GAS

[rowerwet]

I buy the fancy water when I need it, but I refill the nice bottle at home...
but it does frost me to see the lay-abouts around here wasting money all over the place while I work two jobs, and hope I can raise my family comfortably.

[S. Heisley]

Then, there are the people who pay $5 for a cup of Starbucks every morning when they can't even pay all their bills.
I had a neighbor that did that. What was she thinking? I don't think she was.....

[8ball_99]

lol know that saying you get what you pay for.. My owners manual for my truck has a section on buying fuel in Mexico.. Pretty much says try your very best not to.. I hear their water is pretty cheap also..

[webbaldo]

Is it still true that American petrol (sorry gas) has lower octane than say here in the UK? Thats why MPG is worse?

Normal here is 95ron, Super is 97/98

And think yourselves lucky!, at the minute its about £1.35 a Litre here!, thats roughly $8 a US Gallon!

[jstrubberg]

We do run lower octane, but octane has nothing to do with mpg. Octane just makes fuel burn slower so that you can use a higher compression ratio and get more power out of an engine.

Cars in the UK tend to be much smaller than here in the US, and the UK is generally much flatter than the US.

[emg178]

In the US, we get less mpg primarily because we use US gallons (3.785 Liters) and you use imperial gallons (4.55 Liters). We may also use more ethanol as an oxygenate. Ethanol has a lower energy density.

I disagree with Slow's assessments of politics, European salaries these days, and a number of other things, but understand his gripe about gas prices living out in Wyoming. My wife and I had the pleasure of riding motorcycles through Pinedale a couple of years ago, and I understand why you would want to stay out there Slow. There is an oil boom in Montana right now with a load of high paying jobs. Could you live up there for part of the year Slow?

What I don't get is the complaining about gas prices from people driving big cars. Gas was nearly free in the US in the late 90's. That is an anomaly folks. It was a mistake of the big 3 to design their flagship vehicles around that gas price. Inflation adjusted prices in US: http://inflationdata.com/Inflation/images/charts/Oil/Gasoline_inflation_chart.htm

Going forward, people in China and India are eating more meat and starting to drive small cars instead of walking, biking, and mopeding. We are going to have to compete with those activities for fuel. It is silly to expect prices to stay suppressed in light of this new demand and if we want to compete effectively, we need creative ways to decrease our dependence on lots of oil. We can at least have a positive impact on a personal level. Towing a tiny travel trailer is a good place to start .

[pete42]

gas in Ohio yesterday $3.29 not $4 but not $2 either.
I worked in a filling station remember those, when I was in high school gas went from 23.9 to 24.9 and people had a fit
I said I will never pay $1 for a gallon of gas now I'm happy when it's $3.29.
my brother just got back from New Mexico he said the interstates were jammed people have not slowed going places the high cost of gas is not a deterent.
I have been on two trips this year both to the east coast when we needed gas I filled up when the bill arrived in the mail I paid it.
I will be headed to georgia next month then back home here in Ohio then off to Florida early next year for 2-3 months if health allows
the price of gas won't stop my travels.

pete

[jstrubberg]

The cost of fuel hasn't changed since 1918, as the chart posted earlier shows.

Slow, your problems aren't because fo the price of gas. You need work, and you need to recoignize that about 1% of the population are now able to provide all the food the other 99% of us need. That leaves the 5% of people trying to farm competing for business that ain't there. Prices continue to get cut because of surpluses and the farmers get squeezed out.

We could drop the price of fuel to $1 a gallon and your problems wouldn't go away.

[dguff]

I agree with pete42. An extra 40 cents per gallon is not going to stop me from following through on my travel plans. Maybe I will have to skimp a little somewhere else but I am going to continue to drive.

Jerome

[nevadatear]

Slow, Randy will sell and ship you a snap ring for way cheaper. . He'll even throw in a jar of peanut butter. Desert Metal Products. Providing custom machine work to the farming community who can't afford to buy new in tiny rural Nevada for 30 years. Small business of two. As in self employed. Not "employed" for many years but, yes, considered by government to be employed cause we pay taxes on his income (but not very much cause he earns crap). And by loan companies, and anyone else who needs evidence of a job for the last 30 years. There are ways to be considered employed, even if all you do are odd occasional jobs to be able to take advantage tax credits that come with them. And Randy and I are living here right snack dab in the middle of the state with the highest unemployment in the nation at 11 percent.

My biggest concern, what if Randy gets hurt? Healthcare costs. That's a game changer for us. We continue to pay pretty much all of randy's monthly income on health insurance and cross our fingers until randy is eligible for medicare. And i spent $25,000 on my thumb operation last year. Took care of any resources we had plus borrow from the folks. Watch those saws folks!

