Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Gas Prices in your area

my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

»	Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE » Community » Film-Yak » Gas Prices in your area (Page 43)

This topic comprises 55 pages: 1 2 3 ... 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 ... 53 54 55

Author

Topic: Gas Prices in your area

Lyle Romer
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1400
From: Davie, FL, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 06-08-2008 05:02 PM

quote: Frank Angel
I tried to find the answer to a question I once posed here -- someone gave an explanation but I can't find it and I can vaguely remember it. My question is, let's say a gas station has a 5000 gallon tank and he fills it up at $3.00 a gallon. Then the price starts going up, why does he have to adjust the price with each increase that's unrelated to his purchase cost? He's already bought the gas! He is just adding profit because he can. If he sold it at the $3 price (adding his usual profit which is a given percentage over whatever the price purchase price), he would only need to raise the price the next time he buys another fill-up. No?

This also happens in the other direction but nobody complains. When the wholesale price drops, the price at the pump drops immediately even though the gas station paid more for the fuel in the ground.

| IP: Logged

Sean McKinnon
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1712
From: Peabody Massachusetts
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 06-08-2008 05:19 PM

It is around $4.30 a gallon for the High Test stuff here on the north shore of Boston. [Roll Eyes]

| IP: Logged

Michael Dolan
Film Handler

Posts: 77
From: Deerfield Beach, fl.
Registered: May 2008

posted 06-08-2008 06:23 PM

We just hit $3.99 in NE Ga. this morning.

Its amazing how upset everyone was on the first couple of pages of this thread when gas was around $1.60

Now look how far we've come. [Mad]

| IP: Logged

Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 06-08-2008 07:10 PM

quote: Lyle Romer
This also happens in the other direction but nobody complains. When the wholesale price drops, the price at the pump drops immediately even though the gas station paid more for the fuel in the ground.

Maybe that happens in your part of Florida, but it definitely doesn't happen here in Oklahoma -and this is oil country.

Gas prices tend to spike upward at any opportunity. At least they've been doing so for the past few years. When the price of oil drops, gas stations take a long time coming off of those prices. Recent example. Oil declined from $135 per barrel down to near $120. Prices didn't change at the pumps. They held steady or kept creeping upward. Now with oil near $140 per barrel the gas stations will have reason enough to propel prices well past $4 per gallon in every part of the nation and go past $5 per gallon on diesel.

quote: Mike Blakesley
The car business is a lot different from most other retail businesses.

True. And it's very different from the oil business. People have a choice about buying a car. They can choose to keep driving the same old vehicle or get something else -perhaps something different from the same old gas guzzling models Detroit's auto makers have been selling. So if an auto company decides to jack up its prices due to materials costs, it will risk customers choosing to sit on the sidelines as a result.

Anyone who has to drive for purposes of commuting and other needs has no choice about buying gasoline. They're stuck.

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
Actually I think the rising oil prices are the best thing that ever happened to this country. It will finally for the better change the way we live and stop much of the waste that goes on.

This is coming from someone who talks openly about driving a Hummer, or Range Rover?

Still, I do see the positive about it as well. I can recall car commercials from the late 1970s and 1980s where gas mileage numbers were a big part of the ad. We rarely ever see that these days even with record high gas prices. It's as if the auto makers don't want to cast a negative light on the far lower levels of fuel efficiency in their higher priced vehicles. I think they're going to have to get back to running those gas mileage numbers in the ads again.

The high gasoline prices are going to force auto makers and other business and industry people to get a lot more serious about developing alternative sources of energy. For decades they've just made fun of such efforts as bunny hugger environmentalist nonsense. Now the cost situation has the fire lit under their asses finally.

Once we're able to get a handle on this situation it will dry up a lot of funding going to international terrorists in the middle east. Once we're able to get more energy independent it will force many violent parts of the world to grow up and get peaceful or get starved out of existence.

| IP: Logged

Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 06-08-2008 09:08 PM

quote: Lyle Romer
This also happens in the other direction but nobody complains. When the wholesale price drops, the price at the pump drops immediately even though the gas station paid more for the fuel in the ground.

What actually happens is:

- Price of oil goes up $1 a barrel
- Price of gas goes up 5¢ per gallon

- Price of oil goes down $1 a barrel
- Price of gas goes down 1¢ per gallon and consumers celebrate

| IP: Logged

Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 06-08-2008 09:24 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
This is coming from someone who talks openly about driving a Hummer, or Range Rover?

