Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: alembic76407 on October 24, 2005, 02:25:00 PM
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How are gas prices in you neck of the woods
Oklahoma City Okla.
$2.04 unleaded
$3.12 Diesel
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West End Montreal, Canada
About $1.10/Litre unleaded. Convert this to gallons (3.8 litres per gallon) and add the exchange rate (25%); which would work out to about $5.22 US per gallon.
Ouch!
Ellery (Lowlife)
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In Bucks County PA they range from 2.5 unleaded to 2.70...
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Terre Haute, Indiana unleaded $2.39/gal, diesel $3.12/gal.
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What's up with the high cost of diesel? Since we tour in a diesel powered bus, the cost of traveling is getting ridiculous. Gas has gone back down, but diesel remains high.
Edwin
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In my part of Colorado regular unleaded is $3 and diesel is about $3.45.
Edwin, I have heard that a large portion of the fuel production capacity normally devoted to diesel production has been shifted to gasoline production, as a result of pressure to lower gasoline prices. Don't know for sure but that's the buzz.
Rich
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Raleigh, NC $2.79/gal for unleaded.
Keith
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Edinburgh, Scotland
Gas - ?0.91 per Liter = $4.65 / gallon
Disel - ?0.94 per Liter
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The Netherlands, about 1.39 euro per liter - $1 = 0.80 euro - that makes $8.85 per gallon.
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Okay Mike, you tell me where I can find Diesel at 94 pence a litre? Cheapest out west is nearer 97 pence.
Anyway, 94 pence a liter works out at $6.27 US for a USA gallon (3.785 litres instead of the UK 4.546 litres)
I've said it before and I'll say it again, you Americans don't know you're born when it comes to fuel prices ;-)
Graeme
(Message edited by jacko on October 25, 2005)
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Diesel costs 1/3 of the cost of gasoline to refine. Ridiculous Diesel prices can be summed-up in two words: PRICE GOUGING!
Or how's about one word: GREED!
Prices in most of the rest of the world have always been high because the fuel is taxed to death. Now we're paying for oil company greed and the excuse is from ECONOMICS101: Supply and Demand...the third world, i.e., mostly China, is sucking up all the sweet crude, so the rest of the world has to suffer, or so we're told.
ALL BS! Greed is the culprit...Dubya loves it: Cap'n Nuculer WOMD makes all his scratch from it!
FWIW, I'm paying $2.67 for #2 Diesel...$90-$100/tank each fill-up...it lasts for a week, if I'm lucky! I've had my '04.5 Dodge Ram Cummins HD P/U for 17mos...Diesel was $1.41/gal when I bought the d*mn thing (stayed that way for 6 mos. prior), and has increased steadily since. Gee, only 33 more monthly payments and it's all mine, LOL! For comparision, I got a 2.8% merit raise this year!
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I've been thinking of picking up a small diesel car for local use and converting it to vegetable oil. Most of the restaurants around here would give it away rather than pay to haul it off. Should keep costs down since regular diesel is only needed to start the car.
Keith
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Supply-and-demand is a simplistic concept. On the supply side, the price is as high as the demand side will tolerate. When it comes to fuel, there's a high tolerance level. This is before taxes - but then I've seen the condition of the roads in countries with low taxes - you gets what you pays for.
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You obviously haven't seen the state of the roads in the UK, Adriaan - and we have stupidly high fuel taxes here. I've been to third world countries with better roads than the state they're in here. There was an official survey that I saw the results of only last week, and they concluded what I've thought about the state of our roads for a long time - that they're in appalling condition!
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It's been a while since I noticed the roads in the UK - have been over a few times, but not driving a car. Roads are in pretty good condition in the Netherlands, so it must be something to do with the miles-of-road-to-square-miles-of-territory ratio.
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The UK has a great tax and spend policy. Tax on one thing and spend on what you like!
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Yeah. The car tax is also known as the 'Road Fund License'. Wonder how much of it gets spent on the roads LOL!
graeme
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The infamous Council Tax springs to mind.
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No, I think the council tax is not a good example. The council tax us and definitely spend it on the council, not the residents!
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Very true! LOL;-)
graeme
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Northern Illinois
Unleaded 2.479
Diesel 3.349
I've recently been having problems with plugs and valves fouling, which I'm being told is caused by the crappy gas on the market since good ole G'Dub rescinded some EPA regs to boost production.
