More Galleries
6 great Memorial Day car deals Here are some hot tips if you're going out car-shopping this weekend. More
10 multi-million-dollar mega-yachts These folks definitely do not need a bigger boat. Peek inside some of the swankiest vessels on the high seas. More
Build your own eco-friendly house Home is wherever you want it to be. This 150-square-foot home can be shipped almost anywhere and then assembled like Ikea furniture in about four days. More

Special Offer

Wanted: Gas mileage AND all the goodies

With gas prices going through the roof, vehicles that combine high mileage with low price and loads of utility are selling like crazy.

1 of 10
BACK NEXT
Small cars a hot item
Small cars a hot item
Sales have jumped for the Hyundai Accent and its near-twin, the Kia Rio.
If you compare the first four months of car sales this year with the first four months of sales last year, two things are immediately obvious.

First - they stink. Overall sales dropped 7.6 percent year over year, according to data from industry-tracker Power Information Network.

Second - it helps a lot if you make really little cars. Sales of the smallest compact cars - vehicles like the Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris - are up 37 percent, according to PIN, for the biggest increase of any industry segment. Sales of slightly larger compact cars, like the Ford Focus and Toyota Corolla, are up too, as are sales of compact crossover SUVs, a market segment that's seen a rush of new entries.

If you exclude high-priced or luxury vehicles, which cost a lot and have low sales volume, the evidence shows what most Americans are looking for now - and that's just about everything: low price, excellent fuel economy and loads of utility.

Using data from PIN, we pulled out a sampling of some of the sales winners with the biggest jumps.


NEXT: Kia Rondo
Last updated May 27 2008: 5:58 PM ET
Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer LIBOR Warning: Neither BBA Enterprises Limited, nor the BBA LIBOR Contributor Banks, nor Reuters, can be held liable for any irregularity or inaccuracy of BBA LIBOR. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2012 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer The Dow Jones IndexesSM are proprietary to and distributed by Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and have been licensed for use. All content of the Dow Jones IndexesSM © 2012 is proprietary to Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Chicago Mercantile Association. The market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2012. All rights reserved. Most stock quote data provided by BATS.