Summer gas prices

[Aaron Coffee]

it might be a good summer to sell my scooter. /quote]

I have several scooters. What kind of scooter do you have?

86 Honda Helix 250. Bought a new Honda 750 in 08 had three people at work interested in, but my sister in law wanted it, so I threw her a price ($1,200) far below what I would have asked otherwise. She hemmed and hawed all summer and finally said she didn't want it. Think I could have easily sold it at work for $2,000.

[caseydog]

I had a dumb thought and I wander if you can pull a teardrop with a chevy volt or a electric car????? or a toyota prirus?????

I have a friend at a VW dealership, and I drove a Jetta TDi Sportwagon yesterday. Wow. I liked it -- a lot.

That could EASILY tow my teardrop, and still pull down at least 35 MPG.

I've driven some hybrids, and none of them impressed me the way this VW diesel did.

CD

[SteveF]

I have a friend at a VW dealership, and I drove a Jetta TDi Sportwagon yesterday. Wow. I liked it -- a lot.

That could EASILY tow my teardrop, and still pull down at least 35 MPG.

I've driven some hybrids, and none of them impressed me the way this VW diesel did.

CD

V-dubs are great cars--I've owned several. Mine all had gas motors, but VW has have the eco-diesel thing pretty dialed.

It's kind of a shame someone doesn't build a compact pickup (like my Colorado) with a smallish diesel or some sort of hybrid technology. Well, there's this supposedly in the pipeline, but I'm not sure I'd trust it for reliability and emissions...

http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2009/08/ta ... ik-up.html

[legojenn]

I doubt that it will have much of an impact on gas prices. Here, prices spiked 10 cents per litre, we are paying $1.19/L. Converted to US gallons and US dollars, a gallon of gas is about $4.55. People have not stopped travelling. I'm sure that members in other countries like Australia, NA, UK and Finnland are paying more than we are and still enjoying their trailers. I just did a quick Google search on British prices and at £1.30/L, they're paying close to $US 7.50/US gal.

It sucks to have to pay more. Everything to do with camping is getting more expensive. Don't let it stop you from travelling.

[Rock]

Normally I stay way far from these discussions but...

Slowcowboy - you simply can't make generalizations about one nation versus another. There certainly are people in Canada feeling the pain from this recession just as there are Americans that don't even know there is a recession.

As a whole Canada has fared better in this recession but only because the Canadian government planned much better and has much better fiscal policies.

Also Canada is the 2nd largest country in the world (in terms of square miles) with only about 30 million population (versus the US 325 million or so.) So Canadians do some driving and also struggle to maintain that much infrastructure with a limited tax base.

Also - the personal income tax rate in Canada is close to 50% for most people not to mention sales tax close to 15% in most provinces. So apples to apples Canadian have much less money to spend on gas, vehicles, campers, food, etc.

Finally - I hear there are good jobs in the oil rich west provinces of Canada. I also hear you have experience in the oil fields. I try to look for the opportunity in every situation.

Finally finally - my apologies to our Canadian friends who have been there through thick and thin for almost 200 years.

Eric

[Kurt (Indiana)]

Looking at oil and gas prices from history, the last time oil spiked to $140+, it suddenly dropped and resulted in better gas prices within a short period. (6 months)

All this time I was told the "President" had control over oil and gas prices. So much for that theory. Hmmm, I guess it's a different standard now.

[caseydog]

Those fluctuations in the chart Kurt posted illustrate the volatility in crude oil prices that have for many years prevented oil companies from investing major money into exploration for hard-to-get oil.

If you are an oil executive, and you can get oil from the middle east for 40 bucks a barrel, or you could invest in exploration that might yield decent amounts of oil, five to ten years down the road, after investing tens of billions of dollars before the first barrel of crude hits the market, what do you do?

Well, if you KNOW prices are going to be 100 bucks a barrel in five to ten years, when that oil comes to market, and you are confident you can make a profit on that oil at 100-bucks or more per barrel, then you may see it as a risk worth taking.

