Non strip club topic - how much are you spending on gas money?

If I average 12,000 miles per year at 23 mpg, I use roughly 522 gallons of gas a year. At $2 a gallon I paid about $1,044 per year for gas. Now I should be paying about twice that whenever gas reaches $4 a gallon here which should be any day now the way prices have been rising. A few extra miles per gallon really does make a difference. I read for every 5 miles per hour above 55 you travel, it's like paying an extra 10 cents per gallon.

After doing some searching that's not really a true statement I believe anymore. Apparently it depends on how aerodynamic your care or vehicle is. Someone claimed that their prius only saved 3 to 4 mpg doing 50 mph than they got at 75 mph. I haven't noticed that much of a change (the 5 percent difference per every 5 mph over 55) myself either. My car is more aerodynamic and is not a big SUV.

If someone wants to drive slow on the interstate, please stay in the right lane. You might want your road hazard lights flashing too if you're more than 10 mph under the speed limit. Better yet, find roads that don't require interstate travel. If I'm going to a strip club, I don't care about going superslow to save one gallon of gas. In fact if we had an autobahn, I'd be willing to pay a little bit of money to drive it since I can get over 20 mpg at higher speeds. I don't know how fast it drops off at real fast speeds since I haven't tested that.

I tried to post a good link. However with the government, they had to change it and I couldn't find it anymore so it looks more cumbersome to find things. The closest I found was near the bottom on this link listed under popular links within it. eere.energy.gov

Here's an article on using aluminum, water, and gallium to make competitively priced hydrogen. Competitive with fossil fuels that is. isa.org

lots of interesting articles in their archives here isa.org

Just highlight, press control+C to copy, then paste into your browser address with control+ V and then you should have it.

Last time I filled up it was a little over $4 a gallon.

$4 per gallon for premium. A lot of cars recommend premium these days, and I have found I can save in the long run by adding octane boost available at the auto parts stores. If I drive smoothly I can get about 18mpg in the city (cadillac). Highway is much better but I am rarely on the highway for long during my work week.

Supposedly it is a myth that premium is better. A Toyota I owned did indeed require premium and I learned an expensive lesson going cheap.

1993 GMC Yukon costs $100 to fill the tank with regular. If I am careful that will last me a week. No one will do anything about this until we face depression, riots and acute food shortages. That will happen about Labor Day.

Several guys that I work with have recently bought hybrids. The mileage is great. Better in town than on the highway. I get a little over 21mpg for everyday driving in my Ford Ranger. 4.0 V6 with manual transmission. It is paid for, so I cannot justify buying a new Hybrid to pay for the high gas prices.

Just curious, Casualguy, but how much do you spend annually on your auto insurance, maintenance, and the depreciation on you car? It strikes me as silly to drinve an expensive car that's costing you $5,000+ in depreciation and worry about the price of fuel. Why not complain about the cost of the car instead? It's a much larger part of the cost of driving. Even at $4 a gallon, your fuel cost is probably less than 25% of your total annual driving cost.

Check gas against many other commodities we use, over the last 30 or so years, and you will find it really isn't that expensive. It just went up pretty much all at once instead of over the last 30 or so years.

I drive about 800-900 miles a week, I get 44.5 cents a mile for 625 miles of that. I drive an Aveo that gets about 32.

I hope gas goes to $10 and most of you people quit driving. Then I'll be able to get around with less traffic problems. Ok I'm not really hoping that...

My Cavalier gets 33 mpg. Work is 15 miles away=one gallon a day.

Hey founder:

Note how the ultra-long link screws with the page formatting. :(

Thought you'd want to know ...

Otherwise ... I'm spending all my strip-clubbing money on gas. Har har.

i'm retired, so i really don't drive all that much. Went down to Cinci for a ballgame last week, though. Drove 65-68 and everybody was passing me. Guess gas really isn't too expensive after all.

Columbus area prices are in 3.85 to 3.95 range.

I just love how the "conservatives" try to diminish the impact that high gas prices are having on people...lol...too funny. I'll be waiting for that Labor Day Depression too...

It's been over 50 bucks a pop to fill-up my tank all the way, so I've gone back to filling up at half a tank, which is what I usually do in the winter. Shop around...you can usually easily find cheaper gas that's upwards of a quarter/gallon cheaper. Keep your tires inflated properly as well.

Perhaps a history lesson is in order here. Go back as far as you care to go and you'll find that about once a decade gasoline prices have skyrocketed, peaked, then settled into a long term decline (in real terms.) And if you average the price changes over a long period of time you find that the overall average increase has been slightly below the overall inflation rate. For example, the price of gasoline hasn't risen less than the price of the average new car over the past 20 or 30 years. In other words the pricer of the car has pushed driving cost up more than has the price of fuel. Gasoline prices will most likely peak this summer and then begin another long-term decline (in real terms) as supply and demand adjust to the current higher prices and come back into balance. (Remember that prices are set at the margin and it doesn't take much change in supply and demand to have a huge impact on price, and also remember that there is price elasticity with gasoline and oil, that supply and demand do react to price, but the reaction has a time lag.)

