Gas prices

[Kajuah]

I'm worried about gas prices.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/...as-prices.html

I pay 1.52 $ a litre as it stands, where I live, and this recent news means that it will hike (for my area) 20 cents more so by the next time i fill up it will be 1.70$ a litre, at least. At this rate I predict 2 $ a litre at least by Jan.

I'm thinking of buying a super economical vehicle, right now I drive an 02 sunfire (automatic). I don't know much about hybrids or electronic cars or battery cars or whatever, so I'm a bit at the loss at how other people are coping with the gas boom.

I thought about getting a prius or something like that, too.

What do YOU do for gas hikes and costs of recent driving?

[Sushigaijin]

What do YOU do for gas hikes and costs of recent driving?

Drive less. My jeep gets 14 miles to the gallon, a gallon runs about 4.19 today...although I paid 3.99 last week, and 4.60 over the summer...

bottom line, driving is a luxury for me. I either deal with the price and "soldier up," or I hike it.

[Kajuah]

I'm thinking I'll use my skidoo for most of the winter to battle the price hike, either that or the ATV since up here we have no laws against driving them on the roads.

[adina]

We are actually coming down some, at $3.88 a gallon.

We drive a little less, dh carpools. Our high point was, I think the beginning of summerish.

[Anbesol]

What do YOU do for gas hikes and costs of recent driving?

Drive less....

Its $3.65 over here...

[Franglais]

Hummm - any news from Texas? The news says that hurricane Ike has devastated Galveston and should push gas prices over $5 for a while in the States. I came over to the forum to see how things were and this discussion caught my eye.

I pay about 1.4 Euros per litre at the moment, that's down from 1.5 in July.

i.e. about $7.52 dollars per gallon.

I'm not doing any more than what I was before. I already have a small car - okay it can do 120mph but I drive carefully and it's fairly economical (I get about 36 miles/gallon driving in the Paris area). I use public transport when it doesn't slow me down too much, I don't make pointless trips in the car. I organise my life so I don't have to drive in traffic jams.

In about 3 years I will change my car (it will be 8 years old). What I expect the new one to be:

- same performance and size (I park in the city & make regular long trips)
- at least 20% more economical (European directive to car manufacurers for 2011 = reduce C02 emissions)
- turbo-diesel engine (I prefer petrol but diesel is going to wipe the floor)
- automatic transmission by robotised sequential gearbox (current one has that already & it's great)
- mechanism to stop & start the engine at red lights
- much lighter than the current one (it weighs a ton to get a good score in the crash tests)

Picture = my car in a typical pose outside a Paris Salsa club

[mjs1973]

I drive a lot less. If I can, I walk. If I can't I take my motorcycle. When running errands I combine as much stuff into the trip as I can so I'm not making multiple trips. I tried to get to the gas station this morning before they opened and raised the price, but I was too late. It was $3.75/gal. It was $3.69 yesterday.

[walterick]

I was able to get $3.49 a gallon here shopping around last week. It's been dropping consistently here maybe that was the bottom.

Like the other posters, I drive less. It's funny, this summer my friends calculated how much it costs them to drive places. At $4 a gallon, it was $8 to get to church, etc. So I began doing the same. At 20 miles per gallon it costs me $2 just to drive the 10 minutes round trip to go hiking near by apt. School and church both cost me about $8 round trip right now.

I also save up errands so I can do them all in one trip on one day and not be making multiple runs. And I plan the $#@! out of my trips so I do one big, organized "loop" and get everything knocked out as efficiently as possible.

Speaking of alt fuel vehicles, Honda is rolling out its first hydrogen cars this summer in LA and rumor has it the next generation of Prius is going to have a plug-in feature...

[Dylan8i]

i was driving a car ( 13 years old) that would get over 40 mpg ( and was governed to 118 mph). (yeah hybrids really arn't that great when 20 year old cars can get 50 mpg)

but i wrecked it so now i drive the same car, just higher model ( better engine) and i only get 30 mpg (goes 132 mph). but i drive just like normal.

[SmartWombat]

I've put the roadster in the garden, pending a new engine or rebuild.
Bought a second hand diesel fortwo (back when they were called the city car).
Now getting 70mpg.
Still expensive fuel though...

[GB1]

Drive softer. No fast starts, no aggressive driving, and slow down. That will often get you 5-10% better mileage right off the bat.

I'm a big efficiency person in that I dislike any sort of sloppy engineering system that wastes energy or material. But one thing to think about on the Prius is the added cost of the vehicle (~ $4000 USD), that it's batteries will eventually need to be completely replaced and that will cost thousands of dollars (and if it happens at say 125,000 miles, would you really want to sink that much $ into a vehicle with that sort of mileage? Something to think about), and I have also heard that it's little tires wear out faster than usual. I have never seen a real life, comprehensive accounting of what all this will cost w.r.t. what you are saving in gas........ It would be interesting to see.

