I never understood why gas stations increase prices in increments of at least a few pennies a day, and drop a penny over two weeks. AND drive for 10 min. (locally) to an exact brand name of gas as the one few min. from home and pay 20 cents less per gallon.

Man, I want this guy for president !!!!

I wish I could meet him and shake his hand: I agree with everything he says and I admire the way he said it, directly to the point !

He’s exactly right! Gas CAN be cheaper but the Gas People just want money and are using the war as an excuse.

Vines for president!

wow – an auto exec finally points out the truth! I wondered how long the US would be saddled with bad diesel fuel and out of date mileage standards before an automaker spoke out against the oil lobby.

It’s very nice to hear such frankness! If only more people in the public eye spoke like him. I look forward to hearing more of Mr. Vines in the future!

PS: I love that picture of Lee Raymond. His double chin is so big that it’s oozing off of the picture. I really think it complements his image.

I call a gas strike!! we should ban together and have a national day or two where we don’t by gas…

…I agree with you on that one, Im just happy I dont live in the country anymore so I dont have to drive as much…but a gas strike sounds good.

Something that every American has known, but doesn’t do sqaut about it. We are like sheep. As long as we have our beer and reality TV we are happy.

yeah…let’s have a gas strike and watch the world stand still…it isn’t happening. What really needs to be done is legislation putting caps on things like exec benefits relative to the rest of the company, etc. and to open up the oil market so its not two bullies pushing us around.

The Oil Companies are cheats and deceivers! Remember last summer…. $3+ a gallon and they were crying they had no oil and it cost them sooo much money to buy barrels and refine it and Katrina and all of that struck…..then what do they do at the end of 2005….POST BILLIONS OF DOLLARS in profits!!!! I WANT A REFUND!!

Let’s reserve next Wednesday for the gas strike.

I need to fly to Nigeria on Monday to collect a $10 million bounty from a prince who lives there. I’m helping him deposit money into my US bank account, and I may get delayed at the airport.

Seriously, who cares what Chrysler’s PR guy says. Although it’s true that the US oil cartel are greedy plutocrat b*stards, he’s just trying deflecting blame from Detroit’s own lack of environmental commitment.

Meanwhile, the only people with power over the oil industry, the Bush administration and Congressional Republicans, blocked a $5 billion windfall profits tax on the oil industry, and even gave the industry an extra $7 billion in tax subsidies.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060214/ZNYT01/602140418/1001/BUSINESS

That $40 for every American.

Gas strikes don’t work. You’re just throwing a tantrum, and you’ll be back begging for gas the next day, plus extra gas because you didn’t get gas yesterday.

What would work is Congressional legislation mandating all gas stations carry E85. Plus more legislation to make the oil business as mind boggling as the medical business, so that Congress can fine the oil companies over and over for violating some obscure laws.
We’ll just have to wait until the US Congress sees it as a big enough problem. It’s not a problem yet, as other countries have $6/gallon gas.

It would not be of any suprise if any postings to this website that support Jason Vines and his comments were made by those working in his PR/Communications staff; he has several times made suggestions to the staff to post positive comments on various websites for support.

Gas prices soar at any sign of a hiccup in the oil industry, but do they come down at a similar speed? Never! Which means they have no technological efficiencies to enable price reductions. Mr. Vines is right to call them out on this.

The bottom line is that we need to start using E85 NOW! The oil companies need to be pro-active in transforming todays stations towards E85, the same way it was done from lead to unleaded gas. It’s a win/win situation– less dependency on foriegn oil, more crops to grow for American farmers. The technology is here both with the automotive and the gas companies. They need to quit talking and start acting quickly before foriegn oil completely take control of the US economy!

Well here is how I see it.

I can see why the big three are upset with the oil companies. The high fuel cost are taking sales away from their cash cow. The s.u.v’s which may I say are way over priced. So I say to the big three get with the program. Build fuel efficient vehicles at a reasonable price. By the way I have been saying for years that one day car payments would cost just as much as your mortgage payment on the house. Need I say more.

Here is the answer to affordable tranportation. Cut your use of fuel comsumption and delay your car purchases. It’s economics. Suppply and demand.

