• MSNBC , Wednesday, October 15, 2008 10:47 AM

Where's there's action, there's always reaction -- but this fast?

Looking at September auto sales data, MSNBC's Roland Jones wonders if tempting incentives from automakers and declining gas prices will drive Americans back towards SUVs and trucks.

Edmunds.com, after all, reports that SUV sales held steady at their August level of 4.4% of the U.S. market, down from the all-time high but up from 3.5% in July. And large pickup trucks accounted for 14.3% of vehicle sales, the highest level of the year and up from 13.7% in August. Incentives for large trucks and SUVs hit a record $5,953 per unit in August, according to Edmonds.

"If [car buyers] think gas prices will continue to decline, we'll probably see them go back to their old ways, but if they think the dip in gas prices we've seen lately is only temporary, they'll probably continue to buy small," says Lester Lave, a professor of economics at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University.

Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis for Edmunds.com, is skeptical the automotive market will ever go back to the late 1990s, when large SUVs and trucks were the most popular vehicles on the road. "I think the type of vehicles people want to buy has permanently shifted," he says.

Read the whole story at MSNBC »