By Leftlane Staff
Tuesday, May 9th, 2006 @ 11:27 am

Despite rising gas prices, the common wisdom has been that pickup sales would be largely unaffected because they are often necessary rather than a luxury. However, sales of full-size pickups — a critical component of U.S. auto sales — fell nearly six percent last month, according to the Detroit Free Press. One possibility is that customers are waiting to see if gas prices will get worse. “They just want to see where this gas price thing is going to end up,” said George Pipas, Ford ’s top sales analyst. Pipas contends that pickup customers need the large utility vehicles, and that won’t change. But according to CNW Marketing Research, a quarter of pickup owners are “appearance buyers” — that is, they buy a pickup because they like the image. “They don’t need a pickup truck,” said CNW president Art Spinella.

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