Rising Gas Prices

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Slair @ May 23 2007, 09:38 AM) [snapback]448095[/snapback]</div>

Man iI looove that avatar! :lol: :lol:

We make 58k combined on paper, we do better than most the people we know...

we spend $40 a week, most spend 100 & up a week...

The manufacturers are hurting with the big trucks and suvs and are offering better deals not to mention those who are selling them as cheap as possible to get econo boxes..

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(brick @ May 23 2007, 06:49 AM) [snapback]448106[/snapback]</div>

Why bother keeping up with the Joneses? The Joneses are broke!
-Dave Ramsey

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pyccku @ May 23 2007, 08:44 AM) [snapback]448156[/snapback]</div>

Wrong.

I know oil company profit margins were at 9.1% in 2005, up from 7.5% in 2004 and I assume they've continued upward since the price of gas has increased dramatically since then.

Bloomberg.com also notes in the article below that the margins for turning crude oil into fuel have tripled this year.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...&refer=home

 

Combined, my wife and I fall into about the $55-60 range, right now. That's mostly thanks to the fun-fun of graduate school. heh.

Still, thanks to excellent credit, some shopping around, and a decent trade-in value, we were able to afford a lightly used Prius. The gas savings alone compared to my old vehicle will be a relief. Prior to the Prius, i was projecting future gas prices for my car, and getting extremely nervous. Now, I feel there's far less to worry about. Add to it that I enjoy driving the Prius more than I did my Taurus, and that I feel better about its emissions and it's a no-brainer.

 

Conoco puts out their own figures which show a profit of about 10 cents/gallon, http://www.conocophillips.com/newsroom/oth...oil_profits.htm. That doesn't seem unreasonable.

Of course you don't have to accept their figures - they do have an interest in not being seen as "price gougers."

I don't see the oil industry as evil price gougers - I see them as businesses who want to make a profit, and that doesn't mean they're gouging. They charge what the market will bear. And so long as people will grumble and moan and complain - and then continue to pump $3.45/gallon gasoline into their 12 mpg SUV, they will continue to charge that much.

As hybrid owners, we are doing our part to reduce the demand. But there is no reason for oil companies to lower the prices on the gasoline so long as people are willing to pay that price. People complain, and people get angry - but the fact that they are filling their cars with the stuff shows that they ARE willing to pay that price. If they weren't willing to do so, we'd see more people making serious changes in their lifestyles.

Every morning as I carpool in to work with my husband and three kids, we see probably 200 cars on the road. About 190 of them have one person. Many of them are trucks, SUVs and vans. So at a little over $3/gallon, it must not hurt these people so much that they are willing to change.

If it truly gets to the point where budgets are being impacted severely, I expect to see some "carpool buddy wanted" signs around the valley, and more people sharing a ride. When will that happen? $4 or $5 gallon?

There is no doubt that this IS hurting the working poor. But for the upper-middle class and higher, they're still not facing a dilemma where they're being forced to choose between food and gas, or health care and gas, or the electric bill or gas. When that happens - THEN you'll see some calls for change.

 

Since the Prius doubled my previous car's mpgs, the gas would have to go way over the $5 mark, before I would feel a negative effect personally. So far its all good. I hope to be retired by the time it reaches over $5.

My commute is 45 miles each way, and it costs about $40 a week, or less than 2 gallons a day at California prices.

 

Even owning a Prius, I find myself trying my best to get everything done in less trips. I must drive to work each day which is a 28 mile commute one way. If gas goes much higher, it will REALLY impact my wallet!! This sucks!!

 

suffice to say we make far less than the aforementioned $75k annually. one car payment is quite sufficient for us right now so buying a second hybrid isn't an option. filling up any car sucks right now, but i'd sooner pay $45 a few times a month than a couple hundred in car payment PLUS gas.

our former camry got mid-20s mpg before someone destroyed it. DH does more driving than he needs to in general and i'm constantly harping on him about it. while his car is down for the count i have found gas bills to be easier to handle.

 

I had been driving the SUV and the wife the car. My job recently moved, so my commute turned into a 60 mile round trip. I was spending over $350 a month to get to work at 12mpg. So, the wife and I needed to swap vehicles, but our vehicles were both too "personalized" for the other (her red New Beetle Convertible and my orange lifted Discovery w/winch, etc.). So, the Discovery became an LR3 and only drives 18 miles a day, 5 days a week, and the Beetle became the Prius. Saving that much on gas was a big relief to the budget. It doesn't matter how much money you make, if you live on most of it, you feel the squeeze of gas prices. Now, though, "not so much".

