Ack Gas prices

[Lohman446]

Ok - yesterday they went to 2.99 a gallon, this morning it went to 3.48 - I know there was a hurricane that effects 10-15% of our oil... but this is just stupid people

[FreakBaller12]

I think ours is around 2.20ish still. I didn't check yesterday. Don't we(New Jersians) get it the cheapest because most of US's gas comes through por elizabeth here in NJ?

[Resurection]

No idea about Jersey, I would expect higher there due to the all the extra taxes in that state. Florida is hitting the 2.70's as of last night. I don't want to look today.

I know that it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better though....

[shartley]

Sam's Club memberships sure paid off this year for Gas alone. Our Sam's Club usually sells for under $2.50. Of course that still hurts when it takes at least $50 to fill our Durrango. :eek:

Heating oil prices worry me more though. It is going to be a rough winter with high vehicle cas prices as well as home heating fuel prices.

[WenULiVeUdiE]

I think ours is around 2.20ish still. I didn't check yesterday. Don't we(New Jersians) get it the cheapest because most of US's gas comes through por elizabeth here in NJ?

I thought it was because we have lower gas taxation than most other states.

[Thordic]

NJ gas is cheaper because a lot of it is refined here in Elizabeth, yup.

Although when 2.69 for regular is "cheaper" I'd hate to see what expensive is.

[MarkM]

I do understand that you have problems relating to the base oil price due to the storm but come on I would love to pay the prices you guys are complaining about. We are currently at $6.25 and at Motorway (Freeway) stations this is as high as $7.00

[Lohman446]

I do understand that you have problems relating to the base oil price due to the storm but come on I would love to pay the prices you guys are complaining about. We are currently at $6.25 and at Motorway (Freeway) stations this is as high as $7.00


You didn't have GM / Firstone / and Standard Oil companies buy and dismantle your mass transport systems in the 50's and 60's either - by the way, executives of said companies were each fined $1 for there part in the illegal activities.

Its a cultural thing... I am whining now because I put 36K miles a year on my car

[Target Practice]

Went to $3.12 yesterday, up from $2.94.

See, the thing I've noticed with California from traveling around the western US, is that one of the main reasons that gas is so expensive here is because the greedy bastards can get away with it. They know that the people of this state will pay $3-4 dollars a gallon indefinately.

We need a revolution.

[MarkM]

You didn't have GM / Firstone / and Standard Oil companies buy and dismantle your mass transport systems in the 50's and 60's either - by the way, executives of said companies were each fined $1 for there part in the illegal activities.

Its a cultural thing... I am whining now because I put 36K miles a year on my car

I really don't undstand how you can equate a transport system dismantling to your high gas prices...it has an added cost granted but how would that translate to my high prices? Actually I do know why we have the high prices it is our taxation...about number 3 in Europe for the highest AFAIK.
What really gets my blood boiling is when companies attempt to justify the prices at the Motorway (Freeway) stations...they are very often very large units on land that was never going to get built on so it is cheap land but they (the companies) say that the cost to get the fuel to these locations is why the prices have to be increased....sorry you are on a Motorway where all the tanker trucks go past on their way to other destinations so how can the cost be increased? BS if ever I heard it plus they charge the silly prices as you don't want to be on a Motorway and run out of fuel so they effectively have a captive audience so they charge what they like.
I was passenger in a van the other week and we had to get diesel, which in general is cheaper but slowly creaping up in price even though our goverment has given taxation breaks to people buying a so called cleaner fuel (cleaner in so far as the newer versions of diesel is cleaner), so we pulled into the gas sation and the Board on the road advertised a good price but half the forecourt was coned off indicating that half the pumps were out of action and guess what the pumps we could get to were all the premium diesel at $.50c a gallon more than the board price...turns out the coned area was actually just what that station did to guide the traffic, all the coned off pumps were working and all had the cheaper fuel, sharp practise or what!

[Hexis]

And here I thought that the $2.59 I filled up my truck with was gawd awful. The bill was over $70. Guess I'm gonna have to get the bike out and start communting to work on that.

[Lohman446]

I equate fuel to Europe being less central to the way of life. You (in general) have built a mass transport system that is the envy of the western world. Your roads I beleive are directly taxed through gas taxes and you would, I assume, consume less fuel in a year than we do - making a smaller pool to tax from.

