Price of gas in Regina, Sask. is CDN 92.5/litre for regular. That equates to about $2.56 US/US gal. (according to today's exchange rate).
How much are paying? According to CNN, the average price in the USA is around $2.15/gal. An article I read mentioned that people will not seriously consider downsizing their vehicle (OR buying a SULEV type of vehicle) until the price reaches $2.50/gal, however people may be considering slightly fewer options are their vehicles now. Ie. smaller engines, 2 wheel drive instead of 4 wheel drive, smaller SUVs or vans/trucks instead of the monsters we see on the road today. Will we "ever" see people forget their big vehicles in favour of smaller sedans/coupes?
Ford with its newer Focus engines (2.3 litre PZEV) is less polluting than even some hybrid cars and slightly more fuel efficient than the
2.0 litre. Then Ford will come out with the Escape hybrid shortly and it should be considerably more fuel efficient than the standard V-6 Escape. (This is not the same as equating low emission vehicles as highly fuel efficient vehicles but the two ideas are generally going in the same direction).Will N.A. be turning to smaller vehicles in the near future -- is the age of bigger engines/displacement going to take a turn like it did in the '70s? If you convert energy costs of the '70s to today's inflated dollar we still are not paying the same cost as we did then.