Utahns reject gas-guzzlers

An overwhelming majority of Utahns say they plan to buy a fuel-efficient car the next time they're in the market and believe that Congress should require automakers to produce more of those types of vehicles.

Is it a new car-buying paradigm, or will gas-guzzlers regain their supremacy, now that gas prices have descended from their $3-per-gallon pinnacle?

In a poll conducted in November by Dan Jones & Associates for the Deseret Morning News and KSL-TV, more than half (51 percent) of respondents said they plan to buy a more fuel-efficient car the next time around. Another 24 percent said they "probably will," while 12 percent said they probably won't and 6 percent said they definitely won't.

Four hundred Utahns participated in the survey, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Sixty-six percent of the same sample group said they believed Congress should compel automakers to build more fuel-efficient vehicles, while 15 percent said Congress "probably" should require higher fuel-efficiency standards. Eight percent said "probably not," and 9 percent said Congress should "definitely not" have such a requirement.

Randy Aldridge, sales manager at Menlove Toyota in Bountiful, said the demand for fuel-efficient vehicles has soared in tandem with gasoline prices. Many of the dealership's most fuel-efficient offerings — the Hybrid, for example, and the Corolla — are sold before they even hit the lot, sometimes months ahead of time, Aldridge said.

"It seems like any time the gas prices go up, the cheaper, more fuel-economical cars come into play," Aldridge said. "We've definitely seen that over the last four months. SUVs and trucks have tapered off, and we've seen a big increase in interest in the others, like the hybrid Prius."

Hybrid sales at Menlove have tripled in the last four months, Aldridge said, with similar results for the popular Corolla line.

But whether the last four months has ushered in a new auto-buying environment — a new and lasting preference for smaller, more economical vehicles — is unclear. Even now, Aldridge said, he's seeing renewed interest in SUVs and trucks, now that gas prices are below $2 per gallon.

Kelly K. Matthews, executive vice president and economist at Wells Fargo Bank, said while energy costs, amplified by the summer's hurricanes, clearly swung the car-buying pendulum in favor of more efficient automobiles, likely in the long-term it will settle closer to the middle, between efficiency and performance, power and style.