I am not a union worker wish I was I would make alot more money. With that said quit blaming the union for all of the problems in the auto industry. The way I see it. The blame is 50% union and 50% management. Also quit blaming all the automotive problems on the foreign manufactures they are not the ones that created all these problems. Actually at the moment they are creating jobs. In the past money was just thrown every which way. I cannot believe that no one saw these problems coming.It’s unbelievable the rate of excutive pay being handed out. Sorry no one is worth $ 1,000,000.00 a year. I cannot understand how these excutives can get up in the morning and look at themselves in the mirror.

On a closing note. To GM and Chrysler. Don’t bother building your new Camaro or Challenger if you cannot make it affordable. I have been a GM supporter for many years. I did not buy your 2002 Camaro because it was over priced. As much as I like the new Camaro I will not buy that either if it’s over price.

I thought that I would take the time to write this. I don’t expect that anybody would take this seriously. Twenty years ago when I predicted that the auto industry would be in trouble everyone thought yeah right. So here we are with the auto industry in trouble. Interesting.

Rob

Jason Vines is quite correct when it comes to investing in technologies. What has the oil cartel done? Nothing comes to mind. What we forget and lose site of are all of the technologies that our big three have been forced to develop over the past 3 decades. Most recently, the Firestone tire debacle… now all vehicles need to be equiped with tire pressure monitoring systems. The crumple zones, the bumpers, the air bags, the seat belts, and MOST importantly, the emmisions. We need to give the big three credit in that they have stuck with all of the emmission requirements put forth and have still managed to create engines that have enormous horsepower and improved fuel economy.

In the end, it’s all of our faults. This is a capitalist market. The easy response is to cap or tax or artificially alter the way the market moves. And that my friends is communism. I am all for the free market. There is nothing stopping us from investing in new technologies. Necessity is the mother of invention and I for one am excited to see what is born out of this necessity.

I would love to see GM, Ford, and Chrysler band together to invest and develop the E85 technology enough to make it a viable soultion. Could you imagine the pride and nationalism that would result in that project? They would be back in the hearts of Americans in no time and sales would be huge. What’s happening is they each are trying to develop something in a bubble to comete against eachother and the Japanese. This is a bigger problem than that. An oil rig off the coast costs $5 Billion+ to develop and build. How much land and equipment could a company purchase with $5Bil and create ethanol? Jeeze louise that’s alot of ethanol!

I don’t know how and I don’t know when but the folks who run the oil companies will get theirs. They are ruining the livleyhood and life long experiences of many because of their greed. New purchases, vacations, a lot of “the little things” that parents like to do for their families are all being put off so that we can afford to fill up our tanks to get back & forth to work.
Thanks….aholes.

Right on!! It’s about time someone with enough clout said what we’ve all been thinking. Whenever I fill up with gas, I say to the person I have to pay either “Raped at the pump again” or “Another contribuiton to legalized robbery.”

Exxon’s website says that it cost’s .48 cents per gallon to produce a gallon of gasoline. I paid $2.679 a gallon yesterday to fill up, so let them explain who is profiting from the other $2.199 per gallon? Exxon of course, judging from their profits last year.

I work in the food industry. If the good industry didn’t keep up with the demand for food, we would all be hungry. The oil industry apparently refuses to keep up with the demand when the shutdown of a plant somewhere can drive the price of gasoline up. They have an excuse every time the price is increased…we’re changing to our winter blend, our summer blend, the driving season has started, Katrina shut down part of our refining capacity, some oil executive stubbed his big toe.

We all need to be screaming at the oil companies. The oil companies need to be investigated NOW.

Don’t let anyone tell you our gas prices need to be higher because other countries are higher. One thing I do believe from Exxon has to do with the price of gasoline in other countries. Go to this link to see it: http://www2.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/Files/Corporate/OpEd_fuelforthought.pdf

The price per gallon of gasoline is pretty stable world wide, it’s just that other countries rape their people with gasoline taxes. Roughly about 15% of what we pay is in taxes. In England it’s 67%, Italy it’s 65%, Germany it’s 65%, France about 60%, Spain about 55%, Japan about 50% and so on. Don’t let anyone tell you we should match what the other countries are paying.

