SUV Buyers Not Frightened By Bad Press.

It seems all the bad press in the world can't slow down the popularity of sports utility vehicles in Los Angeles.

Despite a massive recall of defective Firestone tires (standard equipment on many SUVs), and news reports that Ford Motor Co.'s Explorer is particularly prone to rollovers, Angelenos are buying more SUVs than ever.

Herbert Boeckmann, owner of L.A. County's largest car dealership, Galpin Ford in North Hills, was concerned about all the negative stories about Ford Explorers. So he checked out the sales figures for Explorers during the past two weeks. He found that Galpin's sales had increased 20 percent over the same period last year.

"I haven't had people coming in saying they want to get rid of their Explorers," Boeckmann said. "They just want their tires changed."

Meanwhile, figures from automotive research firm J.D. Power & Associates indicate that SUVs remain more popular in Southern California than the rest of the country.

While the latest actual sales figures for new vehicles are from June, J.D. Power's "days to turn" statistic is current through Aug. 13. And that statistic -- which measures the average number of days a vehicle sits on a dealer's lot, from the time it is delivered to the time it is sold -- indicates that SUVs remain red-hot in Los Angeles. Generally speaking the lower the number of days a vehicle is on the lot, the hotter that vehicle is with buyers.

From May 1 through Aug. 13, mini-SUVs sat on Los Angeles lots for an average of 44 days, according to J.D. Power. Nationally, mini-SUVs lingered two days longer. Luxury UVs like the Lincoln Navigator, which several experts agreed is far and away the hottest-selling SUV model in Los Angeles, sat for an average of only 29 days locally, compared to 42 days in the rest of the country.

Compact SUVs -- including the Ford Explorer, the Dodge Durango and the Jeep Cherokee -- sat on L.A. dealers' lots an average of 62 days during that period, while they sat an average of five more days nationally.

Only getting mere popular

It isn't just faulty tires that are bringing increasingly negative attention to SUVs. Detractors of the big four-wheel-drive vehicles say their high road clearance makes them susceptible to rollovers regardless of the condition of their tires. Further, environmentalists decry SUVs' high emissions levels, and the generally higher price of gas has focused attention on their low mileage statistics.

Yet Jeff Schuster, senior manager of North American forecasting at J.D. Power, said the only thing eating into SUV sales are SUV-car crossovers like Toyota's RAV 4. He forecasts that SUVs will only increase in popularity next year, and says the metropolitan Los Angeles market will most likely continue to lead the nation in sales.

Galpin's total SUV sales are way up. The dealership has sold 3,296 SUVs this year, up from 2,989 in the same period in 1999.

No one can exactly pinpoint why SUVs are selling so well in Los Angeles and beyond, but some believe that even as reports question the safety of the vehicles, consumers have a different perception.

Being larger, SUVs give drivers a feeling of being protected, which is especially important in an accident. Some drivers say they can see better because of the height, another safety issue. Many of these larger vehicles are being used as family cars, and parents perceive a larger vehicle as being better able to protect their children.

Alex Aarabi, sales manger at Frontier Toyota in Valencia, said buyers often tell him that safety is one of the reasons they are buying SUVs. Like Boeckmann, Aarabi said, "(SUVs) are getting more and more popular."

Chris Ashworth, general manager of Toyota of North Hollywood, sees the same trend, adding that the Toyota 4 Runner and Land Cruiser "are selling like hotcakes." Ashworth noted, however, that neither of these vehicles has been the focus of negative news reports.

While them is little sign that high gas prices are cutting into SUV sales, they may be accelerating sales of small cars. Though regional figures aren't available, J.D. Power says sales of low-priced compacts have risen 107.5 percent nationwide through July, compared to the same period last year.

Faith in the future

High gas prices may have been enough to convince low-income consumers to buy smaller cars, but those enjoying the fruits of today's strong economy hardly seem to have noticed. Analysts point out that even when California gas prices rose as high as $2 a gallon, there was barely a dip in SUV sales.

It could be a sign of consumers' continuing faith in the economy, or confidence that gas prices would eventually level, as they did.

Manufacturers, apparently concerned that high gas prices might dampen SUV sales, have been turning out smaller crossover models. For SUV buyers who do not care about gas mileage, the vehicles will only get bigger.

While Ford's SUVs are now the biggest in the industry, Toyota Motor Co. has some big plans of its own. A new model called the Highlander, debuting in the 2001 model year, is bigger than the 4 Runner. Another new Toyota model is an eight-cylinder beast called the Sequoia, which will rival the Ford Expedition for the title of biggest SUV.