Fortunately, my wife and I work at the same place, so only one vehicle leaves the house during the week. I struggle to keep the W124 running since it's the most economical.

Gas prices have me glad I didn't opt for the ML430 as opposed to the ML320.

Soccer games and tournaments take us hours from home on weekends, and that's where our biggest hits will be.

Future driving vacations will either be shorter, or non-existent. :(

I started telecommuting full-time in March -- good timing for me, as I was driving about 2 hours a day round-trip, and spending a fair amount in gas, even in the 26MPG 300D.

Maybe we'll start to see tax incentives for companies that encourage teleworking. Yeah, a lot of companies say they encourage teleworking, but we all know most don't -- the boss likes to be able to look over the shoulders of his people. But there are so many jobs that really lend themselves to telecommuting, and it's certainly possible to judge an employee's productivity without literally looking over his shoulder. More telecommuting would be great for gas savings, for traffic problems, for air quality...

All that is true. HOWEVER, the problem with telecommuting is that it takes discipline. Discipline that the employee might not have. I know of someone who works out of his home. He goes into a room and doesn't leave it till lunch and then back again till quitting time. Many people lack the discipline not to go out and play with their kids, the dog, chat with the mail carrier, etc, etc. Also, I would like to keep my office as far as possible from my home. If I could trust my employees to actually work from 0800 - 1700 with lunch hour at 1200 and not go fool around, it would be a good idea since as an employer, I would not need an office space or at least so much of a space.

It won't be that big a deal, but my wife and I are carpooling when we can. I think many Americans have their money already spent (credit card debt) before they even get paid. So when something like this happens, it can cause a financial crunch for them. I have found myself looking around at diesels on ebay and found a local 2.6 I may go look at. :D

I wasn't speaking of what would be considered "normal" driving in the US - I was talking about trips to the grocery store, post office, bank, etc.

I live in a NJ town that is over 90 square miles - we drive everywhere. But even now I find myself driving down to the neighbors house for a swim when I could easily walk (it's less than a mile). It's more about the convenience, which is now going to cost more.

I drove in a friend's Prius in Marin County CA last month, and I was pretty impressed with the car. It's no Mercedes Benz, but it gets +/- 50 MPG. Load up the trunk with batteries and plug it in at night (like some folks have started to experiment with), and you get up to 250 MPG!

If I have to give up the trunk of a MB Diesel to use WVO, might as well give up the Prius trunk for a *****load of batteries. Sure, it's a glorified golf cart at that point, but for around-town driving it makes more sense than hauling out the 560.

-g

I've been bike commuting since April. Kid in the Burley, two grocery bags in the cargo compartment. ;)

Now that's what I am talking about! Good for your heart, too.

-g

If it goes up to $4, which isn't too hard to imagine now, fill-ups will cost 80+ bucks. I think at that point I will be looking for alternatives to the Benz, which is getting 18/21 mpg. I wish there were a cheap way to add a battery pack and a motor.

True, lucky for them, and unlucky for the lazy Americans, that they know how to drive manual trans and get the maximum power out of a 1.0 liter engine.

We're so lost when it comes to MPG and our Automatic transmissions it isn't even funny.

Maybe with rising gas costs we'll finally see the more efficient (smaller engine) benzs in the US/NA. I mean I wouldn't mind driving a E200 Kompressor or many of their more economical diesel counterparts. The C/E/ML 270 CDI??

I know that these will likely never reach our shores though.

For that to happen we'd need a government that desires choice as opposed to the priggishly indifferent one we have.

Which one is that? Gas prices have been going up every year since who knows when. In fact, I just read that in March of 84, gas was $1.48 which adjusted for inflation is about $3.11 today. I see this on other message boards too. Every Spring going into summer there is always a gas scare of it reaching some figure. Last year was $3 this year it is $4. I think people just look at the number they yank out of a hat and panic. Seems to be a Spring-Summer ritual from what I see. Yes, it goes up in the summer and calms down a little later in the year. That is the way it is.

You want to talk of choice? Fine. You can choose the car you want. However, if 3 people want a european car, it is going to be difficult. What you want is the government to make the car makers import that car just because YOU see it as better in spite of what the market wants. IOW, you want the government to force the people to choose what YOU want them to choose not what they want.

Not at all. I want a government that is more willing to help folks get what they want rather than standing in the way of it for the sake of protecting the stupidity that defines the big 3 auto miss-manufacturers. But the big 3 are all about looting. The government is all about feeding themselves at the expense of the ignorant.

How many folks in the USA do you think would opt for one of the $5,000 made in China 48 MPG in town vehicles? I bet it would be measured in the millions to 10s of millions.

How much do you think it'd cost the government in terms of lost revenue to encourage folks to get high mileage vehicles?

If the big 3 go down, many people go out of work besides the GM workers. Japan does that too. They tax the hell out of imports to protect the local industry. My cousin works with Toyota in KY. He tells me that where possible, they would buy Jap even in KY. Part of what they are trying to do is protect the big 3 because there will be hell to pay if the big 3 go down.

Lets say for the sake of arguement that you are right. Why hasn't China imported those things here? Hell, they import pretty much everything else. I have seen a Sumuri sword that was made in China. You might be smart but the Chinese are not stupid. There might be reasons that they do not import these cars since it would be a killer of every other car. Perhaps the quality and safety factors are not up to par? Maybe by the time they get it up to par, it would cost about the same as KIAs or Daewoos?

Not much. They just raise the price of gas by taxes is all. Now they are considering a per-mile tax because the cars are so efficient. My issue with that is that they will probably make this new tax supplement the already existing tax and be double or triple dipping.

Apparently at GM, the Union's H&B package is at least $1500 of the cost of every new car.

Anybody know what that figure is for the Chinese, Korean, or Japanese automakers?