OT - $4/gal Gas Threshold Crossed - Dam Breaking

[charlieb]

Granted this is California, and the San Francisco Bay Area at that, but earlier last week "regular" was $3.999 (who has a $0.009 coin?). by Thursday it was $4.039. Six days later (today) it's $4.249.

Once the $4 /gallon threshold was crossed the dam weakened and now is collapsing - and we're still in May. Can't wait to see what The Summer Driving Season is gonna do to prices.

A ray of hope - CAFE standards were FINALLY increased - after only 30 years and "pre-owned" Hummers, Huged Sport Utes and BIG Tire Monster Trucks are taking over what was formerly known as Used Car Lots space - in abundance.

Attention: General Motors, Ford, Chrysler NOW do you get IT!?

charlie b

who appreciates my little white Miata more and more each day. Lot nicer looking than the Prius - and a hell of a lot more fun to drive.

[LRod]

As Stacey David says, "...but it's a GIRL's car..."

[Greg Neill]

Bah! That's nothing. Here in Montreal the price is at $1.42/L (142.4 cents) per liter. That translates=20 to $5.29 per US gal (ignoring the currently small=20 currency exchange rate).

[PCPaul]

Ha. If you want a gassing contest ours is currently £1.25/litre (124.9p/ l) which is US$9.37/US gallon.

Come back when your gas has *doubled* in price and then you can complain :-(

[Rod & Betty Jo]

This "ray of hope" I do not understand.....Increased CAFE standards simply mean smaller and/or lighter vehicles...... There is no particular or secret high mileage trick out there just waiting for a Gov. CAFE mandate. Instead what we will get are fewer choices in the market place and most likely price incentives or penalties (as though gas prices aren't incentive enough) to force the market place where it may not wish to go. Vehicles will be less able for many tasks and there will be more vehicles that the tall, the large and the elderly and infirm can not get in or can not sit comfortably in. Certain things may require a forced mandate, as when not doing them provides a competitive advantage for those who don't but better vehicle efficiency can stand on its own merit without Gov. fiat or subsidy. Rod

[Tim S]

Upscale coughed up some electrons that declared:

I make it US$8.64 based on 115.2 pence/litre in mid Kent, SE England. Remember US gallon != Imperial gallon[1]

Now, diesel - that is expensive at 127 pence/litre - I nearly had a heart attack today filling up for the first time in 2 months. Good job my vehicle gets just over 50mpg...

Still, original point still stands... I remember my old man whining when petrol topped one pound per imperial gallon... Feck, that was long time ago...

Cheers

Tim

[1] I got half way to the bottom of this anomoly the other days. Seems our respective fluid-ounces are more or less the same (within a few percent), but USians have 16 fl oz/pint and we, for some reason have 20. Everything else scales from there. If anyone knows why, I'd be interested to hear it.

[FrozenNorth]

$1.293/litre here in the Toronto Canada area, the dollar is close enough to par to ignore, that works out to approx $4.88/US gallon. I am 6'5" tall and weigh about 215lbs, not a huge guy, but definitely tall, and I can't get comfortable in most of the little shit boxes on the roads these days. I *need* a larger car, only driving a Grand Prix with a 3.8l 6 banger these days, but I at least am comfortable driving it, and the performance for highway driving isn't bad either.

[Puckdropper]

PCPaul wrote in news:XIi%j.10847$DZ6.7266 @text.news.virginmedia.com:

It *has* doubled in price. Two years ago, it was around $2.00 a gallon.

Puckdropper

[J. Clarke]

Yeah, they get it. They've always "gotten it". The trouble is that what they've "gotten" has been what the market wanted and not what professional do-gooders such as yourself _want_ the market to want.

Now the gas prices are up to a point relative to incomes that many people want smaller vehicles instead of or in addition to their large ones, and they'll "get" that as long as it remains the case and when incomes rise to adjust for inflation, if they ever do, and people want large vehicles again, they'll "get" that as well.

Auto manufacturers do not hold guns to peoples' heads and force them to buy specific models you know.

And if everything you need to carry fits into one then Miatas are nice.

[Upscale]

Bah! That's nothing. Gasoline in the UK has reached $10.65 (US) a gallon and that's certainly not the most expensive in Europe. Consider yourself lucky.

[Lew Hodgett]

GM goes out of it's way to build IMHO, very difficult vehicles to enter or exit.

FoMoCo seems to be getting the message, based on the last Ford I rented.

The Europeans, especially Volkswagen build comfortable small vehicles.

Owned several for just that reason.

Today, I drive a 4 cyl, 5 spd stick "Tonka Toy".

Don't know why I waited so long to get one.

BTW, 6'-0" but long torso, and 250 lbs presents more than a few challenges to Detroit.

IMHO, the last Detroit vehicle worth a hoot was my 65 Galaxy 500, 4 dr hard top.

It's been all down hill since.

Lew

[J. Clarke]

CAFE has been the law since 1975. All that is changing is the mileage target, which was frozen at 27.5 MPG in 1990, up from 18 mpg in 1978.

Light trucks, which includes most SUVs, also have a CAFE standard but it is different from the one for passenger cars.

If you are opposed to CAFE, well, that ship has sailed.

[Jerry]

Tim S wrote in news:483dbd83$0$664$ [e-mail]:

Because back just prior to the upstarts going thier own way, George III parliment had to increase taxes to support the wars with France, holland and Prussia. They chose to increase tax on beer - but because that would go down too well they then decided to reduce the SIZE of the glass and so US pints are 16oz and UK remained the imperial 20oz. Quarts, gallons and so on are 20% smaller in the US..

After living here of 15 yrs it still feels strange to pick up a small pint.

[Tim S]

Jerry coughed up some electrons that declared:

Fascinating, ta.

Just goes to show that our (British) current government doesn't own the monopoly on devious tax fiddling scams.

:-O

[Richard Evans]

Anyone remember the gas crisis of '72? We went through the same thing. For a brief period, you couldn't give away a gas hog, but it wasn't all that long until things levelled out (I can't say why) and big, high performace cars were in demand again.

[Leon]

And what cracks me up is the oil companies are trying to say that this is the world market price. SA in the middle east is paying less than 40 cents per gallon. I guess if the American oil companies were not selling gasoline to other countries and also buying gasoline from other countries there would not be as many mark-ups.

[Leon]

Comfortable yes, expensive and undependable, absolutely. At least that was the way it was for our purchased new 1999 and 2000 VW's with less than 17K and 40K respectively.

Foreigh I have owned, Isuzu, Acura, VW, Honda, and Toyota. The VW's were constantly in the shop.

IMHO the 70 & 71's were the last decent years.

[John]

A mid-60's VW bug would be fine - you're one of the few who could reach the pedals with the seat all the way back ;-)

John

[FrozenNorth]

I was 10 in 1970, so that generation of cars was getting a bit old before I was driving age.

[Leon]

Actually the larger and more expensice the vehicle the more profit and percent of profit. Most of the profit goes to the workers and their benefits, thank you Labor Unions. If Detroit had been only building small vehicles for the last 30 years Detroit would have been a ghost town long ago.

I currently drive an 07 Tundra and it gets almost 15 MPG in town, almost 20 on the highway. My wife drives an 04 Accord that gets 22 in town and 30 on the highway. I'll give up the 5 and 10 mpg respectively for the comfort, room, and ability to haul most anything that we want.