SUVs Going Down in Value, Filling Up Used Car Lots due to Gas Prices

Praise be, y’all, sports utility vehicles are going down in value. Are people actually learning a lesson, here? SUVs are flooding the used car market as people realize that the behemoths are unnecessary, stupid environment killers – no, scratch, that, it’s because of gas prices. Well, whatever works, right?

Ridelust has it:

Most owners who go to a car dealership looking to trade their current ride in for something new usually come out shell-shocked when they learn what the dealership is willing to give them for their trade. Those choosing to turn in their SUV right now will certainly be finding their trade-in value far from what they had invisioned.

According to CNW Marketing Research and the AP SUV sales were down 14% in the month of March when compared to March of 2007. The darling SUV of the American Auto Industry no longer sparkles under the looming clouds of $4/gallon fuel prices. In the face of such a decline in value the only solution for many SUV owners looking to downsize may be to sell their vehicle themselves; a task many owners dread. Even diesel trucks are not immune to the declines in value.

All this has GM concerned that their ‘Green Car of the Year’, the Chevrolet Tahoe 2-Mode Hybrid will suffer a similar fate. The Tahoe Hybrid might get more miles to the gallon, but the $10,000-$15,000 markup probably doesn’t make it worth the cost, especially when depreciation is taken into consideration.

Don’t make any sudden moves, people. We are slowly sliding toward the edge of common sense and responsibility, but we don’t want to scare these SUV-loving folks into realizing they’re actually doing something good for the environment. They’re cringing as they trade in their cars, waiting for the chorus of I-Told-You-So’s, and rubbing it in could well make them want to keep their suburban monsters out of pure spite. The idea of doing things like those fruity Your-a-Peein’s doesn’t sit well with Middle America, no sirree.

Link [RideLust]

Photo credit: Flickr user reedbiotch

Unbelievable Waste: Mazda Destroys 4,703 New Cars Worth $100 Million

BoingBoing has an incredible video of nearly 5,000 brand new, straight from the factory Mazdas being flattened at a junkyard. The total value of these cars was $100 million. The Wall Street Journal has it:

It all started about two years ago, when a ship carrying 4,703 shiny new Mazdas nearly sank in the Pacific. The freighter, the Cougar Ace, spent weeks bobbing on the high seas, listing at a severe 60-degree angle, before finally being righted.

The mishap created a dilemma: What to do with the cars? They had remained safely strapped down throughout the ordeal — but no one knew for sure what damage, if any, might be caused by dangling cars at such a steep angle for so long. Might corrosive fluids seep into chambers where they don’t belong? Was the Cougar Ace now full of lemons?

Crazy – couldn’t they just have had mechanics test the cars to see if damage really was done? Or, sell them at a buy-at-your-own-risk discount? Hopefully the metal will at least be reused, because this seems like a huge amount of extremely unnecessary trash.

Link [Wall Street Journal] via [BoingBoing]

Simon I-Could-Give-A-Shit Cowell Tops List of Celebrity Polluters

Appalling and horrendous: not just the singing on American Idol (who watches that these days?) but also host Simon Cowell’s dirty habits that have made him the top celebrity polluter. Simon’s average carbon emissions are 457g/km.

Known for flying around in a private jet, he has said that he prefers to travel that way because, as the Guardian quotes him, “the champagne’s better and you can smoke, which is a rare pleasure these days at $36,000 feet”.

The rest of the list is, in descending order, Jay Kay (this guy has enough money to be a top polluter?), David Beckham (no surprise there), Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean? WTF!) and 50 Cent (again, no surprise). Bentleys, Hummers, Rolls Royce Phantoms and Ferraris are among the many vehicles they own. Apparently, one or two mega-expensive luxury cars isn’t enough for one person – they each own an average of four.

Surprisingly, 4 out of 5 of them are Brits, not Americans. I wouldn’t have pegged that! Americans are far more renowned for over-consumption of just about everything, so it seems natural that American celebrities would top the smog-peddler list. Learn something new every day! Time to step up the green education, Great Britain, you’re not looking too good.

Link [Ecorazzi] + [The Guardian]

Photo credit: FOX

D’oh! Earth to Online Retailers: Cut The Dumb Over-Packaging BS

Christ on a bicycle, this is some planet killing over-packaging madness. Gizmodo asked readers to submit photos of wasteful shipping from online retailers, and they delivered, providing dozens of images showing a handful of tiny items inside a giant box.

Of course, we could all help cut down on this sort of thing by shopping locally more often, but sometimes there’s a need to order online. Plus, from some retailers’ perspective, the issue is more complicated than just trying to solve it by not padding things as much.

Here’s the thing about shipping out products directly to customers: some items just plain need tons of padding. I once worked for an online retailer that sold very delicate sculptures made of easily breakable materials like glass, and UPS delivery guys and gals are famous for throwing boxes around like they contain pillows. When customers receive a broken shipment they paid thousands of dollars for, they call angrily blaming the retailer for not padding it well enough and demand a replacement immediately. This is wasteful in itself, and results in double the trips on a gas-guzzling UPS truck.

A small fragile item cushioned by biodegradable peanuts in a large recyclable box is one thing. However, the really boneheaded cases of over-packaging are the ones in which the giant box contains a tiny and virtually indestructible product, like Dell with their flash drives. The problem isn’t just the boxes themselves or the materials used to pad the items inside. Gizmodo explains it:

When a company like Dell or Amazon is shipping out thousands of small objects in large boxes every day, it takes up room on UPS and FedEx trucks. Clearly, many more trucks need to be on the road, consuming gas and pumping CO2 into the atmosphere, to get these to where they need to go. If padded mailers or more appropriately sized boxes were used, it would allow for many more to fit in each truck, cutting down on the greenhouse gases emitted every day by shipping companies.

Retailers need to take responsibility for their shipping practices, and they need to do it now. Though most won’t be able to come up with custom-sized boxes for everything they sell (especially if they sell a wide variety of items), they can at least get smaller boxes for items that aren’t likely to break if thrown around a little bit. But retailers aren’t the only ones that can do something to help.

UPS, FedEx and your ilk: is it too much to ask to be a little more gentle with packages? And consumers, you can do your part too: first of all, when you receive packaging like this, complain to the company about it. Second, reuse all of the materials next time you send something out. Finally, if all you need is a single roll of scotch tape that you can pick up at the convenience store one block away, you have no business ordering it online.

Link [Gizmodo]