————–>i believe it, 100%……….prices right down the street here in SC almost literally jumped up from like $2.08 to like $2.38 overnight sumtime last week……

Gas hogs and speculators are at it again in the expense of every average Joe.

Why don’t they just shape the pumps like dildo’s. Cuz that’s how theyr’e giving it to us anyways.

If it reaches $5 per gallon, I am _still_ going to buy an Impreza WRX. I may drive around less if the price of fuel gets that bad but I will still enjoy the hell out of my hard earned sports sedan that I’ve been patiently waiting to afford.

Give it a few more years and they’ll probably stop producing cars like it because of the cost of gasoline. After that it’s hello electric cars with short driving range, batteries that won’t hold a charge for very long, low horsepower, no upgradeability and no rear wheel drive.

Unless you have $100,000 to spend, of course.

With rising fuel prices and the growth of other foreign economies (ie: China), I see the gap widening in the USA between those who can only afford and operate cheap, lackluster cars and those who can afford whatever extravagant cars they want.

I’m getting my kicks now while the getting is still good. Even if I have to drive a little less now and then.

We see a hike in oil priice every summer, for various reasons. And for last summer, the price hike was in the context of having oil reserves. If this summer’s hike has no oil reserves to cushion the blow, it’s gonna be one hell of a price hike.

That article is pretty puffy, without much in the way of facts to back up the speculation. Wait and see.

what is it your complaining about? Fuel in the US is still cheap, even at 4 or yet 5 bucks a gallon… german prices just raised to 7,80 a gallon… id be happy as applepie if i only had to pay 4 bucks a gallon, heck, id get a really BAD gas guzzler and keep the engine running all day…

Meh… it’s not that bad thats what were paying in Canada right now.

Welcome to our world you overpollutin’ muthas

guess i don’t have to say let the SUV and truck bashing begin eh?

I’m not bashing, (there’s an ‘86 Blazer next to my S2000 on the driveway), but the US has had years to reform its big, thirsty car habit and it hasn’t shown many signs of really giving a **** until petrol prices started to rise.
I don’t care what the reason is, I’m glad to see petrol prices rising in the US, because one way or another things have to change over there.

grimmage – now you know why the uk have so many in US terms low powered cars ( vast majority are 1.8 to 3 ltr ) and a large percentile are diesel – which odly enough are on the whole now days quicker than their petrol brethern.

thank F we dont have particulate emission laws on our diesel like you guys

re electricv cars we need a change – however as the saudi government own about 50 + of the US in terms of property and share control – you are a long way of oil independancy –

you get rid of oil – the saudi sump us stock – welcome to the 3rd world mate ( ok its not that simple but thats whats behind the slow turn around in oil independancy )

maybe we should have another war – IRAN any one nothing like a good war to progress technology – lol

thank goodness I have a 4 cylinder. still that’s way too high.

Correct. And it should go up to $10!

What’s interesting is hearing all of the europeans complaining about their $7.80/gal gas. Well, in europe, most people don’t have a 25-mile long, stop & go commute to work!

Problem with the US is that is soooooo spread-out!! The increase in gas prices hits everyone, and unfortunately, hits the poor MUCH harder. This is when we’ll start seeing even larger separation of classes, which will only lead to turmoil.

My friends, please don’t let this scare you away from sampling one of the many full size Sport Utility vehicles from our friends at General Motors who each and every day, strive to bring you the biggest, most gracious trucks and SUV’s on the market. You can select from 11 different models and for those who are more well off, may I suggest GM’s brand dedicated to consuming as much fuel as possible… Hummer.

Understand this folks, it is not planet Earth that will pay the bills, do your work, provide for your families, make you satisfied, no. It is a resource, a tool in which we use to survive, not a thing of great importance, not a being of high value. Use it, embrace it and ignore those false consequences. This Earth owes us nothing, it is ripe for the taking so enjoy my friends, drink up for the sake of happiness and gluttony.

Please keep us in mind during your journey. We await your business with open arms and you with open wallets.