Yep! We bought them because we felt they will more than likely be the last large off road vehicles one will be able to own. Sort of a final farewell. They are both really great vehicles and both have been more or less trouble free. They don't really get that bad of gas milage... the Humnmer wins the contest though at about 19mpg if you drive it nice, not over 70mph. The Land Rover does about 17mpg at not over 70mph. I won't regret buying them till gas hits about 10 bucks a gallon.

Mark

| IP: Logged

David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 06-08-2008 09:38 PM

Personally even though I hate paying $75 (at today's prices) to fill my Pathfinder with the recommended premium, I think the surge in gas prices is a good thing. US consumers have had it far too easy on this issue for far too long, compared to the rest of the world. It's about time we get slapped upside the head. I think gas will plateau around $5 a gallon soon and hover there for a while before it resumes its rise.

BTW my '07 6-cyl Pathfinder gets about 20MPG if I drive it nicely on the highway, but only around 14-15 commuting to work. Am I going to dump it so I can get better mileage? No.

| IP: Logged

Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 06-09-2008 12:22 AM

I think most people who buy a new car to "save money on gas" are just using that as an excuse to buy a new car. OK, so you get a couple extra miles a gallon....how long will it take to save the $30,000 or more that a new car costs? Unless you're really ready to trade anyway, or unless you're a person who must drive a lot, it makes more sense to keep the old car and keep it tuned up, and cut down on unnecessary or "recreational" driving.

I used to enjoy a nice cruise after work for a half hour or so, but I don't do that too often any more. Gas is $3.94 here now.

| IP: Logged

Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 06-09-2008 12:37 AM

$30,000?

The Honda Fit we just bought for our sales manager to use for driving to sales calls cost less than $15,000. It gets up to 34mpg on the highway, which is close to double the fuel economy his Ford F150 was getting.

| IP: Logged

Richard Hamilton
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1341
From: Evansville, Indiana
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 06-09-2008 04:14 AM

I traded in the Escalade last year because of the gas I was putting in it every day. Not only was I paying a shitload for gas, but I couldn't get a decent price on the trade in. They really didn't want it because they had too many SUVs on the lot, and they didn't think they could sell it. Ripple effect????

| IP: Logged

Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 06-09-2008 04:15 AM

I've always been impressed of the small vehicles sold in Europe. Vehicles with motors less than 1000cc in size, and their biggest, in economy mode, hits up to 1400cc and using both fuel types of diesel and gasoline.

The new generation that's coming around will probably be driving vehicles here in the states with motors of these sizes in them by the time the Big Three wakes up and gets serious with making subcompacts and hybrid vehicles.

I was even impressed with the E.Germany's Trebant even though it was the most horrible car ever made (I still see Yugos on the road - seems that they're not that all bad...),but if one can bring that car back and put in a better effective motor in it, this would be quite the retro vehicle to be issued again.

I agree with Mark totally: enjoy your two vehicles while you can since you know that they'll last as long as you keep them in full maintenance schedules.

We just purchased a KIA Rondo - their crossover vehicle that just came to these shores, (even though it's been out in Europe since 1999 as the Carens..) and we get very good mileage with it at 27mpg as long as I behave on the freeways with it - and it'll be our last car as long as I'm able to do the prevMNT on it .. and other drivers have the same idea instead of taking this dream away when they lose control of their sanity in driving on the road.

quote: Richard Hamilton
They really didn't want it because they had too many SUVs on the lot, and they didn't think they could sell it. Ripple effect????

I know it's real sad to see this. When I pass a lot of car lots - new and used, that is all I see in them .. just loaded with SUV's and pickups..and I'm sure that the used inventory is growing like mad of these vehicles at these dealerships.

Where are all of these used gas guzzlers are going to head to eventually? These lots looks like they're massively overloaded with inventory that looks like an invasion of white elephants to their business in staying profitable.

quote:
"Ask me about Trajan"

(the 2nd of the 5 great Emperors of Rome?)

-Monte

| IP: Logged

Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 06-09-2008 08:06 AM

quote: Bobby Henderson
The Honda Fit we just bought for our sales manager to use for driving to sales calls cost less than $15,000. It gets up to 34mpg on the highway, which is close to double the fuel economy his Ford F150 was getting.

Ha, I wonder what happened to the 40 mpg plus that the old 1970's Honda Civic's used to get.