 

The Dear Hubbs and I fall somewhere near that magical income bracket... though, we have kids, and a mortgage (small one, actually), and we both work, and I have a 26 mile-each-way commute...
I have a carpool buddy, who splits gas with me.

The car that was replaced by the Prius was a lovely, shiny, sporty Chevy Malibu... and it was getting a consistent 28 mpg with the carpooling (31 mpg with just me... the extra weight made a difference).

So, if I'm getting 48 mpg in the Prius with carpooling, I'm gaining 20 miles per week.. that adds up!

We did a bit of creative financing which means that we don't have a car payment, and we also have discovered that we can switch insurance carriers and get a better deal on the Prius than our current carrier offers... so, we'll save money there.

We're also cancelling the 3rd party extended warranty we bought, and getting the toyota extended warranty that you can get through here... that will give us back about $1100. That's a lot of gas, for a Prius!

 

I'm at half of the $75,000, before taxes.

Gas has never been much of my budget, and with the 8-gallon Prius fillup and 10-gallon 4Runner fillup (weekender), I can't really tell the difference. I know the advantages of the price increasing--it may cause us to change our habits and make alternative fuels more feasable. I also feel for those that are scraping by, however, and are just trying to survive and feed their kids. So I don't know of an ideal scenario. Maybe increased gas prices with assistance programs for those who need it, like the program that helps with utility bills.
It's a tough one.

Eric

 

Yes the gas prices are making me wait to buy new batteries for the EV so if anyone wants to donate to my battery fund and makes 75k plus use paypal at
[email protected] I will use the funds for new Trojans

thanks

 

My wife and I don't hit the magic salary number, but I think were doing ok. In our case we ran into a situation where once we got the Prius (3/07) we began to realize just how much of our gas budget was going into our Sienna. (The prius goes 2 weeks between fillups) With the prices going up the way they are we had to make the hard finacial choice of trading in our Sienna (which is a great van) for a better mileage car. Our choice would have been another Prius of course, but we could not justify a payment quite that high versus the savings in gas. So we ended up with a Corolla.
Obviously gas prices forced us to make some changes, but in the end I think it was the best way to go.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Walker1 @ May 23 2007, 12:39 PM) [snapback]448244[/snapback]</div>

If the price of gas goes up, either in the form of higher profits or increased gas taxes, the demand will fall at some point. High demand and limited supply = high price. Higher prices will lower demand. Based on what's been observed in other countries (e.g. throughout Europe) that raised taxes years ago, that price is around $4 per gallon. We're very close. Look at both the cars those countries drive and the average mileage those cars get.

Yes, it hurts in the pocketbook. How much it hurts is relative to a person's income. As Prius drivers, it will hurt us less than most. I drive 40,000 to 50,000 miles/year. It definitely affects my pocketbook. But I'm still for taxing gas if it will change the buying habits of the average American consumer.

 

We are in the $75k neighborhood and the price of gas DOES affect us! I have a daily commute of 61 miles, she has a commute of 102 miles in rural VT. I drive the Pri, she drives the corolla (likes the stick shift better!) and we cut our fuel bill in half! Now we can go places other than just to work and back! Life is meant to be enjoyed not endured!

 

Well, in SoCal that household income you posted doesnt' go as far as other areas, so it really doesn't matter.

We are hurting from gas prices, and that is why we're getting a prius. Not that they are not a great car others, but I really need more space and was hoping the makers would come out with better options than their current line of SUV hybrids (hey - how about a wagon!).

Our last two gas bills were over $500. We just cannot afford that. I am looking at it like this is the push I needed to drop my "drag everything but the kitchen sink" around mentality.

 

I think a lot of people can only afford to buy older, less fuel efficient vehicles and the gas prices have to be killing them. For those of us who can afford $22,000+ hybrids, gas prices probably aren't that big a dent in the budget.

My wife just sold her Avalanche and I have a '97 full size Chevy van. We were easily putting $150/wk on the plastic for gas. $600/month fuel bill to get to work and back knocks a heck of a lot of money off of one's hourly wage.