I don't know it is just me noticing this, but as gas prices get higher, it seems that people still don't care!! You see people complaining about gas prices, but people are still driving their hummers, escalades, and giant trucks, when they don't need them!! It bothers me so much!!

 

For some they can afford to pay it, and for some thats the only mode of transportation the know or own. I care, it almost cost me $40 to fill up last night. I will be riding a bike in the rain before I pay $5 a gallon though. **** you oil companies

 

americans see driving as a need, and cut back the spending at walmart instead? total wag!

 

people think taking 1 min less showers and using grocery bags instead of plastic/paper will save the world

but then after they go shopping they jump into their Hummer H3 and drive off lol

the gas prices have also affected my interest to buy another s2000 and also get a supercharger for the Fit

-Ricky

 

Many of the people driving those vehicles can't get out of them. Values of large SUVs are 10-12k back of Kelly/nada trade value. if you owed 28k on a Tahoe and it was worth 15k would you take the loss??? 13k buys a lot of gas you can't typically carry that much negative equity so you need to come up with 6-8k cash down. They are just stuck

 

I care! I am one of those people, by the way.

I bought a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee (with a 4.7 V8--about 16mpg) back in 2002. To be fair though, I only lived 2 miles from work, and gas was about $1.30 or so... (I rode my bicycle a lot to work then!)


Now... with gas at $3.70, and living 24 miles from work (the real estate around DC was CRAZY 5 years ago...) I am hurting so much! Granted, I drive my wife's 2005 Corolla EVERY CHANCE I GET, but I still have to drive the Jeep up to work once or twice a week, and I HATE EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!


If it weren't for the redesigned 2009's, I'd be in a Fit already. I just need to test drive one before I buy! It's all good--my wife is done with Spring classes now, so I will be able to drive the Corolla a lot this summer, plus she is going out of town for 3 weeks in July--it's all mine then!

 

They care. They can't do anything about it.
One reason is the bill's not due yet. 70% of gas buyers use a credit card and the bill won't come til June. I look for a drop in GDP in July. (gross doestic products)
Another reason is people know they can't do a thing about it and so they buy less food, eat out less, and make do with what they have.
The people that own Expeditions, Hummers, and Escalades aren' as sensitive to gas prices; hence they just treat it as another annoyance. Like someone else said they are stuck with them cause nobody, including dealers, will buy them. Most are totally 'upside down', meaning they owe a lot more than they are worth.
But like the housing collarse, look for lender's having to reclaim cars payments not made on. The owner's can't afford the gas and the payments on second cars just to keep the primary car going.

 

It's the same hot air going on in Congress right now. They are "grilling" oil executives as to why prices are so high and why they are making so much money while people suffer. Ummm yeah end result is going to be the same as the last few times the executives were grilled, NOTHING (except maybe wasted time). Unless the government has the balls to make it illegal for these companies to make a profit, then nothing is going to happen. I say the government needs to grill the manufacturers of cars. Why do you keep making and marketing cars that get 10 miles to the gallon? And dont buy the BS about oh we now have cars that get 10% more. Which sounds good on paper but in reality you are now getting 11mpg, wow, big friggin deal. I actually sat back while watching the Spurs game last night and randomly looked at whatever car ad I saw on TV for the rest of the night. I saw one for the Chevy Aveo. All the rest were still for trucks, SUV's, and the usual groups of Benz's and BMW's that suck gas. The oil companies are clearly not going to do anything if the manufacturers still keep pushing gas hogs. Hell if I was in charge of the oil company I wouldn't, Im in this to make money, if you dont like it, than do something to change the market. So now the big question, does the goverment have the BALLS to actually do something about it? Or do they just sit there and blow smoke to only make it LOOK like they are doing something. From what I have seen the answer is no. It's mostly a PR stunt to make them look better to their voters while not actually getting anything done.

Just my two cents from one night of watching tv...

