Rising gas prices might rain on the car buying decisions of those with
short memories
By Kevin M
It’s almost hard to conceive that only a couple of years ago we were struggling to come to grips with the relentless rise in the cost of gasoline, as prices rose from the nearly constant level of a dollar and change a gallon, to over $4 in a space of just a few short years.
$5 a gallon was looking inevitable, and maybe the new standard. SUVs and other large vehicles had become un-salable and were plunging in value.
In the intervening two years we’ve had a mortgage meltdown, a wave of bank failures, a presidential election and a killer recession—it’s no wonder the still relatively recent gas price spike is barely a shadowy memory.
But as much as we may have forgotten that crisis for newer ones, it’s left its mark on our finances. Though gas prices have fallen back from their peak, they’re still at least twice as high as they were before the spike began. And if we’re completely honest, they’re not all that far off the peak any more either. $2.75 to $3 a gallon only looks good because we were paying $4+ a couple of years earlier.
So should we put fuel economy aside as we celebrate an apparent recovery? Are “high” ($4+) gas prices a thing of the past? Is the world now safe for your Escalade?
