We purchased a used 2003 Toyota Prius for a long commute to work.  Today, we have high gas prices, and what a savings we have now!

With cheap gasoline, we Americans have been spoiled, so we buy the biggest thing we can drive.  But now with gasoline over $3.60/ gallon, some of us are feeling the pain and are complaining.  Our Prius, getting 50 mpg now (over 60 mpg in the summer), costs us $7.20 to go 100 miles.  Someone getting 20 mpg will need to pay $18.00 for the same distance.

"It's too small"-  we fit two adults and two kids (with car seats) into the car and we are able to bulk shop and carry all that we need home and travel for a week's vacation without too much trouble.  If you need something big for a weekend getaway, rent it.

"It's too expensive"- It's probably cheaper than most SUVs, and driving 15,000 miles/year, our savings is about $1620  in gasoline this year.

I also have a suggestion for a federal car-pricing program:  how about a tax that is used to increase the price of new, inefficient cars that would subsidize the costs of new, efficient cars?  The less efficient, the higher the tax, the more efficient, the higher the subsidy.  This would influence car buyer's decisions, avoid the CAFE standard issues with automakers, and possibly increase the average fuel economy in this country to something less gluttanous.  Automakers would simply see a change in car-buying habits and adjust their manufacturing to meet the new demand. 

The tax/subsidy would be adjusted with:

Adjustment = $100 * (30 - MPG)

where MPG is the highest MPG rating for a new car, 30 is a desired mileage and $100 is the amount of force applied to make the change.  So, someone buying a car with 30 mpg would simply have no adjustment, a nice Cadillac Escalade (18 mpg highway) would pay an additional $1200, and a Toyota Corolla (35 mpg highway) would get $500 off of the price. 

This does not cost the government anything- just a little extra for those with money to burn.  An independent comittee would determine the proper values (instead of 100 and 30 as above) to keep the money balance even while causing increases in fuel economy.

Let me know your thoughts on this idea.