Mark

| IP: Logged

Lyle Romer
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1400
From: Davie, FL, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 06-09-2008 09:10 AM

quote: David Stambaugh
US consumers have had it far too easy on this issue for far too long, compared to the rest of the world. It's about time we get slapped upside the head.

The reason we have had it "far too easy" compared to Europe is due to the ridiculous level of taxes that European countries slap on gas (or petrol as they call it). The consumers that have it "far too easy" and still have it that way are the consumers in oil producing countries like Venezuela and some in the middle east where the government SUBSIDIZES the price of gas and they are paying less than $1 per gallon.

quote: Monte L Fullmer
I've always been impressed of the small vehicles sold in Europe. Vehicles with motors less than 1000cc in size, and their biggest, in economy mode, hits up to 1400cc and using both fuel types of diesel and gasoline.

One of the issues with producing cars for the US that get the kind of milage that some of those cars in Europe get are the safety regulations. There is a lot of weight added to a vehicle so that it passes the crash tests. The only way to get really high levels of fuel economy in a US vehicle (over MPG) will be to use advanced (and expensive) materials to add to the strenght to weight ratio. Of course, what good would a car be if it got 80 MPG highway if it had the size and perfomance of a Honda Civic and cost $50,000?

BTW, Ford is going in the smaller engine direction with their "Ecoboost" line. It's basically a line of turbocharged engines where a V6 gets the power of a V8 and a I4 delivers the power of a V6. They are saying that replaceing the V8 with the EcoBoost V6 or the V6 with an EcoBoost V8 in the same vehicle will result in a 20% improvement in Fuel Economy.

The new consumer focus on Fuel Economy is a good thing. I don't buy in to the "greenhouse gas" thing but it certainly couldn't do any harm to release less CO2. More important, the less gas we use, the less money the wacko terrorists in the middle east will get. That's why in a couple of months I'll be replacing my Chevy Avalanche (which I love) that averages around 16 MPG (combined city/hwy driving) with a Ford Escape Hybrid that it rated at 30 MPG Highway and 34 MPG City. I am willing to give up a little versitility to basically double the gas milage.

| IP: Logged

Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 06-09-2008 09:38 AM

quote: Bobby Henderson
$30,000?

The Honda Fit we just bought for our sales manager to use for driving to sales calls cost less than $15,000.

Bobby, I thought you were smart enough to know that I was just throwing out a general number. There are lots of cars costing less than 30K and plenty of cars that cost much more.

Even at $15K and $60 per fill-up, at $4 per gallon, you would need 250 fill-ups to spend that much money. I don't know how much you drive, but it would take me between 7 and 10 years to do that many fill-ups. Like I said, unless you drive enough to fill up more than once a week, it's silly to buy a new vehicle JUST to save on gas. You're money ahead to just keep the vehicle tuned and try to drive less. Of course, if you're talking about a company vehicle that puts on hundreds of miles a day, the equation would be different.

| IP: Logged

Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 06-09-2008 09:48 AM

quote: Bobby Henderson
The high gasoline prices are going to force auto makers and other business and industry people to get a lot more serious about developing alternative sources of energy. For decades they've just made fun of such efforts as bunny hugger environmentalist nonsense. Now the cost situation has the fire lit under their asses finally.

Old habits die hard. The car manufacturers may have gotten the message, but they don't seem be ready yet to admit publicly that we are going to have to change our ideas about cars, driving and efficiency. Instead of offering vehicles which get better mpg, they offer to pay for your gas so you can still buy their inefficient cars and drive they way you're accustomed to....just keep doing what your doing seems to be the message. GM's ads say, "We're doing something about the price of gas...." No you're not.

And I was recently in Florida where EVERYONE drives at freakin 80 - 90 mph on I95. Not a lot of people seem to get it that they need to CHANGE their habits and drive more conservatively. Maybe gas DOES have to reach $10 before it sinks in that this is not only a SIGNIFICANT economic problem, but one that finances our enemies. Maybe it has to come to, you can fill up your tank or buy food for the week, but you can't afford to do both, before we collectively "get it." We certainly know the government isn't educating the populous to make changes; it's content to make us put shampoo and mouthwash in 3oz bottles and put them in plastic bags (all of which, ironically, requires us to use more plastic), deluding us into thinking that makes us safe.

| IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 55 pages: 1 2 3 ... 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 ... 53 54 55

Printer-friendly view of this topic

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.