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Can't disagree with any of this. I think we spend about 20% of tax on fuel and road fund license on the roads, don't we? It's some terrible ratio. Disgraceful really. Some of the rest no doubt goes towards giving criminals a decent holiday due to the fact that they had a poor upbringing. Anyone who lives in the UK will know what I'm saying here.
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Well generally I have found that the majority of taxes end up funding the organization created to manage the tax not the actual area needing the money.
Keith
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As a member of the pro-Cummins Turbo Diesel Registry, the club members have been privvy to the advertising onslaught of the newbie biodiesel craze for sometime now. For $4k, exclusive of supplies, you get the rig to convert any vegetable oil into hi-grade diesel. You still need lye and alcohol racing fuel in order to create the reaction necessary. If you're a farmer, or construction company (or any other big bulk commercial Diesel user), then it does make sense to handle caustic lye and extremely flammable alcohol in order to make your own Diesel. As Keith stated, fast food restaurants have to pay to get the stuff taken away...you just have to go get it and handle that smelly, nasty stuff. I'm told there is a bonus: your exhaust smells like french fries and/or popcorn, LOL! I think the current projected cost per gallon of bio-diesel is on the order of $0.70-$0.80. That is the manufacturer(s) claims, and has not yet been corroborated by club members.
FWIW, you can burn just about any type of oil in a diesel including kerosene, motor oil and vegetable oil, as long as it's clean and free of water or other contaminants. Unless you have the proper pump lubricants and other additives (algaecides, cleaning agents, anti-gelling agents, etc.), however, you will be going thru pumps and injectors like crazy. Plus, fuel pressure, economy, complete combustion, etc. suffer unless there's hi-grade #2 oil in there. My FI pump is about $3k, injectors about $1k, and the motor is $16k for a short block(!!!). I don't think I'll be F'n with the fuel in that 300kmi MTBO Cummins anytime soon...a wrecked motor and/or fuel system on a $50k truck with warantee coverage DENIED due to improper fuel is not my idea of fun!
While I did get a great deal on my truck (Cost plus $2k cash back and 0% finance for 48mos.), the doubling/tripling of fuel coupled with the nearly $7k premium to get the Cummins ISB HPCR Diesel option has made my return on investment a joke. While this is still the only way to get a full size, 6 passenger 4WD truck with a 11,000# towing capacity with enough room in the bed to carry full size sheets of plywood and sheetrock, a Harley, or other toys AND still get better than 10MPG (17 to 19MPG on avg. for a 4Ton flying brick is, comparatively, damn good!), my one-time bargain has become an albatross around my neck. These prices are killing the American auto industry which only survives because of truck and SUV sales.
(Message edited by kmh364 on October 25, 2005)
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Gas hit $1.99 a gallon today and Diesel dropped to $2.32
Oklahoma is a great place to be poor
David T (TLO)
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David T.,
You lucky SOB, LOL! It sure is good to be an Okie!
I just filled up...best price $2.64 for Hess Diesel in Elizabeth, NJ (Outside of Newark Liberty Int'l Airport on Rtes. 1/9). Another $84 in the tank! Just call it the Black Gold, LOL!
I never thought I'd see the day where I thought $2/gal for fuel was a great price!
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I've noticed that gimmick of selling gas by the litre on visits to Ireland. They trick us into thinking it's not so bad here, IR?0.75 per litre. Knowing us dumb tourists are not going to do the math.
Jacksonville, Fl $2.81 regular unleaded.
Sam
(Message edited by bracheen on October 25, 2005)
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Gas is about $4.30 a gallon here in Kyoto, Japan. It doesn't seem so bad nowadays. Not that it's good. My motorcycle needs high octane which is about 10% more.
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While I'm certainly not in love with the $3 and up pricing of Sunoco Ultra 94, it pains me less to dump the $9-15$ or so on 3-5 gals. in my Harley than it does to spring for the 35gals of #2 fuel in my truck!
As far as using the bike for work: EWR Airport is not the greatest place to use a bike for commuting (just under 100mi round trip/day), and living in the snow belt puts a damper on things as well. The 40-45MPG economy makes commuting on the bike tempting, but re-fueling every day or treading snow/sleet/freezing rain doesn't.
Up until this year, I don't think I ever came close to putting $10 in the bike's tank, now I routinely exceed that.
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Well good/bad news we just dropped thirty cents today so regular unleaded is now down to $2.49.