[mjs1973]

I'm a big efficiency person in that I dislike any sort of sloppy engineering system that wastes energy or material. But one thing to think about on the Prius is the added cost of the vehicle (~ $4000 USD), that it's batteries will eventually need to be completely replaced and that will cost thousands of dollars (and if it happens at say 125,000 miles, would you really want to sink that much $ into a vehicle with that sort of mileage? Something to think about), and I have also heard that it's little tires wear out faster than usual. I have never seen a real life, comprehensive accounting of what all this will cost w.r.t. what you are saving in gas........ It would be interesting to see.

I remember hearing stories about the long run cost of owning a Prius. The conclusion of the story was that it would be cheaper and more environmentally cleaner to drive a Hummer than a Prius. This was basically do to all of the costs involved in designing, engineering and manufacturing the Prius, along with the cost of disposal.

It was a pretty controversial article but it did bring up some good points. Whether the claims are true or not, I don't know.

[Byron Lentz]

Honda Goldwing= 40+ MPG and fun!!

[Dylan8i]

still though find a nice 1990 honda vx hatch and enjoy 50 mpg. and its better for the environment because your reusing an old car instead of having to produce a brand new hybrid.

[barb_48]

The price of gas here is $1.38 a litre. Unfortunately some of live in the country, so if you want something you have to drive there. My son luckily got a co-op job this semester, but it takes him 45 min. to drive there.
When hurrican katrina hit, gas went up, but it never went down again. I really think we are being gouged!

[Franglais]

I paid $6.40 per gallon last weekend (at my local hypermarket near Paris). That's down a lot.

Unfortunately - the death toll on the roads has jumped up by 20%. It was so nice out on the freeways this summer - everyone was driving within the legal limit (85mph). The price of gas seemed to have calmed people down.

[mn shutterbug]

OMG Franglais, that's crazy - the gas prices and the speed limit. At those speeds, gas mileage has to stink, also.

We dropped to $1.89 on Sunday but jumped up to $1.96 today. As long as it can stay below $2.50, I'm not going to fret. It also helps that I sold my Ford Explorer and bought a Saturn Vue SUV. Instead of 22 mpg highway, I get 30 mpg. Also, since I do sell a few photos, every time I return home with a good photo, I let the government pay for some of my gas.

[Franglais]

OMG Franglais, that's crazy - the gas prices and the speed limit. At those speeds, gas mileage has to stink, also.

Hold on. I just realised that I was using Imperial gallons in my conversion and not US gallons. That brings the gas price down to only $5.50 per gallon.

My average gas consumption - calculated by the car itself, which is pretty accurate - is 36 miles/gallon. That's pretty good considering that my usage, either:

1. Paris area. I hate traffic jams
2. Freeway at slightly less than the legal limit of 85mph

For my next car I want a 20% reduction in gas consumption. The manufacturers have another three years to get it sorted out..

[Medley]

News Flash people. Hurricane in Texas. Lots of flooding. Power's out.

Lots of oil wells in Texas too. Wether or not they were actually damaged is irrelevant. Too good an excuse to pass up.

$4.00 / gallon? You ain't seen nothin' yet!

Prepare for a fleecing at the pumps.

http://finance.comcast.net/www/news....14/1058883.xml

- Joe U.

[Mr Yuck]

3.75 in Port Orchard and Spokane WA....no change around hurricane time.

My actions:
Ignore it and maintain car. Maybe short shifting once in a while. I might take bike/bus to school this quarter (40 min commute, the university provides bus pass, though I like driving and hate being up high in a ground vehicle)

I'm gonna fix my odometer so I can track my gas mileage.

[mjs1973]

It's up to $3.99/gal here this morning.

[barb_48]

I am happy to say that gas went down from $1.39 a litre to $1.13 last week than it went back up 5 cents. I guess $1.18 a litre is better than what we were paying a month ago.
Actually I hear that gas could go down to .99 cents a litre by Nov. or Dec. Here's hoping!

[walterick]

Yeah its been getting cheaper here too $1.40 or so at the cheap stations now.

[Robusto]

Think yourself lucky a litre of gas in london is £1.20 whats that in $ 3 stopped driving my Shogun 4x4 3.5l and keep nicking the wifes Pegueot 1.6l

Now travel to work and back 20m on my Suzuki Bergmann 400 Scooter as in the car would have to pay the london Congestion charge daily of £8 as well

[EverlastingImpressions]

It finally went under $3 here! Man, nice to look at.