Small-car interest falls with gas prices

How quickly we forget! USA Today's automotive writer, James Healey has a quick article about the waning interest in small cars as gas prices come down. Come on people...there is only so much oil in the ground and one day we'll be sucking the earth dry, not to mention burning a giant hole in the ozone.

A stock broker friend said many years ago, as he advised us to buy oil stocks, "when they go to pump the last barrel of oil from the ground, I want to own it." That advice has served him and his clients that took it very well.

USATODAY.com - Small-car interest falls with gas prices

Three popular Internet car-shopping sites report notable drops in users seeking information on gas-electric hybrids and other fuel-efficient cars.

Edmunds.com says interest peaked Aug. 29 when Hurricane Katrina hit. That week, 19,500 users went to Edmunds' page on fuel economy. But that's dropped to about 3,000 views a week, the same as it was in early August.

Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com reports that the proportion of site users interested in information about hybrids and economy cars dropped a few percentage points each of the last two months. It wouldn't give details because its survey results aren't final.

Cars.com, partly owned by Gannett, which publishes USA TODAY, says searches for fuel-efficient used cars have fallen, too. The biggest decline is in searches for used Toyota Prius hybrids.