I'll defend the Smart Cars. I've been to Europe several times, and the whole unit went there last year. We had formation in the parking lot and one of the barracks cleaning staff had a smart car. Everyone made fun of it, posed with it (especially our bigger guys), etc.

But when we got a couple days leave, what did they rent? Well, I had a government provided car so I was in a Mercedes (downside: I was the chauffeur and drove people everywhere--and to save money, you can do six in a mid-sized Mercedes). But many of those renting went with the smart car. On base, with the discount, gas was $3/gallon. Can you imagine having to pay $3 per gallon! Oh, yeah, right.

Whenever I was on my own (or the Commander took my car), I'd rent a small car. Europe, where gas prices have been above $4/gallon for years, has a large selection of fully functional, fun to drive cars, both small to what we'd consider mid-sized. The gasolines are all nice, the small turbo-diesel engines are surprisingly powerful. Nothing is powerful by USA standards, but the vehicles are much lighter so pickup really isn't that bad.

Also, gas was about 4x the price (at the time), and there was plenty enough power for a car with four people in it (or 2 people, in a smart car). Most of them had better dash layouts and controls than USA cars, and many (all I was in but the very cheapest) had the display automatically turn into a TV display whenever you put it in reverse and the back=up camera activated. Nice on tight parking lots!

I have a lot of respect for how they handle driving in Europe. It costs a lot more to get licensed and you have to go through a lot more classes....but as a result, driving is a privilege, treated with respect. I see accidents almost every week in the Dallas drive. I never saw one in three months in Europe, and their roads/intersections are laid out a lot worse...and you can stop at the gas station and get a beer or glass of wine before you get back on the road.

Everyone can say, "I'll never do that." If gas hits $8/gallon by next summer and you're paying $160/week to top off the tank, the resale on SUv's as a whole are going to drop.

In the meantime, I see more motorcycles on the road and my friends are all asking me what's a good bike to buy to save on gas (I recommend a used 600/650 cc water-cooled vTwin for a cheap price with good fuel efficiency, but enough power for shorter highway trips and even short cruising with a passenger...but if you're really serious about gas, just using it for getting around locally, and not too heavy, 250's are great.)

Here's my conspiracy theory: When gas was $1/gallong, mid and premium were 10/20 cents more (a 10/20 percent increase). Now that it's $3 per gallon....it's still just 10 cents, or about 3% more expensive. What's up with that?