Since gas prices nationwide have hit the $4 a gallon mark, U.S. buyers have largely abandoned trucks and SUVs in favor of more economical models. However, record high gas prices have not only shifted demand from trucks to cars but also from six-cylinder models to four-cylinder models, greatly straining many automakers’ production capacities.
Demand for four-cylinder engines is at its highest since the energy crisis of the early 1980s and many automakers simply don’t have the capacity to keep up with demand. GM’s marketing and sales head Mark LaNeve estimates that a shortage of four-cylinder engines cost GM 10,000 sales in June.
Ford is operating under the same constraints. “You have dealers screaming for any type of four-cylinder product from us,” Jim Farley, Ford Motor Co.’s group vice president of marketing and communications, told Automotive News. “We have adjusted our plants to do everything we can to supply them.”
This time last year, Ford only saw a 57 percent take rate on its four-cylinder Fusion. This year, that number has climbed to 70 percent.
But the Big Three weren’t the only automakers to be caught off guard by the dramatic consumer shift. Toyota, Hyundai, Honda and Nissan are all scrambling to boost four-cylinder engine production, with many looking to production facilities in other parts of the world or opening completely new factories to keep up with skyrocketing demand.
With the vast majority of consumers now choosing the four-cylinder version of bread and butter cars like the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, many dealers are struggling to keep inventory levels up on popular models. “I have been in the car business for 38 years. It is as wild a swing toward four-cylinders as I have ever seen,” one Tennessee dealer told Automotive News.
07/07, 2:15 PM
posted by:
RaineMan
Umm… duh.
Is this news?
07/07, 2:17 PM
posted by:
mayer_ray_nagin
Cool. Better deals can be made on V6s.
07/07, 2:34 PM
posted by:
jumpoffit
dee dee dee
07/07, 2:36 PM
posted by:
tripleonefive
LOL @ Raineman
07/07, 2:36 PM
posted by:
shaver
Its like these people just got to the gas station after waking up from 2005.
07/07, 2:52 PM
posted by:
sj79
on the accord and camry it doesnt even make much sense to get the I-4 since it only nets you 2mpg. I would just get the V6. On the Malibu, its a different story.
07/07, 2:54 PM
posted by:
hanno
“Demand for four-cylinder engines is not at its highest since…”. Not a lot of proofreading going on?
07/07, 3:08 PM
posted by:
howsmydriving
There is no excuse for not running a story on how this trend will affect the new Camaro.
07/07, 3:15 PM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
howsmydriving: don’t worry. I hear CarBob is already down at the machine shop with a bandsaw and a bunch a small blocks.
07/07, 3:32 PM
posted by:
brassmonkey
The important fact in this story is that GM’s Mark LaNeve said the shortage of 4 cylinder cars cost GM “10,000 dales in June.”
-
If GM can figure out how to get more 4 cylinder cars to dealer lots, maybe they can make up the loss in dales. Plus, GM’s stock may come back up since it is at its lowest since 1954, and that must be direct effect of the lost dales. Additionally, the 10,000 lost dales has had an effect on the DJIA, and we all saw a drop in the Dow in the last 2 weeks. To combat this, there is only one solution; GM MUST INCREASE DALES!!
07/07, 3:33 PM
posted by:
brassmonkey
Hey, LLN. Microsoft makes this neat little tool in their programs called ’spellcheck’. Maybe you could use it, and increase your dales.
07/07, 3:33 PM
posted by:
shaver
Toyota needs to put the 2.7L 4 banger from T-100 back in the Tundra full size. That was a real winner.
07/07, 3:38 PM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
LMFAO brassmonkey. I had no idea they’d even cloned Earnhardt Sr.
07/07, 3:41 PM
posted by:
beatusmongous
“Demand for four-cylinder engines is not at its highest since…”. Not a lot of proofreading going on?
What’s wrong with that, Hanno? “The Demand… …is not at its highest” is structured properly, and “its” is spelled correctly. They seem to have left “The” off of the beginning of the sentence, but that is now acceptable in the “news” world.
