Dad replaces car with pink toy Barbie camper after converting it to gas to save fuel cash

A dad fed up with soaring fuel costs has converted his daughter’s pink Power Wheels Barbie Dream Camper into a petrol-powered mini car that costs $3 (£2.25) to fill

A dad has turned his daughter’s pink Barbie Dream Camper into a petrol-powered mini motor after saying he was fed up with soaring fuel costs.

Mali Hightower, 30, from Ellenwood, Georgia, USA, swapped the toy’s battery setup for a two-gallon, single-piston engine taken from a pressure washer, creating a tiny runaround he now uses for local trips when he can.

Hightower can now be seen at his local gas station driving the The Power Wheels Barbie Dream Camper, a pink battery-operated toy car less than four feet tall, around. The girl-dad’s real car, a 1996 Mercedes-Benz convertible, costs about $90 (£67) to fill, which he claimed “That’s too much”.

He told Reuters: “I drive this when I can.” He further told CBS: “Gas is getting too high, so I got to do what I can.

“I can’t do [that with] my regular cars. I got to do [it with] my little mini car.”

It costs Hightower just $3 (£2.25) to fill the Barbie mini motor, compared with around $60 (£45) for his real car, a minivan. While he cannot use the tiny vehicle for the school run, he has fitted a rack on top for groceries.

Moreover, the dad claims that as long as he keeps off the motorway, local police have been understanding. Hightower said: “Gas has always been an issue. Go up, it goes down, things like that.

“But this time is when I’m actually starting to feel it.” In the UK, petrol and diesel prices have climbed sharply since the conflict involving the US/Israel and Iran began in February 2026, pushing pump costs higher for motorists and businesses.

The rise is being linked to disruption in global oil supply and wider market volatility driven by geopolitical developments. Currently, petrol is averaging around 159.2p a litre, up from roughly 133p before the war, an increase of about 26p.

Diesel has risen more steeply, averaging about 185.9p a litre compared with around 142p pre-conflict, a jump of about 43.5p, taking prices to their highest levels since the fighting began.

The biggest factor cited is disruption around the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow shipping lane through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas normally travels.

With traffic through the area reportedly slumping from an average of about 138 vessels a day to only a small number, supply has tightened, with estimates suggesting between 10 million and 20 million barrels per day have effectively been removed from the market.

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