New Edmunds Study: Declining Consumer Interest in V8s
SANTA MONICA, California — In what may be a telling sign of the times, more vehicle shoppers — perhaps concerned with the high cost of gasoline and/or increasingly interested in environmental issues — appear to be just saying no to that most American of engines, the V8.
Installation rates for V8s — the favored power plant for the horsepower wars that have dominated the U.S. market for more than a decade — are dropping. And data from a new Edmunds.com study extrapolating the purchase intentions of consumers actively shopping for a new vehicle show those potential customers are markedly less interested in V8 power.
Overall shopper demand for V8s has dropped from 19 percent two years ago to just 15 percent today.
And the public's taste for eight cylinders in SUVs has dropped even more markedly: from 24 percent in January, 2006 to 18 percent at the end of 2007. Meanwhile, demand for V8 power in large cars also slid from 36 percent to 29 percent in the same time frame — and the same numbers apply for two-seaters.
Even Chrysler's dominating Hemi V8 is not immune: The average installation rate for all models that offer the Hemi — there are about a dozen — dropped to 38 percent at the end of 2007; in the Hemi's heyday, installation rates for almost all models easily exceeded 40 percent. And at one point, more than 60 percent of Charger buyers, for instance, opted for the Hemi.
One market segment in which V8 consideration is holding strong: full-size pickups. Demand has increased from 55 percent at the beginning of 2006 to a current 59 percent. Edmunds data wonks say this could be because the number of "casual" pickup customers is dropping, leaving a larger ratio of pickup buyers who use their trucks for genuine work duty.
The case against V8s is building from many angles: General Motors recently made headlines when it shelved a mature development program for a next-generation premium V8. California persists in its legal wrangling to define a de facto fuel-economy standard by strictly regulating carbon dioxide emissions, which are linked to global warming; in that environment, V8s will be a big liability. But perhaps most directly for consumers, fuel prices just keep rising.
What this means to you: "That thing got a Hemi?" just doesn't have the playfully insolent ring it once enjoyed — and the ring V8s make for automakers' cash registers is sure to be a casualty, too. — Bill Visnic, Senior Editor, AutoObserver.com