Which vehicles are in the shortest supply right now? With $4.00+ gasoline, that is too easy a question...

Many pundits in the economics  blogosphere have pegged $4.00 a gallon as the breaking point for people to seriously start changing their level of gasoline consumption.  It seems as though it has begun in the car market.  Fuel efficient vehicles are in short supply because of increased demand. Below are the cars that are in the shortest supply.  Next to the name of the vehicle is the "time to turn" or the number of days on average the car sits on the lot before it is sold.  In many cases the cars are sold before hitting the lots. The first number is from April of this year. The second number is what the churn time was last April. What a difference a year makes...

BMW X5 16 ,39

Ford Explorer 19, 48

Hyundai Elantra 12, 79

Toyota Prius 20, 36

Porsche Cayenne 18, 91

BMW X3 14, 32

Audi Q7 14, 18

Chevy Equinox 19 14

Audi Q5 16, 16

Chevrolet Volt 18, N/A

GMC Terrain 19, 14

Fiat 500 11, N/A

Nissan Leaf 5, N/A

Lexus CT 200h 11, N/A

Mini Countryman 16, N/A

       ""Which new cars and trucks are most in demand?

One good measure is to see how fast they are flying off sales lots into the hands of buyers. In the auto industry, it's known as "days to turn." Interesting, though, when you look at the Edmunds.com list for April. You'd think the list would be dominated by Japanese models whose production was stopped or reduced because of the March earthquake. And, sure, some are on the list. But it's actually a pretty mixed bag.

If there anything in common, it is that gas savers prevail. A year ago, more SUVs were in short supply.

As for the vehicle in shortest supply, Edmunds.com says it's Nissan's all-electric Leaf. Since all were preordered, all are claimed as soon as they land. The days-to-turn was only five days. Next is Lexus' sharp CT 200h, a small Prius-like hybrid that just went on sale as the Japanese earthquake hit, causing huge production problems and limited supply for the car. It had only an 11-day wait. So, too, did Chrysler Group's new Fiat 500.

Hyundai's new 40-miles-per-gallon (on the highway, anyway) compact Elantra is down to only a 12-day supply, compared with a 79-day supply for the version it replaced last year. BMW's small, hot X3 and Audi's big Q7 crossover SUV tie at 14 days.

While the list includes models that would have been affected by the shortages arising from the earthquake, they don't necessarily dominate the list."" (USA TODAY)