And we will still play nice with the Saudis and refuse to take any oil from the reopened Iraqi pipelines and refuse to actually do some drilling in our own backyard because idiot environmentalists think there’s actually anything in places like ANWR. I thought things would change when the Republicans took over, but it turned out they were just as spineless as the Democrats, and now we have the original invertabrate party back in charge. Please sir, may I have another.

BAMF: well said.

I thought the democrats were going to put a stop to the gasraping. LMAO … people fell for that line of BS.
Politicians are all asswipes on the take from big business, no matter what party.

The prices are BS, there’s simply no reason for it. Who cares what prices in Europe are? They’re paying way too much and they know it. It’s one of the only things that’s priced based on what it *might* cost *tomorrow* and it’s total BS.

Political parties can’t do anything about gas prices(unless they stomp all over the constitution, which they actually seem to have no problem doing), but they can alter the direction of our energy policy. The GOP had the right idea when they first took Congress, to open areas to drilling for short-term relief and provide Research & Development grants to energy companies to funnel into alternative power sources, but got too self-absorbed in their own circle-jerking bull**** to actually get anything done. The party out of power always sounds terrific until they get that power and realize that instead of fulfilling all their promises, they can just vote themselves tons of benefits instead. Democrats & Republicans, what’s the difference?

That figure could be revised down. Things change. Wishful thinking out of the way now.

The Gas companies have a hand in this (Duh!). They drag their feet updating and expanding their operations and when they do they deliberately slow down even more when things like “sticky” never minding that Oil is coming in much as always. Some kind of Federal control needs to be put on speculation to stabilize gas prices… more emphasis also needs to be put on better fuel economy. ..

Substituting one gas guzzling SUV for another that gets (shock and awe) only one or two miles to the gallon more is not real progress. What ever happened to hydraulic hybrids, using brake energy and other mechanical energies, to providing launch and passing power to reduce fuel usage. How able building this machines out of lighter materials or better structuring to save weight with compromising safety?

Where are the electric hybrids? Thinking long term, you’d think they’d be much more common than they are.

As for that 500+ hp sports car, Those usually sell to the extremely well heeled who can afford gas well over $3 a gallon. So we average folks can gush over them all we like. Paying at the pump for them isn’t really our problem and there aren’t enough of those out there that they are the problem.

It’s the over abundance of SUVs and Trucks that is the problem. They carry and burn more gas than cars do, even with huge output ratings. Add to this the fact that many cities are Commuter sprawn-scapes where you have to drive twenty minutes just to get to the corner store. You have to drive, and far to get anywhere. Public transit is a joke in most cities, ignoring that no one would want to share a ride with stinking drunks, crack-heads, and thugs looking for a victim.

As for the politics, guess who paid for the Republicans to get into office: Big Oil and Energy, among others determined to rape the planet and be buried in solid gold pyramids. The people and not political tricks got the Democrats elected because they saw the crap the Republicans were doing and wanted better, or at least no more of the same. With such a balanced government dead set on going one way or the other, and more and more Republicans dead set on going down the road of ruin (you can attach any meaning to that you want), Nothing can get done without a lot of unhappy deeds beings done. The President about pork barrel spending is just indicative of just how, I do agree on a case by case basis, spineless some politicians are that they have to be given something extra to do their damn jobs.

Anyway, I do agree that this country needs to redevelop our own energy infrastructure and stop relying so much on other, less that stable, less than friendly nations for our fuel. At least if we drill our own oil, we can call more of the shots. The Government’s time and resource is better spent taking care of the home front anyway rather than stirring up hornets nests aboard. We can still meet our enemies over there, but We elect these guys to think not feel there way through these big problems and do things right not bungle it over and over again like a badly played round of Command and Conquer.

————-whoooaaahh sean, that was a little judgemental there. Dude, u musta never seen a Corvette’s highway fuel economy of 25. Matter of fact, my SRT-4 sip less gass (when driven w/ sense) than my brother’s Mitsu Galant…….and 500x less fuel than my father’s Mercury Moutaineer…….now who said sportscars were gas hogs…….