I would say that the price disparity is set up around the economics of scale, we pay less because of lower taxes (per gallon) because frankly, we use more.

[shartley]

Why are European gas prices so high? Well having spent a good many years there I know….. And it is not just about mass transportation being available.

Answer the question and you will see why people in the US complaining about high gas prices is not “whining” but is an actual grievance. There is NO reason for our gas prices to be this high. And comparing other countries to ours in this matter is irrelevant. That is like saying to someone who has not eaten in a day, “Stop crying, look at all the people in Africa who are dieing of starvation.”

I am a Republican (by default), but it is time for our Government to step in and do something about this.

But that is just my opinion……

[MarkM]

Actually our road upkeep is alledged to be covered by the taxation on our vehicles, the tax on fuel is straight into the goverments pocket to spend as they see fit...you know how it goes a commitee is formed to look at how the commitee for the committees policy rules are handled via the sub committtee policy section etc etc, plus then they spend some on health care :mad: The TV program "Yes Minister" was extremely accurate even though it is a UK program it would still apply to the US and by all accounts the politcians (and Prime Minister at the peak of the show) often were scared by how close to the truth the show came ;)

[Lohman446]

I didn't complain in the mid two's.... but at this point it is going to strongly influence my voting in the next election if our government does not find a way to reign this in. And I am a Republican by nature...

The fact of the matter is its going to come back to "Are you better off than you were eight years ago". Considering current trends in gas prices / inflation / jobs in this area / etc its going to be hard to say yes... and hard to say its not time for a change. I can handle a few things, but everything?? this is just stupid. And yeh, gas prices are like the straw that broke hte camels back - up to this point ok, the government can't really do anything about it... thats over, its time for the government to do something

[MarkM]

Why are European gas prices so high? Well having spent a good many years there I know….. And it is not just about mass transportation being available.

Answer the question and you will see why people in the US complaining about high gas prices is not “whining” but is an actual grievance. There is NO reason for our gas prices to be this high. And comparing other countries to ours in this matter is irrelevant. That is like saying to someone who has not eaten in a day, “Stop crying, look at all the people in Africa who are dieing of starvation.”

I am a Republican (by default), but it is time for our Government to step in and do something about this.

But that is just my opinion……

Sorry you are way off base with this, Europe by default does not have any (to speak of) oil reserves so we have to import all of it and it still comes into our countries cheaply our goverments add to this cost by way of taxation. The US however has oil reserves and for years, no make that decades, the US goverment has set the level of taxation very very low. the need for huge engined vehicles in the US is not needed and as a result of this current crisis I have seen the news about the incentives to US vehicle makers to make the engines more efficient. That said the US currently is complaining about a base price rising per barrel which effects the pump price since a higher base price will mean not an increase in taxaction but a total raise...start to complain when you have to pay sensible taxation rates like the rest of the world...even those with huge oil reserves. The US has for whatever reason never made the taxation high enough. Plus they will not sign up to any of the Pollution restriction treatys despite the output of pollution in the US is just behind that of India and perhaps China.

[Lohman446]

I would be willing to bet that the average American pays more in gas taxes over a year (because of more use) than the average European. I don't know where to look that up but you do understand what I'm saying I'm sure .10 / gallon tax for 100 gallons is more tax than .40 / gallon for 10 - obviously numbers for illustration only.

[shartley]

Sorry you are way off base with this, Europe by default does not have any (to speak of) oil reserves so we have to import all of it and it still comes into our countries cheaply our goverments add to this cost by way of taxation. The US however has oil reserves and for years, no make that decades, the US goverment has set the level of taxation very very low. the need for huge engined vehicles in the US is not needed and as a result of this current crisis I have seen the news about the incentives to US vehicle makers to make the engines more efficient. That said the US currently is complaining about a base price rising per barrel which effects the pump price since a higher base price will mean not an increase in taxaction but a total raise...start to complain when you have to pay sensible taxation rates like the rest of the world...even those with huge oil reserves. The US has for whatever reason never made the taxation high enough. Plus they will not sign up to any of the Pollution restriction treatys despite the output of pollution in the US is just behind that of India and perhaps China.
You don’t even realize that you answered the question AND am saying I am way off base, when in fact I was dead on. I didn’t insinuate anything. I left it up to folks to determine for themselves what the deal was. And like I said, YOU just proved why Europe pays such high prices.

