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n March, Bucky Hacker traded his 2002 Dodge Ram Quad Cab pickup for a subcompact car, the Mazda 3. Mr. Hacker, a student from Oak Ridge, Tenn., originally bought the Ram to tow a boat, and also thought its macho appearance would help him attract girls.

But there were drawbacks. “Gas was ridiculous,” Mr. Hacker, 24, said. “The thing got 13 miles per gallon.” His Mazda averages twice that, or 26 miles per gallon in city and highway driving, and it will be easier to fit into tight parking spaces at the University of Tennessee . . .

“We used to have a lot of people getting out of an S.U.V. and into a truck,” said Scott Satiritz, general sales manager at Massey-Yardley Chrysler Dodge in Hobe Sound, Fla. Now, he said, “the average customer is not buying a pickup.”

“They’re into economy cars because of the mileage. Gas prices have really hurt.”

In fact, Ford’s trade-in data shows a number of customers have exchanged F-series pickups for cars like the smaller Ford Focus or the Fusion sedan, said the company’s chief sales analyst, George Pipas. That suggests customers who do not need pickups are not returning for them.
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