Soaring gas prices have turned the steady migration by Americans to smaller cars into a stampede.<\/p>\n
In what industry analysts are calling a first, about one in five vehicles sold in the United States was a compact or subcompact car during April, based on monthly sales data released Thursday. Almost a decade ago, when sport utility vehicles were at their peak of popularity, only one in every eight vehicles sold was a small car.<\/p>\n
The switch to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles has been building in recent years, but has accelerated recently with the advent of $3.50-a-gallon gas. At the same time, sales of pickup trucks and large sport utility vehicles have dropped sharply.<\/p>\n
In another first, fuel-sipping four-cylinder engines surpassed six-cylinder models in popularity in April.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s easily the most dramatic segment shift I have witnessed in the market in my 31 years here,\u201d\u009d said George Pipas, chief sales analyst for the Ford Motor Company.<\/p>\n