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How soon we forget. It’s not completely our fault. We as a culture are always looking ahead and up; rarely do we ever look down and behind ourselves. The historians have warned us throughout the ages that we’re doomed to repeat our past mistakes, but the optimists that we are, we just trudge right along. How irritating it is to have those self-righteous naysayers end up being right after all. In a world with pre-packaged meat, seemingly endless running water and a magic truck that whisks last weeks treasures but this weeks rubbish away, is it really all that surprising? Besides, how long has the earth been compressing decomposing organic matter? We were bound to use more than was produced; have you seen the mileage for autos weighing in at over 3500 lbs lately?

During the gas crisis in the ‘70s, the United States did what we always do in a crisis; we buckled down and did what we had to do in order to reap the benefits later—and *** about it the whole way. Americans saw that their monstrous vehicles with inefficient six and eight-cylinder engines were not practical for how the volatile world of mid-east politics affected their sense of freedom. After World War II it was the thrill of nimble handling that service men experienced in Europe which created a niche market for small displacement, light-weight vehicles, but it took the fuel crisis to usher in what was to become a new era for the automobile market.  

What is this, a troll?  Your subject is not addressed by your msg.

 I drive a hybrid for the gas mileage and the low emission.  I couldn't care less about it as a status symbol.  BTW, I get 48 - 52 mpg by just driving it normally.  

I, like Charley38, drive a hybrid.  I average 50+ miles per gallon, and I drive alot.  I also own a Ford Explorer, but it sits in the garage until I need to move something that won't fit in my Prius.  I drive about 30,000 miles a year.  Driving the Ford, I was spending $600 a month in gas and that was before all this mess with the high gas prices.  Now, driving the same amount of miles, I spend about $150 a month at current prices.  I'm living proof "Hybrids Do Save Fuel"  

I'm not sure what your point is about hybrids saving "status" but not "fuel".

They certainly do save fuel, so that point of your thesis is flat wrong.  My Prius is as spacious as a Camry, and its hatchback trunk makes it as capacious as many small- to mid-sized SUVs, and it is powerful and responsive and nimble and all of that good stuff.  And it routinely achieves 40-50 miles per gallon of fuel without special technique or coddling.  There are other cars that can do the same, but they are much smaller and cruder and not nearly so generously appointed, nor as nonpolluting as the high-tech Prius, nor as simple (since the Prius lacks an alternator and power steering pump and belts for them and the a/c, and a transmission, and a clutch or torque converter, and a shift linkage and clutch master/slave cylinders and a throwout bearing...)

Since you never get around to saying what you mean about "status", what your post seems to boil down to is that car purchasers respond to fuel pricing.  Yawn.  That was proven years ago in Europe, when governments discovered they could reach deeper into everyone's wallets with usurious fuel taxation.  

There's nothing we can do about the oil crisis right now, the only best way to solve this problem is removed the fuel/oil monopoly.

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Have you ever heard about Pules Star Plug    

Nobody ever talks about recycling the hybrid's batteries at the end of their life cycle.  These could be very detrimental to the environment if handled improperly and will obviously be costly to recycle.  The price to replace them will be prohibitive so it's essentially a disposable car although arguably most non-hybrids are too.

The real trouble with the Prius is they’re too often holding up traffic as their clueless (pious?) owners attempt to set new records for sipping fuel while the rest of us (mostly gas-gobbling, rain forest-chopping, coastal drilling advocates and baby seal clubbers) seethe.