Fun little car. I've got to say that I see things getting better, but I think that the pain of high gas prices and other rising costs is going to encourage more positive change. As for people still buying SUVs, let them. It's not your problem when gas prices hit $6 a gallon and they're paying a dollar a mile to drive.
As for the airlines, they can just stop bitching and whining about fuel prices. When I can get a direct flight from the orange county or LA area to Costa Rica rather than first flying to Houston or Florida then they can talk, but so long as they're doing their stupid hub airport thing and want to fly you two or three places you didn't want to go before getting you to your destination, they can just zip it on rising fuel prices. I support the culture of getting things right now when the alternative is wastefulness.