You know it’s bad when the Gas station is shocked!

DETROIT — Asked recently how the U.S. minivan market has been faring, Nissan Motor Co.’s Dominique Thormann had a concise answer.

“It collapsed,” said Thormann, a senior vice president of Nissan North America.

While the rapid sales decline of pickup and sport utility vehicles has been grabbing the headlines, minivan sales have also taken a tumble, falling 20% during the first five months of this year.

And unlike trucks, which could rebound once the construction industry picks up, it’s unclear whether minivans have a future in the U.S. market or whether they’re being killed off by crossovers and the stodgy taint of the soccer-mom image.  read more »

SANTA FE, N.M.- Great-grandmother 1, would-be robber 0. Bernie Garcia at first thought the young man who approached her asking for money while she gassed up her car seemed like a sweet guy.

But when the 83-year-old woman told him Wednesday that she’d just spent all her spare change on gas and had none to give him, he grabbed her purse.

“But I had it wrapped around my wrist twice,” Garcia said, and he was unable to pull it away.

She fought back, spraying his shirt with a bit of gasoline from the nozzle she still had in her hand. Both of them kept hold of the purse, and he pulled her to the ground and dragged her a short distance until another man confronted him.  read more »