Gas prices in America

I think people in the US are already changing what they drive. I see lots more compact cars on the road now, less SUVs.

I have noticed that over the last 8-10 years or so.

But its very dramatic this year...the increase in tiny cars....some of them are soooo cute! I want one myself! :)

But I'm very frightened of what would happen if I were to hit an Elk while driving one......I clipped an elk in the fall and it removed my passenger side mirror clean off the door! It was horrifying! :(

Good point. We don't have too many large animals to worry about over here.

Maybe we could persuade the elk to get up a good run and just JUMP OVER the car!
That would work! (I wouldn't mind spending less on petrol, that's for sure!) :)

I certainly don't make any unnecessary trips anymore, I find. :)

Another interesting thing....every year, around time for Spring Break, gas prices skyrocket....then gradually decrease over the summer. In the next spring, the cylce repeats.

WHAT is up with that?

This is what we'll be driving here soon when the gas hits 8 bucks a gallon; sub-compacts!

It's called the law of supply and demand. Vacations, three or four day weeks, etc. occur more often during the summer. Same supply, higher demand, higher prices.

Or as the oil companies say: We demand your cash. You supply it.


Never, never buy a car with fixed side view mirrors. Kowalski's sixth law of motion:

Moving fixed mirrors are always attacted to non-moving fixed objects.

Agreed...when in the US I dont drive a big truck because I need the space but rather so that if I get hit by another big truck I don't get smashed into a tiny ball. I have seen small cars obliterated by big SUVs that suffered little damage. You can guess how the driver's faired.

I would much rather pay less for the vehicle and fuel by driving a smaller car...but there are too many huge vehicles out there for me to change yet.

Does anybody drive a Prius here? What's your opinion about it?
For those who don't know, Toyota Prius is a hybrid electric vehicle. It's not the only electric hybrid available on the market right now, but it is the most popular one.

It's supposed to get 50 miles per gallon on a highway and 60 in a city. I know, it sounds strange, but it does better in a city then a highway.



I have test-drove a Prius last year, but decided to get something else. A friend of mine's got one, and so far it's doing well. I wander though how well it will do in a harsh weather such as severe cold or triple digit heat. And another thing is, how long is the battery going to last?

PS. The oil price has just hit another high: $105/barrel...

I hear they're not too quick, but a pretty decent acceleration.

Where I am in NJ, I'm still paying $1.86 gal Higest in NJ I saw today was $3.78

as I said the last part of trend ... the most spectacular increase ...

Doesn't it charge up a little when you use the brakes?

You're right Shopgirl; it does charges itself up when braking. The technology is called regenerative braking. Instead of using traditional brakes to slow the car down, you're using the moving wheels as an electric generator transferring the energy back to the battery.

This way you're able to recapture the kinetic energy and reuse it later when it's time to take off again. It's sort of like winding up a toy car I guess :)

I'm sure you all know some of the reasons gas is so expensive:

Dubai 1990
Dubai 2003
Dubai 2007

Dubai is said to currently have 15-25% of all the world's cranes.

Gas rationing in the 80's worked even though we grumbled about it.
It might even be good for us! The Saudis are boycotting American
goods. We should return the favor.

An interesting thought is to boycott their GAS.

Every time you fill up the car, you can avoid putting more money
into the coffers of Saudi Arabia . Just buy from gas companies that
don't import their oil from the Saudis.

Nothing is more frustrating than the feeling that every time I
fill-up the tank, I am sending my money to people who fund people that are trying to kill me, my family, and my friends.

I thought it might be interesting for you to know which oil
companies are the best to buy gas from and which major companies
import Middle Eastern oil.

£1.17 now.

If you take the historical price of Whale oil (which served the same function at the beginning of the 19th century) at over $1000 per barrel, then oil is still very very cheap.

The energy equivalent of a barrel of oil is a 7 man-years physical labour.


Yes that will work. Which half of the US population is going to give up oil consumption completely to cover the shortfall? Half of US oil is imported, in a few years Saudi Arabia will be the only source for those imports..

The world would say "thank you" if the US stopped consuming it at twice the rate of most western countries (the EU). So do it.

Scotland produces ten times the amount of hydrocarbons that it consumes, yet ferry services to Europe are being cut due to the price of fuel.

Following the rise in the price of oil, Scotland is now contributing 4 billion pounds more to the UK economy and only getting increased fuel prices in return - crazy !

'Scotland's fury' over fuel costs
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7425722.stm

Maybe a letter to Alex Salmond is in order?

i've got today a full tank for $3.85 per gallon .... next time probably i'll be crying at a gas station...

Some people just don't realise how lucky they've got it ;)

are bicycles expensive? can you ride it 60mph on a highway?

;)

Yeah, but the difference is that more cars in the US are gas chompers and people travel longer distances. We have it better in this sense

What has riding a bicycle on the motorway got to do with the price of eggs?

Full tank here costs $120 + :-(

You're paying some $10/gal vs $4.30/gal now in the US, but you're paying a great deal more in taxes than in the US.

where do you pay that in the us??? in NYC?

cali too and remote places

i kind of like tx then ;)

no. tx is oil country.

so?

:P

cheapest prices in the US. AK is on it's own and i think prices are less but you can check at gasbuddy dot com

lol. i just checked. it's 3.98 or more. HI is a dime less. hmmm.. you'd think it would be a buck more or something.