My son works part time at a Kwik Trip here in MN. Gas price is around $2.79 these days. He said people are already complaining ( usually big vehicle owners, of course ).
It's already above $3.00 here in Seattle and that's the Costco price. The big gas station brands are close to $3.40 just for regular.
it went up about 13% here since the new year. cheap money in relation to most other necessities. now my electric bill? that's another story. makes me want to go back to a gasser
If this continues ( and it was inevitable ), the 'cycle' will start again. That is, people will be forced to downsize their big vehicles for smaller ones. When we purchased our 2010 liftback a few years ago the 'cycle' was going the other way. That is, gas prices were starting to decline and people were trading their smaller vehicles for larger ones. The dealership we purchased the 2010 from acknowledged the trend as well and admitted the trends are how they make a lot of their $$$ on used vehicles. Sure enough, they (a Nissan deslership) were pushing their large 'Titan' pickup trucks at the time.
If you’re reading along in Canada, conversion of a Canadian Dollar price-per-liter, to US Dollar price-per-US-gallon, is roughly: CDN $’s x .75** x 3.785* * Liter to US gallon ** Approx CDN to US dollar conversion Or reduced: CDN $’s x 2.84 So my local $1.50 CDN per liter: 1.50 x 2.84 = $4.25 (USD per US gallon)
Yeah, gas price is now above the magic number of $2.75 at which point driving on EV mode from the wall charge becomes cheaper. I am thinking of buying Prius Prime again... But for now, I still have no use having a car. No commuting, no need for a daily driver.
That's the thing with asset and energy price inflation, it doesn't match the underlying fundamentals: spot price of oil is at $61.barrel, which hardly merits such a high gas price at the pump. But this absurd amount of money printing had to show up somewhere and energy is always the first hit, food which relies on small margins and long distance will soon start to creep up, too. I paid $114 for 91 at the pump this week, and I'm totally over this as the prius on 87 fills up on $30 at the local costco and has a 400 mile range, I'm lucky to get 290 miles in the M5 if I'm mindful the throttle it and avoid street driving. Moreover, OPEC made claims of having a glut of oil for 2021 to contend with, which further shows how distorted the price is given the excess reserves.
I agree...we have too many cars...and only around 2 of them are in use at any one time. I keep thinking I need to do something about that....but then I think of the sunk costs and change my mind. Our 2012 Sonata Limited only has 45K miles on it and I have babied the heck out of it. And it sat in the garage almost the entire winter. Heck, even the yearly registration tabs are super cheap at this point.....
LOL. How many cars do you have? I had the 2020 PP for my daily driver, but I stopped driving it soon after getting it when I started working full time from home. We still have DW's Pathfinder Hybrid for occasional drives. PP is better at fuel efficiency than Pathfinder, but it can't haul as much cargo as Path, and my wife became very comfortable with the ride and premium features it offers even though it is older and was cheaper used than PP. For now, in less than 3 months, I have already saved and made over $7000 by getting rid of 2020 PP. If and when I go back to commuting again, I should be able to buy a PP again with the cash very quickly.
We have 4 vehicles....having teenage kids didn't help. - A 2012 Hyundai Sonata Limited - Impressive MPG for an ICE vehicle. Beats EPA often on the highway. - A 2013 Hyundai Elantra GT hatchback - fun little vehicle! MPG not great ( has low profile tires, etc.. ). - A 2010 Prius liftback - Started out as the 'kids car'. Daughter now has it up at college since she has to do an internship. - A 2012 Prius v wagon. My project car ( see link in signature ) Back in the before times...all 4 were often in use on a single day. Now not more than 2 are in use on any given day. BTW - the Prius v wagon has a monstrous hauling capacity. It actually replaced our Mazda MPV minivan. I have also removed the rear seats if I have a lot to haul.
Yeah, we always had three cars in our household. Now, my son took possession of CRZ and paying for it on his own including insurance. Now with only one 6 years old SUV for my wife, which is being driven only ~100miles/mo, our car operational cost is down to nothing. Our state has excise tax based on the MSRP of the car and age. After 6 years, it gets low enough at $180/yr for our SUV with an MSRP of $45K, but for the first couple years, PP with MSRP $30K was costing $720/1st yr and $525/2nd year. We replaced our Sienna minivan with Pathfinder Hybrid SUV. The size is almost the same, but PathHy has non-removable seats (no 3rd-row seats), making its cargo space quite a bit smaller than Sienna. Before buying my next daily driver, we may trade-in PathHy to get Pacifica PHV. I have read a good review on the 2021 Pacifica Hybrid, placeing it as a better minivan than the all-new 2021 Sienna (hybrid). And being a plug-in, it qualifies for a $7500 tax credit, making it much cheaper than Sienna.
