As gasoline and crude prices continue to climb, Americans adjust driving and travel plans, research fill-ups With oil and gasoline prices at all-time highs, the most luxurious indulgence of the seductively-curved Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder might be that it gets 12 miles per gallon. Parked outside the Bentley Gold Coast dealership in downtown Chicago on Friday, the $264,570 roadster inspired the fantasy that some can afford to forget the $3.64 a gallon average charged by gas stations citywide.“When you buy this, you probably don't think about the gas, insurance or anything,” said Grigor Harutunyan, a medical student passing by the Lamborghini with a friend. “It takes a back seat?” the friend joked. “It takes a back seat,” Harutunyan said. But gasoline remains at the forefront of an American economy now painfully adapting to the realities of escalating oil prices. With the problem compounded by a declining stock market and rising unemployment, many consumers have started trimming household budgets that are not nearly as recession-proof as 512-horsepower sports cars. Light, sweet crude futures closed at a record $117 a barrel Friday, while AAA reported gas nationwide averaged a record $3.44 a gallon and diesel $4.16 a gallon. It was the fifth consecutive day that oil futures hit a new peak on the New York Mercantile Exchange, with the latest daily price surge caused by rebels in Nigeria damaging a pipeline owned by Royal Dutch Shell. US Department of Energy projected that gas prices could cross $4 a gallon this summer, a consequence of the traditional family vacation, instability in some oil-producing nations and increased demand from emerging economies such as India and China. __
