gas prices

China's import of oil has swelled over sixfold in the past decade.

China is expected to have more cars than the US by 2025.

Number of Chinese car owners surveyed who paid for vehicles with cash 96%.

A Chinese factory worker would need to work 6 months to earn the cost of a Thomas the Tank Engine train set.

This is my take on the subject of gas prices--

I remember in the 70's folks wanted the government to do something, so the speed limit was lowered to 55. How many of you remember all the bitching that went on over that, expecially the truckers?

We citizens are spoiled and the government goes out of its way to support us in the way we have become accustomed. Our stimulus check is in the
mail.

Detroit tries to predict what consumers want and will spend money on . . . and up to now - high fuel mileage utilitarian cars did not sell well.
GM and Ford spent a small fortune recently getting ready to sell smaller rigs with small European style turbo-diesels. Now - with diesel being a lot more than gas - the public probably won't buy very many.

We only have two drivers in our household - me and my wife. We MUST have 4WD or AWD most of the time - otherwise we'd never get home on any winter day, and even in the summer - a 2WD won't make it up our steep dirt mountain road after a heavy rain. We have a smal farm and need vehicles for towing, hauling stuff, etc. besides just for transportation. We keep six vehicles on the road at any given time and switch around a lot. Each one costs $300 per year for insurance, so it's not a huge expense. I know people that pay that much per year for just one rig. I just took all my full-size diesel trucks off the road but one. Also put two 2WD diesel cars on the road which we won't be able to use on real wet days. But - my wife's 91 Volks Jetta diesel gets 38 MPG "around town" and 48-51 MPG on the highway. My 81 Chevy Chevette diesel gets 36 MPG - 45 MPG. My wife's little Geo 4WD Tracker with a gas engine gets 30 MPG driving back and forth to work on steep mountain roads. My 85 Isuzu 4WD diesel mini-truck gets 28-30 MPG in all driving. My 92 Dodge 4WD ex-cab Cummins diesel truck gets 21 MPG down the highway empty and 18 MPG with a camper on it. And, our 98 Dodge AWD Grand Caravan gets 21 MPG on the highway. We are often using the van in place of the Dodge truck and camper for long trips when we can get away with it. We need room for two adults, one kid, one dog, and lots of extra gear - and also must have AWD or 4WD for most trips - so a small car won't work. We just keep on watching fuel prices and pick what we drive based on the prices. One advantage to having so many is . . . if one breaks and needs work - we just hop into something else and fix it later. No hurry. And - they're all pretty easy to work on - except maybe the Dodge Caravan. I miss driving my Ford F250 with the 7.3 turbo diesel - it the nicest driving truck I've ever owned - but - it's a fuel hog. So, for the moment, it's sitting with no plates on it. I've been trying to decide if I should sell it in a down market for diesels - or keep it and see if anything changes. That's the way we do things. Not for everybody for sure. But, works great for us. Winter comes and we put three Subarus on the road - two 4WDs and one AWD. Winter beaters that stop . . . and go anywhere and get 23-32 MPG doing it. If tomorrow - somebody came out with a 4WD that had some room in it, and got 35 - 40 MPG on the highway - it would probably also cost over $30,000. Seems if I bought one, I couldn't live long enough for the fuel savings to come close to paying for the change.

But for now - I can buy a house or two for the price of many new trucks. I prefer to buy the houses - and drive older cars and trucks.

From what I see - there is nothing new on the market that offers as good as fuel mileage I get now. Even with Subarus - they've gone down-hill a bit. Much of that because they keep installing bigger engines with more power. We recently junked our 1989 Subaru 4WD Justy and it always got better than 30 MPG. My 1985 Subaru Loyale 4WD wagon with a 1.8 gets 33 MPG on the highway and it does not have fuel injection. My wife's 95 AWD two-door Impreza with the 2.2 gets 24 MPG on the highway. I recently drove an almost new Forester with a 2.5 and it got 23 MPG on the one trip I took. I was just looking at the test specs for all the newest Subarus and the best one gets 26 MPG whereas most get 23-25 MPG highway. Not very impressive.

Don

Maybe you should re-write that last sentence. You inadvertently left yourself wide open for a less than flattering reply. I do agree to some degree to a portion of what you said. No I'm not rich, just a bottom of the food chain peon trades person & hobby farmer who occasionally takes a temporary foreman's position during outages. I did post around here at the end of April when cranky about how much the government had skimmed off and wastes from my paycheque to that date.

The car I commute with will get 28-30 mpg on the road, but every day I see the same people commuting with humongous SUV's and oversized pickups that were bought as ego trips and only get maybe 15 mpg. Those are the same people who complain the loudest about the price of gasoline.

In reality, they're probably upside-down on their loans and can't get rid of the vehicle. Imagine if all these people began driving passenger cars that would get 30 mpg. Consumption would drop drastically and so would price at the pump.

Simple law of supply and demand.