It just dawned on me that US fuel economy has been frozen (if not gone backwards) for years (yes my brain is slower that my driving speed). Filled up the 10 gallon tank on my '71' Volvo 1800E, which takes premium with octane booster (still runs best on real Hi-Test). After the fillup I calculated I'm still getting 20 mpg for mixed highway/city driving. Not bad for an old 4 banger.
Keith
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Golly, ,my GAS price is about $11,000 for the Buckeye Burl Mark King in the showroom at Alembic. What a beauty!
Larry
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$1.52 NZ per liter (roughly $5.80 US/gallon). Diesel is up there as well.
It's a good thing I commute on my bike.
(Message edited by tbrannon on October 26, 2005)
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When I was in OZ in late '03, the Aussies were crying that regular was $1AUD/litre! At the time, that was about $2.70 per gal (@ $1AUD = $0.67USD). I can just imagine what it is now!
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You guys in the Good Ol' U S of A are lucky, very lucky. Your gas prices will drop down to a very low level again. While the rest of the world will suffer from high petrol prices ad infinitum!
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That is, until the american (texas) oilfields run out. Which will be 20-30 years before the rest of the world's oilfields do. THEN americans will know what high oil prices are.
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Yes, unfortunately. The EU taxes petrol to death. Fuel efficient vehicles are a must there, utility be damned. In the good 'ole gluttonous, wasteful U.S. of A., we can indulge our whims of luxury, space, V-8 torque and utility IFF fuel prices are resonable. The biggest auto manufacturers in the world count on that to stay alive. Dubya is so busy counting his oil revenues, he forgot about all that. Sure we're wasteful...I'm guilty myself. But after years of slumming in foreign-made econoboxes that had no power and no room for me to even be comfortable in (nevermind haul stuff), I gotta drive something full size. I spend two hours minimum a day in my vehicle, and that's just for work...40kmiles in 15mos! Even considering the load I dump every month for a car payment installment, insurance and maintenance, the doubling or tripling of fuel has had a major impact on my budget. It's still not enough for me to force myself to bend my self into a pretzel in another econobox to save a several hundred dead presidents a year, however...yet, LOL!
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'Dubya is so busy counting his oil revenues'..I thought he had the guys from Haliburton taking care of that ?
I'll have to go along with Kevin, we are a wasteful, gluttonous, arrogant people, we have to show the world we have bigger gonads. We gotta have the big V-8, 4x4, capable of towing Mt.Everest..just because.
But reality is starting to slowly settle in. My cost of getting to and from work has more than doubled since the 1st of the year..no raises in sight either.
I guess my biggest complaint is sitting in traffic, traffic lights could be sync'd better, who's the guy in front of me talking to on the phone at 6 in the morning ? You have a bathroom at home, please shave, put on makeup, etc there. Same thing for the kitchen, you have one, use it. And a vehicle moving at 60 mph is not a library.
But until somebody comes out with a Mr.Fusion like in Back to the Future, we're all kinda stuck arent we ? Or maybe someone could start working on an engine that will run on urine..now wouldn't that be handy ?
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You guys need a good public transport infrastructure! Just think about it, cheap transportation, on time, no traffic jams, and fuel efficient! Wouldn't life be wonderful!
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Sounds great, but politics rule. Everyone wants better mass transit, until they have to pay for it (taxes), it has to go in their back yard, or blocks their view, or needs to take-up valuable real-estate, or...(fill in the blank), etc. Man, here in Jersey, land is so precious they're trying to reclaim and build on protected wetlands as there's no more land to be had. People are buying old houses with property for exorbitant multiples of what they're worth and tearing 'em down to build a new, ridiculously expensive homes because you can't get property here anymore. The roads are horrible, getting more clogged each passing day from the continual influx due to NYC suburban sprawl and others looking to make bux in the city. No real infrastructure is being added nor is any mass transit being developed to handle the influx, but taxes, fuel, property values, etc., keep going up! We're getting more Wal-Marts, Home Depot's and strip malls, though! LOL!
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Mass transit has got to be the answer long term. Until then it's the motorcycle for me. 52 mpg on the last tank, and the tank before was 57 mpg. I think I recall reading some years back that 6 fully loaded semi trucks used the same amount of diesel on a coast-to-coast trip as a 100-car freight train, due to rolling resistance, gradients and all that stopping and starting...
John (who rode to work in this morning's 39 degree farenheit chill and enjoyed it)
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' We're getting more Wal-Marts, Home Depot's and strip malls.'
