When I went shopping for a full sized pickup that could tow a 10,000 lb trailer, I was faced with a stark choice. Either buy a seriously gas guzzling V8 or pony up the big dollars for a big diesel. Since I tow only occasionally, neither option made any sense, but that is all that I had to choose from.
I found it particularly upsetting that Dodge did not offer their 2500 with the 2.7 liter diesel that they were putting in the Jeep Liberties and the Dodge Sprinter commerical vans. You went the full Cummins route or you didn't get a diesel. A 2500 with the small diesel would have been absolutely perfect for me. You don't have to have a powerful engine to tow. You just need the appropriate gears.
The US car makers don't seem to get it. I don't know why
A big part of it has to do with ridiculous emissions standards for vehicles under 8600lb GVW, if I remember correctly. In fact, thanks to the EPA all diesels are now or are going to be getting significantly less fuel mileage in the future. Of course diesel technology is "advancing" which means making them less "stinky" at the cost of mileage. Never the less eventually diesels in lighter trucks might soon happen. I'm sure they're working on it. Of course more diesel vehicles on the road will hurt those of us who already operate diesels, because demand for diesel will increase. Demand for gas will stay the same or drop, thereby dropping the price for that product.
I'm going to be looking for an inexpensive beater car on which I can get by with just liability insurance coverage, and gets 40+mpg. Not sure I'll be able to find one, but it'll save miles on the pickup, thereby allowing me to keep it virtually forever.
The fuel companies aren't making that big of a profit margin versus other companies. They move a lot of product, have a lot of cash flow, and happen to have plenty of profit.
For those wondering why new companies can't just come in and set up shop, it would take a long time to be profitable, what with the harsh environmental regulations they would have to make the new plants fall under. As the price of fuel continues to go up, there becomes more incentive for new companies to start making it or start making alternatives. We won't see real viable alternatives until the price goes up significantly higher. Just not enough people willing to switch technologies just yet, especially if those other technologies still have significant drawbacks and or lack of infrastructure to support them.
Remember the 90's when a bunch of refineries ended up closing? A big part of that was lack of profitability with the low (relatively) fuel prices combined with increased regulations limiting what upgrades and modernization could be done to the facilities. Chemical companies need a permit just to allow someone to sneeze these days (slight exaggeration).
(Hint: Environmental regs are a big part of why so much manufacturing has moved to China and elsewhere. Little or no environmental controls in these places which saves considerable money for companies combined with cheap labor. A win-win for these companies. The only way to fix that will be to disallow any product made in countries with more lax standards than ours or charge a massive tariff for it.)
There are many reasons/factors that go into the pricing of things. This post doesn't even remotely begin to scratch the surface of everything involved in the prices of things. I would look at micro and macro economics books as a good start though.
