Number of S-U-V’s continues to increase

Iowans continued to buy big gas-guzzling cars and trucks this past year.The latest state registration figures show the overall number of vehicles inIowa stayed around three-million in 1998, but the size of the vehiclescontinued to increase. Registration of S-U-V’s took the biggest leap,increasing 12-percent. Jody Johnson with the Iowa Department ofTransportation says registrations of the largest pickup trucks alsoincreased — moving up by five-percent between 1997 and ’98. The number oflarge cars increased by three-percent. The number of small cars registereddropped by three-percent.Johnson says the number of registered vehicles didn’t change much.She says half the registered vehicles were purchased in the last decade.Large cars are still the top travel choice of Iowans. They make upone-point-one million or 33-percent of the registered vehicles.