So to act like we (in the US) are crying while we have no reason to is silly. European governments create their high gas prices. Our government does not. So comparing the two is silly. Yours is self inflicted. Ours is not.

We complain because we have reason to. Just because your government MAKES you pay more than us does not mean we have no reason to complain. That is like trying to tell someone to stop complaining about a gaping gash in their arm caused by someone else, because YOU choose to shoot yourself in the leg every few minutes.

The US is NOT Europe, and THANK GOD. We have our problems, yes, but I take ours over the rest of the world any day of the week. :clap:

[quik]

Wow 3.65 here.

Thats a lot of clam.

[Load SM5]

Want cheaper gas? Go drop kick an environmentalist. It's the main reason why we can't drill in new locations and set up new refineries. The Pres. is supposed to announce he's releasing the oil reserves today. Big deal, it still has to be refined and with our weakened capability (even more so now) it'll be a good while before we see any benefit. Hell Atlanta is about to run out of gas in just over a week because the pipeline going in is damaged and they have to use a special type of gas to meet environmental laws. I drive 45 minutes each way to work and at this point I'd let them throw an oil field up in my living room if I thought it would help. Right now gas here is 2.50 or so for the mid grade stuff but they say it'll go up another .20 in the next few days.

[MarkM]

You don’t even realize that you answered the question AND am saying I am way off base, when in fact I was dead on. I didn’t insinuate anything. I left it up to folks to determine for themselves what the deal was. And like I said, YOU just proved why Europe pays such high prices.

So to act like we (in the US) are crying while we have no reason to is silly. European governments create their high gas prices. Our government does not. So comparing the two is silly. Yours is self inflicted. Ours is not.

We complain because we have reason to. Just because your government MAKES you pay more than us does not mean we have no reason to complain. That is like trying to tell someone to stop complaining about a gaping gash in their arm caused by someone else, because YOU choose to shoot yourself in the leg every few minutes.

The US is NOT Europe, and THANK GOD. We have our problems, yes, but I take ours over the rest of the world any day of the week. :clap:

I had already said taxation was the major cause of our high prices


I really don't undstand how you can equate a transport system dismantling to your high gas prices...it has an added cost granted but how would that translate to my high prices? Actually I do know why we have the high prices it is our taxation...about number 3 in Europe for the highest AFAIK.



The complaint I am making is that you as in the US have always had low taxation and now a little bump in the road has come along you are all up in arms about the cost of something you have for years abused and wasted...if your taxation level had been higher in the first place then sure right now the pump price would be rising but you also wouldn't be complaining about how many dollars it takes you to fill your car of choice (since many of you would be driving more fuel efficient cars by now) as you would have been paying those prices for years if your goverment had had the balls to set a sensible taxtion level and I mean all party goverments since as I have said before I see very little difference between the two parties that you have. Then you would not be so quick to complain nor drive such inefficient vehicles. My own vehicle could do slightly better milage per gallon but I am sure I get better fuel economy than the majority of most americans regardless of my pump price.

I have never understood the american way of paying too much for things when a little bit of thought will get that money to go further. A great example of this I found in Michigan, I was staying in Canada but travelling over to go to the bars and the Canadian Dollar was on par with the US in the bars but every week I saw many Americans still paying for their drinks in US currency...duh! You know you are going to the bar on the weekend so go change your money to Canadian and for every two drinks you buy you get to have the third for free but would that be too sensible? This example whilst not connected to fuel is connected to the mentality of waste that the US has for many years been a party to. Don't get me wrong I love travelling to the, US since in general I can get get more for my money regardless of exchange rates since most things that are £1 here are $1 there but often I can buy things that are better value than here at home....bigger or cheaper. Filling up my hire car is nothing though due to those lower taxes of yours.

[Pacifist_Farmer]

I don't usually chime in on discussions like this cause they don't solve anything and they just lead to people blaming everyone else for their problems. But here we go...

What's wrong with the gas prices? They aren't making any more oil. Shouldn't we learn to be a little less dependent on the stuff, some day its gonna come back to bite us in the butt. I won't complain if I'm paying 8 dollars a gallon, its a privledge.

What I don't like is the thought that some jerk is getting rich of the $3/gallon I'm going to put in my car this afternoon.

