Gas prices affecting Americans...

Tasty said:
Crude prices continue to drop, gas prices continue to rise. Absolute ********. I don't care what anyone says, there is a gouge factor in gas pricing. That or I'm just another whiny American who is finally beginning to get a TINY taste of what the rest of the world already pays for gas. At least we're not in the UK!
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We've had refineries offline for maintenance at the worst time of the year, when switching from the few winter blends to the multiple summer blends of gas. Blame goes both to the oil companies and the enviro-wackos for no new refineries being built for the last 20-30 years. Causes a bottleneck and price jump every year about this time. Factor in China's growing energy needs and us dragging our feet about domestic drilling and it doesn't look good in the near future at the very least.
 
Danase said:
Toyota Pruis's should be selling good this year. Persoanlly I am in the market for a motorcycle for my daily commute. :)
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Take it from someone who has been riding for more that 15 years, you won't save that much money by riding a motorcycle unless you were driving a Hummer or the like beforehand. What you save in gas will be consumed by tire purchases and other maintenance. If you live close enough to work you will save the most money with a scooter rather than a motorcycle.



I have done the math and it costs me pretty much the same per mile to ride the bike at 48mpg as it does to drive the Mustang at 20mpg when you figure in all the maintenance costs for both vehicles.
 
rjstaaf said:
Take it from someone who has been riding for more that 15 years, you won't save that much money by riding a motorcycle unless you were driving a Hummer or the like beforehand. What you save in gas will be consumed by tire purchases and other maintenance. If you live close enough to work you will save the most money with a scooter rather than a motorcycle.
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I have a truck with a 5.4L V8 in it right now so it does suck the gas. ;)



Thanks for the heads up!
 
Danase said:
I have a truck with a 5.4L V8 in it right now so it does suck the gas. ;)



Thanks for the heads up!
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If you do go with a bike get something small like a Ninja 250 as they will get upwards of 60mpg. Just keep in mind that tires on a bike last nowhere near as long as they do on a car, chains have to be replaced about as often as the tires and then there are valve adjustments, etc. Just make sure you take all that into consideration. You will save more if you can do most of the wrenching yourself.
 
rjstaaf said:
If you do go with a bike get something small like a Ninja 250 as they will get upwards of 60mpg. Just keep in mind that tires on a bike last nowhere near as long as they do on a car, chains have to be replaced about as often as the tires and then there are valve adjustments, etc. Just make sure you take all that into consideration. You will save more if you can do most of the wrenching yourself.
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Funny you mentioned that because I am actually looking for a Ninja 250, Honda Nighthawk 250, or a Buell Blast. The Ninja is on top of my want list but it will come down to whatever I find locally and cheapest. :)
 
Cycletrader and Craigs List are probably the two best sites to find used bikes, you might also try the local paper and possibly some of the regional riding chapters in your area. Lots of people get into riding and give it up fairly quickly so there is a huge market for used bikes.
 
Scottwax said:
Well...someone has to pay for your free health care! :LOLOL
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:rofl



Good answer ! :chuckle:



I guess we're just lucky we have tiny cars over here :D



They keep banging up the prices over here cuz they want more people to use public transport. I used it the other Friday as I had put my car in the garage to have the Timing Belt + Water Pump replaced (an all day job)......it cost me the same to travel 15 miles on a bus, as it does to do about 40 miles in the TT. Hmmm....something tells me they need to work alot harder on getting ME to go with public transport.
 
rjstaaf said:
Cycletrader and Craigs List are probably the two best sites to find used bikes, you might also try the local paper and possibly some of the regional riding chapters in your area. Lots of people get into riding and give it up fairly quickly so there is a huge market for used bikes.
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I keep watching craigs and Ebay. Cycle World for my area and 250 miles away only seem to have new bikes from dealers. I can never find anything used.
 
richjohnhughes said:
whats that about gas tanks and hand outs from the Gov???



do you guys have diesels in the States? - if you do any sort of mileage it has to be the way to go. my A3 with do about 65MPG on a run.
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It's figures like that that make me :cry:



But nope, in the states, we like to pretend like hybrids are the way of the future. HELL NO! Hybrids are POINTLESS!



Just bring me a small diesel and we'll talk! DIESEL is the way of the future. In fact, I'd say hybrid diesel is really the way of the future. I don't know why this country is so obsessed in finding the most expensive "solution" available, rather than just using what's already there. Idiots run this country... no other explanation. Actually, there is another explanation -



idiots also live in this country.



Not saying people who buy hybrids are idiots, though... please don't take that the wrong way!
 
Thats why I will drive my civic for awhile until I decide I want another economy car. Those that can afford sports cars and gas prices, more power to you.
 
I say ethanol has the most potential to be the future based on one observation.



Domestic oil companies are investing in corn & switchgrass farms & lowering their output intentionally. This way, they can say they're investing in alternate fuels, while at the same time maintaining the current commodity price for drilled oil by increasing demand for where ethanol by lower supplies.



pretty sneaky considering ethanol ends up being alot less than refined oil.
 
Kanchou said:
I say ethanol has the most potential to be the future based on one observation.



Domestic oil companies are investing in corn & switchgrass farms & lowering their output intentionally. This way, they can say they're investing in alternate fuels, while at the same time maintaining the current commodity price for drilled oil by increasing demand for where ethanol by lower supplies.



pretty sneaky considering ethanol ends up being alot less than refined oil.
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Well, ethanol requires all-new infrastructure, can't be mixed ahead of time, and is vastly less efficient per gallon than gasoline. Oh, and it can't be directly replaced for gasoline without vehicle modifications, either.



I think ethanol is just another political ploy backed by oil and construction companies who want another excuse for more contracts (oh, we need new pipelines and other infrastructure!).



