Last year when gas prices skyrocketed Americans started looking for fuel-efficient vehicles such as the Toyota Prius. Market analysts were predicting that the shock at the pump would stay with American buyers even after the oil bubble popped. Apprently, we can't seem to learn our lesson:

It looks like the Highlander is in and the Prius is out — for now at least.

Trucks and sport utility vehicles will outsell cars for the first time since February, according to a December report by Edmunds.com, which tracks industry statistics.

“Despite all the public discussion of fuel efficiency, SUVs and trucks are the industry’s biggest sellers right now as a remarkable number of buyers seem to be compelled by three factors: great deals, low gas prices and winter weather,” said Michelle Krebs of AutoObserver.com, a division of Edmunds.com, in a prepared statement.

“It was this summer that customers were concerned about the gas mileage. It hasn’t been a topic of conversation lately,” said Dave Lawson, the general sales manager at Pomoco Chrysler Jeep Dodge in Newport News. The majority of Pomoco’s inventory is SUVs, and its best-selling models are minivans.

While this may be good news in short for our domestic automakers, in the long run it will only cause the same shock for American consumers as it once did. It kind of amazes me that most seem to think that these gas prices will remain. We tend to forget just as soon as it ends, gas prices will rise again and probably higher than ever. The issue at hand is simple supply and demand, even though most liberals wont agree. Oil has dropped historic levels yes, but not due to massive amounts of new oil reserves being found. The demand for oil has dropped sharply, and this demand will only stay here for a short amount of time. Especially if we have already gone back to our old ways. When our economy begins its recovery process energy demand will rise, and we will be back to $3 to $4 prices per gallon. 

My question has always been why do we as American consumers still go for the "bigger is better" mentality? Obviously it is not because Americans enjoy spending more money on their gasoline bills per month. I would like to hope that the answer is they feel safer. Even though we have seen a huge increase in safety standards of the smaller sedans. 

All in all we tend to be a tad slow at learning lessons here in the United States, I mean after all we had to suffer through Carter to get us Reagan.

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