These are booming times for small car makers and sky-high fuel prices are causing some pretty interesting situations for the sale of high mpg vehicles.

Toyota can’t make copies of its Prius hybrid fast enough for the swelling demand, that’s bad news for Joe Consumer who’s just trying to cut down on his commuting costs every week, but great news for the dealers who are handing out the keys. J.D. Power has calculated that so far this summer (through the first three weeks of July) the average new Prius has spent only five days on dealer lots, while used 2007 model cars last only a bit longer at 20 days.

That super-quick turnaround time is impressive, but what’s even more startling is the premium at which buyers are willing to purchase used Prius. The average new 2008 MY Prius is selling for an average of $26,672, while used 2008 models with less than 10,000 miles on the odometer are selling for nearly $1300 more, averaging a sale price of $27,945. Even 2007 cars, with on average more than 22,000 miles racked up, are commanding $26,396 – just $276 from the new cars’ average.

Power’s data for June and the first three weeks of July backs up anecdotal information claiming that some Toyota dealers were offering to buy back used Prius at sticker price.

With Toyota recently enacting plans to ramp up production of the hybrid, and with a new model on the way , this boom time for dealers isn’t likely to keep up indefinitely. But we’d guess that most Toyota salesmen are looking forward to a flush summer.

+ J.D. Power