High fuel prices aren’t curbing sales of gas-guzzlers—they should be

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I was reading my colleague David Booth’s column about sky-high fuel prices having little impact – for now – on the sales of gas-guzzlers. He mentioned the oil embargo of 1973, and, just like that, I was whisked back to a time I recalled of my father freaking out over the cost of gas. I’d never seen that before; we always had an eight-cylinder station wagon in the driveway, and we’d never discussed the cost of gas at the dinner table. And we discussed everything at the dinner table. 

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I actually believe if fuel prices stay high, there will be a turn towards smaller vehicles for many people. Right now, people have been waiting months and months for cars to be delivered, and those are just starting to move in now. Dealer floors are still empty, and in a seller’s market, buyers are settling.

One high-end dealer I spoke with said people who were unable to travel throughout much of the pandemic were coming in and buying cars because they had to spend their money on something. Nice problem to have.

When I was growing up, my Dad worked shifts. When he wasn’t in a steel plant, he was tending to his huge garden. Something always needed fixing or watering or planting or picking, and the concept of relaxing was foreign. If we weren’t doing something his prairie roots deemed useful, we were lazy. There was one thing, however, that would tug him away from all that: going for a drive. 

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We’d pick a direction and just go. We’d take the proverbial drive in the country, letting the acres of corn and cows be the view to accompany the thrum of the tires on two-lane roads. I’d climb in the back of the wagon and make up stories and songs to torture my sisters with, while my father hollered from the front seat what kind of manure we were smelling. It was the only time my father relaxed. He worked himself to exhaustion, but we knew if we could get him in the car, we could have a part of him back.

Sometimes the drives were to a trailhead so we could hike. And sometimes even doing something free costs money. 

Then my siblings and I learned about the cost of gas. After the fuel crisis started, lasting for months, we rarely, if ever, drove for no reason. I’d say it’s because the youngest kids had aged out, but it wasn’t that; for a family who composted and recycled long before it was fashionable, aimless country drives couldn’t be justified. We lost that part of my Dad we rarely got to see, and I missed it. Conversations in cars are different than conversations around a dinner table or over a newspaper. 

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There was a time in my life, many years ago, when I measured my gas mileage to the dollar. As a single mother with two small boys and a crappy job in the next city, every single penny was accounted for in my budget. My life had flipped overnight, and while I knew I would claw my way back, for a few desperate years even small fluctuations were enough to wreak havoc with my delicate finances.

My kids never missed drives in the country because they never had them—I couldn’t burn half-a-tank of fuel that I needed to last a week

Gas prices are up 58 per cent over this time last year. When I read survey after survey about people deliberating over drives to the U.S. or long-awaited road trips, people who are angry at airlines cancelling flights or the cost and scarcity of rental cars, I think: What about people who just need to get from home to work on an already threadbare budget?

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My kids never missed drives in the country because they never had them. I couldn’t burn half-a-tank of fuel that I needed to last a week. My kids had all they needed and we were lucky in many ways, but while a lot of people are absorbing the huge bump in fuel costs and the attendant inflation, there are many who can’t. 

The headlines are crowded with talk of EVs now — finally, people are considering and buying what they were previously avoiding. EVs are expensive. To tell people suffering from the high cost of gas to go buy an EV is unhelpful at best, and dismissive at worst. If the car you currently own is your only option, the only advice for keeping your fuel costs in check is to drive less. This can mean more thoughtful use of a car – fewer trips, getting out the bikes, walking – but it also means getting rid of things like an aimless drive that previously was the entertainment. 

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My father was born in 1926; like most of the era (and many in generations since) he wasn’t thinking of the pollution his cars were belching out. His overriding concern was cost. When I had to navigate transit-less suburbs to earn a living, I, too, was concerned with the cost. People change when it’s more painful to not change. We need fewer cars, we need cleaner cars, and we need better options for those being priced out of keeping a roof over their heads and a car on the road. 

Booth notes in his piece that studies show people are far more concerned about their ability to access gas for their vehicle than the price of it. If sustained high fuel costs aren’t enough to make people change, I’m not sure anything will.