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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
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Replying to: bumpy (Jun 02, 2008 11:54 am) Regards, OW |
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Replying to: lemko (Jun 02, 2008 11:57 am) The one we had the adventures with was a 54 Mercedes. We actually had to replace the instrument cluster. Nothing in it worked. We got one from a junk yard - it was metric! In the early 70s a friend's dad had a new Mercedes that had no fewer than three fuel warning lights. One cam on with a few gallons still in there; another when you were getting seriously low and, my favorite, the last one came when you actually ran out of gas! Talk about an idiot light! |
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as my friend put $80 worth of regular unleaded in his minivan yesterday, and the low fuel light had only just come on! My own fills in my tiny car are up close to $40 now, which FAR exceeds the $15 or so I needed to fill it back when I bought it. As far as lots of individual decisions to reduce useage adding up to society-wide change, I noted with interest on today's morning news that the speculators see a softening market for oil, as a result of very significant downward trends in consumption that have occurred recently, and the futures price of a barrel of oil fell almost $10 from its peak last week to around $126. I have not followed the news during the day today so I don't know if it has shot right back up, but clearly normal economic forces do apply to some extent even in this superheated segment of the market. Good work everyone, keep it up! 
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It'll be interesting to see how many places go to this: http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2008-06-01-work-week-four-day-gas-prices- - _N.htm The thing is that if we had wanted to save fuel, these same places could have been doing this right along, until waitng for the problem to get bigger. And people will bring up all kinds of reasons why we can't change - people hate change. But that's human nature.
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Replying to: lemko (Jun 02, 2008 11:57 am) |
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Replying to: gagrice (Jun 02, 2008 8:37 am) 
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Replying to: nippononly (Jun 02, 2008 12:22 pm) Heck, it doesn't seem that long ago that $40 worth of fuel would've gotten me through a busy Friday and Saturday nite of delivering pizzas in a Dart, Newport, or Gran Fury copcar, and I would've been pulling in about $280-320 over the course of those two nights. If I did it in something like an Echo back in those days, I guess it would've taken $13-15 worth of gas at 30 mpg, and only about $10-12 at 40 mpg. Although I guess 40 mpg would've been tough to eke out in those conditions, even with an Echo. As for running out of fuel, I have to confess that I've done it more times than I'd care to admit to. When I got my '68 Dart, the fuel gauge didn't work. I knew it had an 18 gallon tank though, and I also knew that my previous Dart, a 225 slant six, would get around 15-18 local, maybe 22-23 on the highway. I figured the 318 couldn't get THAT much worse mileage. Boy, was I wrong! Even worse, eventually that Dart's fuel tank got punctured, but I still had the '69 sitting around as a parts car, so I took its tank off and put it on the '68. Suddenly the gas gauge worked again! Yay! Only problem is, with the '69, that needled could actually drop below the E and not run out, but in the '68, once it was working, the needle would sort of get hung up just before the E, at maybe 1/10 of a tank, and stay there till it ran out. I remember one time when I ran out of gas, I was doing about 50 mph, and luckily was able to coast to a gas station! I ran out of fuel once in my Mom's '86 Monte Carlo. I had gotten spoiled, I guess, by newer, more luxurious cars. My '79 Newport had a low fuel light, and so did my '82 Cutlass Supreme. Grandma's '85 LeSabre did, too. But I found out the hard way, that Mom's '86 didn't! Luckily, I found that out about 200 feet from a gas station.  I ran out of gas once in the pickup truck. I could've sworn that it had 20 gallon tanks, as that's what Granddad's old '76 GMC crew cab did. So when the thing stalled out after only around 240 miles, I didn't even think about it running out of gas. After all, it got about 15 mpg, so it should've still had about 4 gallons left. I was about 1/4 mile from a Shell station, and I got their wrecker driver to come and tow me back. But first, he wanted to see if he could get it started. When I cranked it, he said it sounded like it was out of gas. I swore up and down that it couldn't have been that. But just to humor him, I pressed the button to switch tanks. And damn if it didn't fire right up! That was a $20 lesson in common sense.  Needless to say, Granddad looked at me like I was an idiot for thinking that truck had 16 gallon tanks! But I figured hey, and '85 and '76 are the same truck, so why shouldn't they? That truck's 18 years older, and not exactly showroom new these days, so 15 mpg nowadays would be a dream!
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Replying to: avalon02wh (Jun 01, 2008 4:20 am) Yes, a lot of boomers are moving into RVs --- so are a number of families with kids. Mine has been my only retirement option for some time as my second husband took a ride at my expense. Since I have my own business I can work from anywhere as long as I have internet access. Yes, I've thought about shortages. By starting out in Missouri, I am not far from my son and his family ---- and friends and a few relatives aren't too far. My whole idea in full-timing is NOT to be on the road a lot. I've worked for law firms for 30+ years and for the majority of that was stuck with a 2-3 week vacation per year limit. At times I traveled as a freelance journalist. I traveled on a mighty lean shoestring. My idea is to be able to stay somewhere for a few months at a time so I can get to now the surrounding area --- or to go left instead of right at an intersection, if I chose. Not having to be somewhere on a deadline . . . . if gas becomes an issue, I'll stay where I'm at. I was thinking of some sort of scooter or bike. The problem being finding one light enough to be able to get it into the trailer plus the added weight to the trailer. Any suggestions there are welcome. Haven't ridden a regular bike in years, but could probably manage it. North Dakota --- not likely in the winter although I've always wanted to visit there. I hope to spend a few months each year in SoCal as it's been my home for nearly 20 years and I run a nonprofit located out here. So I figure I will likely travel cross country twice a year. Which is better for ND --- spring or fall? I appreciate the obvious --- I'm the proud new owner of a gas guzzler at the worst time possible. Also no longer have my wonderful veggie garden at a time when it would be useful. Just have to make the best of it one way or another.http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com/media/townhall/we- bxicons/emotorcons/emo_grin.gif grin
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Replying to: fedora (Jun 02, 2008 2:06 pm) |
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Replying to: lemko (Jun 02, 2008 8:11 am) With all these stories of more motorists running out of gas, did their fuel gauge suddenly stop working when they started putting less gas in the tank? "E" still means empty (or darn close), whether someone fills the tank or puts in 5 gallons. Edit: I hadn't seen the many replies about the stupidity of people who run out of gas nowadays before I typed that. Anyway, there's an easy way to tell just how close to empty your tank is when the needle is close to "E". Look up the fuel capacity in your owner's manual and the next time you fill up when the needle is almost on "E" pay attention to how much gas it takes to fill it up. With mine, I've determined that "E" really means EMPTY. I don't think that cheating the gauge by leaning all the way to the left and reading it would get me very far. Come on, I know I'm not the only person in the world who has ever done that. 
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