And you might also keep in mind that we've artificially restricted our own production of oil and gasoline (as well as electricity with which oil competes) by placing severe environmental limits on where oil companies are allowed to drill and where they can build new refineries. We complain that the Saudis restrict their output but we've done exactly the same thing. That may be good environmental but there's a huge cost associated with it, and we're now paying that cost. Something to think about when next you're filling your tank.

bkmarcus.com

I'm not sure if the price of gas has even gone up despite all the government BS that should make it much more expensive in real terms.

Perhaps non-stop printing of money is the real reason for the seemingly high price of gas. Pricing gas in other physical commodities should give a better idea if the currency is the problem or whether there are true shortages.

If you were using silver as money or probably most other commodities, then the price most likely hasn't gone up. With paper money, well even if it was a $200 a gallon that doesn't necessarily mean there is any scarcity of oil. :)

I don't need a history lesson from someone that doesn't remember actual facts very well. The price of crude oil is 6 TIMES as much as it was 6 years ago, and the price of gasoline is 3 TIMES as much as it was 6 years ago! Crude oil prices have basically been on an almost uninterrupted upward trend (in both real & nominal dollars) since the early 1970s, and another way to look at that is that compared to then crude oil prices are at least 33 TIMES higher than there were then. Ever hear of Peak Oil? Or the horribly weak U.S. dollar due to rancid Bush Regime mismanagement? Good luck getting our money back on the gold or silver standard BTW.

There is only a few years worth of oil under the ground of the USA, and even ANWR has only about 1.5 years worth of oil in it & it would take DECADES to get all that oil out of the ground up there. Why would the oil industry want to build more refineries? That would just allow more of their commodity to go to market and lower the price! The days of drilling our way out of an energy crisis are looong gone...wake up...

Comparing the price of a gallon of gasoline to the cost of a 1-2 ton automobile...priceless...as if that means anything. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain pulling the levers of your life, he's meaningless...sure, sure...

I do think it's an energy crisis. I'm looking for those easily implemented solar panels. Evidently one room light can already power itself with a panel the same size as the light, in sunny climates, if you gather energy for the bright part of the day and use the light "typically" for the dark part of the day.

My screen display is really acting up now, oh well. Yeah, as someone commented the amount of money I spend for depreciation on my car is probably just now equal to the gas price per year and my car is now almost 7 years old. Maintenance has been pretty low, just routine stuff. My car's value has been holding up pretty well, so good in fact that I've had the dealer call me twice saying there is a lot of demand for the type of car I drive. I do not own a hybrid but apparently it is a very reliable car. Knocking on wood now. Still another 1000 bucks a year could buy me a lot of extra lap dances, now Exxon and big oil are going to get it.

there are so many good arguments, pro and con, about energy production and usage in this country. it's disappointing when some choose to promote their agendas with false or misleading ones.

the argument has been out there for sometime that ANWR would provide only enough oil for 6 months, or 1.5 years, or whatever. That would be true ONLY IF THE U.S. WERE CUT OFF FROM ALL OTHER SOURCES OF OIL, BOTH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. Under any realistic circumstance, there is oil enough in ANWR to assist in meeting our energy needs for decades. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates there are between 6 and 16 billion barrels of recoverable reserves in ANWR. We've extracted over 15 billion barrels from Alaska's North Slope over the past 3 decades, much more than was originally thought to be there.

Is ANWR the sole answer to our energy problems? Of course not! There is no single answer. The problem is with those who say, "My way is the only way...you're way won't work!" We see that everyday in Congress, and that's way nothing of consequence is getting done. The compromise is to try to do as much as we can on ALL fronts: Production from exisiting energy sources, development of as many alternatives as possible, and increased conservation. Meanwhile, beware the zealots and know-it-alls.

I personally don't much care whether we ever allow drilling in northern Alaska or not and I don't have an agenda on the topic. I'm retired and don't drive much anymore and therefore I use little gasoline, so the price isn't a big deal to me. But what I do care about is when people who are in favor of some regulation or other try to convince the rest of us that the cost of the regulation is small or non-existent, which is almost never the case. In the case of oil, a very small change in either supply or demand has a huge impact on price because, as I already mentioned, the price is set at the margin. A very small increase in production would result in a large drop in price, just as a small increase in world-wide demand caused a huge increase.

The cost of artifically restricting the domestic supply of oil has been huge, and the public should be made aware of that. Maybe that money could be better spent elsewhere, like finding a cure for cancer or providing health care for everyone. IMO that's a choice the public should be allowed to make, whith all the facts in hand. Let the public rather than the courts choose what it wants. And make all the facts available without bias. I believe in democracy - let the majority decide. That's my agenda.

I wonder if the gas prices will yield a significant change in one new recent shopping pattern: internet buying. I know that mom-and-pop-sized stores, locally owned, have been slowly going out of business thanks to (a) the inroads made in local communities by big-box stores which can afford to price-undercut until they kill the competition, and (b) the competition from internet purchases, which are almost inevitably lower, but which also often add shipping costs. Will more expensive gas prices make shipping costs signficantly rise, to the point that people prefer to drive around their neighborhoods again? Or will driving around their neighborhoods rise equivalently in cost with the higher price of gas?