It's not the environmentalists fault you pay more at the pump. If anything initiatives which go to keep the air cleaner are saving you money on health insurance. I find the idea of "drop kicking" an environmentalist, absolutely retarded. I am not a granola eating hemp wearing hippy, but I do think that poking some more holes in the earth to suck out some oil is not the solution to an energy crisis, in fact it hurts more than anything else, because we become complacent in the thought that there is still plenty left for everyone.

Sure the gas price here is $3.00, but at least you don't have to wait in line for your ration of fuel.

[bleachit]

Nuke OPEC.


I love the way they arbitrarily lower production/raise gas prices so they can make $75 billion as opposed to just $70 billion.... There is no oil shortages... as my Macro Economics teacher in High School said, people are not waiting in lines at the gas pumps, there is no government rationing of fuel... OPEC just sits down, decides they want to make a few more million dollars a day and "reduces" oil production... what a joke.


like i said, Nuke OPEC

[WenULiVeUdiE]

Nuke OPEC

OPEC has nothing to do with the high gas prices from major companies(I am not refering to Katrina's events). Large oil companies have long term contracts to buy a set amount of oil for a set period of time for a set price. BP isn't paying $65 a barrel or what ever the current price is.

[PyRo]

Heating oil prices worry me more though. It is going to be a rough winter with high vehicle cas prices as well as home heating fuel prices.
I have a solution to high heating oil prices :)
http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/8984/im0004528qp.jpg
Ever split about 6 cords of wood with an axe and a sledgehammer?
I work for a landscaping company so just had them drop a couple oak trees at my house. The boss is more than happy to cut it into small pieces and drop it because he would normally pay $200 or so to dump it. That's about six chords of oak between both piles. It won't heat the house all winter since we can't have someone home building a fire all the time but it should make a serious dent in the heating bill. If you went to buy all that wood pre-split though it would probably run you $500-$700 though.

[bleachit]

OPEC has nothing to do with the high gas prices from major companies(I am not refering to Katrina's events). Large oil companies have long term contracts to buy a set amount of oil for a set period of time for a set price. BP isn't paying $65 a barrel or what ever the current price is.


if thats the case, then why is it that every time OPEC raises gas prices the gas at the pump rises instantaneously? greedy bastards...

[PyRo]

Gas is going up for several reasons.
1. China and India are industrializing and buying up gas. The only solutions are to somehow stop the industrialization over there or increase oil production.
2. Refinaries having problems this isn't as big a problem as everyone things although a couple new refianaries wouldn't hurt anything.
3. People are afriad because of the war in Iraq, hurricanes, etc.
4. OPEC being jerks.
5. Price gouging. Yesturday I filled up and missed paying $2.65 by ten minutes (I paid $2.71). Why it went up I don't know, they didn't get a delievery. This morning I go by the same station which is now getting $3.09 and I know they didn't get a delivery last night. I'm guessing that the gas being delivered now really does cost that much. The stations that did get a delivery last night are charging about $3.50 a gallon. The stations that didn't are charging between $2.75 and $3.25. Basically some stations were forced to raise their price, the others just followed suit but are lowballing the other guy to attract more buisness. The person in my example is making a profit of atleast $0.60 a gallon.

[lord1234]

my solution: Buy a moped....I currently have 2(recieved free actually) Motobecane 50V Mobylette's sitting in my basement...need a little TLC, but 100mpg is greeeeat.

[Pacifist_Farmer]

I was reading something on the intertron the other day that said the owner of a gas station makes approx. $.01 on every gallon sold....discuss

(this is mind you the owner/operator, not shell, mobil, etc.)

[Lohman446]

I was reading something on the intertron the other day that said the owner of a gas station makes approx. $.01 on every gallon sold....discuss

(this is mind you the owner/operator, not shell, mobil, etc.)

Is that makes, as in clears in profit after all overhead is paid on the building, lights, pumps, bank notes, wages, insurance etc. Thats pretty good if its after overhead profits.... I mean, think how many thousands of gallons a station pumps in a day

[Muzikman]

In the Pittsburgh area a station owner makes about 10 cents a gallon.

I can't find the article right now but I read it in either the Post Gazette or the Tribune Review the other day.

