Kim, I get the impression that the only thing you are being asked to do is accept that the vehicles you are choosing are probably not the most practical or economical vehicles for your needs.

As for debt, perhaps Carol is right and fuel prices in the US need to rise further to make people think...

Let's say the Citroen I mentioned before averages 50mpg (probably does a little better over the year - I gave a worse case before) and we average 10,000 miles a year. For convenience, lets say petrol is £3.00 per gallon.

That gives fuel costs of £700 per year, a 20mpg guzzler would cost £1750 for the same mileage.

Jon