Can’t wait for those dipsh_ts with their zero down mortgages and cash-back Hummers to get Darwin’d.

Sure… then get everyone to join the redneck party and buy corvettes.

So Blakkarr …. where’s the great benefit of the “balanced government?” I agree the GOP is a disappointing load of wankstains, but I place no confidence in the dems to do a damn bit of good for anyone but themselves. Pols love to lament voter cycnicism and apathy, but they are both too arrogant and too blind to see what is clear: they, their lies, and their insensitivity to their constituents en masse are the direct cause of voter cycnicism and apathy.

Almost everyone agrees that a true well-thought-out national energy policy is necessary for the good of the USA (as well as its survival), but not one pol will let one get thru for political reasons. I dont care if it’s Dubya or Hillary or Pelosi or McCain or Obama – they are all full of absolute **** and will all eventually be the downfall of this country … that along with partisan-voter stupidity.

who cares it’s like 2 bucks a gallon, big deal

actually i take that back, this sucks

Producing long term speculation on a short term supply hiccup, how professional. Than again the Chicken Little, sky is falling sentimentality is one of the hallmarks of the American media.

EPA EPA EPA EPA EPA

EPA will not relax the rules for new refineries !!!!!

Oil drops down and gasoline sqeaks down a few pennies.

Your government, for the people and by the people.

That’s a laugh, the OPEC nations are friendly to no one but themselves.

this is horrible

at least I drive a car that can handle 26mpg for a 1992 model

The Cadillac Sixteen is looking better and better each passing day…fill-er-up!

Richard Head,

I must have misspoke, the our currently “balanced” government, is dead set on going one way AND the other, thusly getting nothing done. Sorry…

I would also believe the the relative betrayal by out elected officials is also in part due to the more than apathy but gross voter indifference and worse a “ballgame” mentality. That is, that people will vote for their favorite team even though all signs point to that team being a bunch of [place preferred explicative here]. We need to really research who it is we are going to be electing.. and for once we will have plenty of time to do just that. More than the Presidency is up for grabs in 2008.

I won’t defend any politician for personal reasons, but let’s be clear, no ONE politician can fix this messed up government of ours forget the country itself. They are all too determined to get their gold and run for the hills with it. I forget where I heard this but isn’t one of the major symptoms of a civilization in decline one where the leaders are not looking out for the people but themselves?

Last time the prices shot up I was at a USA, cheaper than the rest, gas station and there was a suit fulling up his white H2. Now he wants to save money.

Wanted to douse him and his H2 and light a match.

Man you guys who want the gas prices to go up are FREAKS! You do realize that it isn’t just the gas that goes up right? Once companies start feeling the effects they are going to raise the prices of their products to compensate. This affects everyone… even people who don’t own a car because guess what, buses and other forms of mass transportation need… guess what… GAS or DIESEL. You people are probably the kind that like it when taxes go up too. You people make me ill. You can cover me when they go up okay, just forward me your info and I’ll send it to the GOV.

Sure development on more fuel efficient cars is a good thing, I’m not against it at all. The problem is you people think it is something that can be implemented over a weeks time. I’m going out on a limb here but I would think it is safe to say that over half the US population couldn’t afford a new fuel efficent car right now. Think about this too… say everyone could afford one, naturally they would want to sell their old “gas guzzler” because why pay for registration, insurance, GAS/b>. But guess what, no one would want to by them, the value wouldn’t be there, then all of a sudden there are all these “gas guzzlers” sitting around peoples homes. Now that is a waste of resources. See the problem is you people (you know who you are) is that you think you are looking into the future but really you are looking into a skewed one, sort of your personal fantasy if you will. That’s my .02.

Man you guys who want the gas prices to go up are FREAKS! You do realize that it isn’t just the gas that goes up right? Once companies start feeling the effects they are going to raise the prices of their products to compensate. This affects everyone… even people who don’t own a car because guess what, buses and other forms of mass transportation need… guess what… GAS or DIESEL. You people are probably the kind that like it when taxes go up too. You people make me ill. You can cover me when they go up okay, just forward me your info and I’ll send it to the GOV.

