<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Month-to-month fatality statistics from the National Transportation Highway Administration are only available through last fall, and Michigan State Police say\u00a0their official month-to-month fatality statistics are preliminary.<\/p>\n
But a spokesperson said the state\u2019s Traffic Crash Reporting Unit \u2014\u00a0which catalogs on average 315,000 crashes a year \u2014\u00a0indicates traffic fatalities are trending down with 30 fewer deaths in March. For the year, traffic fatalities are down 168.<\/p>\n
Gas-price data is more current, with prices plummeting since the pandemic hit our shores. Credit an OPEC price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia as well as reduced consumer demand.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0average price of regular gas in Michigan was $1.58 on Wednesday, considerably below the $1.91\u00a0nationally. Michigan’s price fell 10 cents in a week and 66 cents in a month.\u00a0Some stations in Detroit are pumping gas for under $1:\u00a0the Costco in Madison Heights, for instance, had it for\u00a089 cents Wednesday.<\/p>\n
With stay-at-home orders limiting customer traffic and shutting down dealer showrooms in most major markets, automakers are doing all they can to attract customers. That won\u2019t benefit Michigan customers, at least\u00a0for now, as the state has shut down all dealer showrooms and online deliveries.<\/p>\n
But in other states, auto data firm Edmunds said buyers can find healthy financing deals on new cars, including no-interest loans, record incentives,\u00a0and deferred payments.<\/p>\n
Chevrolet, for example, is offering zero-interest loans and 120 days of deferred payments. Jeep is extending 0% loans on select models with no payments for 90 days. And Ford is offering 90 days of deferred payments on some models with the first three months of payments as bonus cash.<\/p>\n
Dealers are also writing record numbers of 84-month lease terms to keep buyers coming. Average vehicle incentives hit a record $5,100 the first week of April with J.D. Power reporting the biggest incentives \u2014 $7,300 \u2014 targeted at pickup truck sales, since they are the Detroit Three\u2019s profit-drivers. Dealer inventories are strong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The coronavirus pandemic has been costly to Michigan’s transportation economy, exacting a high price in lost auto sales and plant shutdowns. But if there’s any glimmer of a bright side,\u00a0the COVID-19 economy has had some unexpected benefits for motorists: Gasoline can be had for under a dollar a gallon at some pumps\u00a0as demand plummets. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25116,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25115\/revisions\/25116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}