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The car show in Venezuela's capital was filled with men who gravitate to the SUVs, peering through their windows and slipping into their leather seats.
Many said they were looking for a powerful engine, but no one asked about gas mileage. In oil-rich Venezuela, gasoline costs as little as 12 cents a gallon due to government subsidies, and SUVs are selling briskly.
"Everyone wants to buy a 4-by-4," said Jose Moreno, a 49-year-old businessman examining Fords at the Caracas show this month. "And since gasoline is cheap, you don't think twice about spending on that."
Cheapest in the world
Venezuelans see cheap fuel as a birthright. Filling up an SUV's tank with high-octane gasoline costs roughly $3 -- less than the price of two jugs of drinking water.And as oil exports have boosted the economy, the country has experienced a boom in auto sales, including gas-guzzling four-wheel-drive vehicles that have lost appeal elsewhere.
A recent International Monetary Fund report says Venezuela's gas prices are the cheapest in the world. American motorists are paying about 19 times more at the pump, despite a drop in prices since August, and the U.S. national average this week was $2.25 a gallon for regular fuel (see chart below).
"Those gringos have everything -- so why does their gas cost so much?" taxi driver Jaime Tinoco asked between chuckles as he navigated a midday traffic jam with a Reuters reporter. "Don't they have oil reserves?"
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Subsidies have held down prices since long before Hugo Chávez assumed the presidency in 1999 promising a revolution for the poor. Even in countries such as oil giant Saudi Arabia, prices are well above those in Venezuela.
When Venezuela raised fuel prices in 1989 as part of an austerity move, it pushed up bus fares and crystallized anger among the poor, setting off riots. Soldiers and police clashed with rioters, leaving more than 300 people dead, according to official estimates. Human-rights groups put the toll much higher.
Gas hogs and traffic jams
Since then, Venezuelan authorities have been wary of attempting big price increases. As a result, gas-hog station wagons and pickups of the 1970s and '80s are still common in the barrios of Caracas, as well as old Jeeps, known as rusticos, that often serve as public transport. The streets are clogged with traffic jams and buses spewing exhaust.In auto showrooms, the well-to-do have been snapping up SUVs, and many models of both SUVs and cars are in such demand that buyers must sign waiting lists. The wait for a Toyota 4Runner is said to be two months.
Chávez, in his speeches to Venezuelans, often warns that rampant fuel consumption in the United States is causing global warming. Though his country is the world's No. 5 oil exporter, Chávez urges Venezuelans to adopt socialist values and says not everyone needs a car.
But at the Caracas Auto Show, most everyone was shopping -- and many for the big SUVs. Waiters served sangria while models wearing jumpsuits handed out brochures among the four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Information from Reuters is included in this story.
| Gas prices by state | |||
|---|---|---|---|
State | Regular | State | Regular |
$2.79 | $2.45 | ||
$2.14 | $2.19 | ||
$2.13 | $2.25 | ||
$2.28 | $2.22 | ||
$2.58 | $2.24 | ||
$2.42 | $2.13 | ||
$2.41 | $2.38 | ||
$2.36 | $2.61 | ||
$2.14 | $2.49 | ||
$2.28 | $2.15 | ||
$2.08 | $2.08 | ||
$3.03 | $2.60 | ||
$2.10 | $2.25 | ||
$2.57 | $2.27 | ||
$2.27 | $2.07 | ||
$2.15 | $2.25 | ||
$2.16 | $2.12 | ||
$2.15 | $2.13 | ||
$2.18 | $2.57 | ||
$2.25 | $2.10 | ||
$2.21 | $2.36 | ||
$2.30 | $2.62 | ||
$2.19 | $2.28 | ||
$2.18 | $2.23 | ||
$2.04 | $2.43 | ||
$2.14 | $2.25 | ||
Source: AAA
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