Discounts lure shoppers back to pickups

You have to hand it to some consumers: They know a good deal when they see one.

The numbers for vehicle sales in August show that U.S. consumers' love affair with big vehicles, especially pickups, hasn't entirely died.

Neither has the clamor for fuel-efficient cars.

Chalk up both trends to the fluid nature of both the car business and continued dismay over the economy.

Huge discounts on new pickups from U.S. manufacturers and dealers -- sometimes as much as $14,000, although the average incentive was closer to $5,300 -- apparently outweighed concerns over gas costs and how few miles per gallon a driver may get from a V-8 truck.

The light-truck segment of the market rebounded in August to more than 13 percent of vehicle sales, up 4 percentage points from May.

As gasoline starts to approach $3.50 a gallon, the truck sales uptick may mean some stability is ahead for U.S. manufacturers.

For consumers, it may mean that as truck sales rise -- or at least maintain the August levels -- those lucrative incentives will be ratcheted down. But that's not likely to happen soon.

On the flip side, prices aren't likely to drop anytime soon on certain subcompacts, which remain in short supply on many dealer lots.

The darling of eco shoppers, the Toyota Prius, departs dealer lots within days of being off-loaded from transporters. Other Toyota subcompacts are also in short supply -- there is a 16-day supply of the Yaris and a 24-day supply of the Corolla.

Even Chevrolet is seeing rising prices for the Cobalt, which a year ago might not have been on anyone's economy car list. Buyers are paying at least $700 more for a Cobalt than they did just five months ago.

The earlier reported trend away from car leasing, especially by Detroit-based manufacturers, is further changing the scene for consumers.

Ford saw its number of leased vehicles fall from 13 percent in July to less thank 10 percent in August. At General Motors, the drop was even sharper, from 11 percent in July to 4 percent in August.

Chrysler, which ended all lease deals from its company-aligned lending arm in August, saw its lease deals drop from 23 percent to less than 2 percent.

For consumers, all this news means that it's more important than ever to gather as much information about the vehicles on your shopping list and bargain hard for the best deals.

While it seems logical that truck prices may rise somewhat as fuel prices stabilize, and that economy cars may become less in demand as well, for now, both segments seem to be on the same trajectory -- trucks are attractively priced, while you can expect to pay top dollar for the most popular econoboxes.