Vehicle sales in 2005 were up 120%, for 26,684 new vehicles, or 12,074 more sold in 2005 than in 2004. Edwin Ruiz reports that sale of SUVs were up 170% in comparison to the previous year, making up 32% of the sale of vehicles in 2005. Some 8,738 new SUVs were sold last year, 5,150 more than the 3,588 sold in 2004. Journalist Juan Bolivar Diaz, writing in Hoy, laments the fact that the journalist did not have the information about how many of those SUVs were purchased with government funds. He mentions that the smallest vehicle of this kind sells for between RD$1 million and RD$4 million. He comments that the boom in vehicles happened at a time that fuel prices were up by 47%.