Lower gas prices may help auto sales

DETROIT – When Nelson Ropke recently replaced his Jeep Grand Cherokee sport utility vehicle with a Chrysler Pacifica crossover, gasoline prices were top-of-mind. The Grosse Pointe lawyer is a typical buyer still smarting from post-Katrina $3-per-gallon prices, but some analysts and dealers say they’re seeing fewer people like him since pump prices subsided in the later part of September.

Others, though, say many people are behaving just like Ropke, with fears of someday paying $4 per gallon pushing them toward more fuel-efficient models.

Throw in some economic uncertainty, the effects of interest rate increases, and a bloated inventory of domestic trucks and SUVs, and it’s anyone’s guess which way auto sales went in September. That mystery will be solved Tuesday when companies release their monthly sales figures.

At Ed Bozarth Chevrolet in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colo., cars have been selling better than trucks and SUVs, but that started to change toward the end of the month.

AP