$2.04 per gallon

[shelbyGT]

I agree its a finite resource. BUT, we've known this for a looong time, only in the last year and a half the price has decided to practically double.

yeah, there are TONS of factors riding into this. BUT, to simply blame it on oil supply running low... c'mon, that's not something that happens over night.

[zzyzzx]

It's a combination of increased demand and investment speculation that is causing the runup in price.

[EddyH]

For some reason I bought a copy of Wired whilst stuck in a station for a half hour some days back. I didn't realise it was an american magazine. It was fascinating to pick up the cultural differences, from the articles to the adverts.

I had to laugh at the Cadillac V-F-whatever-it-is ad... for the big, almost an SUV but not quite, 5.7 litre.... well...... thing. I'm not sure it's actually a car any more. But the copy accompanying the images was incredible.

Then in the same issue, lengthy articles on Hybrids (getting an american, japanese, and other-far-east perspective, but interestingly NOTHING covering europe, australia, south america, africa.....) and how China is attempting to sidestep the oil economy completely. Right now far less than 10% of the population own any kind of motor vehicle, oil based non-fuel products are not very widely used, and the power stations run on coal, etc. In developing up to "first world standards", their entire energy flow is going to be drastically changed - and dramatically increased from now - and their idea on how to tackle this without killing themselves and the planet is quite audacious. In a way, it shows some of the few positive things that can come from a totalitarian regieme where the state tells the populace the way it's going to be and expects zero comeback... in a completely free market, they'd probably already be swiftly heading the way of a lot of the rest of the world, investing in previous-generation, inefficient, smoky ICE designs being flogged off by 1st world manufacturers, before going on to make their own, moderately improved variants. In fact, they've only bought into a very few petroleum-backed car supplies, and high-quality current-generation ones at that (latest models from VW, Ford.... and famously, in britain at least, paying a pittance for body and engine designs on MG-Rover's fairly decent death-throe offerings, the 25 and 75).... a lot of their internal progress is focussing on renewables and other alternative supplies, including hydro power (the infamous 3 valley river flooding project.. damaging in different ways) and nuclear plants (much safer pebble-bed reactors, rather than inherently dangerous fuel-rod designs). To be frank, it's the only way to power a nation of 3 billion people into the future without destroying, well, everything. The chinese government have been smart enough to spot this. A lot of home grown vehicular talent is already alt-fuel, electric, etc...

One point to draw from the hybrid article - other than the author being amazed at a 50-US-mpg economy figure that a carefully driven euro TDi could turn in with no electrotrickery and better acceleration - is that average US private vehicle fuel economy has DROPPED by 16% from the early 80s (surely a time of highly inefficient and over-powered cars, right?) to 2004. Horsepower has gone up by an even larger amount over the same period, but i bet performance hasn't increased by any measurable amount - as the greatest HP and lowest MPG isnt found in sportscars, like the Subaru Impreza (which is all of 250hp in a very light car for it's size, and quite efficient), but in SUVs and Pickups that accelerate, brake, and steer like cruise ships.

Just what we need in a world of ever increasing car ownership, pollution, and decreasing reserves, right? Jeez.

Apparently the Prius-II can truckle along at 40mph on the electric motor quite happily. I'd have that. I could probably make the 10 mile journey into or out of work almost entirely on the battery, only having the motor start up for a short time to recharge it on the brief sections of sustained high speed. The peak performance sounds better than my current car, and that does just fine pulling into traffic (crazy emphasis in the articles of the "difficulty" of merging into freeway traffic with a 1.3 or 1.5 motor - i'd hate to see how short your onramps are, it's been ages since i've been in the states and can't remember) and shooting along at sustained speeds far in excess of law or sense. In city traffic i find myself with the engine off, idling along in gear or giving the accelerator a feather touch at 1500rpm and below the vast majority of the time. Sign me up.

[pchan]

Rep. Bartlett's Peak Oil Presentation to the US Congress served as a wake up call. GM and Ford have the technology to put hybrid car on the road. Lawmakers need to be farsighted and encourage carmaker. Free market is a chicken without head as far as preserving national resource is concerned. At $2.20 per gallon is cheap compare to other parts of the world. I am paying $3.90.