Sure development on more fuel efficient cars is a good thing, I’m not against it at all. The problem is you people think it is something that can be implemented over a weeks time. I’m going out on a limb here but I would think it is safe to say that over half the US population couldn’t afford a new fuel efficent car right now. Think about this too… say everyone could afford one, naturally they would want to sell their old “gas guzzler” because why pay for registration, insurance, GAS/b> . But guess what, no one would want to by them, the value wouldn’t be there, then all of a sudden there are all these “gas guzzlers” sitting around peoples homes. Now that is a waste of resources. See the problem is you people (you know who you are) is that you think you are looking into the future but really you are looking into a skewed one, sort of your personal fantasy if you will. That’s my .02.

Formatting goofed on me. Sorry for the double post.

If you trade in this area, you would have seen all of this coming…it’s been out there for some time now. You can make money following Halliburton (no conflict of interest there with the US government).

Since so few people go “off-road” in their SUV’s that they claim to buy for space, I hope we see a surge in new fuel-efficient (hybrid, bio-diesel, lightweight) wagons, which can have just as much storage capacity as SUVs. I mean it’s not like people stack their groceries in the back vertically, you’d crush the eggs!
As for me, my daily driver gets decent mileage, plus I moved 15 minutes from work. I really need a wagon for all the gear but I make do, creatively stacking equipment in the trunk and seats. My Corvette on the other hand, doesn’t get a whole lot of mileage when premium gets near $3.50

Oillnvestor, you really need to come up with a new line. Its almost like you paste and copy everyone of your replies. Its also tiring to here you only go off on GM, which by the way is the most fuel efficient fullsize manufacturer. Believe it or not fullsize trucks have there place. Whats more efficient, a single Suburban taking 9 kids to soccer practice, or the 3 Civics it takes to haul the same number of kids?

Stop your whining … think of a young couple who has had to buy a new home in the last 365 days. Compare the price of a new home to one potentially bought eight years ago … suckers. And we’re talking multiples needed to be paid compared to the increase in gas prices over the same period of time.

With ya 100% Blakkarr – I research who I vote for quite a bit and quite often it pains me to even cast a ballot. It’s one thing (and a damn good thing) to even be able to vote, but it’s only a worthwhile right if there is a good option on the ballot. We’ll see what gives in 08.

Leozug, Mazda RX’s are daily drivers that get horrendous mileage. So are Infiniti G35s, 350Zs, Stangs, 5-series, and whatnot. They don’t get a whole lot better than the 20mpg average I can get from my F150 (with a 5.4 liter).

Regarding all of the anti-SUV/anti-Sports Car, calling us idiots out there.

I own and drive a sports sedan every day. It is my only mode of auto transportation. I will continue to happily guzzle away and pollute my brains out, no matter how high the price goes, and continue to enjoy my performance ride.

If the prices go up for me, they go up for everyone, regardless of your gas mileage, regardless of whether you even drive a car – because higher fuel prices effect the WHOLE economy.

Have a nice day.

“Whats more efficient, a single Suburban taking 9 kids to soccer practice, or the 3 Civics it takes to haul the same number of kids?” Comment by MHW
Kind of depends on the route taken to pick up all 9 of the kids. I hope for the mom’s sake they’re not all from the same family living in the same house. Either way, if there’s a single person out there actually organizing a 9-person carpool to any kind of practice (which I doubt) then I applaud them and would love to see more of that. Normally if you drive past a soccer practice it’s some lady in a Range Rover dropping off one or two kids, which sort of negates the need for all that space.

JUST GET USED TO IT. BUY SMALLER AND LEARN TO PHUKEN LIKE IT!!!!

I’ve had this crazy idea for a long time: Ban all cars from large metropolis, and have instead, city issued bicycles for all able bodied people. They just have to put a deposit down, which gets returned to them after they leave. Commercial trucks can only come in at night. Emergency vehicles are allowed, and there are golf carts for senior citizens and the immobile. You’d save the atmosphere, you’d save gas, you’d save the roads (heavy petroleum), in Manhattan, you’d get to your destination faster, and you get fat Americans healthier again. Plus all the American women will start looking attractive.

