William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

October 11, 2012

Small cars are on track to to capture the largest share of the U.S. auto market since 1993 according to Bloomberg.

Sales of compact and sub-compact vehicles jumped 50% to 240,288 units last month, giving the segment a 19.3% of market share through September. That's only 1.2% off the highest market share that small vehicles ever got back in 1993.

“Traditionally small cars were purchased by people who couldn’t afford anything else. Right now, that’s not the case. We see people choosing them because they find them more appealing,” said Jesse Toprak, an industry analyst for TrueCar.com.

Why are small cars more appealing? Its due to high gas prices.Average gas prices are about $3.80 across the country, which is about 10% higher around this same time last year.

Source: Bloomberg

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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Sonic RS

Blah, if this country would endorse CNG we could have great auto's running on cheap gas. Bloody conspiracy.

Clown cars clown cars how exciting!

Blah, if this country would endorse CNG we could have great auto's running on cheap gas. Bloody conspiracy.

Conspiracy?! Remember that CNG filling stations are extremely rare in the real world. A lack of infrastructure does not a conspiracy make. If gasoline and diesel triple from current prices, then you will really see sound viable alternatives like CNG out on the marketplace. While I am NOT a fan of small cars, be glad this is not 1980 or 1990 when small cars were penalty boxes. GM and Ford lost a lot of young market share when they decided that small = $h! and large = good. Now they are putting resources into smaller cars because they want long-term brand loyalty.

dfelt, take a look here.

I agree with the clown car remarks. You are one truck away from your funeral!

dfelt, take a look here.

Hey Riviera, I have seen plenty of stories like this. CNG does need more support, we will get there, but have to get the word out.

$21,845 for a 2013 Sonic RS manual with sunroof. Truly, by far, the nicest GM car in this size class ever built.