What would it take to change US cars and drivers?

In one of my early posts, I mentioned the huge diversity of small, fuel-efficient cars here and how they seem to be designed to be useful - many hatchbacks, lots able to tow trailers, etc... Why don't these same cars exist in the U.S.?

We sold the Accord before we left since it was 15 yrs old and no longer fit our family (you should've seen poor Keya smooshed in the back seat...). Jubin and I have been talking about what kind of used car we'll look for when we return home and there are so few options to us! Criteria: 5 doors, good mileage (which is relative of course, but min of 25 mpg), less than 100k miles, and relatively cheap. Not many makes and models out there... So, why can't we buy these cool UK cars in the US? Market demand and the way that our markets are socially constructed, right? Ok, so what would change this situation? 

There was a used car for sale today on the Belfast a version of craigslist called a Vauxwell Astra 1.6 Twinport, which gets about 40 mpg combined city/hwy (you can click here to see a pick of a new one: http://www.vauxhall.co.uk/vehicles/vauxhall-range/cars/new-astra/overview.html). Note that this car is NOT a hybrid, it is NOT the most fuel efficient car in its class here, and it can tow over 2000 lbs (obviously with lower mileage!). The cars in the US don't even come close to this mileage... Anyway, the Astra's fuel tank is 13.67 gallons = 62 liters. Guess how much to fill the tank here in Belfast? Come on, take a guess!

Ok, I'll tell you...it costs 1.29 GBP per liter. So, that's 80 GBP to fill that tank, which is about $120. That's right, $120 to fill a 13.7 gal tank of gas. 

That's about double the amount I was paying to fill up our CRV every approximately 10 days to 2 weeks in Lansing (about $50/fill up). Now, the CRVs gas tank is about the same size at 12.8 gallons (58 liters) so it would cost me 75 GBP to fill it here, or $112 - more than double what I pay in the US.  Do you think that if gas prices in the US doubled, the consumers would change their behaviors enough to alter the cars being marketed there? I'm thinking maybe yes.

And, our CRV only averages about 20 mpg. So, to drive the same number of miles in the 2 cars, I would need to fill the CRV up almost 1.8X as often as I would the Astra (half the mpg, but a bit bigger tank). 

Let's play a little numbers game. The average person my age in the US drives 1250 miles per month (yikes! compared to my ~700, that is CRAZY!). If we use that number of miles and and the Belfast gas price of $8.79 per gallon, then in the Astra I would pay $275 per month and in the CRV I would pay $550 per month. Wow. Personally, I cannot imagine paying that each month! Do you think that people in the US would stop driving so much and would lobby for public transit if gas was almost $9 per gallon? I know that I would!