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Automotive News & Views Are gas prices fueling your pain? 
10042 messages, Last post on Jul 12, 2008 at 3:07 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: gagrice (Apr 09, 2008 5:47 pm) So which was more stressful...the long commute or the tiny car you had to make it in?  A friend of mine back in college had a 1980 Accord hatchback. I drove it a few times. Actually, it wasn't a bad little car for 1 or 2 people. Acceleration was really slow, but once it got moving it seemed pretty quiet and stable for such a small car.
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Replying to: ny540i6 (Apr 09, 2008 7:59 pm) That's certainly true. I don't mind a longer drive, just as long as I'm moving. I hate sitting still in congested traffic...seems to make the time drag out. I'd rather have a job 60 miles away that I could get to in an hour, rather than one 10 miles away that still takes an hour to get to. I've gotten spoiled though, with my commute. It's never been more than 14 miles, and maybe 35 minutes on a bad day. Actually, I take that back. For about 5 months, when I was working a second evening job, when I finally got off it was about 21 miles home. But that was also around 10:00 at night, mostly highway, and I was often home in 20-25 mins. My current commute is about 3.5 miles each way, and it's very rare that it takes me more than 10 minutes. If I suddenly had to go back to a more "typical" commute, it would probably be a shock to me. I'd get used to it though, in time. |
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I commute 10 miles each way to work, and it's 90% highway. On a bad day, I hit two traffic lights along the way. I work with a guy who commutes 80 miles each way, and has to deal with Dallas traffic on I-35 every day. Pure insanity! So, for two years, I've been trying to convince him to sell his house and buy a new one closer to work. I told him that the amount of money he spends on gasoline could go toward improving his quality of life now, or securing a comfy retirement in the future. I told him how, since we both perform the same job, I'm getting paid significantly more because I don't have to spend an extra $25/day on gas like he does. I told him that he's spending 22 days per year just on his commute -- the equivalent of three weeks vacation. He's starting to talk about moving ..... so I think I'm getting through to him. . |
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Replying to: andre1969 (Apr 10, 2008 5:07 am) |
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Replying to: lemko (Apr 09, 2008 12:27 pm) "This house, he and Dawn explain, is not a McMansion they cannot afford. Quite simply, it represents what they always believed: The next generation deserves a better life." I guess that can be taken two ways, but the way the author combined it in with the house comment, makes it sound like they feel they deserve to have a bigger house and nicer material things. If they mean it as quality of life and happiness, the author did them a dis-service by making it sound material. If it is a material thing, that seems an all too common way of thinking. People think they deserve one thing or another when there is no such thing. Life is about choices. What job you have (and how far it is from home). How much education you choose to pursue. Where you live (city, state, etc). What kind of car you buy. How big of a family you choose to have and support. Where you spend your money. All of those things shape your life and "standard of living". Even standard of living is in the eye of the beholder. There are a lot of people that make due with much less and are way happier than someone in a big house, new car, a big screen TV. Above and beyond the basics of survival, standard of living is more of a mindset than anything that can be defined by material things. "Success" being another of those words that can only be defined from within. Advertising is always working it's magic, though, and making us feel inadequate if we don't have the latest and greatest [fill in the item here], just like your neighbors, family, or friends. And I don't get the entitlement thing. Even a fair number of kids graduating from college seem to have this thought of entitlement. Immediately after graduation, they think they should be able to afford a nice, brand new house and car since that is what they were used to when they lived with their parents. Well, most of those parents worked a loooong time to be able to work up to a nice house. When you first start out, if you can rent any form of shelter, even if you have to share with room mates, your doing just fine. |
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With the peak summer driving season still to come and crude oil prices rising too, gas may reach the retail price of $4 a gallon that the Energy Department has been forecasting. Duh! Regards, OW
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Replying to: circlew (Apr 10, 2008 7:22 am) 
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Replying to: steve_ (Apr 10, 2008 7:33 am) Local Shell station is up to $3.379 for 87, and I think the Citgo is $3.339.
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Replying to: andre1969 (Apr 10, 2008 8:07 am)  3.39 which totaled $91.53. Our destination was 440 miles away and towing nearly 6,000 lbs camper yielded an avg of 9.5mpg (which I was happy with), so it cost about $300 in gas for our trip (plus another $50 in gas driving around), and $140 for the campsite. Still a cheap vacation for a family of 4 plus a Dalmatian. Lots of RVs on the road, people may not travel as far, but they still traveling.
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Replying to: steve_ (Apr 10, 2008 7:33 am)  Highest Recorded Price: Regular Unl. $3.357 4/10/2008 DSL. $4.045 4/10/2008 I'd think the high will go to $3.40 by next week considering the inventory went down and crude price rose. Regards, OW
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