Wheel Deal: November

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Despite Gas Prices... Muscle-Car Sales

Get Pumped Up

By Art Garcia

Stumped at the pump by prices that top off at more than $3 a gallon while the big oil companies turn in quarterly profits of a billion dollars? You can get mad, get a car with a hybrid engine; you can ride a bike or horse to work; or you can just get over it.
     Or do as the wealthy and don’t sweat runaway prices and obscene profits. In economic crunches, there are always some who don’t feel a financial pinch. Miles per gallon? Not a concern for those with hefty pocketbooks.
     Despite rising fuel prices, there isn’t a 2005 Hummer model left on Ken Austin’s Hummer of Sacramento lot at Fulton and El Camino avenues in Sacramento. A year ago, Austin, general sales manager of the Mike Daugherty Chevrolet-owned dealership — the only Hummer outlet between San Francisco and Portland, Ore., averaged monthly sales of 40 to 50 SUVs and SUTs, the latter offering a small truck bed.
     He’s rolling out sales of about 70 Hummers a month. The only nod to higher gas prices is the new ’06 smaller H3, (a bit larger than a Chevy Trailblazer SUV) with a 3.5-liter inline 5-cylinder engine. Mileage depends on the driver but the H3 has the best fuel economy in the Hummer line. Window sticker price is between $29,500 and $42,000, although some Bay Area dealers are marking them up two grand or so. Austin says his shop sticks to the sticker price.
Continued...

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