 

There is a LOT of blame to go around: To Wit:
1. No new refineries built in the last 30 years because of "NIMBY" (Not in MY back yard!")
2. "Boutique" mixes; special gasoline mixes for specific urban areas, so when the supply for that city is low or out, you can't just xfer from another...supply vs. demand.
3. We've been cramming the American way down the throats of other countries for the past 75+ years, now the Russian/Hindus/Chinese are starting to buy/build more cars, and demand more goods & services (There are 700 MILLION middle class Chinese now, 3x the population of the US!!) once again, supply vs. demand! There are Bentley, Rolls Royce, Jauguar, Mercedes, and Porsche & Lexus dearlerships selling LOTS of luxury brands in China!
4. No matter where the oil comes from, it is a commodity and sells on the world market at the world market price, so drilling in Alaska really won't do anything to lower prices.
I could go on, but (IMHO) the BEST thing that we Americans are going to have to learn, is that WE have got to bear the pain and cut back on our wasteful ways, because oil is finite and it IS only going to cost more and more, as there is less and less of it.
'07 VBP Sport 5MT w/ minor appearance & comfort mods!

 

[quote=fittmann;315165]There is a LOT of blame to go around: To Wit:
1. No new refineries built in the last 30 years because of "NIMBY" (Not in MY back yard!")

This is a very small part of it. There have been NO applications for a new crude oil refinery in 26 years. There have been over 40 closings of crude refiners in this same time. This is in part due to more efficient plants, 2 plants doing the work of 3. Part to reduce liability of the older plants land contamination, if you got fid of the land before 1996 the superfund would clean up the land for you. And part to reduce supply to increase prices.

Look at what Exxon said at the share holders meeting in April. No increases in production for the next 7 years to keep profits high. If we all drive Fits then this is fine, but food and more Fits are shipped by truck. Something has to be done for the long haul trucks.

 

I honestly dont look at the prices. I fill up and leave. Granted I only pay around $36 for a full tank so why would I care?

BTW, Ive been told by a few people that work at dealerships that they arent taking V8 trucks and SUV's as trade ins anymore. I can see the reason as they wont sell.
IDK if this is true?

 

While most of what you guys say is right, it just that people are still buying these cars. For instance, hummers. Hummers are made to be driven off-road and there are way better SUVs for the road. Sure some people need it, but i gurantee that only a slim few use them for what they are really made for (at least in South Florida).

 

Wow. The level of general ignorance on display in this thread regarding the reasons for increasing gas prices is absolutely frightening. fittmann comes the closest to reality, but inexplicably assigns blame for point #3 to America rather than to the inevitable growth of economies (and therefore demand for oil) in countries with populations far greater than our own (i.e., China and India.) I suppose the answer would be to cripple their economies so as to keep China and India in greater comparative poverty? C-Fit apparently believes that nobody really needs a vehicle bigger than a Fit. And here's a better solution for FITrunner -- forget the oil companies and car manufacturers and just make it illegal to own or buy anything that doesn't get at least 30mpg in the city. On second thought, why stop at 30mpg. How about 40mpg? That'll teach 'em!

All kidding aside, some of you folks need to go review some basic economic principles, and also start asking why the US government has effectively outlawed exploration and development of our own native oil resources. Demand for oil in this country is higher than ever, but our ability to find and get our own oil has been slowly strangled for decades. We're seeing the consequences now.

 

ya its pretty rediculous, i saw 4 hummers one day and they were all driving fast and crazy, not together but during the day.
let them pay $100 per tank its their fault for being dummies

 

This points out something important - not only are people not parking their SUVs, but people seem to have a real disconnect with speeding resulting in poorer mileage.

Half my commute to work is on a four lane divided highway in the Poconos of NE Pennsylvania. The road is winding, up and down, and is posted for 55 mph. The average speed is easily 65 mph with lots of vehicles moving along at 75+. Someone a few weeks back was doing 80+ mph in his Prius...

When I started this trip two years back - I kept up with everyone and was getting around @38 mpg at around 65 to 70 mph. I slowed down to average 60 mph and my mileage jumped to average @42 mpg.

Annoyed when you get behind me - that is what that left hand lane is for...