You can always spot an American woman outside of America; because she’s usually the obese one.

Ideally what we need is a fuel “efficiency kit” that is a retrofit to most cars out there. I realize there are probably countless combos of engines out there and that this “kit” idea would never take off because of that. Some manufactures are using “lean burn” combustion chambers which might be adaptable to other makes by means of software and possible replacement heads maybe? You could still get a nice tax break and keep your car that you enjoy. Maybe even a retrofit for the displacement on demand.

Bottom line… We are at the mercy of the oil companies & the GOV.

MUJICIAN I hear what you are saying, but public transportation here in San Diego, CA sucks ass. Plus I wouldn’t want to live close to my work because it isn’t in the nicest part of town. Fortunately I drive against traffic which really makes a huge difference in fuel comsumption.

CARnut.

They do have efficiency kits that you are talking about. They operate by hydrolyzing water, and using the hydrogen to make a car run on much leaner fuel mixtures without an decrease in power. They can also operate in the winter by adding alchohol to the mixture.

There is no decrease in power, because a hydrogen flame front spreads faster than just a purely petrol flame front. This allows them to run much leaner mixtures and save on gas.

Some kits will work on cars as new as 2003. What they do is release hydrogen in the air intakee, and have hydrogen concentration sensors fool the oxygen sensors. So, the more hydrogen in the air intake, the more the hydrogen sensors wil tell the oxygen sensors that there is less oxygen in the intake. The ECU of the car will then adjust the fuel mixture accordingly, by lowering the amount of fuel injected into the cylinder to compensate for the “lower” oxygen levels.

So, no modifying of the stock components, just placing an additional component to the already stock system.

I’ll have to dig up the car company, but they were getting 1990-2000 car models with over 60 mpg ratings, some of them over 80.

Here in the UK, it works out at $10/gallon

Deisel anyone?

gas prices in mah town in oregon (not going to say for fear people are out to kill me) just reached $3.09 for regular. I kinda wish we had VW lupos like in europe, that get 50-60mpg. not my mid 90’s camry that gets 30-35mpg. even then it still crunches me because i gotta drive to nearing bigger towns for whatever reason (friends, things to do) so i’d be doing 60-120 miles each time, it all adds up… plus with a sorta broken fuel gauge, DOESNT HELP!

Gasoline stockpiles have been dropping because of the mandatory refinery changeovers that the EPA has mandated for summer blends of gasoline. Refineries can’t put out as much fuel, so guess what, the supply drops. We have been going through this torch dance since 2000, when reformulated gas became commonplace. In 2005, more cities were added to the list requiring RFG. This trading analyst is spouting pure blather. He is trying to spike the price of fuel higher for his clients. Truth is, no one really knows how much fuel there is out there, so it could be misrepresented. As an example, in 2006, we were treated to stories on expected demand, supply, etc, only to find out that the actual demand figures were overstated for both 2005 and 2006. The oil and gasoline speculators are the only ones making a killing off of this crap. The average oil company profit is… get ready… 13 cents per gallon. Not exactly a huge sum given gas prices around 3 bucks.

We’re at just under $3/gal here now. Too bad even with these gas hikes, oil companies will still see “record profits.”

I saw on an infomercial that guy selling an bent piece of **** aluminum (aka The Tornado) that swirls air slightly about a mile upstream of your injectors thereby increasing your mileage 40,000% and solving the world’s energy problems, pollution, global warming, and shutting up fatass Al Gore all in one fell swoop. Rather than charging the 12 cent cost of manufacture, he wants you to buy it for $70 and, instead of a scientific study, some fat lady tells you how her Winnebgo runs like a Lamborghini now.

We all need one of these big time.

The root problem is they allowed all the big oil companies to merge. Example…It shouldn’t be Exxon/Mobil, it should be Exxon versus Mobil.

