota's U.S. president, said soaring oil prices were reminding automakers "how close to the cliff we're living."

Energy concerns are causing many car buyers to go green. Wally Kulesza, a 44-year-old father of four in Bethesda, bought an Escape hybrid last week. He said the SUV has been getting about 30 miles per gallon, compared with the 12 mpg he gets in other SUVs he owns.

"I don't think of myself as an environmentalist. I think of myself as someone who is concerned," Kulesza said. "I look at it in the same way as when recycling first started. If everybody does a little bit, it all adds up."

Overall, industry sales of new cars and light trucks in the United States fell 3.7 percent in April from a year earlier, according to Autodata Corp. Cars, which had been slipping as a percentage of the overall market, are slowly regaining ground. Last April, cars accounted for 47.4 percent of the total market; this month their share rose to 49 percent.

Small cars, originally designed to satisfy the tastes of Japanese and European buyers, did well in April. Honda's 2.6 percent gain was powered mostly by the introduction of the Fit, a small car that has been a hot seller in Japan and Europe. Toyota was lifted to a 4.5 percent sales increase over a year ago by the Yaris, selling 6,393 units in April. The Yaris is Toyota's best-selling model in Europe.

In a worrisome sign for Detroit, pickup truck sales stalled at Ford and DaimlerChrysler AG's Dodge brand. Dodge Ram sales were down 15 percent. Ford said F-Series sales declined 9 percent and blamed higher gas prices. The pickup truck market is considered the last stronghold of Detroit's profits, and sales recently have been steady in contrast to those of large SUVs. Slumping demand for large SUVs has destabilized Detroit automakers.

Ford lost $1.19 billion in the first quarter while General Motors Corp. lost $323 million, its sixth consecutive money-losing quarter. The two automakers are undergoing substantial reorganizations, including repeated rounds of cost-cutting, the closing of all or part of 26 plants and the elimination of as many as 60,000 jobs.

In April, sales at GM fell 11 percent, while Ford's total sales declined 6.7 percent. The U.S. brands of DaimlerChrysler reported an 8 percent sales drop. But the automaker's Dodge Caliber, the replacement for the Neon small car, sold well last month.

In the hybrid market, signals were mixed. At Toyota, Prius sales dropped 27 percent, to 11,345. But Toyota said sales slowed because the automaker had to slow production of the car to make room for the hybrid Camry, which arrived at dealerships last week. Sales of Honda's hybrid Accord fell 69 percent in April from a year earlier. Dealers say the $31,000 price of the car is scaring away customers.

The bright spot for hybrids in the month came at Ford, where an offer of interest-free financing for five years, or a $500 cash rebate, pumped sales of the Escape and Mercury Mariner gas-electric models. Many customers had been waiting for the prices to drop.

Despite high gas prices, some customers were still drawn to GM's new crop of large SUVs, countering the overall market trend in the month. Sales of the Cadillac Escalade more than doubled from a year ago to 4,109 in April. Sales of the Chevrolet Tahoe and the GMC Yukon rose by about 30 percent.

GM had its own small-scale stars, including the HHR small SUV and the H3, the smallest vehicle in the Hummer line.

But sales of GM's Aveo, which competes against the Yaris and Fit, fell 18 percent.