Gas Prices

[Tracy]

I filled up at our local BJ's Warehouse yesterday and the members' price was $2.39  -- non members $2.47 -- the highest I ever recall seeing.

[Dressel Rebel]

Not to get political here, but ****, we spent hundreds of billions of dollars toppling a terrorist regime and liberating oppressed people in Iraq, I don't see the harm in a little oil repayment here.  It's a temporary solution until we're all driving hydrogen and electric cars, or at the very least gas/electric hybrids.

[Rob]

Not to get political here, but ****, we spent hundreds of billions of dollars toppling a terrorist regime and liberating oppressed people in Iraq, I don't see the harm in a little oil repayment here.  It's a temporary solution until we're all driving hydrogen and electric cars, or at the very least gas/electric hybrids.

Nah, because then you start getting accused of war of oil - and that would be a terrible thought.


Either way, we'd better get the best minds and the best funding behind getting us off of oil asap.  There's no excuse for continuing to be beholden to these SOB's any longer than absolutely necessary.

[Dressel Rebel]

Nah, because then you start getting accused of war of oil - and that would be a terrible thought.

I've never heard the phrase "Blood For Oil" uttered before, would anyone really accuse Bush of that? 

Either way, we'd better get the best minds and the best funding behind getting us off of oil asap.  There's no excuse for continuing to be beholden to these SOB's any longer than absolutely necessary.

Agreed, but we are no less than 10 years away, something has got to tide us over.

[JesseVader08]

Not to get political here...

Then PLEASE don't.

[DoctorPadawan]

Local gas stations here are staying around the $2.449 mark for the most part in the last few days.  I'm wondering how much of that has to do with it being the weekend (since they can't sit and watch CNBC for up-to-the-minute stock reports and "adjust" their prices accordingly).   

The thing that made me really sad was a guy interviewed by the local news saying that the rising gas prices were not going to keep him from driving his 3MPG small penis compensator Escalade SUV.  I was actually a bit shocked he wasn't talking on his cellphone while the TV person was interviewing him.   

The rising gas prices might be affecting us in a lot more ways as the year goes on.  Truck drivers are (naturally) having to pay high gas prices too, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot more of the shipping companies that we use (UPS, FedEx, etc) start charging a higher fuel surcharge, resulting in an increase in shipping rates.  Hell, the USPS has been trying like crazy people for the last year to get another postage increase approved, so the increase in gas prices might be what allows them to do so.

I'm sure we're all intelligent enough here to realize that paying 3.00 a gallon for our own gasoline is only the tip of the iceberg.   

[Jeff]

I filled up both cars yesterday...  $2.46 per gallon!

Saturn Vue - $26.50
Mitsubishi Gallant - $37.50

Total = $64.00 


The only redeeming factor about that is that when I went by the Station today, the price had jumped to $2.699 per gallon!

Got lucky and saved myself about $6 thanks to filling up on a lazy Sunday... 

[Diddly]

Prices are between $2.50-$2.65 around here. They keep rising every day.

[Dressel Rebel]

Not to get political here...

Then PLEASE don't.

When we're at war with 2 of the countries in the part of the world that we get almost all of the oil from, I don't see the harm in bringing up a few intelligent points in a civil manner with Zod, and I think we achieved that.  No personal foul.

 

[Dressel Rebel]

Oh, I just filled up for $2.63 9/10 a gallon.  Personal foul.

[Scott]

I just saw on the news that in Germany its around $5.50 a gallon and in the Netherlands its over $6 a gallon.  Could be worse

[Dressel Rebel]

The real threat here is inflation.  If fuel costs keep rising, the price to produce everything goes up.  Walmart recently raised the prices $.25 on almost all items citing fuel costs.  It costs more for people to go to work, they need raises.  Then the employers need to raise product prices.  Then you pay more.  A true tale of great sorrow and woe.

However, this will not last much longer.  The Arabs have done this in the past, and as soon as we start seriously talking about alternative energy funding, they'll drop the price so much that fuel will be so cheap, we stop talking about alternative energy.  Then they got us again, because a decade later they'll jack up the price of a barrel of oil to $60 again, and we'll be caught with our pants down worse than Morgbug in a fantasy football draft, because fuel was so cheap for 10 years that we had no need to come up with alternative energy.

[Scott]

I really think the ball is rolling though.  Toyota is going nuts with the Prius and has announced lots of new Hybrids in the next few years.  American car makers always one to be on top of things are lagging far far behind. 

It doesn't make financial sense to buy a Hybrid.  You don't make up in manufacturing costs what you save in fuel costs.  Which is probably true.  The Prius MSRPs for $21000.  Which rather spendy for a small car.  Say a comparable model (Camry?) is $18,000

$3000 difference...

Camry gets 28 mpg
Prius gets 45 mpg

Average yearly mileage say is 10k miles (more for Brent)

Camry Fuel Cost = $2.50 x 10000 miles /28 mpg = $892 Dollars

Prius Fuel Cost = $2.50 x 10000 miles/ 50 mpg = $500

$392 a year more for gas for the camry...that's still a 7.5 year pay back on gas.  That's part of the reason why it doesn't make a ton of sense.  I know 10,000 is probably conservative...if its 20000 then its still almost 4 years.

Its more of a feel good thing right now until the cost of production comes down.  I'm excited because this is some stuff the field I am in is working on...Ethanol, Biodiesel, Fuel Cells, Hydrogen etc

[Rob]

We've got bigger issues than the cost of manufacturing.  We've got pollution issues, we've got terrorism issues, we've got 'the-world-is-running-out-of-oil' issues, and so on.

Extrapolate that yearly savings over the life of the car and it works out better in just about every way imagineable.

[Jim]

By winter the economy is going to be all F'ed up with these prices.  Look at it this way.  The average person gets anywhere from a 3-5% raise each year.  Most do not get a cost of living anymore.  Gas in my area has gone up .50 in the last 6 months.  I average between 21 and 23K miles of commuting each year like most people who live on the outskirts of big cities (since home prices and taxes are murder here in the Boston area).  Home heatng oil has doubled in the last year.  Do the math.  I wont have the kind of disposable cash just like millions of others will not.  Retail is going to take a beating this X-Mas. And while hybrids are great ideas.  The price they command is just not worth it yet.  There really is no huge savings unless you plan on keeping that same car for an insane amount of years.