Fuel prices starting to get ridiculous

db2 · Apr 10, 2005

"I don't think oil is scarce at all. Unlimited supply - no. But we're not running out for many years." 

I guess scarce is a relative term. I do know that the stuff is getting harder and harder to find and more expensive to explore for. I've been involved in exploration for almost thirty years. Conservation due to increasing prices (selling the SUV's etc) will extend the life of the supply. Here in North America we use more energy per capita than anywhere else. Wait until the developing countries catch up. Oil is used in just about everything we see around us and not just for heating and transportation. Putting money into oil stock is a good way to hedge against the future price rise.

anthonyk · Apr 10, 2005

I asked my girlfriend where she wanted to go this weekend.
She replied "take me somewhre expensive".

So I took her to a gas station..... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Anthony

_RaT_ · Apr 11, 2005

Tell me more professor! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Anders · Apr 11, 2005

About what we do without SUV's in Norway.

This is a confusing country to live in when it comes to cars. The goverment has always been very eager to put taxes on everything that moves - and especially cars.

Over here most people drive normal passenger cars of all kinds, but not American cars. The reason? They are too expensive to buy. The exception must be Dodge neon and a few Chrysler models.

When a car is imported the goverment look at weight, equipment and engine size as well as power. Well, americans love big engines, don't they?

Let me give an example or two:

Cadillac CTS 3,2 litre 2004 sold at a dealer: $95232.
Did I mention that it is a used car? 3500 miles...

Cadillac SRX, new 2005 (gotta love that car). Hold tight now: $170300.

Understand why they are a bit seldom over here?

Still, we have a bunch of SUV's here. Most people drive Nissan X-trail, honda cr-v and a whole lot of other stuff. What they have in common is that they have 4-cyl engines and more and more of them have common-rail diesels.

Now, those of you banging your head in the keyboard for me calling the nissan/honda stuff for SUV's, smile.

Because we also have a lot of Suburbans, F-350's and so on.

The secret / madness is that over here a car of this size is most often registered as a truck. And the goverment seems to love trucks so they let them get away with most of the taxes. Basically the dealer import a car, register it as a truck and pays ONLY 25% tax to the goverment. Math: Dealers cost + freight to dealer x 1,25 + profit = customers price.

When the goverment found out that most people cuould buy a SUV this way they had to do something. So they invented a rule saying that if it could not load a box of a certain size, it will not be a truck. Jeep cherokee can just about take it.

Still to many trucks is registered, so now the goverment has decided that there is a weight limit as well. These days we have importers that change springs and other components to make the car heavier. Again, jeep cherokee is too light. It has to go up in weight quite a bit to qualify as a truck. Basically, they weld on iron.

Price difference on a Cherokee as a passenger-car and as a truck is approximately $40000.

I have a feeling that I'm off-track now.

Let me get back. Suv's....

So, we have a lot of them, and most of them work for their living. I can safely say that it's the choice of handymen and a few others that simply want a car this size.

Occasionally I drive a mercedes M SUV. It has a 2,7 litre cdi-diesel. This car impresses me a lot when it comes to accelerating and dragging stuff around. Very efficient engine and doesn't sip to much either.

Thank God we also have a lot of people saying that they want what they want and are willing to pay the price. Every now and then it's a viper, corvette or something else funny rolling by.

But the day the goverment stop registering SUV's as trucks it's the end of things. They will be way too expensive for most people.

Now, this was my ranting in the morning.

Oh btw, pickup's can also be registered as trucks. Got a lot of them as well /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Gatorboy · Apr 11, 2005

How would I do without it? 

Buy a trailer to pull behind a more fuel efficient car?

Bird · Apr 11, 2005

( Buy a trailer to pull behind a more fuel efficient car? )

When we quit full time RVing and bought 10 acres in the country, we had a '93 Ford Escort station wagon that we towed behind the motorhome, but I also had a trailer hitch on it. So I bought the little 5' x 10' tiltbed trailer that I could pull behind the Escort until I found an '81 F250 for the farm chores. Of course the F250 was only used when I needed to move a heavy load or get off the road in pastures or hay fields. Escorts aren't worth a hoot off the road. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif And after my wife totalled that '93 Escort with only 121,000 miles on it, I bought a new '99 Escort 4-door sedan and only drove it a little over 40k miles before my wife wanted a bigger vehicle, so we could take more passengers occasionally. The Escorts averaged 32 mpg, but now we have a 2001 Windstar that has averaged 19.672 mpg since we've had it, and a 2001 Ford Ranger that has averaged 18.282 mpg. I wish I had that '99 Escort back. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Scrounger · Apr 11, 2005

I'd love to get rid of the Yukon XL, but no one will buy a beast that gets such poor mileage. I'll put it in the garage for towing the trailer and toys and that's about it. We need to start drilling more to get the fuel prices down and build a few more refineries too.

Mith · Apr 11, 2005

Robert, what do you haul in you gas guzzlers?
things like hay bales go in the back of the 4 cylinder petrol suzuki samurai, that sips fuel (except the hole in the tank kinda leaks it out!). we have a 3'x4' trailer for other stuff and a 6'x4' flatbed for bigger stuff and tractors. Anything bigger we have a diesel van that gets used about once a month and only has a piddly engine. We also have a VW estate that gets 30mpg for long journeys
Anything else other than that and you just gotta go find someone to do it for you. The way i see it you Americains want, not need your trucks. You just know no other way around the problem of hauling stuff. In truth around here we find your need for huge trucks amusing.

As someone said earlier, a long journey is about 200 miles, you cant go much further or you run out of land. so really we dont make the massive 1000 mile journeys you need to. I mean you guys talk about driving hours to get to a dealer just to look around. for me its a mission to get on a 20 minute drive for anything less that life or death situations.

In the UK there is becoming more of a problem of people having huge cars/trucks unnnecisarily. We all have a good laugh at the city slickers having huge 4x4s and never taking them off road. Our cheapo sammy goes everywhere, where the BMW poser 4x4s cant even dream. Its these people clogging up the roads in their 4mpg cars. the way i see it its a status symbol, huge expensive posh cars. They dont need them. Thats what uses up oil stocks.

tell you what though, atleaast buying a car isnt as comlicated here as it is in Norway /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

bczoom · Apr 11, 2005

( things like hay bales go in the back of the 4 cylinder petrol suzuki samurai, that sips fuel (except the hole in the tank kinda leaks it out!). we have a 3'x4' trailer for other stuff and a 6'x4' flatbed for bigger stuff and tractors.)

Hey Mith,

I've never been to the UK but it sounds like things are quite a bit different in this category.
Around here, the bales of hay are about the size of your Suzuki (and probably weigh more). 3x4 trailers are barely what's used for carts in yards. A 4x6 trailer may be able to haul an attachment but definitely not a tractor. I don't even think a garden tractor could fit in that size trailer.

Oh well. I cringe when fueling but hop back in the truck.

Brian

_RaT_ · Apr 11, 2005

I'd love to see us have the ability to get some of these smaller cars, SUV's with small diesels. To my knowledge, only the VW Jetta type vehicles are allowed here with diesel. I guess it's a matter of time but that time may have come. Even with diesel at about the cost of premium gas here, I'd still go for it. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

PS here is an interesting tidbit California the second largest consumer of gas in the world It would appear California consumes more gasoline then anyone in the world with the exception of the USA.