And we need our big, gas, guzzling trucks and SUV's to haul all the new stuff we buy from those stores with all our desposible income !
It's the American way !
So what if the card is at 21%, the back seat is half empty ! LOL!!!
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The problem with mass transit isn't the taxes needed to support it but the way metropolitan areas have grown in the US. Instead of urban development with well defined employment centers we have grown on the suburban model. This results not only in the distribution of housing but also of employment. This precludes building fixed transit systems such as trains and subways leaving us with busses. Unfortunately busses are not very good for long distance commuting. They leave gaps in routing that everyone then use as an excuse to drive their car. The only way to really get good mass transit is to change the development model to one that utilizes urban growth with centralized employment areas.
Keith
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Gasoline is at the high end of the USA price range here where I live but I am only 1 mile from work. If I catch both lights green I get to work in 4 minutes (both red it takes more like 6).
Rich
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You are 1 mile from work and you drive? :D With habits like that I'd say let oil prices rise a little more to root them out
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I currently own a Nissan Primera Estate. It is a turbodisel, six cylinder and gets roughtly 45 MPG. The engine is roughly the same size as the old dodge 225 cubic inch, and with the turbo is pretty peppy. I think a little more thought by auto manufacturers and importers wouldn't go astray.
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I ride my bike sometimes in the summer. Nine months out of the year I normally have to take the kids to school. Matthijs, you do make a valid point though.
Rich
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Okay, I've had a little time for some self-reflection. I have to admit that, to some degree, I have a case of rectal-neck. I have my reasons why I don't always use a non-motorized means of getting the kids to school or myself to work. Some are valid, like when it's -30 or -40 F. Other reasons are just in support of my habit of climbing in the car ten minutes before I need to be at work.
It's easy to look at the values and habits of other cultures and point out their stupid aspects, but is harder to spot the same things about yourself. BTW, Matthijs, I'm not talking about you, I'm looking at myself. I think that because my cars aren't in the worst class of gas guzzlers that I'm doing my part. I'm sure it is making some difference but there certainly is more that I can do.
It's confronting when someone puts the spotlight on some part of your lifestyle and shows you that you probably have a pretty good look at your own colon. But, it would probably do us all some good.
Rich
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My kids almost always took the bus to school or walked. Figured if it was good enough for me growing up it should be good enough for them. :-)
I will admit they thought it cramped their style somewhat in high school but I wasn't going to buy them a car and pay $250-$500 a year parking fees.
By the way I only commute 1 flight of stairs to work. It not only saves fuel but also reduces my work day a couple of hours by not driving into the plant site.
Keith
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FLASH NEWS!!!!!!!!
Gas has hit $1.90 a gallon in Oklahoma City
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SOB! I can't get #2 Diesel cheaper than $2.53!
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I just returned from a vacation in Southern Cal earlier this week and ran into a place in the high desert (Banning, I think)that was getting 3.179.... they had a note on the counter inside telling people the number to call about the high prices...
JP
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Just been watching Disneys' The Love Bug and there's a sequence in a fuel station in a mining town called Chinese camp where the fuel was $0.41 a gallon. i had to smile - that would have been about 20 pence in my money. If only I had a time machine ;-)
Graeme
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Well, gas and diesel are still high here (gas is about $2.79 or so). I have started to walk the one mile to work. My 8 year old walks with me and turns off at one point to go to school. I can get more aerobic activity in my lifestyle and save fuel and fumes at the same time. I can easily walk 3 or 4 times a week right now. Winter isn't the best time to start something like this here in the high country but I could still do it many days during the winter.
Thanks to you guys (especially Matthijs) for helping me take a closer look at my habits and make a change.
Rich
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I remember running across the border into Juarez and getting gas for $0.17 pre gallon in the early 70's. Seems like that was a long time ago!. . . No wati, that was a long time ago!!!!
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Were you running to Juarez for gas or did you happen to get gas while there? ;)
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Mike,
I'm old enough to remember $0.17 gas without having to cross the border. A gallon would last me a several lawns. At $1 - $2 per lawn I thought I was rolling in the money. LOL
Keith
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Beatle albums were $3.49 at Sears and I'd have to mow two yards at $2.00 Each to buy an album and the rest of the money would be for gas. where has the time gone !!!
now that I'm a Senior do I get a Senior discount at Alembic ????
David T (TLO)
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I like that idea David!