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A Tale of Two SUVs

The Chevrolet Tahoe and Ford Escape Hybrid

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

March 16, 2006

• States Want Stronger Used Car Rule • Industry Troubles Cloud LA Car Show • Carmakers Get Neither Love Nor Money From Congress • Taxpayers Headed For Automotive Bailout • Time May Be Running Short for U.S. Carmakers • Feds Move Closer to Carmaker Bailout • New-Vehicle Buyers Turn to the Web in Record Numbers --- • More about Auto Sales ...

The SUV market was dead and gone when gasoline prices topped $3 a gallon and General Motors management was generally denounced as too thick-headed and short-sighted to invest the company’s future in a lineup of new large SUVs.

Ford, on the other hand, appeared to be a visionary green automaker with a commitment to the Escape Hybrid and the future.

At least that was the conventional wisdom at the time.

So how are the different SUV offerings doing in the 2006 market place?

Over at Ford, the automaker has increased spending on advertising and increased discounts for the Escape Hybrid. Sales are slower than Ford anticipated and the company is experimenting with the incentives as the company attempts to fine-tune its distribution.

As of early March, Ford had a 152-day supply of Escape Hybrids scattered throughout the Northeast and one dealer had a 2005 model on the lot for more than a year.

Adding to the sales slump, the Escape Hybrid suffers from inflated mileage claims plaguing almost every gasoline and electric vehicle in the market place.

Nationally, Ford dealers are averaging 46 days to sell an Escape, according to J.D. Power and Associates' Power Information Network.

To speed sales, Ford is offering consumers up to $1,000 in incentives, in large part to help close the deal on the lot. The Escape Hybrid carries a base price of $27,515, including shipping.

Tahoe Takes Off

But at GM, a little more than six months after the price spike and as gasoline prices are on the rise again, sales of the new Chevrolet Tahoe are so strong that the troubled automaker is trying to speed up production and ship the SUVs to dealerships ahead of schedule.

The new two-wheel-drive Tahoe gets 22 miles per gallon on the highway and 16 mpg in the city. The four-wheel-drive gets 1 mpg less in city and on the highway.

For consumers worried about increasing gasoline prices, the GM sales force points out that the new SUV achieves better fuel economy than similar models from GM competitors.

Tahoe sales are up 49.8% from January and February last year without any incentives on the new model.

The sales numbers are the best news GM has received from the consumer market place in a long time.

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