so much wrong here Semp. First of all even most motorcycles were strugleing to get that kind of mileage. The reason MPG has dropped is two fold. First, you have consumer demand for larger, thus heavier cars. Second you have government safety regulations that have forced cars to beef up. I had an Audi 4000, a midsized car from the 80's. It was smaller than a Ford Focus, a compact car, and weighed about 450 pounds less. For a modern example,look at the Fiat 500 it weighs almost 300 pounds more in the US than in the UK.
As for the speculators, I've had very cheap gas and expensive gas. It's a global market and demand is up!
THE thing with the "global market" excuse for gas prices.......it wasn't so till the govt started allowing it to be traded on the market. it was priced according to supply and demand here in the us.
now that we've joined the global market, it can go up if the wrong person flicks a booger on another wrong person, and the traders panic. i mean...c'mon......iran threatens to close the straight of hormuz(i think that's the one), and gas jumps? c'on people!! they're about the size of texas......and one cv group can totally wipe out their entire military......sorry skuzzy.........
if gas were removed from trading on the market, we would be back down to below 2/gallon in less than a year here in the us. my apologies to you guys in other countries.....but screw the global market. it's dragging us down.