Mike Jackson is the Chairman and CEO of Auto Nation, the largest dealership group in the United States. Auto Nation showrooms around the country sell just about every brand of car offered here and Jackson is actually glad to see gas above $4 a gallon. While this may seem odd since sales have been in free fall lately, especially the once mighty and profitable full-size truck and SUV segment, it actually makes a lot of sense if you look out past the next quarterly report. For far too long, American automakers and consumers have had a mutually destructive co-dependent relationship. Car buyers liked big powerful trucks in an age of cheap gas and manufacturers were more than happy to supply the demand. As interest began to wane, automakers started piling on incentives to keep drivers on the hook and they kept buying prompting the manufacturers to keep building, etc. Unfortunately the lead times to get new product out in this industry are long and although new, smaller, more efficient products are coming, they will take time. In the mean time, carmakers and dealers are feeling the pain.

Jackson believes that pain was just what was needed to move the industry forward to make fundamental changes. Part of the problem is that government has enabled the co-dependency by trying to keep fuel prices low. At the same time they have added to the industry's grief by bringing on new fuel economy standards that are at odds with low fuel prices. As American car buyers have demonstrated time and again, they buy the most vehicle they can afford to operate. While driving gas prices down may benefit consumers in the short term, over the long run it will cause more pain. Jackson wants prices to stay up to help drive demand for development of a new generation of vehicles that will wean us off petroleum.

[Source: Wall Street Journal]

Car shopping is sometimes a bit of a nightmare - and not only because of salesman. Some people do their homework and get most of the information ready beforehand, but many just arrive at the dealer lot and choose without paying much attention. And when deciding about fuel economy, it can be really difficult to take in consideration a comparison between EPA ratings.

In order to help customers to know if a vehicle is efficient, or a least less bad for the environment, AutoWest and Power Auto Group (members of AutoNation) are introducing a new system in order to label cars called the E-Vehicles program. This system will mark cars with a green, leaf-shaped E-Vehicle logo (the additional sticker) if that produce at least 28 miles-per-gallon or delivers 10 percent better fuel efficiency than the average for their vehicle class.

A similar system, called F-Vehicles, will label with a yellow, leaf-shaped logo cars and trucks that make use of flex fuel or ethanol-based technology. Both systems were developed by AutoNation together with Edmunds.com.

Among the most in-demand models are the Toyota Prius, the Honda Civic Hybrid, the midsize Chevy Malibu and the Mercedes-Benz Diesel. Best-in-class E-Vehicles include the Toyota Tacoma pick-up, the Ford Escape Hybrid SUV and the Dodge Grand Caravan minivan

[Source: AutoNation]

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If you're one of the many people who desire a plug-in hybrid, but are frustrated that the only way to get one is to go the aftermarket modification route, check out this strategy by the national auto dealership AutoNation. Mike mentioned AutoNation last week, but I feel this "soft order" tactic deserves another look.

The idea is to show the automakers that there is a demand for grid hybrids by having customers "order" plug-in hybrids (sort of like signing a petition), and the names will then be passed on to automakers (none of whom currently offering any of these types of vehicles for sale). The "soft order" promotion started after Plug-in Partners protested at AutoNation dealerships and now the two groups are working together.

Here's the problem though: the "soft order" option is only for business and utility fleets. Why not open this up to individuals? I know that the signatures collected in the fight to keep the EV1 on the road didn't mean squat to GM, but with the growing tide of interest in green cars, shouldn't we all have a way to "order" a plug-in hybrid car?

Related:

• AutoNation to support plug-in hybrids

[Source: Examiner via EV World]