[shelbyGT]

Yes, we know it's still cheap relative to other places. But that's not of concern. We grew accustomed to paying a certain price range for gasoline. That was built into our discretionary spending, into our prices of goods, etc. Now that the price has gone up, we are seeing goods increase their prices, services do the same... etc. Eventually it will have to be alleviated, one way or the other. Whether that be from the supply side or the demand side, I don't know yet. Or we just grow "ok" with it and realize we will now spend more on gasoline and less on entertainment, etc.

[MackemX]

just filled up the car to the brim and it cost me over £48 ($92) and I only get 25mpg . That '66 volvo is a good car, he should be sponsored by an Oil company . It would cost me over £300,000 to drive 2,000,000 miles

UK gallons are 20% bigger than US gallons ain't they?

[shelbyGT]

You all use gallons?

1 Gallon (US) = 3.7854 Litres (L)

[CoffeeGuy]

Wow ! I never thought the price would drop. But it has. $1.97 gal. This could be the calm before the storm.

[rhegedus]

It's now 84.9p/L here compared to 80.9p/L in March.

[garman]

Here's a theory about oil and the auto industry. Auto industry has large stock in the oil industry, why would they produce a car that would run 200mpg. Wouldn't that cut some of thier potential earnings. Here's another, North America finally gets on the low mpg cars, dump the polluting SUV's and save cash on gas, right. WRONG! gas industry would jack up the cost of gasoline becuase of loss revenue. No win situation.

-garman

[ChrisX]

Gas is still expensive here in Australia even though the price per liter have gone down a little.

[shelbyGT]

It's $1.90 here right now. That's sad that we think that's cheap. Not that long ago that was unheard of!

[garman]

Put gas in today @ 75 cents/litre, that's about 3$ Cnd a gallon or 2.30$ US per gallon. Guys in the US stop complaining.
Here's one that will make you bitch even more, I think in venezuela gas is about 13 cents US per gallon. -garman

[Doramius]

I'm not about to drive to Venezuela to get gas. I'm paying about $2.35/gal for gas in Vegas. It's starting to come down, but I had to cancel some vacation plans because it was going to cost us $200 more for GAS alone, than it did last year. That's just sad. I just wish they'd increase my pay to follow the rise in cost of living. A viscious loop of inflation stuff like this causes.

[shelbyGT]

You all tell us to stop bitching, but an increase in a price that we were accustomed to, that we had already factored in to TONS of things (such as travel plans, prices, disposable income... etc), is increasing a LOT in the last couple of years. So it's affecting a lot, and we are having to adjust in ways we don't like. Of course we're complaining.... you would/are too, don't lie.

[Doramius]

I can see where you don't want pay increase with economic conditions the way they are, as it'll cause the cost of everything to go up. I honestly can't wait till Hydrogen/hybrids start becoming more prevailant. I'll try and find a link, but with a 64oz, canister of hydrogen, and the retrofitting system, you can increase the gas mileage of any regular car by 2-3 times. Basically making $3/gal of gas last as long as $1/gal from 10 years ago, & having 1/3 the emissions.

[EddyH]

actually, why we SHOULD be counting this in litres:

1 US Gallon = 3.8 litres (approx)
1 UK Gallon = 4.5 litres (ditto)
rest of world = measures in litres anyway

and as my local prices are in pence per litre rather than dollars per US gallon its making my head hurt with all the maths having to do a currency and a volume conversion.

toyota, honda, and i think ford are about to hit the uk and european market in a big way with hybrids quite soon, but again the way they're going about it is quite strange. our largest market here is for small and lower mid-range vehicles (ford fiesta and focus sized / VW polo and golf etc) with relatively small, already economical engines and a good range of diesels.

quite why they're only focussing on the midrange and slightly larger sector (civic, corrola etc) with larger gasoline engines is anyones guess. If they could get an affordable fiesta or yaris (echo) to market with a small, highly efficient diesel engine providing baseline power for long distance and high speed highway driving, and an electric motor to back it up for low end acceleration, hills, and completely taking over jogging-pace rolling in backed up traffic, they'd have a market beater.

Something like the insight but better - 5 seats, some luggage space, 75hp peak, 110mph, 0-60 in 12 secs or better, and 90mpg or more in true everyday use.