[CKY_Alliance]

Want cheaper gas? Go drop kick an environmentalist. It's the main reason why we can't drill in new locations and set up new refineries. The Pres. is supposed to announce he's releasing the oil reserves today. Big deal, it still has to be refined and with our weakened capability (even more so now) it'll be a good while before we see any benefit. Hell Atlanta is about to run out of gas in just over a week because the pipeline going in is damaged and they have to use a special type of gas to meet environmental laws. I drive 45 minutes each way to work and at this point I'd let them throw an oil field up in my living room if I thought it would help. Right now gas here is 2.50 or so for the mid grade stuff but they say it'll go up another .20 in the next few days.

Agreed on the enviromentalist...theres good oil in alaska but nope it might hurt the animals..even though its proven that places where the pipeline is beign used the animals actually benefit from the heat produced (i beleive something liek that)ehh owell gas went form 2.47 to 2.67 here...ii guess its better then what some of you are paying.

[CKY_Alliance]

In the Pittsburgh area a station owner makes about 10 cents a gallon.

I can't find the article right now but I read it in either the Post Gazette or the Tribune Review the other day.


Really? wow i was always told they make like 1 cent a gallon like someone else said..i belive that is after all overhead though which isnt bad...is the 10 cents before or after all bills and such are paid?

[Lohman446]

My personal thoughts - general strikes work to get the governments attention to the needs of the people in other countries....

[Muzikman]

Really? wow i was always told they make like 1 cent a gallon like someone else said..i belive that is after all overhead though which isnt bad...is the 10 cents before or after all bills and such are paid?

It did not state before or after in the article, but when you read it you get the impression that it is before the overhead. I know I read it in either Sunday or Monday's paper, but can't find the article online.

Basically the article was about why gas station A has gas for up to 15 cents cheaper than gas station B when they were right next to (or just down the road from) each other.

[TheDuelist]

Welcome to the world of $4 a gallon gas prices folks. Katrina has shown the United States its foolishness for putting too many of its eggs in one basket. Hopefully it will drop to $3.50 in the near future.

[lopxtc]

Care to expand your reasoning on this one ...

Aaron


Katrina has shown the United States its foolishness for putting too many of its eggs in one basket.

[TheDuelist]

Too many of our vital refineries in one area which is known to get hit by major storms. I understand that historically we as a country didn't conceive of something happening on this scale but I hope somehow we can learn from it and realize we need theses things spread out so there is less of an impact to our economy.

Of course the other side of the coin is that the refineries were built were people would allow them to be built and in our "modern" era most cities would balk at such things being built in their communities but something is going to have to be done.

[PyRo]

I was reading something on the intertron the other day that said the owner of a gas station makes approx. $.01 on every gallon sold....discuss

(this is mind you the owner/operator, not shell, mobil, etc.)
They usually make about $0.05 to $0.10 a gallon depending on the station. It's just today a lot of them saw the opportunity to make $0.50 or so a gallon and ran with it.

[Muzikman]

Well, it's not so much the refineries but the pipe lines and the government (state that is).

Here is the deal. There multitudes of different types of gas. CA has different gas than TX which has different gas than PA. I can't remember which states require what gas or how many different types there are, but I am sure if can be found on the internet. There is a vast system of pipelines that transport this gas through out the country. There are a handful of pumping stations. When CA needs their gas the line running West has to be cleared, flushed and then the "special" CA gas has to be pumped. Once that is done, the line needs to be cleared, flushed and then the next place gets their gas. It's rather complex and very expensive. If we had more refineries we would not have to pump the gas as far and if we as a nation standardized on the type of gas we use we would not have to do all this back flushing of the pipe lines. It's a stupid system and we need to spend some serious money on updating it.

[Muzikman]

Interesting article

http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/analysis_publications/primer_on_gasoline_prices/html/petbro.html

[mutigerfan04]

Gas here in the St. Louis area just went to $2.99 a gallon. Rumor has it that it will be $3.25 by Monday. Oh well take life as it comes and keep going. :cheers: :cheers:

[Resurection]

A couple of side notes to this discussion:

1. Global problems - The vast majority (i've heard too many different percentages to be sure) of our grain product is shipped out via New Orleans and this situation has serious repercusions to the worlds food production as the US is a major provider world-wide for grain.

2. Local problems - Almost half of Florida's (my home) natural gas for powering the electric stations comes out of the New Orleans area and is now in serious jepordy (sp?) of not making it to FL.

Holy crap man, every time I turn around the problems and repurcusions of this storm are expanding worse and worse.

