By Scott Corlett

Is your wallet getting squeezed by the ever-rising cost of gasoline? Do you have to delay the purchase of those ass-hugging new jeans in order to pay your gas card? Would you prefer to fill your savings account rather than your fuel tank? Do you think money is better spent on Prada than on premium?
Since we share both your pain and the desire to see you in some tight denim, Gaywheels.com has come up with a list of diesels, hybrids, and good ol’ gasoline-powered vehicles that are both fuel-efficient and manufactured by gay-friendly companies. So, visit the used car section of Gaywheels.com, throw an ad up on Craigslist, sell that old gas-guzzler, and then figure out what you’ll do with all the savings once you’re motoring in one of these fuel-sipping hotties.

If Size Doesn’t Matter
Sure, Toyota is best known for the quality of its vehicles and for its egg-shaped hybrid, the Prius (see below), but Toyota also produces some of the most fuel-efficient gasoline-powered autos on the market. At a base price of $14,205, the four-door Toyota Corolla makes a very green 32 miles-per-gallon in the city and 41 mpg on the highway. Long a hit in Europe, the cute-as-a-bug Toyota Yaris finally has arrived on this side of pond. The Yaris, which is available in sedan or three-door versions, sees 34/40 mpg city/highway—this at a base price of $11,050 for the liftback! Forget that vacation in Saugatuck, Mykonos here you come.

Motown is known for putting out oldies-but-goodies. Here are three, low-priced, gasoline-powered little movers that are bound to be classics. Available in every imaginable configuration—sedan, wagon, three- or five-door hatchback—the tried-and-true Ford Focus gets 27/37 mpg and costs just $13,995 for a base three-door version. At a rock-bottom $9,995, the Chevrolet Aveo, which is available as a sedan or five-door liftback, makes 27/35 mpg. New to Detroit’s lineup, the sporty, five-door Dodge Caliber
clocks in at 28/32 mpg and a base price of $13,985. ‘Cause baby, there ain’t no mileage high enough …
Like ‘Em Bigger?

Do you need to haul your girlfriend’s Bernese Mountain dog or your boyfriend’s tag sale find? At 31/34 mpg, the boxy hipster mini-ute—the Scion xB—costs a mere $14,030 and sports a cavernous 43.4 cubic feet of cargo space when the rear seats are folded down. Or how about the Ford Escape Hybrid, which sees 36/31 mpg (hybrids, due to their ability to shutdown their gasoline engines during traffic stops, make better mileage in city) at a base price of $26,240. Woof!

The ovoid Toyota Prius is the must-have hybrid that won the hearts of eco-conscious Americans. The engineers at Toyota claim that the roomy, five-door Prius, which uses Toyota’s proprietary Hybrid Synergy Drive technology, makes an astounding 60/51 mpg. As with the stated fuel economy numbers of all hybrids, you have to take these figures with a grain—or maybe a shaker—of salt, we experienced an average, real-world mileage for the Prius in the mid-40s. At a base price of $21,725, that’s still one tough egg to beat.
For the 2007 model year, Toyota launched a hybrid version of the best-selling sedan in America, the Camry. The Toyota Camry Hybrid sees 40/38 mpg and costs $25,900 for the base model. The Camry Hybrid utilizes the same Hybrid Synergy Drive technology as the Prius but sports a larger four-cylinder engine than its sibling. In the Camry Hybrid, the idea is to achieve the fuel economy of a four-banger and the horsepower of a six-cylinder. Toyota delivers on this promise, but don’t expect heart-pumping driving dynamics. For that, you need to go diesel.
Do you wish to save the planet, maintain your stylish elegance, and have fun driving at the same time? Mercedes has just the answer. The diesel-fueled Mercedes-Benz E320 BLUETEC sedan makes 27/37 mpg and zero-to-60 in a mere 6.6 seconds. No bellowing clouds of black, sooty smoke here: Mercedes’s new, lower-emission, Orwellian-named Bluetec diesel system should help win back skeptical American consumers, who lost their appetite for oil burners after Detroit’s disastrous flirtation with diesel engines during the ‘70s and ‘80s. Pricing is not yet announced for the E320 BLUETEC, but look for a figure in the low $50s.
Supersize Me

Are you still not ready to give up your road-ruling, over-compensating-for-you-know-what SUV? Soon, you won’t have to. For 2007, Mercedes plans to offer two, diesel-powered SUVs: the midsize Mercedes-Benz ML320 CDI and the full-sized Mercedes-Benz GL320 CDI. Both available as seven-seaters, these SUVs should see mileage in the low to mid-20s (compared to the mid-teens for their gasoline-fueled iterations). Initially, the German haulers will be relegated to 45-state status—meaning they won’t meet the emissions requirements of the five states (CA, NY, MA, VT, and ME) that abide by California’s stringent air-quality standard. Later versions will incorporate Mercedes’s 50-state-legal Bluetec emissions system. Pricing for neither the ML320 CDI nor the GL320 CDI is yet available; however, look for base prices in the mid-$40s and the upper-$50s, respectively.
Do you want German diesel technology without the German price tag? You need look no further than the Jeep Grand Cherokee CRD. The folks at DaimlerChrysler know how to share: this Jeep will feature the same powerful engine—which is built in Germany—as the Mercedes SUVs. Neither pricing nor fuel economy figures for this backdoor Benz are yet announced, but expect mileage in the low 20s and a base price just over $30k. Like its European cousins, the Grand Cherokee CRD will launch with only 45-state-status, with 50-state Bluetec emissions to follow.

You might be packing Platinum, but sometimes Visa will suffice. When equipped with GM’s Active Fuel Management system, which cuts off four of the engine’s eight cylinders during periods of low power demand, GM’s full-sized, seven-seat SUVs (Chevy Tahoe, GMC Yukon, Cadillac Escalade) clock mileage in the low 20s on the freeway. Considering that competing haulers see fuel economy only in the mid-teens on the long road, the ingenuity of GM’s engineers is worth every penny of the average mid-$30s base price for the company’s styling SUVs.
If, like us, you are ready for some relief at the pump, check out these gay-friendly fuel sippers. Do it for the environment … or just to afford some new shoes.