I payed $3.35 a gallon in gas today.

[lunakilo]

Just a quick reminder for the americans that they live in petrol heaven.

I just paid 1,74€/2,16$ for a litre. Thats 6,59€/8,18$ per gallon.



...

I just checked the internet and I found a price of 12.89 DKK = 2.13 $ for a liter.
But then again , that was the cheapest price I could find.

This is the top 10 of cheapest prices in dollars for a gallon:
8.13 $
8.24 $
8.35 $
8.4 $
8.4 $
8.59 $
8.59 $
8.6 $
8.69 $
8.71 $

What are thus guys whining about

 

[jazzymom]

And honestly, I don't think I have a sustainable way to afford gas if it continues at this rate, let alone even higher. Anyone else feeling the hurt? I know pundits like to blame the uprisings, but we all know who really is at fault.

It is 3.75 where I live and I have spent as much as 4.10 so we need to drive smaller more gas efficient cars and use mass transit and walk more.

Gas prices are not ever going to go down but will continue to go up.

I drive less and walk more now.

 

[lunakilo]

I wonder how many stones I weigh? And how many stones I will lose if I have to start riding my bike to work?

Not stone Katryn, kilos

Tell us about Danes. What's weird about them....er, you?
(I have some friends from their, so I already have a clue.)

from : Denmark Guide - Interesting facts about Denmark - Eupedia
1) Danish men marry the oldest of all Europeans - at 32 years old in average.
2) According to the WHO (2002 stats), Danish women have the lowest incidence of obesity in the EU. (must be all that bike riding )
3) Denmark has the highest employment rate in Europe (75%).

From Random Fun facts about Denmark :

4) Danes are the happiest people in the world!
5) Denmark is the country in Europe with most breweries per person. (could that possibly be related to 4) ? )

6) No one can understand danish, not even danes
[youtube]s-mOy8VUEBk[/youtube]
Danish language - YouTube

7) apparently Denmark is the most expensive place to buy gasoline
8) In Denmark there is a 200% tax on cars
9) We ride bikes a lot
10) we can breathe the air in our towns and cities

 

[SageTree]

$1.28/ liter Canadian, which is $1.29 /liter US

Which means that per gallon gas is $4.85 Canadian or $4.91 US

 

[jazzymom]

Is there any price high enough to make americans stop driving cars or at least switch to smaller more fuel efficient cars?

Yes I believe so. When gas is cheap cars tend to be bigger and when gas prices go up cars start to get smaller.

We are going to get a car next year and are going to look at the new Toyota Prius C that just came out. It gets great gas milage.


53/46 is the gas milage for this car.

 

[SageTree]

Sad fact is that they had carburetors that could do that mileage LONG ago.
And those kind of engines are WAY easier to work on,
Last longer.

Etc etc....

It's a conspiracy man.


But the real conspiracy is the lack of public transit in more small towns and communities where everyone is going one direction, from one town 30 mins away, to work, in the same hours, all in their own cars.


I've been in some SMALL *** towns in Canada and there are buses to get you around.
But... people still drive here as well.

If we pooled our money on the gas and the car payment, imagine what the transit system could look like!

 

[Tarheeler]

...But the real conspiracy is the lack of public transit in more small towns and communities where everyone is going one direction, from one town 30 mins away, to work, in the same hours, all in their own cars.

I think that's a good part of it. Some of the big cities have good mass transit and zoning that allows for it, but most don't. Where I live, the city (pop. 200,000) is sprawling and takes up most of the county. We build out instead of up, and there is a lot ground to cover to get to places. We have a bus system, but there are few stops and it serves primarily the downtown area. There are no sidewalks, crosswalks, or bike lanes.

And I have to drive close to 20 miles just to get there.

 

[Revoltingest]

Sad fact is that they had carburetors that could do that mileage LONG ago.
And those kind of engines are WAY easier to work on,
Last longer.
Etc etc....
It's a conspiracy man.

Sure, it was easier to work on cars with carburetors, points, condensers & buggy whip holders, but the problem was that we had to work on them much more.
Today's cars really are better in fuel economy, maintainability & durability. (There's still much room for improvement.)
Good fuel economy in ye olde days meant small engines, low speeds & no AC.

If we pooled our money on the gas and the car payment, imagine what the transit system could look like!

 

[SageTree]

I think that's a good part of it. Some of the big cities have good mass transit and zoning that allows for it, but most don't. Where I live, the city (pop. 200,000) is sprawling and takes up most of the county. We build out instead of up, and there is a lot ground to cover to get to places. We have a bus system, but there are few stops and it serves primarily the downtown area. There are no sidewalks, crosswalks, or bike lanes.

And I have to drive close to 20 miles just to get there.

200 000 people and that's all.

I lived in a northern town in British Columbia with 70k people and it had 10 routes, which ran every half hour except on major routes in business hours.

But no ped or bike ways... that's kind of crazy if it's all 'one big thing', like it sounds.

Sure, it was easier to work on cars with carburetors, points, condensers & buggy whip holders, but the problem was that we had to work on them much more.
Today's cars really are better in fuel economy, maintainability & durability. (There's still much room for improvement.)
Good fuel economy in ye olde days meant small engines, low speeds & no AC.

I have a 20 year old Jeep with 243 000 miles on it.
It needs a repair under $200 every 3 months.

I'll eat my words in 20 years if there are cars from now still on the road, with that many miles..... that are American made.
I have a friend who is a mechanic and the stuff he tells me doesn't match up that well with your critique of the situation. But we are just two people.
So who can say for sure.

No matter how kool-aid I drink on transit, I can never get the feeling of Futhur...
These folks are onto something.
Wonder what they are Burning Man?