* No competition to gain market share.
* No incentive to pass along efficiencies.
* No incentive to add capacity.
* No incentive to develop new products & resources.

When we truly have a shortage and pump prices rise, oil companies should have increased cost of the raw crude oil. Their profits should be squeezed in a competitive market, not expanded. This shows competition is not there.

As far as fuel efficiency, as the real price of petrol rises the market (& related products) will fix itself. When we run out I guarantee alternative fuels and ideas will be there. It’s just like power windmills in the 80’s. Low natural gas prices killed them. As it should, the market worked! In the future the trend will reverse.

paying 3.15 in socal right now. blah. I suppose can tell my future grandkids that I remember back when gas was less than 2 bucks back in ‘05.

This may be slightly unrelated, but do you know what would ease the pain of paying for gas? Towing. For some strange reason very few cars are actually rated for towing at least small trailers in the US, yet in Europe I see dozens of 5-Series, Audi station wagons, and VW Passats towing trailers. That would negate the need for a pickup truck or SUV just to go to the hardware store and get some lumber or other objects that wouldn’t normally fit into a car. This is how most people justify buying a pickup or SUV: using it for it’s intended hauling purpose on the weekend and driving it alone to work on the weekdays. It would be easier to have a sedan or station wagon with a tow hitch if one can only afford one vehicle. Whatd’ya think?

OWA:

My ‘95 Grand Marquis is rated for over 5K pounds. Today an ‘06 GM rates about 2K pounds.

Carmakers make you buy the profit filled truck for towing.

Cars in the 50’s – 70’s towed everything.

They had big frames and engines, not tin-can bodies and sewing machine engines.

I would like to see the gas price @ $8.00/Gal…so that all the stupip and useless SUV will disappear!

Obsessedwithautos,

Strangely that makes a bit of sense, how much I don’t know but it does. Back in the day, it was not hard to find anything with four wheels with a trailer hitch. Mostly large cars though, given if it wasn’t a truck.

It is fairly common knowledge that most cars with a similarly powerful engine to a truck will go somewhere between 15-30% further on a gallon of gas than that truck or SUV. Given this adding a degree of tow-worthiness to a car to haul around the occasional grass pallet or big screen TV, or what have you, would be a very good idea.

Certainly you wouldn’t be towing horses or enough material to build a house, but then if you did have that need, go buy a truck.

However Get Real has a point as well. but his POV ignores that people Towing with cars has been done and is still largely done since the 1950’s but you’d be hard pressed to find anything to fit the bill now. GM killed the B-body, FORD’s Panther is over 30 years old, and DCX’s LX platform is not outfitted for that kind of duty.

It wouldn’t be hard to build a properly reinforced car frame that can handle occasional towing but given desires of carmakers to sell trucks in this country, this seems unlikely unless car-tow people speak out.

That said there are other factors that keep people buying trucks and most of them are the fault of those buyers themselves. But slapping a “proof of need” and stiffer gas-guzzler taxes on more Trucks and SUVs (actually at all as the case may be) would at least dent the sells of the wasteful behemoths. Not likely to happen – it infringes on one’s freedom.

So where my freedom not to have to pay $4.00 for a gallon of gas because every other chump out there bought a Full-sized Truck or SUV driving up demand and thusly price? Where’s my freedom not to be half blinded by every truck and SUV whose drivers don’t notice they have their high-beams on, or got those “ultra-brights” meant for off-road use? Where’s my freedom not to have to be stuck behind those rolling blindspots only to find out the jackass was twenty car-lengths behind the next guy and never know it?

I’ll say this once, I hate Truck and SUVs. Freedom? Freedom without responsibility is not freedom. It’s anarchy. The only thing saving us from that is the Law… and that is being eroded every day.

DeanTJ –
You are hilarious and wise.

I don’t own an SUV, but rather a lowly Saturn L Series. To those who want $6.00 plus gasoline, I invite you to take a one way trip to Europe or Japan. Take your idiotic environut views and get the hell out of this country. I’m not a fan of large SUVs, Mercedes automobiles or any other gas guzzling machine, however, I have nothing but contempt for assholes who make my driving expensive. Take your “views” and stuff them in your ass.

