Well - I just had 5 days with the rental companies idea of a small car ( 7 seats, V6 Ford Taurus that averaged 21mpg with plenty of highway driving )

Between $3.95 and $4.20 in Upstate NY, Vermont and Connecticut

The US public, auto-industry and government are basically reaping what they have sown. For many decades, the auto-industry has failed to supply, the public has failed to ask for, and the government has failed to make attractive, efficient cars. The 21 MPG I got on mainly 65-75 mph highway driving was considered reasonable wherever I went. BMW were making a song and dance in adverts for getting 28. TWENTY EIGHT. Adverts saying 28 is a good target?

It isn't. It wasn't good twenty years ago, it sure as hell isn't good now. Shockingly low fuel prices for seveal decades meant that the public didn't actually give a damn that they were getting through it 50%+ faster than their European counterparts.

Now your fuel has reached about half the price we pay in the UK - suddenly, everyone is outraged...and honestly, after driving 1000 miles (actually 1000.1 when we gave it back to Hertz ) I can say, without a shadow of doubt - you're still not paying enough for your gas to make the dramatic and rapid change in public perception that is required to stop you drinking the stuff like it's going out of fashion. Over 5 days, I drove 300, 0, 250, 250 and 200 miles. Big long journies that in Europe would make great sense to do via Train. In the US - it was cheap, insultingly cheap in an environmentally vulgar way, to drive, lone occupant, massive massive distances, in a pathetically inefficient car.

Of course, people think a Prius is the right sort of thing. It isn't - and given the US driving pattern, it really REALLY isn't. The Prius is such a complex and (for the auto-industry) rare metal rich vehicle, it's total environmental impact during its life is actually larger than many SUV's.

Last weekend on the BBC show Top Gear, going toe-to-toe, flat out, around a race track, a Prius got 13 mpg. A BMW M3 - a massively fast sports saloon, matching the pace of the Prius, got 15 mpg. On a long journey, the Prius might get 35-40mpg. A small diesel will get 70mpg (and yes, I know and have seen first hand that Diesel can be hard to find, and more expensive than petrol in the US - but when you're getting 50% more mileage, a 25% price premium still nets you a financial gain )

America - your fuel is cheap. Hideously, stupidly cheap. If you didn't have a chronic addiction to using it in pointlessly large quantities, you would realise that.

$4/gallon is not high enough. 21mpg is not high enough.

You are a bunch of Petroholics, and you need help.

Doug