Well said Jim.
It always amazes me when someone from this country, an American, is ready to throw something away just because somewhere elese in the world has it worse off. They have it worse off because they didn’t stand up to their respective governments to stop it when it was happening. For us, it is happening right now, and we need to stand up or we WILL be in the same boat as our European and Asian counterparts.

Are there any organizations making an effort to expose big oil over these things? I was pretty ticked off when the Katrina surge occured, and the current surge seems to be even more unwarranted.

[...] Chrysler slams Big Oil for cheating consumers. [...]

MA Bell had to break up, why not big oil companies? They are quick to blame the automotive companies but what about home heating oil? Who are they going to blame?

One company PROFITTED $36 BILLION last year. Yet, every time something happens, prices go up.
“Katrina”
“Rita”
“A spotted owl lost its home in Oregon”
“I have an odd amount of billions in my bank”
“I want to laugh harder at the people”
“I hate the old bat that lives next door so I want her to freeze to death”

“Blah, Blah, Blah”

Let’s keep the comments up and send them to Washington. Wait a minute: can’t do that! THEY have investments in “Big Oil”.

Oh Superman! Where are you?!

GM and Chrysler, are you listening? Don’t build a new muscle car, because Rob White can’t afford it. Likewise, please close down your Saab, Mercedes, Hummer, and Cadillac divisions for the same reason.

Bravo Jason Vines. But why don’t we also make the obvious connection between oil company greed and an enabling administration in DC? There’s a reason that oil and drug companies are swimming in profits while raping the consumer — because W and his cronies encourage this selfish, irresponsible behavior. Please stop giving the rest of us in corporate America a bad name.

While he is correct and I agree with him, this is only happening because they are moving fewer Hemis.

Blame our politicians for allowing the large oil companies to merge. With fat profits & little competition, the oil companies have no reason to add capacity or lower prices to retain market share.
So the mantra of allowing the free market to correct the oil problem does not truly apply.

Mr Jimothy

Let me clarify something for you. First I happen to support all of the big three. I drive a Chrysler LHS, my wife drives a Ford Contour and I happen to have a vintage Camaro in the garage which by the way likes to burn fuel. smile.

My point is this. There are two ways of making a profit. One is to mass produce and make a profit on volume or price high and make a profit on low volume. Sure the Mustang is helping Ford out but it is not a cure for their problems.

Maybe you happen to be one of the few that can afford or is willing to pay the inflated price for a vehicle and that is good. We need people like yourself to keep the economy going. But your average person probably cannot afford these inflated prices. So the solution is obvious. Make an affordable, fuel effecient auto so most people can afford.

You are only fooling yourself in thinking that there is and infinite fuel supply. Here in Canada I pay roughly $ 4.50 per gallon and closer to $ 5.10 per gallon for the Camaro. If you want to play you have to pay. The solution to high fuel cost. Buy a smaller affordable car.

All of you folks – including this double wattled, Chrysler clown – who are pointing fingers at “big oil” are delusional. If you want to look for someone to blame over the high price of gasoline then go look in a mirror. America had it’s chance to kick the oil habit after the Arabs mistakenly imposed their embargo in ‘72. We blew it then and we now have nobody to blame but ourselves now.

The US consumer went nuts with fear in ‘72 and demanded the country get off oil. Carter was elected and correctly begain to fund many new technologies. Then the Arabs got wise and decreased the price again. Cheap oil flooded the market. Carter was defeated along with all of his conservation efforts and new energy source research. Americans fell back to doing the easiest, and cheapest thing – continue to buy oil by the boatload from the nefarious oil pushers of the Middle East who soon recognized that a fat and satisfied American oil addict was worth keeping by all means.

The greedy 80s and SUV gas hog filled 90s continued to see cheap and plentiful imported oil and a complacient, completely addicted American public who had lots of cash and a major “what me worry?” attitude.