WOW, CTS DRIVER! While I cannot agree with your tone (wait, yes I can). I totally agree with what you are saying. All of this is just rediculous.

Geez.

Doesn’t anybody realize that gasoline is made from oil… it doesn’t magically appear at the pump.

And because it’s a manufactured (refined) product, it has to be made somewhere. Somewhere like a friggin’ refinery.

And if we don’t have enough gasoline with all our refineries going full-blast… then we need more refineries to make enough gasoline to meet our needs.

Pretty basic, right?

Not to our government and our EPA. They’ve done nearly everything to make it nigh impossible to build more refineries.

So we can’t make enough gasoline for everyone. Thus the price goes up.

(The price of oil does factor in, but not as much as our lack of production ability.)

…

Frickin’ idiots, our government… that is.

Eurospective -Okay, my statement was screwed up in context, but factually correct. What type of car do you drive, anyway? How many miles per year do you drive? If you have a problem answering that question, you will have problems with your environmentalist firends. They will want to know the anwers to those questions so that they can tell you what you can drive, when you can drive it, and how to drive. For them, a Toyota Prius is good today. Tomorrow it won’t be. Next time it will be something else, . All that until you have no car left. I suspect most people on this forum like to drive cars, even you. In my previous post I was trying to prove that their exact policies, the ones they have “no problems with,” have artificially stimulated gasoline demand higher than it would otherwise be. Enviornmentalists don’t look at the painless ways to reduce fuel consumption. Instead, they want to inconvenience the greatest number of poeple.

I drive an ‘86 Blazer K5, at least that’s the one I tell greenies about. Once they have finished spouting angrily about pollution and consumption, I remind them that in the last 20 years my car has required no raw materials to be extracted from the ground, no power-hungry, polluting factory to construct it, no environmentally disastrous short-lived batteries for its hybrid powertrain and no oil-intensive plastics to be produced to create its interior. I ask them the same questions regarding their last 5 hi-tech low-pollution rides, which they traded their previous hi-tech low-pollution ride in for.
.
Of course that’s not why I bought it, I bought it because I’m on a medium-term contract in the Middle East, petrol is cheap here and I wanted a comical old American truck for a while. I don’t tell them about my S2000 either.

I will start counting the number of Hummer park on the Freeway when the gas reach $3.00. The Gas now is @ $2.59

if you go by people transported per mile (ppm) then an SUV with 8 passengers gets better mileage than a Prius, which holds two. Example: 8 people over 100 miles in the Escalade is equal to 3 round trips plus the final one trip for the prius.. which is 700 miles in the prius.

It all depends on what you’re doing.

Then again, how many people transport 8 people in their Escalades everyday.

Guys listen. I have the solution to wanton purchases of gas guzzlers:

1. Prohibitively tax blink rims. This will elliminate all guys from buying SUVs and pickups for impractical reasons.

2. Tax soccer games practices. This will prohibit moms from buying SUVs too.

But then the next generation of American car buyers will be even fatter than the current one, and they’ll need even bigger cars with more cup holders and folding tables for their trips to the drive-through.

Z:
“if you go by people transported per mile (ppm) then an SUV with 8 passengers gets better mileage than a Prius, which holds two. Example: 8 people over 100 miles in the Escalade is equal to 3 round trips plus the final one trip for the prius.. which is 700 miles in the prius.”