Well, do you want domestic energy independance or not??

The point about ANWR is why drill for that small amount of oil over the course of many decades (they isn't even any infrastructure up there to get the oil out) when we could be focusing our efforts as a nation on conservation (increasing CAFE standards alone could apparently end our dependance on Mid-East oil) and alternative energy sources that aren't finite. I think those that want to drill, drill, drill in ANWR & other places are just wanting to put more money into the hands of the oil industry, period. I really don't care a whole lot about killing caribou or whatever up there either BTW.

Peak Oil is real, and it's not going to go away by wishing it away. Oil production worldwide is almost maxed out right now.

Do a search on "oil reserve found", and you can see we are always finding new reserves. We are FAR from running out. None of us alive today will see the time we "run out of oil". Just a ploy from the "environmental" idiots.

Ah, you're one of "those people" (I'm not surprised)...lol...what you fail to understand is that after the initial hype of a "huge new oil reserve" being found dies off that the facts come out saying that the reserve found was usually way, way smaller than initially thought. Right-wing outlets especially love to intentionally exagerate these kind of things for political gain. Just like that U.S. northern Plains reserve that was supposively over 500 billion barrels that turned out to be maybe only 3-4 billion barrels (enough to satisfy America's oil needs for about 6 months)...and it's actually oil shale, which is very, very expensive to get anything out of it.

The world’s “proven” oil reserves are expected to last a maximum less than 50 more years...that’s, of course, assuming that you believe the past suspicious official estimates of oil reserves from OPEC countries like the UAE, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.

If it comes down to the spotted owl having a tree to live in or me having a house. I win.

I'd pick the Spotted Owl over you scat...

I'll bet my right nut the mg drives his car, uses electricity, doesn't wash his clothes in a stream, and the list goes on. Of course he can say none of this is true, but seeing as he is on a computer, and in this very topic, "It's been over 50 bucks a pop to fill-up my tank all the way, so I've gone back to filling up at half a tank, which is what I usually do in the winter.", we all no he is just a hypocrite!

Hmmmm, am I not allowed to drive my car (which I've cut way back on using BTW...I fill-up maybe once a month, if that, now), use electricity (I've cut my use of this utility almost every year for the last decade or so by using CFLs, among other things), and wash my clothes (which I do less often by making sure that I have at least a full load to do at a time)?

What have you done to conserve clubber?? I'll be waiting to hear the silence from your end...we already all know that you're just an old fool...lol...

I do nothing! Why, there is no reason to do so. In the real world, not the one the environmental nuts envision, humans are at the top of the food chain. Just jump into the food chain wherever you like and it always operates the same. The higher up one is, they make the rules and live off the lower forms. Perhaps you just wish you were a organism such as photosynthetic plants, bacteria or algae.

Of course you do nothing...because you're part of the problem, not the solution...lol!! You have your head so far up your own ass that it isn't even funny...perhaps you should learn something from what apparently happened to the dinosaurs, since you are one.

Typical, no supportive facts, so attack the other. In case you didn't hear, the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteor. Of course you tree huggers have a fix for that, right?

You are not even worth the energy to type a response. How's that for conservation? Take care, my green friend!

Once again, I accept your unconditional surrender you old fool...lol...

I believe we'll be getting a price break on oil and gas during the summer or the next 2 or 3 months compared to now. All this talk of forever increasing prices reminds me of stories of a tulip bubble and other bubbles. Of course if your time horizon is years instead of the near future, I am bullish too. No use debating this now, we can talk about it in August after gas prices have dropped down a bit if anyone even remembers this topic.

"You as a scientist, you call it the -- approaching singularity, that all of a sudden there's this gigantic change and a leap like you can't believe. He says that the country will be able to be run on solar power alone within five years, that we don't have the solar power panels now but they are so close because technology doubles every year. So it's, once you hit one, then the next year it hits two. Then it hits four, then it hits eight, then it hits 16. It's 30 steps to a billion, once you hit one. So we've already hit one with solar panels. In fact, we're far past that. We are now at the point that in five years, he said, solar panels will be able to capture and convert and store all of the energy needs for the entire planet within five years. And when this man speaks, because of his credentials, because of who he is and what he has done in the past, you actually will believe him." ---- glennbeck.com ----

I've been a long time doubter of solar power, but I think the game may be changing for a whole new way of life. Many many years a top government official had predicted that his grandchildren wouldn't even comprehend being charged for power. That power would be plentiful, free, and clean. I always admired that man's vision and was surprised that it didn't become a reality and perhaps it never will. My bet is that not only isn't there an energy crisis, but that energy in the fairly near future will be plentiful, free, and clean.

On the downside and it seems like there is always a downside: Prisons should be a truly booming business because with free energy there won't be much of a cost constraint to warehousing people non-stop.