My cousin and her husband just bought a house in the suburbs. They have a f45 minute commute each way every day. With two small children involved in school activities, they have to make two or three trips a day sometimes. When they moved they had no idea fual was going to go so high. Her husband drives a late model Tahoe. He gets 12mpg. I guess she balances it out by driving a Civic. When they lived in town, everything was a ten minute drive away, and now they realize that not only do they spend hundreds on fuel a month but they spend the most precious thing of all: time.

People forget that Europeans have wrung huge amounts of power from those tiny engines. Alfa-Romeo made a four door sedan in the '60s with the twin cam four banger that would eat most of todays rice burners. Not only that, with all the congestion on the roads today, why bother having a car with a huge v8? To race from light to light? Stop then go, stop then go. The only time you can enjoy driving nowadays is early Sunday morning, when all the drunks from the night before are still asleep and the only fewpeople on the road are going to church. I used to like going out late at night and driving , but with all the drunks it's just not worth the risk.

This summer I think way may see temp fuel shortages. I try to keep the tank almost always above half and tell my wife to do the same. People forget how hard it was to get fuel thirty years ago.