Mikey, you'll have to wait until I get back from my cross-country Springtime Roadtrip! SoCal is definitely a better destination than TJ! LMAO!


Clover

 

Gas here is not bad... YET! It is $2.10ish...

and I CANT wait for my MINI... the $40+ biweekly fillups are KILLING me!
(stupid SUV that gets 12mpg!)

 

It is around $2.45 here. The closer it seems for me to get my car, the more gas prices are increasing.

 

My truck (god i cant wait for Lil' Blue to show up in 3 weeks) took $60 to fill up. Gas cost me $1.82/gallon . I love my oil rich state! one summer it got all the way down to $0.68 about 4 years ago during price wars

 

The whole climate is changing,and today your goverment is going to let major oil drilling start in Alaska,the same day crude hit an all time highWe don't need more gas,we need cars that use less gas

 

Gas in Augusta GA area has gone up $.25+ in the past 3 weeks. Regular is now $1.92 (87 octane) and premium (93 octane) is $2.14. The attendant smiles when I pull in with my Suburban - with a 42 gallon tank. We've put $75 in it at one fill up before. I feel for you folks with $3 a gallon pricing. - uugghhh!!! Perish the thought of a $120 fill-up.

The MCS at 29 MPG goes a long way for $10.

 

Here in the New Orleans area ya can still manage to get premium for right at $2. Most places avg around $2.05 to $2.09. Hope it doesn't get any higher

 

Just filled up @ $2.14 in Clearwater...glad it went into the MINI and not the GTP (14MPG)...the MINI couldn't have come at a better time gas price wise!

 

After living in Europe where gas was (and still is) $4-5/gallon, I still don't mind my California Premium of $2.73...

I personally think as soon as China really gets going (in just a few years) will be seeing those $4/gallon here. So in a way, I'm enjoying the good old days of right now.

 

Here's some depressing news.....

A general rule of thumb is that consumer goods double in price every 10 years. For example, my 1968 Mini cost $1.65 CDN to fill it's 5 gallon tank, or 35 cents a gallon. Using the doubling effect principle, by 2008 we will be paying $5.60CDN a gallon (over $1.00/liter). (Try this formula on just about anything and it is pretty accurate.) So, by 2018, if this holds true, we can expect to be paying over $12/gallon. OUCH!!!!

 

Paid almost $30 to fill up the MINI yesterday @ $2.53. I'm not laughing, but I'm not cringing as much as I would in a SUV!!

Hmmm, $0.40 per gallon (and $200K+ per house) for good weather. Yeah, ok, I think I'll stay. :smile:

weather note: It's overcast today - I want a refund on my sun premium!

 

People always bring up Europe and their gas prices....compare one item and see what you get....how much are eggs in China....who cares because one item tells you nothing.

Every time my daughter goes to Spain she goes to Gibraltar and buys some Llardo because it is cheaper than in the US.

End of rant

 

umm you compare it because it was the topic of the conversation... high gas prices... cost of living was not the topic I.E it would be correct to say that the price of gas dosn't give an account of anything when cost of living is the topic of conversation, but when comparison of gas prices is the topic of conversation it's more than relevant

 

I agree that gas prices will continue to increase, and that will only accelerate as China and other countries increase their demand.

As for the price of gas in Europe... Doesn't that price include subsidies that are used to support public transportation? They've got an excelent train network and public transportation over there, and people use it.

Actually, I'd like to see the price of gas at $5/gal. now. With half of that going to public transportation. If we improve public transport, and the alternative is paying $5/gal. for gas, more people will use it and people will make better decisions about the vehicles they buy.

If I could commute via dependable, convienient public transportation, I'd take that over crowded freeways and expensive gas any day. I'd rather drive for fun.

 

In Naples Italy gas is 1.12 Euro a liter. With the drop in the dollar value that is about 1.55 a liter or almost $6.00 a gallon.

Can't wait to get back to the U.S. with my MCS CR/W 05.:smile:

 

You people are looking at this all wrong.

