With gasoline prices sitting at record highs, and the auto industry struggling to deal with the situation, there is a new shift in the design of cars. Historically, when you bought a smaller engine car, that engine came in a vehicle that had far less in the way of comfort and amenities... well, that is changing.

Think back a few years. You went to your local auto lot to pick up a new car, and your first choice was what size engine you wanted, the heavy duty 8-cylinder, 6, or 4-cylinder car? Suppose you decided the 8-cylinder was for you, can you picture the car that supported this engine? Typically these cars had all the bells and whistles you could imagine: the sunroof, the leather seating, fancy radios, power windows, etc. Basically, the bigger the engine, the better the "packaging" that it came along with.

Now, picture the 4-cylinder car from the past. Not much to picture here. Power windows? Doubtful. Yes, the 4-cylinder cars of the past were typically your bare bones vehicle with few fewer amenities than those coming with the 8-cylinder alternatives. If you were lucky, you would at least get some power steering in the car, but that was not always the case either.

Gasoline prices continue to increase along with crude prices, and the latter seem to find a new record every single day. Wasn't it just a few months ago that the media was going crazy about oil reaching the $100 per barrel mark? It hit $122 this week. Now, that's not a year later; that's less than half a year later. It's not surprising then that automakers with an inflexible SUV-selling strategy are getting pummeled, while automakers with a decent offering of gas-efficient vehicles are seeing product mix changes in retail sales.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), which showed a surprising profit in its most recent quarter, said that it plans to really up the presence of gas-efficient six-speed transmissions by the end of 2009, and wants to have these transmissions in 98% of its North American vehicles by 2012. If Ford follows through with this commitment, it'll be a game-changer for the industry. And, it will force General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) to do the same thing. Ford stated that the newer 6-speed automatics will get 4% to 6% better gas mileage than the standard 4-speed and 5-speed automatic transmissions.

GM is not sitting idly by at the same time, though. It debuted a 6-speed automatic transmission in the popular 2008 Chevy Malibu, which it is pitting as a strong competitor to market leaders Honda Motor (NYSE: HMC) Accord and Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) Camry. Will the new trend in the consumer vehicle market be smaller 4-cylinder engines with advanced, fuel-efficient 6-speed automatic transmissions? You can count on it until oil prices fall to $50 a barrel. And, that'll be when pigs fly.

With the passage of a new energy bill that requires a drastic increase in the average fuel efficiency of automobiles sold in the U.S., automakers are feeling a bit steamed right now. Mandating significant increases in gas efficiency for vehicles even within a little more than a decade is an enormous task for automakers. New designs, manufacturing processes and probably a hundred more things become necessary.

At the same time, the financial pressure the big three automakers are under make large changes like this hard to swallow. But this doesn't only affect domestic manufacturers ---- all automakers selling vehicles in the U.S. have to conform. The trick is that other automakers like Honda and Toyota started reacting to the market's need for more fuel-efficient cars (and the marketing of them) long before domestic automakers did. Now, those automakers are sitting in a much prettier setting than General Motors (NYSE:GM) or the Ford Motor Co.(NYSE:F). It's estimated that the fuel economy changes mandated for the future will cost GM $40 billion alone. Yikes.

The just-passed energy bill required a fuel economy increase of about 40% (to 35 miles per gallon) by 2020 -- just over 12-and-a-half years from now. Is that even technically possible? Most global automakers, who are united on this front (with the curious absence of Nissan), say that this expectation is way out of whack. The bill was passed late last night in the U.S. Senate by a vote of 65-27, and a vote by the U.S. House is probably coming next week. President Bush also added his opinion, stating that Congress must be "realistic" about this kind of legislation, and that he opposes much of it (while still supporting alternative methods like ethanol use).

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), DaimlerChrysler AG (NYSE: DCX) and the United Auto Workers just can't stop complaining about new, tougher fuel-efficiency standards that the U.S. Congress likely will pass.

The companies and union are taking their case to Capital Hill today at a private luncheon with leaders of the U.S. Senate to convince them to reconsider an overhaul of Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) standards, according to the Associated Press.

Let's hope that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reed has the guts to tell them to pound sand. The public is fed up with high gas prices and the growing problem caused by global warming. Even GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner has acknowleged this reality, though the AP quotes him cryptically saying "let's make sure that we also fix the real problems while we're doing that."