Actually, a Prius comfortably seats 4, 5 in a pinch. Please amend your calculations. Also, as you said how many Escalade drivers do you see with 8 people? Minivans carry 8 more regularly than SUVs do. I rarely carried more than 2 or 3 people in my two Land Cruisers; most of the space was taken up by gear for camping or other activities.

its simple, lets have al gore come to your house in his huge suv and caravan of greenie followers and evaluate your lifestyle.
he can tell you to buy a moped or smart and ditch your suv and truck.

he can get rid of your weedeater and lawnmower and issue you a goat to take care of your lawn. a goat will feed itsself and requires no gas (you can save gas too by not picking up hookers, you now have a goat)

he can issue you a hobby like stamp collecting in odrer to get rid of your dirtbikes,quads,jet skis,waverunners boats and model airplanes.

he can bolt your fireplace shut, the burning of wood is uncontrolled and unmonitered, who know the amount of greenhouse gasses released (al gore does)

he can tell you to buy a house based on the size of your family, a single person gets an apartment, and a family of 5 gets a 1 bedroom house, body heat can keep it warm saving electricity.

everybody is on house arrest until you get a pass explaining why you need to go somewhere other than work or the grocery store. other than to make a living or buy food there is no reason to burn gas.

and finally he can tell us to become vegetarian, eliminating the need to burn gas to cook meat.

with the al gore plan he wont have to worry about the energy it takes to heat his mansion or be driven around in his expedition, you save it all for him.

eurospective, good point home depot can deliver so can most grocery stores, my point is buy a high mileage commuter to commute in, and dont commute to work 75 miles through traffic in a h2. Besides those tiny commuters are really inexpensive, save the huge f350 (all trucks shoul be forced to have some sort of active fuel management system) for truck things. seriously i drive my truck about once a week, my car on the weekends and out to dinner and stuff like that, and commute on a motorcycle. and being unmarried it is easy to uproot and move closer to work. i was at 50 miles now i am at 8miles. i can get back and forth to work for a week on $10 of gas. energy saving starts at home, i hate government involvement in our daily lives but most americans require the government to think for them.

Suthuna – nice post. I disagree on a few minor items, but overall pretty nice. The good thing is that necessity is the mother of invention. We’ll have an alternative soon, and it won’t be battery powered cars.

europerspective – When the English clean up their crummy teeth, Americans will lose weight.

^^^^^^ you know how i wanted to say that earlier, lmao^^^^^

Have you heard about the state of our NHS? The US had better start a corridor-widening programme, ‘cos our teeth aren’t gonna be getting straightened out any time soon (which makes me feel lucky to have a naturally perfect smile in the first place)

Did you write a thesis on nutrition as well Deantj? Get over yourself, and get over me. I don’t need you chasing me like a little puppy piping up with something to prove every time I post here. Besides, if you think cheeseburgers are the reasons Americans are fat, I don’t have the time or patience to school your ass, again.

Boy…talk about not seeing the forest for the trees. This past October, OPEC came out and said there was more oil than they knew what to do with. This past November, gas prices fell precipitously. Why? Plenty of oil, but there were elections (don’t forget, we’ve got an “oil friendly” administration).

So, clearly the refineiries, in support of our oil friendly administration, did their part by lowering gas prices. They still had record profits. Washington sits on their hands when there’s a run-up, though.

I notice no one is talking about where the Iraqi oil is going. Wanna take a bet where? And wanna bet it’s real cheap?

Lessee…plenty of oil. Predictions of $4/gal. Mobil, Exxon, Dutch Petro, BP….all of them are priming the pump for the runnup. Buy your oil and gas stocks now because you’re in for one hell of a ride.

Until someone curbs these refining bastards, they give any excuse to raise prices. And like lemmings, we accept them at face value. With cars like the Tesla, hybrids, fuel cells, all within reach in about 5 years, their greedy little hands will get smacked. That doesn’t absolve them from the here and now, however.

Regarding gas prices in Europe, you guys have no oil natural resources. Sorry about your luck, but that’s why you pay what you pay. If you’re so upset about it, I’m sure some Saudi Prince would be more than happy to buy the UK. Then you can have all the cheap fuel you want.

Oh year, sorry to those who don’t like trucks. But, the U.S. is the only place where they are feasible to own. If you don’t like them, may I suggest Japan as the place you’d like to live. Their “flats” are no bigger than a Camry.

One also needs to consider taxes when they talk about different gas prices between countries.

graphicguy, welcome i like your attitude, nice post.