SUV  Cause  and  Effect

Is it really true that rising gas prices are causing some dealers to  drop the trade-in-value on an SUV?   Could this be an instance where cause and effect are not always related?

Why does a customer purchase an SUV?  What benefits are available that would cause an intelligent customer to buy a vehicle which they know up front is not going to get 20 or 30 miles per gallon of gasoline?

Why would an intelligent customer buy a vehicle known for “poor gas mileage” when at the front of the lot, pointed toward the Middle East, sit all those little, short, squatty, uncomfortable, higher gas mileage vehicles?

Comfort Matters

How about comfort?   What if to the customer, getting in a vehicle which does not shake, rattle and roll them to death every time they drive happens to be a major consideration?   What if they want to drive a vehicle which actually has a smooth ride, great seats, nice air conditioning, soothing music, no wind noise and just simply allows them to feel as good physically at the end of a long trip as they did at the beginning?   How about that?

Safety Matters

What if safety is important to the customer?  What if the customer once had an accident in a small car, and has already made the decision in her or his mind that  driving  a  strong, heavy  vehicle  is  safer  than  a  small,  light  one?   What  if  this  customer  is  willing  to  pay  more  for  gasoline,  in  order  to  drive  a  safer  vehicle?   What if they want the maximum protection afforded in a vehicle?   What  then?

Reliability Matters

What if driving through dirt,  rain, sleet, wind, mud and snow are important to the customer?   If reliability is important,  would they want to buy the latest mini-pincher with tiny tires, micro-no-length wheel base and see-through  alloy frame?

What if on a regular basis they need to pull off the road to fish, hunt, work, or how about if they live where the roads aren’t the greatest?  What then?   I haven’t been to South America for about ten years now, but the only vehicles running 60mph on  dirt roads back then were Land Cruisers. 

Power Matters

What if towing power is important to the customer?  What if they pull a boat, trailer or camper?  What if they hit the freeway every weekend and mix it up with interstate traffic where if they don’t hit 70 or 80, they get run over?  What then?   Wedged between two semi’s headed for one of those tunnels in North Carolina, at speeds well exceeding “legal,” the last thing on your mind is what kind of gas mileage your car is getting.  

Size Matters

What if the customer needs space for self,  family, kids, pets, gear,

luggage for two weeks, and/or equipment?   You just can’t pack two weeks worth of stuff,  family, and  pets in a short, small, light, high mileage vehicle.  What if a customer just wants the biggest and the best and they are willing to pay more to get it, and to pay more to drive it?  What then? 

View Matters

What about the people who take trips who would like to see over the weeds along the interstate?  Have you taken a trip lately in one of those gas savers where you are lying parallel to the paint on the side of the highway?  How do ya’ like that view?  

When you sit up high, in a big, beautiful SUV, you really can see the USA.  It sure beats naming the weeds and wildflowers that all look the same after about twenty miles of gas saving,  low riding, lower back pain causing, “heh, heh, honey, looks like we sure saved a bundle on gas this trip.  You got them Dome’s Back Pills in your purse?”

Cause and effect are not always related.  If it is true that prices are dropping on SUVs, then now seems to be the time when we should be selling more of them, not fewer.  And for those customers who value comfort, safety, reliability, power, and size, space, now is the best time to buy an SUV.

John Brentlinger

Author of The Little Blue Book of Selling