They should have restructured that sentence to read, “The demand for the four-cylinder engine has never been higher since the energy crisis in the 1980’s,” but then, this is LLN.
07/07, 3:44 PM
posted by:
beatusmongous
They should use Macs, BrassMonkey. We have a spell check that is built in to everything, even web browsing. It’s quite nice. But then, “dale” isn’t spelled wrong, so neither system would have caught that.
07/07, 3:46 PM
posted by:
xyunya
Those news are really earth shattering since folks are quipping about grammar. At what point this was news, however? The price has been rising steady for the past 5 years.
07/07, 4:00 PM
posted by:
hanno
beatusmongous, maybe I’m reading it wrong, but I’m guessing they were trying to say that demand is now (not “not”) at it highest since the previous energy crisis, because if it was “not at its highest” what’s the point of the sentence?
07/07, 4:04 PM
posted by:
mayer_ray_nagin
As they say in Virginee, “Just drive 55! Weeeeeee!”
http://bp1.blogger.com/_XEEIzU0UA1M/SHEknnDsn5I/AAAAAAAAHXs/FzGw28gD9cg/s1600-h/55.jpg
07/07, 4:16 PM
posted by:
HoosierHero
“LaNeve estimates that a shortage of four-cylinder engines cost GM 10,000 dales in June.” Who is this Dale character, and why is he so important??
07/07, 4:16 PM
posted by:
beatusmongous
Yeah, you’re probably right, Hanno. But then the restructuring of the sentence like I mentioned would have also fixed the “now” problem, too.
07/07, 5:31 PM
posted by:
RotaxKart
I got made fun of when I bought my 4cyl last year… Now who’s laughing bitches!!
07/07, 5:41 PM
posted by:
tripleonefive
That depends on what you drive lol I love hearing people in small cars like Geo Metros brag about how much they are saving in gas but something has to be said about comfort and drive quality I would take a comfortable V6 car over some lil POS car anyday of the week no matter the price of gas
07/07, 6:02 PM
posted by:
ktulu
thay have done a poor hjob of cloning dal gribble
macs R the besy
07/07, 6:35 PM
posted by:
monte
what is going on? I’m agreeing with 1115 twice in one day?
07/07, 11:33 PM
posted by:
RotaxKart
I went from a CTS-V with a rearend made out of plastic! Blew the rear 1 time over the two years that I owned it and they wouldnt warrenty the pos. Death to Cadillac dealers! So yea I went for the 2007 Nissan Altima 4 cyl. I drove them all and Altima suited my needs the most. I might be the only white dude driving one but I dont care! Its my Chicanomy car. NO ODELAY aftermarket WHEELS!!!!!
07/08, 1:18 AM
posted by:
carlos
Rotaxkart, rearend is made of cast aluminum not plastic
07/08, 6:22 AM
posted by:
1c3d0g
If it ain’t a super/turbocharged I-4, I’m not interested.
07/08, 10:17 AM
posted by:
bdizzlefizzle
If they sold cars to 10,000 Dales, think about how many sales that would be. I mean, how many people are named “Dale”? Maybe 1 in 10,000 at most. So, 10,000 x 10,000 = 100,000,000 sales (since you’d have to sell to 10,000 people on average to sell to someone named Dale). 100mm cars sold would be outstanding. GM would be able to buy Toyota and then shut them down so as to avoid being bumped to number 2 ever.
07/08, 12:22 PM
posted by:
beatusmongous
Maybe they’re talking about workers named Dale, BDizzleFizzle. Maybe GM lost 10,000 workers named Dale, and now they can’t keep up the production line as well. Maybe they had cloned some guy name Dale to make a good 4 cylinder line, and all 10,000 clones walked out on them because of some sort of identity crisis. Maybe there weren’t enough chips to go around.
07/08, 11:58 PM
posted by:
angelo
my I6 BMW does just fine, thank you.
The old Matrix XRS with the 6-speed, room for 4-5, decent trunk space and 27mpg on the hwy looks damn good right now.