[MarkM]

I would be willing to bet that the average American pays more in gas taxes over a year (because of more use) than the average European. I don't know where to look that up but you do understand what I'm saying I'm sure .10 / gallon tax for 100 gallons is more tax than .40 / gallon for 10 - obviously numbers for illustration only.

Doubtful, as I am a reasonably low milage driver and only last week I spent $200 on fuel of that the actual cost was only about $45 in real costs, the rest was taxation/profit...I am as you were being very general with those figures. On an average week I only spend around $100. But then again you could be correct in your assumption but then only because of the widespread use of gaz guzzler vehicles. I seem to remember the figures for the Mustang 5.0 being released and basically they said that the car was very efficient and exceeded the goverment suggested numbers...yeah if you drove at 25mph in top gear. So all figures can get fudged that is just a more extreme example.

[Will Wood]

You guys should google to see if your states have a similar website..
http://www.mainegasprices.com/
I've always used this since I started driving.. find the cheapest gas around.

[punkncat]

As has been mentioned already....
Atlanta, heck the whole southeast for that matter, is about to be up the creek without a paddle. There is no incoming fuel into the whole region. In response to this situation there has been a run on fuel and has exhausted the supply at most local stations. In the circle of supply and demand this is running the price through the roof. Last evening I paid 2.60 a gallon. This evening it was 3.30 and is projected to be over 4 by tonight. There is talk of well towards 7 by the end of the weekend, and that is even assuming you can find some.

I travel as a part of my job. With no fuel I cannot work. No work, no money, no bills paid.....in a short amount of time I will be on the street. Even with the promise that there will be a supply of fuel coming in soon, at the prices being charged it is not in my budget. I cannot afford to pay $30 a day in fuel, just to get TO work, much less what it will cost to perform my job.

I have had to cut all unnecessary expenses from my budget in an attempt to make ends meet. I am no longer eating out at all, no paintball, movies, anything extra. Consider the ripple effect of tens of thousands of people required to do the same thing. Consider all the small businesses who can't afford to operate with this expense....the truck lines, the delivery companies...
coupled with damage to the gulf coast that rivals a major military strike....

Look towards the worst recession this country has seen since last century.

[Alley]

In the Pittsburgh area a station owner makes about 10 cents a gallon.

I can't find the article right now but I read it in either the Post Gazette or the Tribune Review the other day.


The 7-11 owners I talk to nearly every day... say that make 3-6 cents a gallon.

[SIGSays]

2.50 in pa....
damn katrina

[WickeDKlowN]

When I came home today, it was $2.65 and it's been there since Friday.

When I filled my truck up on Friday it came out to ~$76.

[FreakBaller12]

Yea I just found out, the cheapest place around here was 2.79 last night, today they open up at 2.99 and a couple of others places were 2.75-2.85. It's wierd to see that big a of gap between gas stations, I am used to see 01-04 cents difference.

[Clare]

I'm in Detroit right now and there's prices up to 3.94 here!! My mouth just dropped when I saw that..

[BobTheCow]

My friend near (Statesborough? Wherever Georgia Southern University is) in Georgia just IM'ed me:

Brendon: gas is $5+ a gallon and your limited to $10 a person

:wow:

e: It's gone up just in the past hour here in Newport News, up to $3.30 with long lines everywhere (and this is 11:30 at night on a Wednesday).

[billybob_81067]

We bought 400 gallons of propane today for $1.35 per gallon. :)

Maybe propane is the way to go!

[Commissar_Loki]

Maybe I'm fortunate my V^ was carjacked... once insurance sends me my money I can get a 4-banger and not pay $40+ a week on a part time job...

-Butch

P.S. I've been seriously thinking motorcycle... except that would end horribly this coming winter in Michigan.

[Cameo]

My boyfriend being the accountant that he is made a spread sheet to figure out if it would be worth while to buy a more fuel efficient car vs. the cherokee we currently have. What he discovered is that in buying a $13,000 fuel efficiant car (ie a hundi or a aveo). It would take him 15.6 years to break even with the cost of gas as it is right now (at $2.85). To him it really was not worth it to buy a brand new vehicle. Now if he went for a vehicle that was a bit older and around $4,00 it would take him just over 8 years being that the upkeep on the older vehicle without the longer warrenty would not bring the figure down enough..
I found this interesting, you think that it would be worth it, but would it reallly offset the costs enough to buy a better MPG vehicle?? I guess if you are paying another car payment then no it would not...
So what is the moral of this post? Hope that your rich uncle buys you a Hybrid for Christmas.. :headbang:

[Pacifist_Farmer]

The hybrids are really only worth it if you drive sub 40mph on average, and don't use the heat or AC very much, and they are especially good if you sit in traffic alot.

