Why aren’t Americans using less gas?

New York (Fortune) — With the usual summer spike in gasoline prices coming sooner and moving faster than anyone expected, the subject of energy is on everyone’s mind. Just this week, presidential candidate Barack Obama went to Detroit to bash the auto industry on mileage, and a Senate committee reported out a bill that would boost corporate fuel economy standards 40 percent in the next 13 years. CO2 emissions and dependence on foreign oil have replaced real estate and the stock market as the staples of online blogs and water cooler chats.

But car buyers are reacting in an unpredictable way. Some are taking heed of the prevailing social currents and changing their driving habits by moving out of large cars and trucks and into smaller ones. Tiny fuel-sipping vehicles like the Honda (Charts) Fit are in short supply. With gasoline up nearly a dollar a gallon from a few months ago – and talk that $4 a gallon gas is just around the corner – the decision seems sensible.


Other buyers are standing firm. They still want their V-8 powered Chrysler 300s, Mercedes S 550s and Cadillac Escalades regardless of the prevailing political atmosphere. And they have enough money that paying another $5-$10 to fill up the tank isn’t a big issue.

…Does this mean gas prices don’t count? For these folks, they clearly don’t. And for the rest of the market, their impact is slower and weaker than generally thought. “Prices by themselves have to go higher than they are now and stay there for a longer time for customers to change their minds in a significant way,” says Tom Libby, senior analyst at J.D. Power. In other words, don’t expect a big shift like we saw during the gas crises of the 1970s, when fuel availability – not fuel prices – was the issue.

Fortune