10 Things I wish everyone knew about gas prices

[Andara Bledin]

If you want to repress a people, raise the price of travel, aka gas prices. If you want to help bolster an economy, lower the gas prices.

And price for price comparisons are really useless. That is, unless you also compare the standard wage and the standard rents.

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[Rapscallion]

If you want to repress a people, raise the price of travel, aka gas prices. If you want to help bolster an economy, lower the gas prices.

The alternative quote is: "If you want people to breathe cleaner air, raise the price of travel. If you want to add to greenhouse gases, lower the gas prices."

That said, a survey over here showed that we'd have to triple our fuel prices before people made a significant difference in their vehicle usage.

And price for price comparisons are really useless. That is, unless you also compare the standard wage and the standard rents.

^-.-^

Also, you have to bear in mind that the US gallon is a reasonable amount smaller than the UK gallon. However, the fact remains that US vehicles do get appalling MPG even with that taken into consideration.

Rapscallion

[protege]

However, the fact remains that US vehicles do get appalling MPG even with that taken into consideration.

Some of that stems from the fact that most Americans will not consider buying a smaller car. Bigger is better, in other words. Why else would Hummers and SUVs be selling well, even with their higher price tags? It's part of our culture--years ago, a sign of having made it was "a big expensive car." Any attempts at making smaller luxury vehicles has been met with derision, and has usually failed--Cadillac Cimmaron, anyone? (For those not in the US, or don't remember, that car was a cheap Chevy rebadged as a Cadillac. It failed, not because it was a POS, but simply because nobody was willing to pay up for an economy car.)

Another problem (locally), is that our public transportation system simply sucks. Contrary to their message, they do not go everywhere--I'd have to take 2, possibly 3 buses to get to work. That is, if they don't break down...since the transit authority doesn't maintain things, and is currently losing bucketloads of cash. Throw in the fact that the bus moves much slower than traffic, and it's no wonder why so many people choose to drive themselves to work.

Even with all that, our cars get much better MPGs than in years past. After the 1970s oil shortage, many cars were getting less than 20 mpg. 30 years on, and many cars get above that--30+ in some cases. At the time, most American cars were land yachts. Bigger was better then. Anyone want to guess what happened? Well, when the oil crisis hit that time, Japanese and other small import sales really took off, forcing the "Big 3" to offer compacts...and eventually put Chrysler in bankruptcy. With all that said, it looks like the same thing is happening again! This time though, it's Korean imports, and Chrysler got sold!

[Sofar]

Even with all that, our cars get much better MPGs than in years past. After the 1970s oil shortage, many cars were getting less than 20 mpg.

Don't bash on the old land-yachts, man. My 1960 Chrysler Imperial used to get twenty-eight miles to the gallon, and this is a car that was eighteen feet long. (I think the fins helped. The sales literature called them "stabalizers.") The thing would belch gray smoke and stink up parking garages, but twenty-eight miles per gallon. I always took that as proof that we've made no advancements in automobile technology in fifty years.

Not that I don't like small cars, my current car, a Volvo Amazon, gets a lovely fifty-one miles per gallon, and I don't have to go around the wheel four times to park.

I have a 60 mile commute to work and back every day and I still only fill up once a week and I have a 10 gallon tank. I freaking love my Honda Fit.

Yay Honda Fit! I love that little thing.

[Andara Bledin]

The Cadillac Cimmaron was a steaming pile. I had one. It was awful. And my brother reported (when they were still fairly new) that the Catera had issues, too. Cadillac just didn't have it down for making smaller cars.

Our CFO just got herself a used Prius at slightly under blue book value. Unless you include the HOV lane sticker, which raises it's actual value by about $4000. I want a hybrid myself. I do almost exclusively city travel, so it'd be great. If I needed to make a long trip, then I'd just rent something or have a backup car.

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[protege]

The Cadillac Cimmaron was a steaming pile. I had one. It was awful. And my brother reported (when they were still fairly new) that the Catera had issues, too. Cadillac just didn't have it down for making smaller cars.

My neighbor had one. The only reason she had it...was that they'd always had Cadillacs, and their big Broughams wouldn't fit in the garage, and letting the wife's car sit outside in winter wasn't an option. IIRC, the car wasn't too bad, until the end. Things started coming off, and it started to rust. The car didn't last too long after that, and is probably rusting away in a field somewhere. Good riddance.

The last land yacht I remember riding in, was my grandmother's '84 Olds Delta 88 4-door sedan. That thing was so big, you could have landed a helicopter on the hood It had to go though--it was too much car for her.

[AFpheonix]

I heard a rumor that the gasoline suppliers have bribed car makers to make sure all (at least most) of the cars sold in America don't have the milage European cars get.

More like economy cars just don't sell that well here, unless they're all sexy like the Prius. Even companies known for their fuel efficient cars (again, Toyota) make a mint off of their truck and SUV lines. Americans just like big vehicles.

Thats much better then the average vehicle here in america that gets between 18-25 maybe 30. Granted there are some vehicles that get really good economy, i think the VW Jetta gets 42..
But the way it was said to me, its all vehicles, not just a handful of cars.

And the money you save in gas in the Jetta goes to paying for super expensive parts and repairs. Yay!

[blas]

If they quit making smaller cars so damn ugly and egg or shoe shaped, I'd actually consider one of them the next time I need a new car. Yes, I'm talking about Ford Focuses and all similar looking cars. Pretty soon all small cars are going to look like the Urkelmobile from Family Matters.

[Andara Bledin]

And the money you save in gas in the Jetta goes to paying for super expensive parts and repairs. Yay!

My mom had a Jetta. One from the middle of when they had wiring and fitting issues. And she didn't pay much more for repairs than I did for my Dodge or Plymouth. And my Volvo cost about the same for repairs, too. Then again, we're not that far from Los Angeles, and we have nearly everything within a five-mile radius.

I have to agree with Blas. Most small cars look like carp. Although Nekojin wants a Mini. My current rental is a Dodge Caliber and I think I'd like to get one eventually. It's not that small, but it's an all-around nice vehicle.

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[Sofar]

A lot of big cars are egg and shoe shaped these days too. Automotive design is hitting a strange point, usually does at the end of a decade. We'll get over it by 2011.