They are a step in the right direction, but we arent there yet.

Buy a bike, and some snow shoes, if you live in the north.

You would think CHina would see what we're going through and start a Hydrogen/renewable infastructure instead of expanding an oil based one.

[PyRo]

Hybrids are great in theory but I wouldn't drive one. Maybie they've gotten better but last I heard the batteries were not extreemly reliable, not covered be a normal warrenty, and thousands of dollars to replace.
An alternative widley used around the rest of the world is diesel fuel.. Only a few companies offer diesel models in the U.S. (VW and Mercedes only as far as I know). But in other countries you can buy a diesel jeep liberty or many other models. The VW TDI's can hit about 50mpg and the Mercedes can hit about 30 in the bigger models. Add in bio-diesel and you're saving a fortune on gas.

On another note I'm to afraid to even look at the pump prices today, guy at the gas station last night told me up another $0.30-$0.50 today.

[Muzikman]

My boyfriend being the accountant that he is made a spread sheet to figure out if it would be worth while to buy a more fuel efficient car vs. the cherokee we currently have. What he discovered is that in buying a $13,000 fuel efficiant car (ie a hundi or a aveo). It would take him 15.6 years to break even with the cost of gas as it is right now (at $2.85). To him it really was not worth it to buy a brand new vehicle. Now if he went for a vehicle that was a bit older and around $4,00 it would take him just over 8 years being that the upkeep on the older vehicle without the longer warrenty would not bring the figure down enough..
I found this interesting, you think that it would be worth it, but would it reallly offset the costs enough to buy a better MPG vehicle?? I guess if you are paying another car payment then no it would not...
So what is the moral of this post? Hope that your rich uncle buys you a Hybrid for Christmas.. :headbang:


Leave it to a bean counter to not think about it the right way:)

He already has a car that needs maintained and gas and such. So if he was to buy a small(er) car he would then save on gas. You do not have to be able to buy a car with the money you saved, you just need to save money in general.

Think of it this way. He drives a jeep. He gets what, about 16-20mpg? That is costing him ~16 cents a mile to drive (based on 18mpg @ ~$3 a gallon). If he bought a car (which is cheaper to maintain than the jeep) that would get say 30mpg (that isn't even great) he would be spending 10 cents per mile. That means he could drive an additional 1/2 mile further for the same money. Sure, that wouldn't buy him a second car, but it would ease the hit on the wallet a bit. If he sold the Jeep and bought a cheaper lower maintance car, he would save money in the short run and the long run.

I just bought the X and it's going to cost me over $50 at the pump next time. Last week it was $48 and I filled the tank three times in that week. It currently costs me $3 a day to get to and from work and I only work 7 miles away. I plan on buying a smaller more fuel efficient car here real soon if the prices don't drop back down, but I will keep the X.

[lopxtc]

The VW TDI's can hit about 50mpg and the Mercedes can hit about 30 in the bigger models. Add in bio-diesel and you're saving a fortune on gas.



This is what I am probably going to be doing. I drive a Jetta now and have been thinking about trading in on a Golf TDi or Jetta TDi, although not the MKV Jetta which looks like a damn toyota. One of the nice things about the Midwest is MO and IL have a ton of BioDiesel places around that stock various grades of BD from BD5-BD100.

Aaron

[Cameo]

Leave it to a bean counter to not think about it the right way:)

He already has a car that needs maintained and gas and such. So if he was to buy a small(er) car he would then save on gas. You do not have to be able to buy a car with the money you saved, you just need to save money in general.
.

lmao you called him a bean counter, that is great..

I think what he is figuring on is the fact that you would have a payment for the new smaller car, when right now he has no car payment at all... Would buying a new car and having a payment justify the lower gas miliage... Now i know that he did not figure insurance into this cause lord knows that a smaller car would have better rates then the jeep. The difference between the jetta and the jeep for me is about $300 a year. Plus the extra gas means that I want the Jetta back :( Sometimes I wish I was an indian giver.

