Rising Fuel Prices

You may be noticing that as fuel prices are increasing, the spreads between 4 & 6 cylinder engines and 6 & 8 cylinder engines have been diminishing or disappearing altogether.

As vehicles age, their original cost differences give way to “the law of supply and demand,” and demand for fuel efficiency over performance has created a situation where the market is definitely favoring fewer cylinders where available.

So a 2005 8 cylinder Mercedes Benz ML 500 that cost almost $8,000 more than the 6 cylinder ML350 when new is worth only $400 more in today’s market. Similar situations exist among vehicles like 4 cylinder vs. 6 cylinder Accords, Camrys, A4s, Sonatas, Mercedes C-class, Jettas, etc., and among 6 cylinder vs. 8 cylinder vehicles like Audi A6s, BMW 5-series, Infiniti M-series, Jaguar X and S-types, Mercedes E-class, Lexus GSs, etc.

In some cases, while we continue to show ADD’s for larger optional engines, it has become necessary for us to remove the dollar amounts on these ADD’s as our way of urging some caution when dealing with these larger, more fuel-thirsty vehicles. The V8 ADD’s on Grand Cherokees and 4Runners are just a couple of examples of this. And while we have not done the same thing in regards to diesel/turbo diesel ADD’s (despite being told by some dealers we actually should) we have been significantly decreasing the ADD amounts on these vehicles over that past couple of issues. We expect these declines to continue unless things change dramatically in the near future.

As you might expect, on the opposite side of the spectrum are the hybrids, compacts and sub-compact cars that have all come to the forefront of the public consciousness lately and this strong demand has of course forced values to increase on most of these vehicles.

In short, when it comes to cylinders these days, less is more.