"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
The confusion began here when you said consumers would not buy fuel
efficient vehicles until this that or the other thing happened. I pointed
out that these vehicles exist and are selling nicely already. This is not
an absolute statement, since it should be obvious that MORE of these
vehicles will be sold as fuel prices increase, and as the current crop of
still-useful vehicles ages and needs replacement.

It did NOT disagree with anything you said in your last paragraph
beginning with "I can't figure out...". One exception, though: Oil prices
are largely disconnected from supply and demand. If you believe otherwise,
you are not familiar with how daily prices are REALLY pegged by
speculators. The price increases of the past 12 months are wildly out of
proportion to changes in supply & demand.

If you take into accounts futures markets, they are not disconnected at that
point... they are relative