Don't fret I put him to work today to see if it would be cheaper to buy the 40 pass/20pass/ or individual tickets to the bobble head nights, red wings, devils, philly, and avalanche games... Including parking... I thought that maybe I could put his acoountant geek skills to work for something useful..Lord knows that Hockey is useful to this chickey..

~steph
Must see Icebergh, his buddy the Pirate Parrot just isn't the same....

[Muzikman]

You only need a car payment if you do not have enough money to buy a car out-right. If that is the case, then sell the jeep and buy a lightly used smaller car.

With gas, at the end of the day you have nothing. With a car, at the end of the day you still have a car.

BTW: That Parrot is MUCH better than the Penguin!

[CKY_Alliance]

It did not state before or after in the article, but when you read it you get the impression that it is before the overhead. I know I read it in either Sunday or Monday's paper, but can't find the article online.

Basically the article was about why gas station A has gas for up to 15 cents cheaper than gas station B when they were right next to (or just down the road from) each other.


Yea well proce difference has many factors im sure but also i found out today that if your a BP gas station BP sends you a list of prices and so on with other companys..makes since its like msrp on merchandise..my us history teacher owns 2 gas stations thas how i acquired that info..inpertanent info i know.

[MayAMonkeyBeYourPinata]

Nuke OPEC.


I love the way they arbitrarily lower production/raise gas prices so they can make $75 billion as opposed to just $70 billion.... There is no oil shortages... as my Macro Economics teacher in High School said, people are not waiting in lines at the gas pumps, there is no government rationing of fuel... OPEC just sits down, decides they want to make a few more million dollars a day and "reduces" oil production... what a joke.


like i said, Nuke OPEC

OPEC is being a good capitalist, don't be mad just because the OPEC nations are screwing us over, just like we once did to them.

[Cameo]

You only need a car payment if you do not have enough money to buy a car out-right. If that is the case, then sell the jeep and buy a lightly used smaller car.

With gas, at the end of the day you have nothing. With a car, at the end of the day you still have a car.

BTW: That Parrot is MUCH better than the Penguin!

I was actually thinking of selling the Jeep i was given in order to get another jetta type car... but then thought about and and came to the conclusion that it would be on the same level as selling the viking that I am being given for a blazer... So outta RESPECT for the givers I am doing neither..

blah. the whole game and i never once saw the Pirate Parrot do a back flip..He/she only wiggled his/her buttox and jiggled his/her tummy Only twice did he get on top of the dug out to dance (we were in row 121 h.. right behind the dugout). One of those times was durning the 7th inning streach for "take me out to the ball game" . The perogie race was ambushed by him/her. I was very dissapointed. (oh yea I have it all on 20 second snipets of video... lol). I still vote ICEBERG!!!

[-Tab]

Ok - yesterday they went to 2.99 a gallon, this morning it went to 3.48 - I know there was a hurricane that effects 10-15% of our oil... but this is just stupid people

I hadn't even realized it went up to 3.48. Last time I filled, it was at 2.99

This can really hurt us as my dad owns a floor covering store. We've got 2 vans, 2 pickups, and a jeep - just for our business.

And since carpet is an oil bi-product, the price of this has also gone up.
I believe they've found or are coming up with a different way of making the yarn, so this isn't as serious.

Not to mention the freight charges.

[FreakBaller12]

for all New Jersians
www.newjerseygasprices.com
The cheapest place to buy in jersey is 2.50 in chadsworth. The cheapest place around me is 2.75.

[Lohman446]

OPEC is being a good capitalist, don't be mad just because the OPEC nations are screwing us over, just like we once did to them.

When did we screw over OPEC nations as a whole?

[sbpyro]

Hybrids are great in theory but I wouldn't drive one. Maybie they've gotten better but last I heard the batteries were not extreemly reliable, not covered be a normal warrenty, and thousands of dollars to replace.


I'm pretty sure the battery is covered under warranty since a coworker of mine has a honda insight and rigged his battery to show that it need replacing prior to his warranty running out at the end of last month.

Back to gas prices last tuesday morning gas prices $2.55/gal.
Last tuesday afternoon gas price $3.25/ gal. at the same gas station
Luckily I got some on Thursday for $2.81
Cuz since Saturday it was $3.09