Daily Debate: What's Your $10-a-Gallon Car?

After 9/11 - I shed all my gas guzzling vehicles. We now drive Nissan Altima 27 MPG, VW TDI New beetle 46 mpg. I ride my motorcycles and bicycle into work when possible. My families overall MPG is now 38. If gas hits $10 - I might have to rethink things again. There are new Electric Bikes and Motorcycles that have reasonable range. Figure I would install Solar to recharge them with little or no environmental impact. There are no easy answers. All will cost big bucks to move away from Oil.

My car get's 33 mpg in mixed suburban driving, but even now i take the bus to work one day a week to economize. If it goes that high to $ 10.00. A tank of gas is now lasting me 5 weeks because of economy measures that I have taken. I will just ride the bus to work every day. My employer will pay the entire cost for a monthly bus pass, so it would be less of an inconvenience.
I would say to the car companies, hurry up with those
hydraulic hybrids ! Now !
More troubling would be the added cost to things that we purchase. Everything that you buy has transportation costs
included in the price, and it would make inflation skyrocket.

At such a high level the question becomes not what will I drive but where will I live. I'm fortunate to happen to be in an apartment right now (Sold my house in 06, thankfully) and so the cost of gas is going to heavily influence where I choose to live in the coming years. At $10 per gallon proximity to not only work but also stores, schools and public transportation.

In Europe we are currently paying about 1.50 Euros a liter. At today's exchange rate of $1.57/Euro that translates into $8.91 a gallon (US). So it will not be long before we are at $10 a gallon!
We still have cars and we still drive!
I currently drive a BMW 118d 5-door hatchback:
- 2 liter
- 143 hp
- 0-60mph in 8.7 sec
- 52.3 mpg official combined fuel comsumption
- 38 mpg is my actual overall fuel consumption
and it only produces 119g/km of CO2
Also do not forget that incomes in Europe are lower than in the USA.
So there will still be life at $10 a gallon!

I already have a monthly train pass, so I suppose $10/gallon would mean that it will be even more crowded every day. My park-and-ride lot used to be filled with smaller, fuel-efficient models like Priuses, Accords etc, but since gas prices have increased, it's populated with Tahoes, Explorers and the like.
With 11 months left on my Mazda 3 lease, I'll have to consider my options soon, I just wish we Americans had more choices in small cars like the Europeans. For those of us who want a smaller car with lots of extras (i.e. leather seats, navigation, etc) there aren't many models to choose from.

Walking through Barcelona gave me hope that there would be life after $10 per gallon gas. I noticed that there were tons of mom & pop style grocers, hardware stores, electronics, etc lining the streets. Makes sense in that if you have to spend a bundle on gas to drive across town you're not going to frequent Walmart.

To Graham:
Are diesel and petrol prices the same in Europe? Because here, diesel is usually higher than the premium gas. I often wonder if there is a savings between getting a diesel car compared to a regular-petrol car.

I will continue to drive my 2007 Chrysler Pacifica. This is the best overall vehicle I have ever driven. I'm averaging over 17 mpg in-town/highway driving and am satisfied when the comfort, safety and utility of this excellent vehicle are considered.I believe most Americans will follow the same approach, weigh the attributes of their present ride against the costs and adjust to that calculation. For me I chose comfort and safety, driving pleasure and reliability over a few more miles per gallon.

How much of the $4 per gallon right now is going towards the purchase of crude? $2.60. That's the part I find most sickening, all that money going back to the pockets of theocracies and dictators. Look at Dubai now (which doesn't make much money selling crude directly but is the financial center of OPEC) and try to imagine what they would buy with their incomes doubled.

To Jon:
It depends on the country. In France a liter of diesel is currently between 0.02Euros less (tax is lower by 0.18Euros/liter) to 0.04Euros more than standard 95ROM gas. In Germany it is generally about 0.05-0.06Euros more expensive.
With prices at about 1.50Euros that means diesel cost is between -1% and +4% relative to gas.
It is said that the additional refining costs of diesel are about +0.10Euros (relative to gasoline), which is only +7% (on our highly taxed fuel prices).

If I did want to get a scooter, it would have to be a Honda Ruckus :-)
http://powersports.honda.com/scooters/model.asp?ModelName=Ruckus&ModelYear=2009&ModelId=NPS509

~~ CHRYSLER~` some time around , 1984ish to 1986ish; I had decided that I would buy some thing smaller this time around, (as opposed to-Dodge RAMCHARGER) at 318[c.i.d.]Motor.
The choices where wide and reasonably diverse.
So !, I had have been fortunate with Dodge, it's Japanese cousin[mitsu.]!! . In 1985, I purchased a Chrysler Le-Baron[the Laser] was also so available some time later or just being introduced.
THIS CAR{ LeBaron} with a Chrysler made motor,at 2.5liter[2,500cc], American made. ***Not the Mitsubishi's,(2.4 or 2.6) and not the German[OMNI/Horizon]2.2L.**(note-there is really no replacement for displacement=in Cubic Inch Displacement).
I'll just: have to shorten this a little, Around town=: 25 to 30MILES PER GALLON, High-Way =: Any WHERE FROM 35 to 40 MILES PER GALLON,[U.S. gallon]. That was when the POLICE would pull you over any where from five to ten miles over the limit[speed]. So not to admit; that at these MPG figure's[hywy] some of them where not exactly jurisprudent so to say!.
That was also a time when { MOBIL-ONE[1]} actually achieved higher miles per gallon, today they {Mobil] must have reblended there sinthetic's[not spelling error], which in this day; there' s very little difference , betwixt, Regular and the synthetic blend[s], 25 to 30 years ago there was!.

So when all of you auto enthusiast promote!!, these oh so high mpg figure, and that they are much better with a hybrid, well I ain't BUYING!.[$18,000.00 maybe a little higher fully loaded -less leather and moon roof.}( LEBARON)
I am not impressed with any thing from, the U.S.'s manufactures, nor any of the Asian's or Europeans.
Least of all there MODERN Claims [to] FAME!.

Before gas ever reached $10 per gallon, I think we could expect to see more high-mileage cars introduced. For us single folks, or anyone who doesn't need more than a 2-seater, I'd really love to see Honda bring back something very similar to the 2000-2006 Insight (up to 70mpg highway).
The Toyota IQ is at the top of my list. Although they haven't officially confirmed that it's coming to the U.S., Toyota insiders have implied that it's only a question of when, not 'if'.
Choosing from cars that are already for sale here- I'd get a new Honda Civic Hybrid. A close second-runner-up would be a used '03-'05 Civic Hybrid (which would be smaller and less plush than the new model, but it's available with a 5-speed manual and gets better MPG than the new one).
If the Honda Insight wasn't such a hot, high-dollar commodity on the used car market, it would be my top pick. But there are only a handful on Ebay or AutoTrader and even '01-'02 models with 100k+ miles are going for $15k or more!!!
I'd love to find a Civic VX 3-door just like the one I bought new in 1992. The VX was the special Civic model that served as Honda's MPG leader after the CRX HF was discontinued in '91. VTEC (variable timing) was introduced to the Civic lineup in 1992 in two versions- the regular, performance-oriented setup (EX/Si models) and VTEC-e (e=efficient/high mpg). I averaged 48mpg with mostly highway driving and it was decently quick, too.
If all else fails, I'd love to track down a Honda CRX HF similar to the ice blue '89 model that I owned in high school. It could top 50mpg easily on the highway and I didn't mind the spartan interior that much...I had to purchase the passenger-side rear view mirror, center console/armrest and even digital clock as 'accessories' and install them myself!