, the executive director of Automotive News , the trade newspaper for the North American car industry . For the first four months of this year , truck and SUV sales are down a collective 24.8 percent . SUV sales plummeted 32.8 percent while pickups dipped 19.9 percent , he says . `` If gas prices stay where they are at or continue to rise , the body-on frame SUV is an endangered species and the pickup truck as a personal car is an endangered species , '' Brown says . How do owners react when they 're told their once - $ 40,000-plus vehicles are now worth less than half that ? `` When they find out what you think their truck is worth , they think you 're trying to rip them off or something , '' says Fernandez . `` Small cars are gone within a week ; SUVs are sitting here since last summer . '' David Lavi , the owner of a Toyota Tacoma pickup , is feeling that pinch . He put his truck on the market several weeks ago in hopes of downsizing . He bought it brand new in 2006 when gas
LOS ANGELES , California -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Jorge Fernandez strolls across the used-car parking lot littered with dozens upon dozens of sport utility vehicles the size of small tugboats . SUVs like these are having a tough time selling with gas prices at all-time highs . With gas at $ 4 a gallon , many have sat there since last summer . `` The cars are literally just sitting , and it does n't matter how much you sell them for , '' Fernandez says of the SUVs and trucks nobody wants anymore . `` It 's amazing . I 've never seen it this bad -- ever . '' Fernandez , a wholesale auto dealer who has been in the business for more than 20 years , says SUV owners are hit especially hard . The really large ones with V-8 engines that can get as little as 12 miles per gallon in the city -- like the Cadillac Escalade , Ford Expedition and Chevy Suburban -- are dropping in value by the thousands . Watch the sinking value of guzzlers '' The No. 1 reason for the sales slump is soaring gas prices , says Peter Brown