Reuters Money

Jade Boyd lives in the People’s Republic of Pickup Trucks. As a science editor for Rice University in Houston, he’s literally surrounded on the road by Ford F-150s and Chevy Silverados. “I grew up in Texas, my dad always had a pickup, and if I had my druthers, I’d have a pickup too,” says the married father of two. “The Texan in me would love to drive a truck every single day.”

But then there’s the little issue of gas costs. With his friends filling up their pickups at around $75 a pop, twice a week, that’s $600 a month disappearing right into the tank. That’s why in 2007, Boyd went against his natural Texan instincts and bought himself a hybrid Toyota Prius.

Now with Libya in virtual civil war, the rest of the Mideast bubbling with unrest, and gas prices going through the roof, Boyd feels pretty prescient. He has a 60-mile work commute every day, but between carpooling and his gas-sipping Prius, he only has to fill up once a week. “For the longest time I couldn’t even put $20 worth of gas in the car,” he says. “It wouldn’t even hold that much.”

Great for him. Not so great for his truck-driving buddies, who are feeling Mideast turmoil right in their wallets. According to the Lundberg Survey of 2,500 gas stations around the country, gas prices just rose 33 cents a gallon in two weeks –- the second-biggest leap in the history of the gasoline market.

That’s why auto experts are now noticing a dramatic turn in car-buying behavior: Call it Prius Envy.

“We’ve seen conclusive evidence of that in the last two weeks,” says Karl Brauer, a senior analyst with auto-information site Edmunds.com. “There’s been a major shift in activity towards compact cars and hybrids, and away from large trucks and SUVs.”

Just take Toyota’s Prius sales numbers for February: 13,539 of the cars were sold last month, compared to 7,968 a year earlier. That’s a 70 percent year-over-year jump. When you look at average gas costs, it’s not difficult to figure out why. At 51 miles per gallon, Prius owners pay an average of $900 per year for fuel, while someone driving a 25-mpg car forks out more than double that, at $2,100.

Of course the Prius costs a good deal for a smaller car, starting at $23,050 for 2011 models. But once the gas savings start kicking in, Prius owners feel like they’ve hit a financial home run –- especially when other drivers are feeling pain at the pump.

It brings to mind the classic South Park episode, in which hybrid drivers produce a self-satisfied emission called “smug.”  Combined with similar storms over San Francisco, and one generated by a George Clooney acceptance speech at the Oscars, the “smug alert” ends up destroying thousands of homes in the town.

“The usual stereotype is that Porsche drivers are jerks, Lamborghini drivers are compensating, and Prius owners are all superior environmentalists who look down on the rest of us,” quips Brauer.

Prius owner Paul Baumbach tries to keep that kind of self-satisfaction under wraps, but he’s definitely thrilled with his purchase. The money manager from Newark, Delaware bought his back in 2006, not long after Hurricane Katrina, and figures he saves about $40 a month in gas costs.

“Once a buddy asked me which gas stations had the best prices,” remembers Baumbach. “I told him I don’t fill up that much, so I don’t really pay attention to where it’s the cheapest. He was just kind of stunned, and didn’t say anything.”

As a financial planner with Mallard Advisors, Baumbach does have to think about oil prices on a macro level, and how spikes will affect his clients’ portfolios. But when it comes to his own car, since there are “not a lot of gallons involved,” the oil crisis doesn’t really affect him one way or the other.

“It actually feels good to drive by a gas station,” Baumbach says. “It’s a nice position to be in.”