Cost of fuel also NOT the biggest issue with small farmers or this small business man here. We live 100 miles from any urban area. But lower fuel costs will not magically make my life better. For us it makes a lot more sense to conserve all fuel resources to make them last as long as they can, to invest both personally and as a nation to find other ways to heat our homes and run our machines at the shop and pull our tear so the cost of fuel can't hold us hostage. In my perfect world we are not just independent of foreign oil. We are independent of all oil. And yes, i drive a Prius when not pulling a tear. 2002 model for 10 years. I will drive it into the ground.

And that's just our 2 cents for what will be my one and only political rant response.

More importantly, slow, congrats to you and Angie. Having the right, supportive life partner is what really matters in this life. My guess is your rant about fuel prices is really more about not seeing Angie as much as you would like because of how they are effecting you with THAT right now. . Good for you. Not that you are pissed off. But that you have such a nice, warm, loving flesh and blood reason. I remember a time not too long ago you would have given your right arm to have a girl that loved you so much that you would be this upset about your limited time together.

So when is the date and where will you live?

[rowerwet]

lol know that saying you get what you pay for.. My owners manual for my truck has a section on buying fuel in Mexico.. Pretty much says try your very best not to.. I hear their water is pretty cheap also..

the gas in Mexico is lower octane, (burns mmmmm8uu7ykkkkkdirty/will ruin the emissions on your car) they also are a state owned oil company and an oil producing nation, they can sell it for whatever they want at home and pass the cost on to their best customer...us

the gas price in Europe is more driven by taxes, something plenty of people like or president think we need to copy
which is why my second car a Ford focus, in Europe is many middle class families only car.
the supply vs demand causing price issues is easy to see, look at Natural gas prices, I could almost heat my house cheaper with gas than wood right now, something else plenty of idiots in DC would like to change with regulations

[angib]

Just to give you some different numbers, I pay around $8.50 per US gallon of diesel and I don't drive as economically (slowly) as I should, so I'm only averaging 38mpg US (47 mpg Imp). And my little car (well, the car is little, but the 220ft-lb diesel isn't) would be perfect for towing a teardrop, but it's illegal to fit a hitch to it.

Webbaldo, it's not just the gallons that are different, the octane number are different too. 87/89 US (PON) octane regular is the same as 93/95 UK (RON) octane regular and similarly US super is the same as UK super.

[nevadatear]

http://useconomy.about.com/od/grossdomesticproduct/a/cause_recession.htm

Gas prices and the devastating effect on a life dependent on personal transportation in the west not withstanding, it is also not one of the causes of the last 2 recessions, at least according to the principles of economics.

[nevadatear]

I agree with slow. It really is unfortunate as both a country and private entrepreneurs the US has not invested more in public transportation systems and infrastructure that would lessen the impact of dramatic fluctuations in oil prices on us as individuals as many European countries have. I also agree that no one likes high prices, including both Randy and Me . But I disagree that is a major cause of the country's woes. I am not in any way negating the pain or impact of gas prices, especially in the west. I live here too. And for some it is worse than others. But i have difficulty seeing gas prices as the central fulcrum of cause for a poor economy. And the sad part is regardless of who we elect in November, it's till a long way back and neither party can bring an immediate cure, as much as either part wants us to believe. If we put too much faith in that, we're going to all wake up disappointed come we'd morn in nov.

And slow is also right, I am lucky. I have a good job I work hard at --keeping children healthy. It hard to be a nurse and not have a job, as long as u are willing to work nites, weekends, holidays and wade knee deep into people messes.

Rand keeps the ranchers and farmers going, and the miners mining by working 6 days a week. And since I invested in my Prius when folks thought I was crazy, well before it was fashion, we could take the trip to Reno today for the grand baby's birthday without taking out a loan. Which finally leads me to agree with Jerome. I hate paying high prices for a consumable like gas, but it won't stop us from going or traveling. We will skimp somewhere else too. And yes we are lucky, and just like mike, hard working too.

And like slow, looks like my buttons got pushed too.

Sure wish we had that high speed rail for the trip home. The nv desert is pretty long and desolated at night.

Hey, Jerome, my fellow unr alumni, have a great trip to tx! Stop by when you're in the neighborhood. Got to assume if u are taking the Jim dandy, you are alone? . Hi Delores!

[dguff]

Hi Debbie and Randy,

I am on the way to LCGVII and yes I am towing the Jim Dandy. I left Eureka yesterday where gas prices were $4.60 a gallon, down from $4.80 just about a week ago. I think I will not see gas as high on the entire trip as it is in Eureka. I expect to cover about 5000 miles. At 20mpg towing with my 6 cyl Subaru I will be using about 250 gallons of gas. At $.40 more per gallon than last year it will cost me about an extra $100 for the whole trip or roughly an average of $5 per day over three weeks. I can afford that.

Jerome