With the U.S. economy in slow-growth / no-growth mode, domestic demand for autos has been low, as predicted. However, almost on cue, demand for smaller vehicles has been robust.

That cue is $4 gasoline, The New York Times reported Friday. Or, as one Harrison, N.Y. resident called her monthly gasoline bill, "My car payment in addition to my car payment."

A 60-70% increase in gasoline prices in the last two years has led to a large increase in demand for small cars and hybrids, The Times reported, with limited supply of some of the most-preferred models creating further frustration for automakers and purchasers alike.

The more things change...

Economist Glen Langan said a great deal has changed during the time between the last oil shock in 1979-80 and today's oil shock: long hair for men is out, as are bell-bottom pants, and album-oriented rock (mainly because there are no more record albums). One thing hasn't changed: U.S. automakers, once again, "were dramatically under-prepared for the high gas price era."

OPEC said Wednesday it wants a "solution" to end record-high oil prices, including an examination of the role speculators and governments of consuming and producing nations, when it meets later this month in Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg News reported.

Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter and holder of the largest proved oil reserves, said it wants heads of state from consumer/producer nations to attend the June 22 meeting in Jeddah, Reuters reported, although it was unclear if any heads of state outside the cartel will attend the meeting.

A International Energy Agency official said the IEA's Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka would attend the meeting.

After a week-long pullpack with many traders calling a correction in a bull market, oil's seemingly inexorable drive to a price few individuals or companies can afford continued Wednesday. Oil closed up $5.11 to $136.42 per barrel after the U.S. Energy Information Administration announced a below-consensus 4.6-million-barrel decline in weekly oil inventories.

Although OPEC's previous meeting in Rome led to no new insights regarding oil, OPEC General Secretary Abdalla el-Badri told Bloomberg News this meeting will be different: "This one is different. This one is specifically to tackle the high oil prices, why they are high, who is to blame," el-Badri said. "Is this a real shortage in the market, or speculation, or the dollar? What is wrong?"