TOP STORY: Hybrid car sales soar as petrol costs bite

Ultra economical hybrid and cheaper diesel-powered cars are surging ahead in popularity in a market only just coming to terms with higher fuel prices.
As higher mileage V6 and V8s struggle to maintain buyer interest on the auction block, Tauranga dealerships selling alternative-fuelled cars are enjoying a boom in popularity.
Likewise, city motorcycle dealers are reporting a huge increase in interest, with a lag between selling a car and buying a bike or scooter apparent.
Smiths Motorcycles owner Andrew Stanley said interest in scooters had quadrupled over the past six weeks and was starting to translate into sales.
Tauranga's Pacific Toyota new car sales manager Mark Mills said demand had soared nationally for the new hybrid petrol/electric Prius cars, with a waiting list of six to eight weeks. There has also been a resurgence of interest in imported hybrid alternatives, he said.
Bay of Plenty Honda director Mark Jury is also fielding more inquiries about fuel consumption and selling more hybrid engined cars as a result.
He said most buyers were surprised at the amount of fuel they could save with the different engine. This was hard to quantify but a hybrid car used 4.9 litres of fuel per 100km while a standard car used about 7 or 8 litres, Mr Jury said.
He said the greatest strength of the hybrid engine was the environmental benefit. "If you take one average Kiwi car off the road, it's the same as taking off 80 hybrid cars - in terms of damage to the environment."
Diesel-powered cars are also attracting a lot more buyer attention.
Tauranga Peugeot's diesel car sales are running 50 per cent higher than normal. Nineteen new diesel Peugeots have sold over the past two months, where normally there would be 12 or 13 sold.
Dealership owner John Hayes said that while the demand for big cars was starting to taper off, it was not significant yet.
The consensus among dealers contacted by the Bay of Plenty Times was that if a private motorist could afford to buy a big new car, then the cost of fuel was not an important consideration. Also many big Holdens and Fords were bought by businesses.
But the picture appears to be changing in the second-hand market, with older, higher mileage big cars that were thirstier than the more technologically advanced modern equivalents.
Turners Car Auctions' Tauranga assistant manager Bevan Hogg said that over the past fortnight there had been less interest in older, higher mileage big cars. However, there was always someone bidding on a low-mileage big car.
Car dealer Grant Jacobson said inquiries were strengthening for smaller cars, particularly from people on tight incomes where the extra $30-a-week fuel cost of a big car was hitting their pockets - particularly older people.
Big cars also consumed more petrol running around town rather than on trips, although when trading in a V6 for something a lot smaller, many people were put off by the difference in ride quality.
"It's a real culture shock," Mr Jacobson said.
Dealers say owners of bigger cars have also started to compare the extra cost of trading down to a smaller car against the difference in petrol prices over a year. That calculation often put things in a new perspective, particularly if people had to borrow.
And while one dealer said he had never priced as many big car trade-ins as during the past few weeks, others had not experienced this.
The one Tauranga car dealer who should have been hardest hit by fuel prices, Stephen Hermansen, says business was very strong last month. He specialises in big Fords and Holdens.
Mr Hermansen said he traded more smaller cars than bigger ones last month. If anything, he found that families were going out of owning two cars and replacing them with one larger car.
"At the end of the day, they need a roomy, family-sized car."
Another factor was that big cars would always be needed to tow boats and caravans, he said. "I do worry about fuel prices but it hasn't happened yet ... we are waiting for that day to kick in."
Mr Hermansen said the tax relief measures offered by both major political parties were offsetting the temptation for families to downsize.
Car dealer Trevor Lee has had a couple of customers wanting to trade their six-cylinder cars for something smaller but got a bit of a shock at the trade-in price.
However, many people still had the wrong idea about big cars, he said.
A lot of big cars were quite fuel efficient and, because bigger engines did not work as hard, they lasted longer.
Holden dealership Ebbett Tauranga's new cars sales manager Tina Wilcott said they had not been hit by fuel price increases. Last month sales were all for vehicles with 3000cc motors or larger.
Ebbett's used car division had one or two more customers than normal trading down from six cylinders to smaller cars.
But petrol prices have not reached the point where people are rushing to convert their engines to run on LPG.
PF Automotive service manager Chris Bromley said there had been a small lift in interest, with about four inquiries a week. With conversions averaging $3500 to $5700 depending on the size, age and complexity of the motor, private motorists were still doing their sums on the economics of switching to LPG.
Meanwhile, oil prices fell 2.4 per cent today as the US energy industry showed signs of recovery in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and industrialised countries prepared to tap emergency supplies to avert a crunch.
US crude settled down $US1.61 to $US65.96 a barrel while London Brent was off 18 cents at $US64.67.