Enter the 21st century and the rise of the Chineese middle class and a rapidly expanding consumer market that is BILLIONS strong causing a worldwide competition for oil and a subsequent rise in oil prices that the Arabs could no longer control. America elects a bumbling former oil executive for President, starts a war in Iraq for oil and continues to have it head up it’s collective butt until gas hit’s $2 a gallon and now shows no signs of stopping it’s steep climb to $3 and beyond. And you fools are pointing fingers at big oil or the auto makers?? What a bunch of loosers! Admitting our oil addiction is the first step in overcoming it!

We are the problem. If you want to stop the steep climb in oil prices then stop trying to keep up with the Jones’ and buying these 13mpg behemouth SUVs to drive to the grocery. Start conserving. Demand more and convient public transportation. Buy only high mpg, alternative fueled vehicles. Get your fat butts out of that fat SUV and walk or bicycle. Demand effective political leadership and elect leaders who will help move this country off it’s addiction to oil instead of starting wars to get more. We clearly have no one to blame but our affluent and apathetic selves for $3+/gallon gas…

We may be the problem but pointing fingers at ourselves isn’t going to solve the problem either. Instead we need effective leadership and action to mandate real and effective conservation. Otherwise sustainability and our lifestyle (which we go to war to protect) will be adversely compromised.

Of course Vines is going to poke at the energy sector because without less expensive fuel he can’t sell what he’s building or what he’s making the most profit on. For that I can’t blame him. But if you’re truly upset at the cost of energy and the massive profits fueled by our insatiable demand for cheap gas then do yourself a favour and buy stock in the energy sector. Be an owner, not a loaner and take control of the situation for your own benefit. Stop crying that gas is going to be $3+ this summer because it’ll be even more later. It’s inevitable due to the nature of the oil/energy business.

The cost to fill up a gas guzzler is becoming a tax on lifestyle. So if you use less you pay less. And the nature of competition is such that if the big three either don’t or can’t produce vehicles that people buy then they have problems. Gas prices affect the car buying public and obviously the big three where a lot of profit is concentrated in SUVs. No wonder Vines is sounding off.

And he’ll say just about anything to get people focused on Big Oil rather than the inherent responsibility to produce cars that are not only desirable but less harmful to the environment which includes overall efficiency. The fact is that Big Oil spends billions searching for new oil resources every year and the cost of exploration is increasing as the easily exploitable resources diminish.

Big Oil is always going to be blamed yet some of them (Shell, BP) are investing huge sums in alternative energy such as solar power, particularly PVs. Big Oil is transforming (slowly) from Big Oil to Big Energy. They are making sizable profits today – profits everyone can take advantage of if they invest.

Just one point.

Japanese, European, and Korean auto companies get funding from thier government to expand fuel economy improvements, create new technology etc. I actually travelled to Korear in 1996 as a college student on moeny funded by the Korean government to help thier students learn about how to build Formula SAE cars. Thier government was funding Auto research for ONE college to the tune of $5 billion dollars / year.

Now, our government funds big oil and subsidizes barrel prices etc in the name of controlling demand in order to save ourselves from ourselves demanding too much oil, while at the same time keeping our own oil in stores for “emergency”. Bush, sorry, “Dubya” and his chronies work hand in hand with foreign oil suppliers — aka, the Bin Laden family, from which comes Osama Bin Laden (hmmm strange connection there). To keep oil demand up, and “control” the foreign oil, after 9/11 Bush sent troops over to Iraq (WTF?), supposedly to find Osama, no wait, I mean, WMD and take down Saddam Hussein (WTF again?) spending an assumed $50 Billion for the campaign. Which, by the way, now has cost a total of $368 Billion DOLLARS to date! Yet, Bush, “Cannot make your automakers profitable” How about just taking that little war chest treasury money spent creating MORE chaos in Iraq than when Hussein was in power, and spending it on Automotive reasearch, alternative energy research, and leave teh F#&^*$NG Middle East to rot in thier oil reserves forever! Look what the Koreans have done with $5 billion/year for the last ten years (which is only $50 Billion) They are knocking down the Japanese after taking out the Americans. If only American had enough nationalistic pride to see past individual needs, getting fat and rich, and soaking in oil to vote those war dollars to national progress, similar to teh Japanese, Koreans, and Europeans. Like our great grandfathers did when building all the things we enjoy and spoil.