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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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First off, I want to say that we were told years ago that crude oil would be gone by 2009, I guess they weren't wrong. So what to do, when you want to remain independent & not wait an hour or two for a bus? Don't go to drastic measures, they only work if you keep applying them. Use your head. Time is money, & will always be so. Speed limits under 60 are fine, if you have all day to get there. There are many ways not to use your vehicle. I've seen few people offer insight on using it (other than packing it with other people). I recently bought a better air filter, & as soon as I get passed the 5,000 mile mark, will change my oils to something more driver/world friendly. No, I'm not going to be able to "bank" the savings, but I will continue on with my life, as I choose, & be smart about it. Next, buy the grade of gas your vehicle needs. Don't buy cheapest amount. I gain 2 mpg buying mid grade for my Kia, over economy. I've been doing this for years. Soon, gas blends won't matter, but they still do, use it. I learned this years ago in my Spitfire, which wanted 108 octane minimum, in a, at best 98 octane country. My motorcycle could only use premium gas, yet my friend's minivan wasted mid grade. My Lebaron pissed through economy & super, but loved mid grade. The bottom line is to keep your vehicle in tune. Retard your distributor if you can or are using a lessor product. You can run on alcohol, but you have to time the engine for it. Finally; Gas with MTBE's (white gas) even state that you'll have 5% less economy. So figure out what you're using. Picture it like this. You want a steak dinner, & they bring you a cold hamburger. It's still beef, but not what you wanted. Additional note: Your dealership will & can install performance & gas saving devices for you w/o voiding your warranty! The resale value will increase as well. That's what I'm doing, but I'm doing it for me, not the resale value. One more word, as a note. Can your key turn on your vehicle on the first touch? No windey windey, no thumpa thumpa. I don't want to hear that it's "inhearent in these motors". That's bull! You turn the key, it starts. If not, you're not tuned. The moment we have fire, we have explosion (running in the case of engines). If your key goes past accessories, it should be running. If it's not, you aren't tuned. Don't rely on my words, post & ask anyone else. I don't care if you're running a lawn mower. I hope this helps. 
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I keep hearing the phrase "We use 25% of the world's oil but are only 5% of the world's population"., but few mention that we produce about 25% of the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). China and India together account for about a third of our output. I think its fair to say that we have been and are a greater force for good in the world than those two countries. So, what's wrong with our driving a few more cars and burning a few more gallons of gasoline while we still can? Public transportation is only viable in urban situations; the country is too large. The car is here to stay and we must concentrate on doing everything possible to economize in this area. I've added 5 lbs pressure to my tires, accelerate slowly, anticipate stops etc and have added about 4-5 mpg to my truck's mileage (which I need for work.) And incidentally, the river cruise in Chicago is a great way to spend some time. You can also rent kayaks (and Segways and bikes if you want to stay on shore). DQ |
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Replying to: snakeweasel (Jul 10, 2008 2:31 pm) Is that the place of, "Cheeburger, Cheeburger, Cheeburger, Pepsi-no Coke"?
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Replying to: tpe (Jul 10, 2008 4:32 am) We could say that is the one billion USD question. Car industry is growing very fast and is representing millions of well paid jobs, hence huge tax revenue and direct/indirect economic activity. Everyone in China dreams to have a car and how far people are ready to go for it is beyond my imagination. China being not a democracy, the govt must purchase its legitimacy. They just can not or are not willing to educate people into the true cost of gas. Car lobby is already too powerful. the recent price increase is a conservative adjustment to $140 a barrel, but no room was added so any further barrel increase means govt companies paying for the difference. Even if managed to break even by increasing sticker price quicker, I consider not adding a serious gas tax a kind of subsidy. I speculate that we won't see any such tax before at least 5 years, while it is possible sticker prices will evolve a bit quicker to limit hard losses. > also believe these countries that are encouraging the expansion of automobile use and oil consumption are making a big long term mistake. It is going to hurt everybody. We are just , only just, starting to see a tip of it. |
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Replying to: oregonboy (Jul 09, 2008 11:22 pm) Some of us are still waiting for it to get there. $3.99 was the highest I've ever seen it locally. It was back down to $3.87 today.
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Replying to: xrunner2 (Jul 10, 2008 5:55 am) I have trouble associating buses with mass transit. Imho this is the cheaper end of a real mass transit system where heavy rail would be the backbone and light rail plays an arterial role. Gas/Diesel/GNV buses are good to complement those but can't be a backbone by themselves unless dealing with a small city. The problem of buses is that they share the very same roads than other cars and trucks so they face the same limitations of speed and traffic. In Germany, most cities above 200K inhabitants have at least a railway station and some electric light rail. reaching 1 million will likely make a subway possible. Greater distances in the US demand that the problem be addressed differently, but there are many situation where higher populated areas would justify the investment. |
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Replying to: xrunner2 (Jul 10, 2008 4:31 pm) No in their own words: 
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just how much of a pain in the backside buses and trains can be. My roommate is going back to Detroit to visit his friends and family. He figured he'd take the train, but waited until the last minute to get his reservation. There's only one train that leaves DC in that direction per day, and I think the closest it gets him is Toledo, Ohio. Well, that train was all booked up. I told him to look into leaving from Baltimore. He did, but it turns out it was the same danged train! It goes from Baltimore to DC, and then on out west. Well, I'm going up to Pennsylvania tomorrow for a car show, and I told him to check out Harrisburg. As it turns out, you guessed it, it's the same. damn. train!  He also looked into taking a bus, but that would've been about $200 round trip. And since there wouldn't be anyone around to give him a ride, he would have had to take a taxi into DC, which I'm sure wouldn't be cheap. I think the bus ride would've been 12-13 hours, and the train was about the same. Geeze, I think you can drive it in 9-10! Anyway, he decided on flying. It was about $300. Gets him out there in under two hours. Only down-side is that his flight leaves at 6:10, and I have to get up at 4 to take him up there. I have a feeling tomorrow's gonna be a loooong day! Just for kicks, I did a rough estimate on what it would cost to drive out there. It's about 540 miles. My Intrepid can get about 30 mpg on the highway if I don't push it too hard. Still, at around $4.10/gal for 87 octane, it would cost about $150 just in fuel to drive out there and back.
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Replying to: tedebear (Jul 10, 2008 5:21 pm) One good hurricane (but looks like it won't be Bertha thank goodness. What a name for a hurricane!) and we might yet see spikes to $5+ before Labor Day. |
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Replying to: andre1969 (Jul 10, 2008 6:23 pm) This frequency may be found on some little railways stations deep in French countryside. This shows how train transport is abandoned to oblivion in the US. Standard frequency should be 1 train per hour. >Anyway, he decided on flying this basically represents about 4 hours and I am not sure the transit time from airport to final destination is included or not. High speed train would reasonably take 3 hours, adding the transit time from and to railway station, which makes a draw. To throw in comparisons with prices in Europe, Paris to Marseilles (800 km = 500 miles) would take about 8 hours by car. Return cost for gas and toll would be 315 Euros (as calculated by mappy.fr) Otoh we could expect return high speed train ticket price to be around 200 Euros for 3 hours journey time. Taking the train is definitely interesting for one person, while for 2, driving is a bit cheaper if we don't count extra cost (dining), while the difference between 3 hours train and 8 hours drive is a matter of personal tastes.
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