But, if oil may be a hundred bucks or more, or it may be 40 bucks or less five to ten years from now, do you take the risk?

This isn't something I read on a blog, by the way. I leaned it from my father, who is a retired President and COO of a major oil company.

As supply decreases and demand increases worldwide, then prices will probably remain high enough to make more difficult and riskier exploration more attractive for oil companies.

[caseydog]

BTW, Doug, I'm not suggesting that regulations are irrelevant. They do add cost to the exploration and production process. But, they are not the only problem, or the biggest one. There are PLENTY of places where companies CAN drill for oil, but they have chosen not to, because the price of oil is to volatile to justify the investment.

This is not a new problem, either. It has been a problem since I was a kid. Remember how OPEC used to jack around with the price of oil? That had the same effect. It caused oil executives to be leary of investing in things like offshore oil wells.

CD

[Wanna Be]

Just filled up my '92 dodge P.U. and droped $45.00 in the tank.
Can't let it get that low again.
Are you old enough to rembember when the gallons went faster
than the $$$ ?????
When I first started driving, gas was 0.25c A gallon.
Dad said it won't go over 0.35c this year. He was right, 1st of Jan. it went
to 0.40c a gal.
Cost, It is a matter of how bad you want to cut the budget to get there.
Of course this is only my $0.02c Worth.
Wanna Be

[angib]

On the economics of oil production, I'm no expert but I have seen a few projects and the thing that amazed me is how oil companies will decide whether or not to go ahead with a project on the basis of the oil price today. They know and you know that it wasn't that price last year and it's likely not to be that price next year but they still seem to base long term decisions on current price.

But of course if you could preduct future oil prices with any sort of accuracy you wouldn't be working in an oil company, you'd be owning it.

One of the jobs I worked on was for uneconomic oil under deep water and I went to speak to a high-flying oil economist who explained that a high oil price doesn't necessarily make these sites economic - there is so much energy used in oil production that if the price of oil goes up, the price of getting hard-to-get oil goes up nearly as much and so it only makes it a bit more attractive.

The 1970s oil price jumps taught a lot of lessons - despite some very big price rises, the oil producers quickly lost the benefit as the resulting inflation made everything more expensive. The producers found that they had to sell a similar number of barrels of oil to buy a new US car before and after the price rises.

[chorizon]

Just filled up my '92 dodge P.U. and droped $45.00 in the tank.
Wanna Be

One of my most memorable moments of the high gas-prices a couple of years ago was putting $20 worth of gas in my motorcycle!

That was the vehicle that was saving me money by taking it to work instead of my '04 Dodge P/U.

The same truck that cost $80 to fill up yesterday.
Everyone has their perspective as to what really hurts when you fill up.

[PKCSPT]

I remember my parents getting a tank of gas, pack of cigarettes, oil and tire pressure checked, windshield washed for $5 and the station attendant put the gas in.
Oh then they would get stamps to buy stuff with.

Times are changing

[starleen2]

Maybe we can spend the summer building "ethanol" generators??

[dguff]

Another thread which will be easy to ignore.

Jerome

[caseydog]

Another thread which will be easy to ignore.

Jerome

Not sure what you mean, but for me, it is a very timely topic.

I'm self-employed, and income is down. I've given up things like DirecTV and my gym membership to cut my monthly expenses. I don't go out for meals unless I am meeting with a client. I even get haircuts less often.

So, gasoline prices do change the way I live.

I have a good car that is paid off, and has an extended warranty. So, buying that new VW TDi is not a viable option. So, I just have to drive less, if I want to stay within my budget.

That means, I need to camp closer to home. I've selected a few long-distance gatherings to do, and the rest of my camping will be in the DFW area.

I honestly wish I could ignore higher fuel costs, but I can't afford to do that. I cut up my credit cards. The only debt I currently have is my home mortgage. Paying for gasoline on a debit card has made me look at every trip I make in my car. I don't start the engine unless I can justify the expense.

CD