IN CASE YOU haven't noticed it (yeah, right!) gas prices are steadily climbing.

High-test gasoline is approaching $4 a gallon and the cost of everything from driving to work to mowing the lawn is getting higher.

So what does the already financially strapped consumer do about the sorry situation?

Well, it turns out (according to new car sales records) that many financially strapped consumers aren't all that financially strapped because they have been trending up to SUVs and pickup trucks instead of smaller, more fuel-efficient cars during the past year or so.

But the recent increase in "pain at the pump" has triggered a renewed interest in smaller cars that get better gas mileage.

That got me to thinking and figuring. With gas prices nearing that $4 a gallon mark, would you be better off trading that larger car for a smaller, more efficient model? Using myself as an example, I sat down with pen and paper (no, I don't need a calculator) to figure it out.

I use on average about one tank of gas a week, and yesterday when I filled up it cost me $36 (there was still a gallon or two left in the car). Over the course of a year, that comes to $1,872.

If I rushed out and bought a new car that got me seven or eight more miles per gallon I could probably cut my weekly tank-of-gas cost by 25 percent, to about $27 a week. That would be about $1,404 annually.

Assuming gasoline averages $3.75 a gallon indefinitely, that, friends, is a savings of $470 a year.

Great, huh?

Well, let's see. One of those highly fuel-efficient hybrid models probably sells for $28,000. You get $5,000 trade-in on your present gas guzzler and you end up paying $23,000 plus taxes and whatever.

Do you have any idea how long it will take to recoup your investment? Well, I figured it out. If you saved $470 a year in gas for 50 years it would come to $23,500.

Meanwhile, you'd probably be paying $700 a year in interest (for five years) on a $23,000 car loan.

So, it will take you roughly two car payments a year in interest ($700) to save one-plus car payment ($470) in gasoline expenses.

And it will take only 50 years to recoup your investment.