This has to be the happiest I have ever felt reading about an ‘endangered’ animal. The iconic symbol that once represented status and class and to many a ‘way of life’ has come to epitomize waste and reckless behavior in the “new normal.” This Friday my hat is off to the ‘guiding hand of the free market.’
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — Jorge Fernandez strolls across the used-car parking lot littered with dozens upon dozens of sport utility vehicles the size of small tugboats.
With gas at $4 a gallon, many have sat there since last summer.
“The cars are literally just sitting, and it doesn’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, the executive director of Automotive News, the trade newspaper for the North American car industry.
