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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
While this board likes to bash the SUV, there are very logical reasons to own one. The obvious is comfort and roominess. Also the ease of getting in and out is much better than the average full size sedan. Forget the econobox which requires a masochistic contortion of the body to get in or out. Now the main reason. As our infrastructure in this country deteriorates as it currently is doing. If you travel off the main highways or Interstates you will find a lot of potholes and bad roads. The SUV is your best bet for our future roads. If you can afford a diesel SUV it will give you close to the same mileage as a small sedan. No doubt the econobox wins the prize for pure economy. That is one point for, 4 points against. A nice SUV is a no brainer, unless gas goes back up in price. Better get that SUV while they are being discounted heavily. They will be tough to find when the roads all go to hell. 
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Replying to: gagrice (Oct 15, 2008 3:52 pm)  Comfort = poor handling Roominess = limited maneuverability downtown My car requires nothing anything like a "masochistic contortion of the body to get in or out", and it's a subcompact. The other car is a compact, no masochism going on there either. So I think you have to agree your remarks are very POV-centric. Now you may have a point regarding the really awful roads we have in the States, especially in totally negligent California. But I'm not going to be buying something with all those disadvantages just so I don't have to drive around potholes. And I should add that I am most encouraged to see the massive project California has undertaken this year to repave almost every bad mile of I-80 between the Bay Area and the Nevada border. It has gone very quickly, and driving on the new pavement is like driving on glass. The resurfacing has not only gone very quickly, but has also been of high quality. Some of the parts over the Sierra are going to take longer to finish, but maybe they are going to turn this thing around in the next couple of years, and make all the roads passable again....
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Replying to: nippononly (Oct 15, 2008 10:20 pm) Roominess = limited maneuverability downtown There are many SUVs that handle quite nicely. Even my porky Sequoia is better than our old Lexus. Much easier to get in and out of than the LS400 also. I will concede that parallel parking downtown is more of a challenge especially when I had the Suburban. If I was so unfortunate to be living in the city, I would probably buy a smaller car. Of all the small ones I have driven or ridden in the VW Jetta, Passat & Beetle have the best head room. The Civic was poor for headroom. We thought the older Scion Xb would be a good runabout and quite roomy. They were way over priced and the new one is just plain ugly. The Yaris was noisy and not at all comfortable. Maybe some EV will come along that I just have to have. Until then we will keep watching for a diesel SUV to fill all our desire for a cross country vehicle. Watch out for the potholes. |
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- as Bob Marley said. I think there's some truth in the following. The message may be that NO ONE has a good grasp on what will happen next month or 3 months from now, but it's very unlikely that we're going to be in an extreme situation. http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/investors-rush-apocalypse/story.aspx?guid=- %7BD4A9135C%2D53B0%2D4048%2D8523%2D58849C6128FB%7D&dist=TNMostRead |
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Replying to: mivadar (Oct 15, 2008 12:09 pm) I have no idea why you wouldn't! I wouldn't mind commuting on the bridge of the Enterprise or a SuperStarDestroyer!  Or maybe a Transformer (are they powered by anti-matter?) is more practical.
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Replying to: gagrice (Oct 15, 2008 3:52 pm) With the soon to arrive $2 gas I may get two, one to go fill-up with super cheap gas and the other to just let idle in my driveway to help stop global cooling.  Seriously though, if you want the best of both worlds get something like a Mitsu Outlander. Handles well and isn't too bad on gas. I'm not a SUV guy (would get a truck first) but if I was in the market I would be buying yesterday.
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Replying to: oldfarmer50 (Oct 16, 2008 6:37 am) Large SUVs from MB and BMW are in positive territory. So I guess I am not alone in my vehicle preference. I will just keep my gas guzzling Sequoia if a suitable diesel does not suit my fancy.
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Replying to: lemmer (Oct 15, 2008 1:39 pm) That explains a bit . In Europe mostly 95 (headline - RON apparently) is "regular" and 98 is "super" - some pumps deliver 99 or 100 as "super". There was 91 fuel in the late '80s, but 85-87 octane fuel I only knew as a legend from good ol' times when my dad used to fill it in our old East German Wartburg (until early '70s). Thus I was a bit confused. |
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High fuel prices worried everyone early this year and 6 to 8 dollar gas was predicted by every talking head you watched on TV. Like everyone else I was more worried by the falling housing market and how high fuel prices would effect everything else I bought. I had more cars than I needed so I sold off all but my GMC 2500 and my old Pontiac 4 banger. I put my mountain home up for sale and moved to the desert where our place is paid for. The good part was my house was priced right and it sold quickly. I didn't make a killing on it but I could pay every thing I owed money on off. Still there was the price of gas. Then someone took offense to my GMC and set it on fire destroying my truck and killing my dog. Not a happy day. Because of the fuel prices I thought about getting something small like and Edge or even a Outback. But I wanted to travel and I wanted to have a travel trailer so I compromised and got a Tahoe. Used but with low miles and because of the fuel prices it was a very good deal. I decided to get a bicycle for doing light errands around town and ended up joining a bicycle club. I am now losing weight and my doctor is happier than he has been in 15 years. I don't use the Tahoe much unless we are taking an trip out of the state so my fuel useage has dropped by maybe 50 to 60 percent. The Pontiac only get about 25 to26 MPG but it only get gas once every three weeks. we now save up for vacations and plan how much we think we will spend and make sure we have the cash in the bank to take the trip. We decide to take another trip to Colorado this October, I am posting from the camp site as I type. We left California paying $3.58 a gallon. Got hit with a higher price in Needles a bit over $4.00. I had budgeted for $4,00 a gallon. Arizona was $3.48. New Mexico was $3.38. And as we got to Pueblo Colorado a Pilot station was selling gas for $2.99. The stock market may be taking a dive but oil is dropping to less than 90 bucks a barrel. I was thrilled. In Colorado Springs gas at a Chevron on Monday was $3.11 and in Canyon City on Tuesday it was $3.07. If this continues I will have spent far less on gas and bought far more in souveneres. I plan on spending the day at the Garden Of the Gods today and who know were we will go tomorrow. So the good news is my vacation and my choices haven't hurt me as much as I thought and I over reacted. The other good news is the prices of some of these little econo boxes should drop. The bad news is I still haven't found a small EV for around town, I have been looking for a used GEM I can get a deal on so I can pay cash. The Ugly news is the economy is a mess and those of us who took time to protect ourselves will have to bail out those who didn't. But that is life and I would still have done pretty much what I did so why complain?
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Replying to: boaz47 (Oct 16, 2008 7:45 am) The good news we share is probably happening to hundreds if not thousands of other people across the USA and maybe the world. This is my worry about lower prices. How many people like you and me will "revert" back to their wasteful ways and park the bike now that prices are coming down? How many potential heart attacks or early deaths were prevented or postponed which will now get back on track if people park the bike? This is just one of the many ways that lower prices are NOT good for us.
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