Hand Those SUV Keys Over to Your Teen
Ready to trade in your full-size, gas-thirsty SUV for a micro-sized or hybrid car that sips fuel?
Sorry, but no one wants a big SUV these days, new or used. Trade-in values on a used SUV have dropped to the point where you’d almost be giving the vehicle away. So rather than give it away to a dealer, why not give it to your teen who’s crying for wheels?
“With their size and weight, SUVs are still the safest vehicles for the novice teen driver,” said Art Spinella, general manager of CNW Marketing Research. “Why not give it to your teen rather than have him cram into a Toyota Corolla?”
Joe Phillippi, of automotive consulting firm AutoTrends, agrees.
“A used SUV is worth so little as trade bait that rather than take a huge financial loss, give it to the kid,” he said. “Gas isn’t ever going to go to $2 a gallon again, but, who knows, in another year it could be near $3 and then it wouldn’t have been necessary to trade in your $40,000 Tahoe for $12,000.”
Even if you think $4 gas is here to stay, by keeping the SUV in the family you’ll still have it when you need to tow, motor through snow, load up with mulch from Home Depot or haul the family to a vacation retreat.
Big SUVs were driven an average of 12,000 miles last year, but with the run-up in gas prices, it’s only at about 5,000 miles this year.
“People are parking them because of gas prices,” Spinella said.
Giving a large SUV to a teen would force them to keep a closer look at their budget and possibly keep them from speeding too much, given it’s a proven gas-sucker.
Rob Callender, trends director for TRU, a Northbrook, Ill., company that researches the buying habits of teens and 20-somethings, says giving an SUV to a teen rather than a dealer has possibilities — as well as problems.
“Any vehicle that a teen otherwise wouldn’t have is a good vehicle [in their eyes], as long as they don’t rack up a lot of miles with it each week,” he said. “Teens are telling us
they’re feeling the gas-price pinch too. A couple years ago when asked what vehicle they’d like to own, teens were passionate about the Cadillac Escalade. Now the SUV they want
is a compact Jeep Wrangler because it’s smaller and gets better mileage.”
What do you think? Is this a good option, or would you rather not see an army of teens behind the wheels of Chevy Tahoes and Ford Explorers in your neighborhood?
