This Time, America Shrugs at High Oil Prices

When oil prices spiked in the early 1980s after the Iranian revolution, Jared Nedzel gave up his 1978 Pontiac Trans Am, an emblematic American muscle car, for a smaller, less extravagant Toyota Corolla. He was on his way to Cornell University to study civil engineering, and he needed a more economical car.

Today, Nedzel, a 44-year-old software developer who lives near Boston, owns a Toyota 4-Runner, a sport utility vehicle he bought two years ago. It gets about 17.5 miles per gallon, or 7.3 liters per 100 kilometers, and he uses it for his 45-minute commute to work and for driving on the beaches of Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod to get to his favorite fishing spots.

Gasoline prices have spiked again, to more than $2.25 for a gallon, or 59 cents a liter, of regular in Boston last week, a nominal record that was just above the national average, according to the travelers’ group AAA. But energy costs do not weigh on Nedzel’s mind.
NYT via International Herald Tribune