Is the midsize SUV dying?

Ford won't say if the Explorer is headed for the scrap yard, but at the Detroit auto show earlier this year, the company showed off a version built on car underpinnings that it plans to roll out later.

General Motors Corp. and Chrysler won't concede the deaths of their midsize SUVs, either. But GM announced earlier this month it would close an Ohio factory that its the only maker of its TrailBlazer and GMC Envoy models.

Chrysler already had plans to close the plant that makes the Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen.

Once ubiquitous large and midsize SUVs have become symbols of Americans' overuse of oil, said Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University professor who studies pop culture.

Now, many people who bought SUVs when they were trendy are embarrassed by them, he said.

"There are a lot of perfectly normal families who were driving their kids around in these things who now feel the need to show up in your driveway to apologize," he said.

Jack Nerad, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book, says he sees the shift in California, where the image of driving to the wide-open spaces was popular.

"The auto industry moves through cycles and moves on," he said. "I think we've probably moved beyond that outdoor imagery."

Byproduct of bad economy?
But make no mistake, Thompson says — it's mostly about expensive gas.

"The reason that cultural stuff is becoming so powerful is that everybody's consciousness has been raised by the economic issue," Thompson says.

GM and Chrysler have been trying to fight the gas-guzzling image of SUVs with a sophisticated gas-electric hybrid that pushes gas mileage in a large SUV to 21 in the city and 22 on the highway.

Still, the shift from trucks to cars this year was so rapid that Ford and GM executives view it as permanent. Both GM and Ford recently announced huge production cuts and plans to crank out more cars even as U.S. automakers, and even Toyota Motor Corp., continue to see their sales drop.

The shift certainly will cause more red ink in Detroit, where automakers historically have relied on big-ticket trucks for the bulk of their profits.

Nerad says the Detroit Three recognized the shift and have more fuel-efficient models in the works, but they saw it coming in years, not months. The change, he said, was the most rapid he has seen in his 30 years in the industry.

None of this is much help to Mixer, though, who bought her Explorer in March of last year. Gasoline was still around $2.50 per gallon.

"We didn't see this coming at all," she said. "I didn't realize it was ever going to get this bad."

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