HACKER Q&A
📣 3minus1

Is now a good time to purchase a gas guzzler?


Ignoring the cost to the environment, I'm wondering if increased gas prices have caused reduced demand and prices for gas guzzlers. Also in 10 years I'm not sure how many vehicles will still use gas which may be a factor in whether you decide to buy one now.


  👤 handmodel Accepted Answer ✓
Gas prices have fluctuated wildly since 2020. This has had nothing to do with the number of people who own ICE vehicles.

Even if you assumed it was tightly correlated, then the second prices dropped you'd expect more people to buy. I'm also not sure what gas prices would be if suddenly everyone had an EV. Seems like they might be forced to charge more since the gas stations themselves would be making less on it?

In ten years I imagine a large majority of vehicles will still use gas. Last year EV sales were only about 7% of all cars. Cars have a relatively long shelf life and all projections I've seen (which admittedly are just speculations) have EV's passing ICE cars in about 15 years. But even then it's still half gas cars.

If I had to buy a new car today I'd still probably buy an ICE based on my needs/budget but I wouldn't do so because I think gas or car prices will crash or anything.


👤 injb
Car prices are stickier than fuel prices. A lot of dealer inventory was purchased before gas prices went through the roof, when the pandemic was still in full force and every manufacturer was cutting production and talking about chip shortages. So used car prices were sky high for dealers, and now they don't want to sell them cheaply. They might have to eventually, but they'll hold out as long as they can in the hopes that gas prices will come back down.

But with a recession on the way, and the fact that new deliveries can only go up, and gas prices can probably only come down...it may be that there's a big crash for car prices on the horizon, especially used cars. This is coming from someone who just bought a used car!


👤 PaulHoule
Cars are crazy expensive right now and carmakers have shifted production towards huge gas guzzlers. It used to be just American car makers that did this, but Honda quit making the fit and when we bought our current fit they the excuse that we couldn't get a new fit because the factory in Mexico washed away in a flood... But they had plenty of CR-Vs made in the same factory!

So I don't think it is a good time to buy a car.


👤 999900000999
As a primary vehicle or a toy.

If you drive a Tesla , but always wanted a SUV for camping, go for it.

Don't drive the Tesla to work