Rear View Mirror: We Live in Challenging Times

And some cars are better suited for these times... like the Mazda MX-5, a.k.a. the Miata.

By Richard Truesdell

These are tough times for those of us who love driving. As I write this, the average price for gasoline is more than $4.50 a gallon in parts of both San Diego County and the San Francis-co Bay area. Gas is clearly headed to $5.00 by Memorial Day, when many experts are saying it will peak. This, in spite of the fact that supplies are plentiful, so much so that Saudi Arabia announced it is cutting back as demand can't support current levels of production.

If the laws of supply and demand don't explain skyrocketing prices at the pump, who is to blame? It's easy to point to commodities traders on Wall Street, taking advantage of the Middle East situation.

Another guilty party is certainly the current administration in Washing-ton, D.C., encouraging Brazil to drill while dragging its heels on new oil leases at home. I, too, support being cautious when approving new leases, especially when it seems that the oil companies--another easy target for blame--are not exploiting all of the leases they already have. But there's cautious, and then there's....

It's a dreadful situation, any way you look at it.

And I can tell you, I'm curbing my driving, facing the new reality behind the wheel. On one recent Saturday, there was a major two-day Mopar show in Van Nuys, 100 miles from my house, and one of the best woodies shows around in Dana Point, 60 miles from my house. Covering both would have meant a trip of almost 250 miles. I just couldn't justify it.

And that Sunday, I thought long and hard about driving into Orange County, a 140-mile round trip, to attend one of my favorite shows, 300-plus cars on the square in the downtown plaza in Orange. In the end, this was one event I couldn't pass up--especially in light of the test vehicle I was driving. This past week, Mark Duffus and Jared Bruce at STI Los Angeles