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The Competitors
Sales of luxury items tend to remain robust in a financial downturn. The wealthy, after all, are the last affected by economic shudders. No such luck for manufacturers of some of the largest and poshest traditional truck-based sport-utility vehicles: the 2010 Cadillac Escalade, 2010 Infiniti QX56, and 2010 Lexus GX 460. Sales of such luxury rigs have been in free-fall since gas prices spiked and the economy tanked in 2008.

The Competitors
Not long ago, full-size pickups were among each domestic automaker’s best-selling and most-profitable lines. Then sky-high fuel prices and a faltering economy, particularly in the construction sector, tag-teamed to apply a chokehold on the truck market, Though sales are down by significant margins over just a few years ago, Ford, Dodge, and General Motors hope a recovery will help move the metal once again. Still, it’s not likely the pickup market will return to its pre-2008 glories any time soon.

The Competitors
From the 1950s through the 1970s, station wagons were the favored mode of transportation for growing families. These were supplanted by minivans in the mid-1980s. Families loved the tall-roof designs, seating for up to seven or eight, and handy sliding rear doors that made it easier to load the little ones in a crowded suburban parking lot. In turn, the SUV boom of the 1990s siphoned young families away from minivans, by now tainted with a “soccer mom” image.

The Competitors