Man builds tiny car to escape high gas prices

A 30-year-old handyman near Atlanta turned a broken pink Barbie camper into a fuel-sipping “mini car” that costs about $3 to fill, offering a vivid snapshot of how expensive gasoline is pushing consumers to improvise. Mali Hightower, of Ellenwood, Georgia, built the tiny vehicle from a Power Wheels Barbie Dream Camper he pulled from someone’s trash and fitted with a two-gallon, one-piston engine from a power washer.

The homemade car is less than four feet tall. Hightower said he starts it with a lawnmower-like rip cord, wears a dirt-bike helmet, and rides with his knees close to his ears. He also added a rack on top for groceries, turning the toy into a stripped-down commuter that is practical only because the economics make it so. His regular car, a 1996 Mercedes-Benz convertible, costs about $90 to fill, which he said is “too much.”

That price gap captures the pressure rippling through household transportation budgets. AAA put the U.S. national average price of regular gasoline at about $4.52 a gallon on May 18 and 19, and its national average was $4.555 on May 20. Before the latest surge tied to the Iran war, gasoline had been closer to $3 a gallon, widening the cost difference between casual driving and every necessary trip to work, school, or the grocery store.

The response has not been limited to one handmade vehicle. An April 28 Ipsos poll found that 44% of Americans had cut back on driving, a sign that consumers are already changing behavior rather than absorbing the higher cost. Broader adaptation is showing up in more public transit use and in people staying closer to home, small shifts that can add up across a national commuting network.

The strain is also changing how businesses market themselves. Renee Tocci, executive director of Camp Farley in Mashpee, Massachusetts, said higher fuel costs helped her frame sleep-away camp as a money-saving option for parents. In a separate Reuters/Ipsos poll in May, 64% of Americans said recent gas-price increases had affected their household finances, and 83% expected prices to keep rising over the next month. Hightower’s pink, trash-rescued car is the most striking version of that adjustment, but it is only one expression of a broader search for cheaper ways to move.