Butanol would have been a much better solution to research, IMO - especially because it can apparently be directly replaced for gasoline. No modification necessary.
 
Personally, my Jeep gets 16 mpg and I would like to be able to buy a truck within the next few years that gets the same gas mileage. I don't see the point in spending $30K on a hybrid vehicle that would normally be $15k-$20K. That extra money buys a LOT of gas. The only hybrid I like right now is the new Lexus LS600h and we all know how much that one costs. I do think something is not right with the oil industry though. I'm gonna agree with Representative Harry Reid (I'm Rebublican so this is not normal lol) when he discussed how it is more than a coincidence that oil companies keep closing their refineries for repairs during peak travel seasons. As for the H3 pic, those are not horrible on gas, people just presume that because it says Hummer on it. That one is disgusting looking though lol.
 
I'm a proponent for using 100% vegetable oil. Link of interest: Lovecraft Biofuels - Home



I've been to the shop, talked to a few of the staff, very cool, down to earth people. I only wish I had kept my old 1983 diesel powered Mercedes. :bawling:
 
Gentlemen.



I hope that you won't mind if I take up some space here and try and explain a couple of things about perspective,



Here in Australia, we currently produce about 50 to 60 percent of our own oil. so approximately half of our oil has to be imported. There is no distinction between the imported and the local product, as oil just becomes oil.



Currently, here in Australia, we pay for our petrol at around $1.30 per litre, and having said that it probably means little to our friends in the US, so lets do the math then.

The first thing we have to do is to convert litres to gallons, and once we do that we have to realise that gallons are not gallons. In Australia as in the UK, we work on Imperial Gallons, and the US gallon is smaller, only 83.25 percent of the Imperial Gallon. Then after doing that conversion, we then have to convert the currency ratio, as the Australian dollar is only 81 cents in US money.



So, working all this out in one long equation, that $1.30 Aust per litre works out to be just a couple of pennies short of $US4.00 per US gallon.



Perspective part one. This sounds to be a lot, but we have been paying this now for just on two years. Sometimes the cost has come back, and even got close to $1.00, but if you blinked you missed it. At other times it skyrocketed to $1.60 Aust per litre, worked out to $US5.00 per US gallon, and stayed there for a month and a half, and there are places here in Australia where that price has been the average for a year or more now.



Perspective part two. I was a Technical Trades instructor in the Electrical field for the last 5 of my 25 years in the Royal Australian Air Force. To qualify as a teacher/instructor, we had to go through a course on how to teach. In the first week of that course, to get us used to talking in front of a classroom situation, the real teacher got us up to give a talk on something regarding our trade. A Motor Transport Fitter got up and talked to us for half an hour on how Crude Oil is transformed from the raw state to the many and numerous products that are derived from oil. It was one of the most fascinating things I'd heard in my life, an insight into something we take completely for granted. It's a long and very involved process to refine that crude into those products, and makes you really aware of just what is involved, rather than just parking by the pump and filling the tank.



In my youth I was taken for a guided tour through a milk factory, where raw cows milk was transformed into the milk we got in bottles, and now cartons. That aslo was an involved process similar to the refining of oil, and relatively close to the same process.



Bottled water also is processed, but on nowhere near the same sacle as milk or petrol.



Perspective part three.



Bottled Water. $1.80 to $2.20 per litre.

Milk. $2.20 to $2.50 per litre.

Petrol. $1.30 per litre.



True, we use petrol on a much larger scale so the cost can be spread thinly because of that.



People will pay what they have to for the privilege of driving what they want to drive. It's a state of mind. If they brought out a car that ran on diesel and chugged along slowly getting 60plus miles per gallon, people will still want a Hummer.

If you drive a vehicle with poor fuel consumption, then look in the mirror. He's the guy to complain to.



Sorry to take up so much space.



Tony.

 
paul34 said:
It's figures like that that make me :cry:



But nope, in the states, we like to pretend like hybrids are the way of the future. HELL NO! Hybrids are POINTLESS!



Just bring me a small diesel and we'll talk! DIESEL is the way of the future. In fact, I'd say hybrid diesel is really the way of the future. I don't know why this country is so obsessed in finding the most expensive "solution" available, rather than just using what's already there. Idiots run this country... no other explanation. Actually, there is another explanation -



idiots also live in this country.



Not saying people who buy hybrids are idiots, though... please don't take that the wrong way!
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Had 1996 VW Passat TDI for 2 years. Now have the Prius. Ask me if I'd trade back. Aside from that, there really is much more to the diesel vs gasoline hybrid debate than you present. You really show your ignorance of the whole thing, unless I'm just missing some sarcasm.:think:
 
Being from Europe, it's all about diesel. My brother drives an Audi A3 with a 1.9L TDi engine and get a comfortable 45mpg. It's unfortunate that the USA doesn't get more of those vehicles.



And just as an FYI, the reason why petrol is so expensive in Europe is because it's taxed a lot more than it is in the USA. Both continents buy it from the same people (countries) at the same rate!



PS: I'm having a great time filling up my diesel for $2.66 a gallon when all the suckers with the petrol cars have to fork over $3+ for 87 octane fuel!



Diesel is the king of fuels...
 
I for one can feel the gas prices that we have been paying. I have 2 suvs that average 15 miles to the gallon. when I can swing it, I am going to buy a used Subaru with 4wd to replace one of my suv's. my wife and I have changed our driving habits a lot the last couple years in that we do not make unnecessary trips and shop closer to home or online. also have a 20ft bassboat with a 200hp Yamaha on it that gets 3mpg. I used to love to fish but the last couple of years my boat has been sitting for the most part due to the cost of gas. do not see these prices going anywhere but up :bawling:
 
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