Those running out of oil stories from the 20th century were used as a form of scare tactics to get people to buy smaller cars and use other forms of energy. Of course this is my opinion and I think it worked.
That's one way to look at it. Another way is to look at the available data for the basis of those statements and apply the forecasting tools they had at the time. We now know that the calculations of known/proven reserves was way off from the actual situation. Consumption figures did not take into account the increased efficiencies we have achieved over the last 40 years. My full size 2017 sedan with V-6 and automatic transmission beats my old 1971 compact four banger with 4 on the floor. The sedan gets 30 mpg on a freeway at 70mph with the AC running full blast. The 4 banger struggled to get to 22 mpg at 60 mph and no AC.
People's choice of cars is driven by market factors. When gas is cheap we buy big cars. When it's not, we tend tp buy smaller. Gas prices are driven by market forces that have little or nothing to do with how much oil is still in the ground. It's usually geopolitical in nature. Before someone goes off on that's why we need to have our own sources remember that oil is a commodity. Its price is driven by its market value. If we were the number one producer of petroleum US citizens might still be faced with higher gas prices if someone else was willing to pay more for the product. It's just business.
