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Automotive News & Views How does gas at $4 and higher impact you?
2183 messages, Last post on Nov 21, 2009 at 5:13 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: larsb (Oct 14, 2008 10:42 am) Lutz is not exactly impartial. "that would be really bad" means for General Motors. 2 years ago he was perfectly willing to sell you a 400+ hp SUV.
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Replying to: explorerx4 (Oct 14, 2008 12:59 pm) There is no guarantee that GM will make money from the Volt, and the car certainly won't be profitable enough to save the entire company. Even if gasoline prices drop, the real estate bust and resulting credit crunch mean that many people who were financing their SUVs with home equity lines of credit are now shut out of the market. So even if gasoline drops back to $2 a gallon, GM is still in big trouble, and the likelihood that the company will declare bankruptcy remains quite high. |
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Replying to: explorerx4 (Oct 14, 2008 12:59 pm) I'm pretty certain that when he said "bad for us" he meant "the COLLECTIVE us" and not just bad for GM. |
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Replying to: larsb (Oct 14, 2008 1:15 pm) it's ok with me if he gives you the warm fuzzies.
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Replying to: explorerx4 (Oct 14, 2008 2:12 pm) No one (not any one) expected the current gas price situation/SUV Glut and the fairly rapid death of the SUV Era. You would have had to have been really lucky or had a crystal ball to foresee this reality.
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Replying to: larsb (Oct 14, 2008 2:17 pm) |
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Replying to: larsb (Oct 14, 2008 9:24 am) Is that like the 27% drop in oil prices that you predicted would never happen? Is 47% more than 27%? COME ON $2 GAS!
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I never thought I would say that $2.65 gas was a bargain but times they do change.I have been driving since 1969 when "Ethyl" was .27 a gallon and in all those years and miles I have never wanted to own a gas guzzler for my transportation needs but have had a few racecars that got 8-10 mpg at the track.I still don't understand why anyone would want an suv the size of a barge because of the purchase price and the feeding cost and something else I noticed is when gas was at $4 these people in the suv's never slowed with most traffic at the time if anything they sped up a bit.But we as a people will have to drive smaller cars and pickups , adjust our driving style to conserve and settle for a bit less comfort just like the drivers all over the world have for many years. In England and Europe and Japan they would love to see $3 a gallon gas. I still remember riding a Schwinn when I was a kid and let me tell you I would rather drive anything that will start with a key, how about you guys? 
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Replying to: gagrice (Oct 13, 2008 6:42 pm) " So Venezuela has poor crude as does Iran? " Yah, it's really crappy, don't know if it's more sulpherous than Iran, but it's up there. They should have invested in at least four refineries to match the older four they have, but revolutions cost. Most agreed on the old production methods of the USSR. Good production lost forever. Putin trying quite sucessfully to bring back the bad old days. Btw, the former Ceo of Gazprom was Demitry, the assistant to Vlad is Demitry's underling at Gazprom . All for us none for them ! What a slow learning curve. Glad you are happy where you are for your wife's money. Technically there was this S&P 500 number that should not have been violated at 1167. Doing so transformed us from a cyclical bear ( short) to a secular bear ( longer). Why I was agonizing so much when the bill was in congress. That one week really screwed the pooch as the astronauts used to say. Never let financial hysteria take root, it will cost ya. As Pogo used to say, we have met the enemy and he is us. I really think Bernanke explained the risks to congress but they chose to grandstand, thinking that the main st, wall st garbage would vindicate them, stance -wise. The RTC was passed for 500 billion but only cost $140 billion. This one will cost the 700b +++, wtg congress, earmark that. Never try to teach economics to a politician as never try to teach a pig to sing, it 's futile and frustrates the pig. Oh well, nothing that trillions of global money can't fix. Note to all politicians, as if you would ever learn. Kind , encouraging words only to a system based on trust and confidence. Also when the rest of the world is holding the debt you used to finance your lifestyle ( Nutshell, inside explanation). Best say nothing. Clowns to the left of us, Jokers to the right. On the bright side, cheap gas later, mid to low 2's in '09. From George Will's column, quote from Sinclair Lewis " Babbitt (1922) " His name was George F. Babbitt. He was 46 years old now, in April 1920, and he made nothing in particular, neither butter nor shoes nor poetry, but he was nimble in the calling of selling houses for more than people could afford to pay ". " |
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The value of gas depends on individual circumstances. High priced gas drives innovation and alternative transportation development. Maybe this transition period we are going through in prices is a wake up call. It will affect my next purchase, new or used, even if there is a steady downward trend to $2.25 over the next 3 years. I got my wake up call 8 years ago when gas went to 1.53 in Clinton's last year. Gas went back down to 1.30, and the next year I bought a guzzler (19 on a trip). I always get blindsided and with 10k miles on my V8, I had to start driving to a new 50 mile away job. Used to be 10 miles to the job I had for a long time. During those 100 mile a day commutes, gas shot from 1.60 to 3.00 and more. I was forced to do something about it. Efficiency doesn't have to be a new 4 cyl car but that is the most common choice. I didn't want to get rid of my V8 because it has so low miles and it was the most expensive vehicle I had ever bought new. I got a used car that averaged 27.5 mpg and I drove it into the ground while the truck sat in the garage. The 27.5 was OK until gas crossed 2.50. That's when my gas bill hit 500 a month. That amount of pain forced me to start getting serious about making a change. Since then, the truck has sat around even more, especially when gas was 4.19 FOR A COUPLE WEEKS. I'm hoping for $2 gas to increase my use of my truck. Gas by me is down by 36% to 2.65 and it will only take 15.5% more drop to get to $2. (Percents Based on $4.19 peak). I liked where we were in 2004-5 with $2 gas except for hurricane season. The country was doing good.
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