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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: kernick (Oct 12, 2009 9:23 am) I averaged about 450 gallons of oil per year, so at $5.62 per gallon, I was looking at around $2500 per year just to heat the place! I knew the heat pump would make my electric bill go up, but I figured there's no way it would make it shoot up $2500 per year. However, with oil down to around $3.00 per gallon, well that's around $1350 per year. At that point, the savings is a bit more iffy. This past winter, I did have one electric bill that ran around $514 (our electric rates shot up...leave it to me to switch energy sources just as one drops and the other rises.  ) However, this has also been the coldest winter we've had in about 5 years, so if I was still on oil, I probably would've used more than my 450 gal/yr average. I probably made the best choice in the long run, but I was mentally kicking myself for awhile. Anyway, if nothing else, I freed up an average of 450 gallons of oil per year that can now be allocated elsewhere. |
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Replying to: nippononly (Oct 12, 2009 11:45 am) For example if natural gas production were to decrease each of the next 5-10 years what would people do for heat? Some would turn to coal, but for the cleanliness and ease factor many would convert and burn heating oil. In many ways energy is just one big pie-chart. And if we put a lot of windfarms in and produce relatively cheap electricity, then yes that does free-up oil for other uses such as diesel vehicles. Because energy demand keeps going up with population growth we need to use all forms of energy. |
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Replying to: nippononly (Oct 12, 2009 6:47 am)
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Replying to: larsb (Oct 12, 2009 6:59 am)
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Replying to: gagrice (Oct 12, 2009 5:54 pm)  Seems to be quite a few public CNG stations down in Utah on the interstate corridor, mostly for semis. Apparently someone down in Reno has figured out how to generate power from geothermal wells that doesn't require the superheated water that the current ones have. Right now you need 225°F to 360°F water for a "binary" plant (one's in Mammoth CA and there's one at Raft River here in Idaho), or over 360°F for a "flash steam" plant. |
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Replying to: gagrice (Oct 12, 2009 6:12 pm) They are not stripped down with zero luxury options - you can outfit them to the max. Every carmaker needs a "bottom feeder" vehicle. The Fit and Yaris are that car, but they are nowhere NEAR the stripped-down versions of econoboxes you could buy in the 80s and 90s. |
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Replying to: larsb (Oct 13, 2009 6:53 am) So if you think 29 MPG on a Fit is real great I don't know what to tell you. |
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Replying to: gagrice (Oct 13, 2009 4:26 pm) My old 85 Sentra would do 40 mpg on the highway without breaking a sweat. Try that with a current Sentra.
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Replying to: fezo (Oct 13, 2009 5:45 pm) Granted, I don't want to every drive an '86 Escort or anything from '86 again.
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Replying to: fezo (Oct 13, 2009 5:45 pm) My old 85 Sentra would do 40 mpg on the highway without breaking a sweat. Try that with a current Sentra. Believe it or not, a current Sentra is classified as a midsized car! It has 110 combined cubic feet of interior volume (97 passenger/13 trunk), so it barely makes the EPA's cut, of 110-119 cubic feet. The old Sentra was a subcompact, with 95 cubic feet total (84 passenger/11 trunk) The Sentra with an automatic even gets better fuel economy nowadays. 25/33, compared to 23/27. However, in this case the new one has one big advantage, a CVT versus a 3-speed automatic that was probably howling at highway speeds. In stick shift form, the new one isn't quite as good...24/31 versus 26/34. I remember sitting in the current Sentra at the auto shows, and found it to be fairly roomy inside, both front and back. I'm sure I would've found the old one to be horribly cramped. Heck, even the previous generation Sentra seemed like a little torture-box to me. One of my friends had one as a rental a few years back, when his Passat was in the shop. I have a feeling that, in the right conditions, you might be able to get 40 mpg out of a Sentra. Maybe with the a/c off, on level ground, keeping the speed very constant. I was able to get 37.4 out of my uncle's '03 Corolla the one time I tracked it, and have been able to get 32 out of my Intrepid, so I'd think a Sentra should at least get upper 30's with no trouble. I don't think it's the horsepower wars so much that have put a damper on fuel economy, but increased size and weight. Today's cars are often a couple sizes larger than their 1985 namesakes. In 1985, Nissan didn't even make a car as big as a 2009/10 Sentra, at least not in this country. The Stanza was smaller, and even the Maxima was smaller than today's Sentra, albeit heavier. And the Maxima was thirsty enough that the the AT version and the wagon qualified for the clunker bill! |
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