ARE WE OVER DUE FOR A GASOLINE BOYCOTT

That only works if the boycotter's also say, "since I didn't buy gas, I won't drive the car today".

 

Shouldn't people look at their own behavior too? The popularity of SUV's has helped to keep the average oil consumption in this country flat to slightly rising even as passenger cars have become a lot more fuel-efficient on average.

Granted we on this board own some fuel-inefficient cars, but at a few K miles per year (or less) it's not a huge impact. Nor do I care if an SUV driver takes their car to Tahoe, off-road, summer camping trips, etc. That's what those cars were meant for.

What I don't get is the single driver commuting daily in an SUV, using a 4000-6000 lb vehicle to transport a single person when a 2500-3500 lb vehicle could be just as comfortable, handle and brake better, and be much more fuel efficient.

The point at which demand exceeds producible supply has long been predicted and we may be there. The economic growth of China & India may have pushed us past the tipping point. Higher oil prices may be a fact for the rest of our lives.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubbert_peak

"Based on current information about known oil reserves, estimates of future discovery, growing oil demand, and available technology, the ASPO predicts that world oil production will peak around the year 2007."

 

Mario,

I like your idea, but I have a suggestion.........

Don't drive unless you really need to. Conserve, conserve, conserve..... That will help the country in this time of need. If we all used 20% less, for example, that would help a great deal to the impact of refinery and transport issues we have now.

So Please make a conscience effort to not go somewhere.

 

Wow, umm, people will still drive their cars on sundays, okay. People will still require gasoline. They will buy it on saturday or monday instead. It won't cost the companies anything in gross sales.

 

Mario, our stations are open seven days a week. The only way to make an impact is to consume less. Planning a day off from purchasing will not effect the bottom line. Crunch the numbers, you'll see..........

 

And the other six days of the week would, on average, see 17% more business. Gross sales are the same.

 

In the last week.....Car Dealers are getting SUV's (by the boat-load) being traded in on smaller cars.

I would guess that the price of used SUV's will be dropping like a stone over the next few months as the glut of trade-ins floods dealers lots.

Detroit's Big 3 are in a tail-spin..... since big SUV's are still their main profit center.
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Yeah, I do that too.

AMEN!!

You guessed right. SUV and truck values are in the tank. People are taking hideous hits and financing their losses into new hondas and toyotas. I never quite understood that. If gas expense is your sole motivation in getting another vehicle, why not just spend a thousand on an old car and maybe another thousand or two to fix it up? That would leave you almost $17,000 to buy gas with. Instead they trade their truck or SUV in on a Prius and finance the loss of their previous car in with it. The payments are the same or higher, but by God their getting 40 mpg....LOL. Maybe I'm just not seeing the big picture.

 

they charge for what it is going to cost them for the next fill-up. my parents own a gas station and thats the way it works. i know it varies by location but where they are they have to split half of there markup of fuel with the distibuter. to say the least they dont make much on gas, they make more on the attached car wash.

 

Look at what is going on down there. People are shooting police officers in the face. People are raping other people, stabbing other people, robbing people, and getting away with ALL of it. Police take cover at night and bunker down. They don't even try to fight the criminals anymore (so the news tells me, but then again, who has ever trusted the news?). Do you HONESTLY think it would have been a good idea for President Bush to LAND in and step foot in that city? NO.

Landing Air Force One would have meant immobilizing the Secret Service and co-ordinating the President's arrival with local law enforcement and local FBI. That is a serious effort, especially when all of those people have other more immediate duties. Landing would have taken away from anything those people were doing, and hence created even more chaos. I see NOTHING wrong with him flying over, to see the destruction first hand.

Now is not a time for Politics guys, I don't even see how anyone can allow politics to affect what they think of this situation.

 

I pay more for a litre of milk than I do for a litre of gas.

WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?

If money is your only worry,

clip cupons,
don't leave lights and t.v.'s on,
sell a car....
Do almost anything else in your life that saves even a little money and you'll off set the gas price increase. Don't buy 2 coffee{s} this week and don't buy the bag of chips and you'll save money.

There are waaayyyyyy toooooo many chicken little's on this planet.

If you want to make headlines why not tell stories about older people who spend $500 bucks a month on perscriptions that keep them alive!

I HAVEN'T HEARD A STORY ABOUT THAT IN MORE THAN A YEAR!

Everyone is a guru on any subject as long as it's on CNN. And in a week no one will care, there will be a new fake worry to fret and warn about.

Grow up and stop spreading gossip... cry babies.

 

My girlfriend told me to take her out somewhere expensive... So I took her to the local gas station. Hehehehe bad joke I know.

 

hmmm a lot of you guys have no clue.
there are some corrupt gas station owners, but they are very few. for the most part owners make very little on gas, and they have to raise the prices on the present tank load in anticipation of buying the next one, thats why the prices rise before you can see why.
secondly, the price of gas at the wholesale level is determined by a simple formula something like nymex+cost of transport and handling+3-8cts margin. gouging? yes maybe, be vigilant. a conspiracy to fleece everybody? hardly.

the reason why prices are as high as they are is down to supply and demand. our demand is high and our supply got disrupted - wake up to econ 101.

boycott gas stations? yea right.
regulate gas prices? right thats the answer to encourage oil companies to sell to you at less than market rates.....(heavy sarcasm)

even at $3/gallon, gasoline is probably the cheapest liquid in your life. cheaper than milk, water, beer, whiskey, oj, drano, vegetable oil, etc ad nauseum.

you want to make a difference in the consumption growth of oil in the usa? then stop driving 300 yards to get a donut. stop sitting in your 6000 pound suv waiting for the kids to get out of the movies with your engine running and the aircon on. stop getting your kid a car the day he turns 16 - he can ride a bike or a bus. etc etc.

 

I absolutely DO NOT believe the stations make only a few cents on fuel. Every time I have inquired on buying bulk quantities, the price is many cents less than pump price. And the price fluctuates depending on the supplier. Diesel fuel is a good example, in that other than some anti gel additives etc, its plain old fuel oil. I had a guy I knew who supplied fuel oil to our old farm house, the fuel he was supplied came from the same tank, he just added an additive. His price on diesel was the same as heating oil, he just added road tax.

To truely hit the oil companies, you cant just not buy gas one day, but still burn it off. You have to NOT DRIVE. If everyone in the country would park thier cars for one day, a weekday, everyone at the same time, it would send a message, and it would cost them massive amounts of money that could never be made back up. If its true we burn 89 million barrels a day, we could concievably back up the system that amount. But I seriously doubt we as a country can pull anything like that off anymore. Or any other big statement or movement. To many wienies today.

 

I Have A Plan: (tm)

At the food/fuel stop the other day, I noticed that 93 octane was $3.50 a gallon.

A microwave chilli meal was $2.79. It gives me more than a gallon of gas.

Would that fuel conversion redefine the "phart pipe"?

 

fuel oil is thick and black, and if you put it in your car you would not be able to move it and would have to replace the gas tank.
heating oil and diesel are similar, but heating oil does not have as high a cetane requirment, but in a pinch it would work in a diesel engine (with some premature knocking).

independent gas station owners do not make a lot on gas. their money is made on the stuff in the store

the total world consumption is about 89 mbd, but this counts petchems as well. the usa uses about 45 mbd, and about 23mbd of that is gasoline. not driving for a time will only matter to the overall consumption if the trips that you intended to make that day, are not simply put off for another day but eliminated. and i would encourage everybody to try this. you wont hurt the oil companies or opec in any material way, but it might lower the prices a little bit.