Gas is cheap. I paid $2.06 a gallon for 93 octane. I just bought a bag of Fritos out of a machine here at work. $0.80 for 2.125 OZ’s of chips. Compared to one gallon of gas, if I bought the equivalent of one gallon of in weight of chips it would cost me $34.44 a gallon for the chips.

Good thing my MINI runs on gas.

 

Personally, I don't want to pay for someone else's free ride on the public transport system. Most of our road tax from gas goes there now in CA. . A lot of people in the San Diego area ride the trolly for free just because they don't pay and the police just write them a ticket which goes to a warrant when they don't take care of it and some people have well over 100 warrants and still nothing happens. .

What is wrong with gas prices covering the pot holes and riders of public transportation paying for themselves.

As far as comparing prices of gas (one item) in other contries, does it cover all of their taxes? Property taxes? income taxes? Personally I am tired of paying over 50% of MY money in taxes.

End of rant - again

Earl

 

Compare that bottled water in a gas station to gas.
Now think about it. I NEED gas.....I can get a drink of no name water for free. Buying overpriced water is a choice. Wait, my driving is MOSTLY a choice or I would not drive 150 miles for a hamburger (going over some great curvey roads).

Earl

 

I'm not suggesting that anyone should ride for free, or that scofflaws should be tolerated. The public transportation problem is a chicken/egg kind of thing.

We live in a country where we're conditioned to use our cars for everything, and almost no one uses public transportation because its inconvenient. So, how do we get the funding to establish enough rail/bus lines, so that service is frequent and convenient enough that people will use it in preference to their cars? One possibility is to get the money from ridership. Which means that you have to charge more than the cost of operation, to accumulate the additional funds needed to expand service. Of course, then no one will use the existing system, because it is currently inconvenient *and* expensive. Another possibility is to use funding from gasoline sales to establish convenient, reasonably priced service, and have the increased price of gas to encourage people to use it. Once its established and working, it should be nearly or completely self sustaining.

Given the choice, wouldn't you rather get picked up near your door, and dropped off at work, instead of having to battle rush hour traffic? If you do have to drive, wouldn't you rather have the roads less crowded because more people are using public transportation?

I'd rather commute in my MINI than any other car, but I'd much rather drive for fun.

 

You eat a gallon of chips and so will you

 

brgfan, you must live in a fairly densely populated area (S.F.) and I would say that a vast majority of folks on here don't. While I live close to a city, I almost never actually get within 20 miles of the city itself. Even where I work is kind of out in BFE, so for me the idea of a larger public transportation system does not work as I know the system would come no where near my house our place of business. And very few people I know are in a situation where it could be practical for them to use a public transit system if it were available. It's a good idea, but unless you live and work within a large city, it isn't practical and will never happen.

As for the gas prices in Europe, I work with a guy from the UK who always says that we all pay about the same for the gas itself, they just pay much more in taxes than we do.

 

It has been a couple a years in Oregon since we have seen fuel below $2.00/gal. My Lightning gets about 8-9 mpg if I behave myself. It will be in the garage for awhile now.

 

A lot of gas is consumed by people standing in rush hour traffic in urban areas, if we can reduce that, I think everyone benefits. Also, there was a time when small towns had pretty good bus and rail service. I think it would be nice for those areas to again have an alternative to the interstate for town-to-town transportation, as people in England do. It would also be nice if we had an alternative to the airlines for cross-cross country travel. I think it is practical, and we'd benefit from having more transportation choices, but you're probably right that it will never happen.

OTOH, what will we do to reduce oil imports? Its looking like that's just going to be a bigger and bigger drain on our economy as prices and consumption go up.

 

A British sales engineer in Evansville this week quoter London gas at about $8 equivalent per gallon. .Third hand news. Anyone across the pond?

 

My wife's Honda Element (SUV) we avg. about 23mpg city/hwy. The thing is, it takes the low grade gas, so in theory it's almost wiser to drive that around then my MCS which avg. about 27 city/hwy. ;/

So in 10 gallons of fuel we get 230 and 270 a 40 mile difference, not much considering the cost difference. The MINI appears to come out on top, by a slim margin, nothing noticeable. That avg is also non-spirtied driving, so that could eve the playing field rather quickly.

:smile: