For years SUVs have been the cash cow of American car companies like GM, Ford, and Chrysler. However, with gas prices hitting $4/gallon nobody wants to pay the $100/tank or more to fill up their large gas guzzling SUVs anymore. These inefficient beasts have seen sales drop significantly in the last few months and trade in values are dropping thousands of dollars each month.

Some are calling this the death of the SUV. GM is even considering selling off its Hummer line of vehicles.

It’s really a lose lose for SUV owners. If they want to sell their large SUV in favor of a smaller, more fuel efficient car they’re going to find that their SUV no longer sells for what it would have just a few months ago. Let’s take a full size SUV, a Chevy Tahoe, as an example. According to Kelley Blue Book a 2005 Tahoe sold forr about $19,750 last September but now the vehicle sells for $16,400, a $3,350 drop in value, or 17%. Even with gas at $4/gallon, the three grand the SUV owner has lost in value on their vehicle would still put a lot of gas in one of those vehicles.

Diesel powered vehicles have seen an even more dramatic drop with and with diesel prices nearing $5/gallon it’s no surprise. Many models of diesel powered trucks have seen their values drop by $5,000 or more in the last few months.

Nearly all auto manufacturers have seen sales fall but America’s Big 3 have taken the biggest hits due to their dependence on truck and SUV sales. GM has taken the biggest with a 28% drop in sales which has promoted the company to close four truck plants and cut about 10,000 jobs.

And Ford no longer has the best selling vehicle in the U.S. For the past 17 years the Ford F-150 pickup truck has held that title but now that title belongs to the far more fuel efficient and less expensive Honda Civic.

It’ll be interesting to see if American auto manufacturers can recover fast enough from this blow or if it’s already too late.

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