 

[Revoltingest]

I have a 20 year old Jeep with 243 000 miles on it.
It needs a repair under $200 every 3 months.

Is that repair frequency supposed to be good?

I'll eat my words in 20 years if there are cars from now still on the road, with that many miles..... that are American made.
I have a friend who is a mechanic and the stuff he tells me doesn't match up that well with your critique of the situation. But we are just two people.
So who can say for sure.

Does he say fuel economy hasn't improved?
Does he say that vehicles today are less reliable?
I remember the bad old days, always having to:
- Clean & gap spark plugs
- Clean points
- Time the ignition
- Replace tires every 20K miles
- Let a car warm up several minutes before driving off (before EP additives in oil)
- Rebuilding carburetors
Even longer ago, one had to regularly take apart the engine & clean it out.

Some things are worse though.
- Collision repair is far more expensive, & cars are totaled with less damage.
- Weird electronic gremlins

Back to the OP. $3.35/gal, & he's complaining?
That sounds so cheap.

 

[SageTree]

Is that repair frequency supposed to be good?

In car years this thing is old. So I'd say yes.
You either have payment or repairs...
So in that scheme I'm doing GREAT.

Does he say fuel economy hasn't improved?

It has. He knows it.
He knows it could have been better a long time ago as well.
Read about the 'high mileage carb'.

Does he say that vehicles today are less reliable?

Reliable, he thinks they are.
But their longevity is less over all.

Working on them for the RIGHT reasons is one thing.

But...

Replacing major parts on the same kind of cars an trucks over and over and over is a little worrisome in the grand scheme of things, especially when they hardly have any miles on them.

Rotors after 10k on the new Challengers is one example of a regular repair in recent months. Sad. And they want to sell him the SAME part to replace it. F*** that.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Sad fact is that they had carburetors that could do that mileage LONG ago.
And those kind of engines are WAY easier to work on,
Last longer.

Etc etc....

It's a conspiracy man.

What carburetors? The only carburetted vehicles that I've ever heard of getting close to the gas mileage of a Prius were motorcycles.

A carburetor is always going to be a compromise. You can either have a setup that works very efficiently at a narrow band of atmospheric pressures, or a setup that works fairly decently over a wide band of pressures. For a street car, since people tend not to like having to swap the jets on their carburetor every time they go for groceries, they go for the "somewhat inefficient but passable over a wide range of conditions" option.

Think of a fuel injection system as an infinitely adjustable carburetor, except you have one for each cylinder, and it's adjusting itself based on what the exhaust is doing. It seems obvious to me that it will be more efficient.

And as for working on cars... I shudder to think what it was like to work on a vehicle before OBDII.

 

[Revoltingest]

In car years this thing is old. So I'd say yes.
You either have payment or repairs...
So in that scheme I'm doing GREAT.

Yeah, I hate car payments, & will put up with a little extra for maintenance costs too.

It has. He knows it.
He knows it could have been better a long time ago as well.
Read about the 'high mileage carb'.

I've heard more stories about magical carbs which deliver stellar mileage. None ever panned out. Besides, they can't compare with fuel
injection for economy, as Mostly Penguin pointed out.
You want primitive? I've worked on engines with mixing valves (like a carb without a float) & even open flame ignition. Very inefficient.

 

[Mr. Skittles]

And honestly, I don't think I have a sustainable way to afford gas if it continues at this rate, let alone even higher. Anyone else feeling the hurt? I know pundits like to blame the uprisings, but we all know who really is at fault.

Pffft it was $4.12 some months ago in L.A

 

[BSM1]

I believe the American love affair with fossil fuels will be coming to an abrupt end very soon.

Then what?

 

[Revoltingest]

Then what?

There will be no abrupt end.
As prices rise, consumption will decrease, thereby stretching out the life of fossil fuel sources.

 

[Mathematician]

Just a quick reminder for the americans that they live in petrol heaven.

I just paid 1,74€/2,16$ for a litre. Thats 6,59€/8,18$ per gallon.



...

Yeah, but we (Americans) have to drive further to get to places. I had to commute over an hour and a half (one way) just to get to work. Until recent developments emerged, I had to drive fifteen miles just to get to a clothing store. For most Europeans an hour and a half drive would get you out of the country. Here in Texas it doesn't even cross county lines. Jesus wept.

 

[lunakilo]

Yeah, but we (Americans) have to drive further to get to places. I had to commute over an hour and a half (one way) just to get to work. Until recent developments emerged, I had to drive fifteen miles just to get to a clothing store. For most Europeans an hour and a half drive would get you out of the country. Here in Texas it doesn't even cross county lines. Jesus wept.

So if the prices doubled or tripled would that change?

And by the way the world doesn't stop at the border. Many people who live close to a border simply live in one country and work in another country.

 

[Flankerl]

Yeah, but we (Americans) have to drive further to get to places. I had to commute over an hour and a half (one way) just to get to work. Until recent developments emerged, I had to drive fifteen miles just to get to a clothing store. For most Europeans an hour and a half drive would get you out of the country. Here in Texas it doesn't even cross county lines. Jesus wept.

Well you live too far away from your place of work. But that is a problem with the general bad outline of cities in the US.

 

[Panda]

Yeah, but we (Americans) have to drive further to get to places. I had to commute over an hour and a half (one way) just to get to work. Until recent developments emerged, I had to drive fifteen miles just to get to a clothing store. For most Europeans an hour and a half drive would get you out of the country. Here in Texas it doesn't even cross county lines. Jesus wept.

Plenty of people commute further than that in the UK. Someone at my sisters work commutes from Paris to London on the eurostar everyday, and another comes from the Isle of Wight every day.