Americans’ love affair with 22-inch rims, eight cylinders and four-wheel drive wrapped in an 8,000-pound package is over. And the breakup is going to cost.

With $4-a-gallon gas coming between drivers and their large vehicles, consumers are dropping their once-beloved rides, fast. But not fast enough, it seems. As the price of gas has gone up, the value of sport utility vehicles has gone down.

In the past six months, the price of a used Chevrolet Suburban has dropped as much as $8,000, said Mike Parker, manager of used-car sales at Lustine Toyota/Dodge in Woodbridge, Va.

For those determined to swap their fuel-thirsty behemoths for gas-sipping subcompacts, the glut increasingly means taking a financial hit. In the worst cases, declining SUV values leave owners owing more money than their vehicle is worth.

The question they face is: Which is worse for the wallet – the high cost of gas or the money lost selling the vehicle?

Take the Chevrolet Suburban, one of the largest, most powerful and least fuel-efficient SUVs on the market. It has long been a favorite with large families, law enforcement officials and luggers of campers and trailers.

Thomas Dove of Mechanicsville, Va., put his 2005 Suburban up for sale online a week and a half ago. He bought it less than two years ago for $28,000 because he wanted a vehicle that could pull a camper. He’s now asking $16,500 – when the Kelley Blue Book value is $19,180.

“I had planned on clearing $3,000,” Dove said, “but at this point with gas prices, I’m going to sell it for what I owe just to get out of” the loan.

He hasn’t received a single inquiry. For now, Dove, a mechanic, plans to let the Suburban sit in his driveway. Meanwhile, he’ll keep paying his car loan of approximately $400 a month until he gets his asking price, or something close to it.

“It’s a tough time to sell an SUV,” he said. “I was kind of hoping.”

The infatuation with SUVs began a decade ago. Early adopters felt as if they dominated the road, savoring the ability to scale rocky hillsides and barrel through mud, even if their tires never left asphalt.

Through the years, SUV owners drove on, unfazed by the danger of rollovers or environmentalists’ criticisms.

In 2002, the SUV’s heyday, one in eight drivers owned one, according to the Census Bureau. Back then, Criswell Chevrolet/Hummer in Gaithersburg, Md., sold 50 SUVs every weekend, said Neil Kopit, director of marketing for the dealership.

The magic started fading well before prices at the pump pierced the $4 barrier. Sales of new full-size SUVs peaked in 2004, said Bruce Giffin of R.L. Polk, which compiles sales and registration data for automakers. That year, about 1 million were sold.

Last year, 741,871 full-size SUVs were sold, according to Edmunds.com, a publisher of online auto information based in Santa Monica, Calif. But that was before the latest spike in fuel prices.

DISMAL JUNE SALES

Drivers have since moved on to smaller SUVs and crossover vehicles, which have many of the same features but are less susceptible to tipping over and are more fuel-efficient.

In the first three months of this year, about 900,000 SUVs were for sale at online auto market AutoTrader.com, an increase of 19 percent over the same period last year.

This week, the big automakers were announcing dismal June sales – GM was down 18.5 percent – and blaming its troubles on poor sales of heavy and fuel-gulping vehicles.

Analysts and car dealers alike accept that as the new reality.

“This is a long-term systemic change,” Giffin said. “Four-dollar-a-gallon gas is here to stay.”

Blair Wheeler of Damascus, Md., still carries a torch for SUVs, even though gas prices have forced him to put his 1996 Suburban on the market. He said it won’t be the last one he owns.

“If gas prices do eventually come down,” he said, “I would love to go back. The space, the versatility … ”

Meanwhile, vehicle prices are still dropping. May saw the steepest drop yet in the price of full-size SUVs, which are now down 24 percent compared with last year, said Tom Webb, chief economist for Manheim Consulting, which tracks the used-vehicle market. Prices continued to decline in June.

Some dealerships have stopped accepting SUVs as trade-ins, even as the hybrid Toyota Prius grows scarce and dealers troll the streets for them.

“If I see them at a gas station or see them at a red light, I say I would like to buy their car,” said Vince Leonard, a used-car manager with Antwerpen Toyota in Clarksville.

SUV owners reveal their own desperation as they try to create ads that will sell.

There’s the Crazy Eddie route: “THIS ‘MONSTER SUV’ CAN TAKE ANY HUMMER H1 FOR BREAKFAST.”

The less-is-more approach: “135 K miles. Runs great. One owner.”

Or the heartfelt plea: “I just don’t want to pay the gas anymore.”

DEALER INCENTIVES

In May, Chrysler said it would guarantee $2.99-per-gallon gas for three years by giving gas cards to new-car buyers. And last week, General Motors, which owns the Chevrolet brand, kicked off a sale during which it offered zero percent financing for 72 months on most 2008 models.

Kopit, of Criswell Chevrolet/Hummer, said the GM promotion brought in traffic over the weekend and helped seal deals on a Tahoe, a Suburban and two Hummers. One guy bought an H2 for his landscaping business. Another took home an H3 after coveting one for a while.

“He was in a few months ago but came back now that the zero percent and rebates lowered his payment,” Kopit said.

And there are buyers out there. One of them is Patrick Horn. The Waldorf, Md., resident is in the market for a Tahoe or a Suburban from a private owner. Having recently become a father, he wants cargo space to hold a stroller, a playpen and all the other things that come with having a baby.

He doesn’t have a long commute – no big worries about gas – and he rarely travels outside the metro area. So he’s been searching for an old-school, 1990s, $1.25-per-gallon-era big vehicle.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Horn said. “I just like they way they look.”

He’s ready to buy, as soon as he sells his car:

A 1986 Crown Victoria that gets 13 miles per gallon.