 

I was NOT blaming America for point #3, I was intending to convey the fact that the other world countries study/dream/want all things American, because the "American way" is one of our biggest exports. I stated that "the Russian/Hindus/Chinese are starting to buy/build more cars, and demand more goods & services (There are 700 MILLION middle class Chinese now, 3x the population of the US!!) once again, supply vs. demand"

 

Ahem, I work for an "oil" company. Techinically, I produce natural gas. The company I work for produces about 150MMCF/D or 150 Million Cubic Feet Per day of Natural gas. And I alone am responsible for about 5,000MCF/D, or 5,000,000 Cubic feet of gas per day.

The fact is, the U.S. doesnt have abundant resourses of oil. Out of the hundreds of thousands of wells in the San Juan basin, they are primarily all gas wells, where oil is just a by-product. It is a well known fact that Saudi Arabia has the abundance of the resource. We therefore have no control over the pricing that they put on their product. Out of all the gasoline stations in the U.S. I believe that Conoco, Phillips, and Mustang stations are the only ones that sell American Oil. Shell, Chevron, plus numerous others all buy the saudi oil. As said before, there is a standard sale price for oil, which means that one company cant have lower prices just because they want to. Also, despite the fact that we can produce our own oil, us Americans like our money, therefore labor, plus materials costs more. This is the exact same reason that most products that are sold in the U.S. are made in China. Cheaper labor plus materials.

Obviously, there are many other oil fields across the country that do make many barrells of oil, but they are extremely expensive to produce. As far as caps on wells being drilled, this is true. My run is in a county called Rio Arriba, and they recently decided to stop all drilling activity in the entire county. The company I work for alone has plans for 40 gas wells to be drilled in this county alone. Why did they do this you ask? They want more taxes from it. This is a huge problem in the prices for everything.

Everyone automatically states how oil and gas companies are reporting record profits, while not looking at how much companies spend on other items that arent reported in their expense files. The gas industry in New mexico alone payes more in taxes in the state of New Mexico, than every single person combined. This payes for schools, roads, buildings, yada yada yada. This is all not to mention donations that are given to non-profit organizations. All donated by choice of the company. They fund places like United Blood services and numerous others.

Furthermore, as everything gets more expensive, operating costs get much higher for us also, and as the government wants more taxes, we have to charge more for our products also. Same way as if a farmer must pay more for grain, ground beef will get more expensive because he can not afford it.

To put things into perspective, the drilling, completion, and construction of a new well is costing nearly $2,000,000. Plus, the state of new Mexico is implementing new rules on how we can dispose of the wastes of drilling, which ill costs us $200,000 more for each well drilled. State Wide, we will be drilling over 60 wells this year alone, that is an extra $30,000,000 in additional costs, just to pull out more resources to help the supply. Obviously, we cant just eat this cost, so the cost of gas will go higher because of this.

This is a huge worry with the upcoming election. Not to get political, but the democratic party automatically has a bulls eye on the industry I work for. The higher they raise the cost of operating, the higher the cost of our product. Not to mention, they want to begin to shut down parts of our operating, which takes away jobs from people. if the government wants to stimulate the economy, don't choose to take hundreds of people and take their jobs away from them.


If I can give any more info, just let me know and I would be happy to. we are always worried about this kind of stuff, so e discuss it a lot, so sometimes when I rant I leave stuff out.

Thanks for reading/listening folks.

Dustin

 

dude, i was shocked to discover that as i started traveling internationally the last 3 years. it's true.

oil prices are up, and us dollars are down...

 

You all forgot to blame the speculators for driving up prices, there's no control over oil trading, and it's oil traders creating an artificial demand spike. There hasn't been any kind of drastic development in growth in the past few months. The only other reason is the weakening of the $ on the global market.

 

i could care less. 30+mpg on the DD. pffft why complain? let people buy their big cars as daily drivers... the world has a way of getting rid of stupid people. may be gas prices is one of them ;]

there are plenty of options out there. public transportation, multiple cars, bicycles....car pooling. theres no reason for people to complain. be an adult and take care of your situation. the gas companies will continue to rape people, if you let them do it to you, you get what you deserve. banning cars that dont get enough mpg is lame, if you want to have a car that gets under 10mpg go for it...but dont complain if its your daily driver, its your bad choice.

the world will adapt to the prices of gas. why complain about something you have no control over? let it be and make smarter choices.

my 2 cents...