Hi, Eric:

Don't underestimate the potential future fuel savings of your hybrid. That savings of $800 is at today's gas prices, yes?

What if gas goes up to $3.00 per gallon sometime next year? :huh:

Or to $5.00 in two or three years? :o

What if we have gas-rationing again in ten years? :blink:

What if someday, thirty or forty years from now, some of us aren't even allowed to buy gas anymore? :wacko:


Some of you are probably thinking that I'm making a bad joke here, or that maybe I'm just fit for the looney-bin for saying this. Maybe I am. If so, I hope they have really good pasta and tiramisu and coffee on Sundays. I'm Italian, and my mother used to tell us that Sunday was always spaghetti day, not Wednesday like that cheapo-commercial used to say...

Apologies for my digression...

I believe that any of the aforementioned things are distinctly possible, you know. With the price of a barrel of oil pushing at and making new all-time highs, troubles in the middle-East, strikes and upheavals in Venesuela, and Russia's largest oil producer on the verge of being shut down, anything is possible.

And something I brought up over at Priusonline; the slowing of oilfield production in Saudi Arabia signifies the possibility of a very very hard reality; that there are physical limits to what is still in the ground. Or at least there are limits to what we'll be able to harvest from the ground.

I have noticed that more and more often, articles are being written by major press outlets, and they're using the term "permanently higher" when referring to oil prices. Strong word, that word "permanent."

Y'know, we had...

Permanent teeth. Supposed to last you a lifetime.

Permanent record. In school, you didn't want to do anything bad enough to get a bad mark in your permanent record. You might not get into a good college or marry a good woman.

And now, we have permanent high oil prices. Do I hear a bell tolling? :huh:

So I think you should consider your projected $800 annual savings at today's fuel prices as more of a "floor," or a minimum of savings realized.

And you'll realize that your hybrid is spoiling you even more than you originally thought!