These gas prices sure do hurt

Easto · Post by **Easto** » Mon Sep 18, 2023 10:29 am

The best price we can find for Top Tier gas is at Costo. Today they want $5.25 for regular unleaded. What also hurts is that Mrs. Easto's job is moving 20 miles away and it's going to be all stop and go freeway traffic. Fortunately the Accord can hold it's own as far as MPG goes but still... we'll be filling up weekly as opposed to every other week. That's an additional $60 - $70 out of our pocket each week.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Mon Sep 18, 2023 11:05 am

Gonna be a hunned bucks to fill up the pickup again....

Easto · Post by **Easto** » Mon Sep 18, 2023 11:54 am

Fortunately the Accord will only take about $70 to fill. It's the car that gets driven the most. The new Pilot is going to be closer to $90 to fill up. The mileage on the Pilot isn't that great, maybe 18 mpg averaged. The thing is that the Pilot only gets driven occasionally and usually for short distances so a fill-up for it can last me 2-3 weeks.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Mon Sep 18, 2023 8:21 pm

Today, around shoreline CT....regular peewater unleaded is in the high 3.80's/low 3.90's.
Our premium is approaching 5, I think I saw a gas station or two above 5...but most are still just below it.
My F-150 truck, the 5.0 Coyote V8 in her is flex fuel capable, and when it's > 60 cents cheaper it's worth it. I get more power and better accel if I run flex fuel (E-85)...but oddly enough, mileage is a little poorer. So when it's < 60 cents cheaper like it was for a while, barely 35-40 cents...it wasn't worth it.

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Tue Sep 19, 2023 12:03 am

$5.69.

Post by **Philip** » Tue Sep 19, 2023 12:58 pm

$3.70/gallon for regular gas down here in FL.

Just bought a Honda HR-V for the wifey.. 4-cyl engine, not a race car, but good mpg on regular gas, and Honda quality hopefully. Had to wait a couple of months for dealer to get one in stock though.

Easto · Post by **Easto** » Wed Sep 20, 2023 9:04 am

This morning at Costco I paid $5.47. Costco is on average $0.40 a gallon less than anywhere else.

Easto · Post by **Easto** » Wed Sep 20, 2023 9:12 am

Several years ago I saw a report on TV from a watchdog group that monitors various refineries. This report was published right after there was a statement from one of the oil companies saying that they had to shut down one of their lines due to something or the other. Well, this watchdog group measure particulate and chemicals that are being expelled into the atmosphere from various refineries. There was one particular chemical that is only released into the atmosphere when the refinery is actually producing gasoline. This watchdog group said that there was never any cessation in this chemical for the entire time the refinery claimed they were shut down. Basically they were claiming they were shut down and not producing when they actually were.

MadDoctor · Post by **MadDoctor** » Wed Sep 20, 2023 4:04 pm

banned user wrote:In such cases, regulatory agencies such as blabla spam spam....

Okay.

Costco rules.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Thu Sep 21, 2023 5:36 am

ya gotta love Bidenomics huh

Easto · Post by **Easto** » Thu Sep 21, 2023 9:57 am

Personally I don't think the price of gas has much to do with any administration's economic policy. Yes, it may be a reaction to a political crisis i.e. 1973 oil embargo etc. but with "policy" I'm not so sure. I think it has to do with a political climate in general and having politicians that are afraid to stand up against "Big Oil". If you're a Senator or Congressman with a refinery in you district there is no way in heck you're going to rock the boat. They know they've got all of us by the short hairs. Every several years we see a big jump in prices and then the oil companies bring the price back down from its all time high (but still much higher than what we were paying 1 year ago) and everyone is so thankful that the price went "down". This has been going on for as long as I've been buying gas.

In the State of California the oil companies spent more than $34 million last year to lobby the legislature and various agencies. There's got to be a whole lot of that money that isn't seeing the light of day and going right into someone's pocket.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Sep 21, 2023 5:48 pm

We need to make more oil, make America self sustaining.

In 2020...America made more oil than America consumed.
We produced 18.4 million barrels per day, and we consumed 18.12 million barrels. We imported 7.86 million barrels per day back then too.
source...a rather independent source...
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/america ... port-crude

The ratio has gone down since then.

In 2022...America consumed more oil than America made. Now..let's take a look at the gas price charts over these past 3 years....hmmmm.....

Yes...the power of the big oil lobby has a lot to do with prices. And...the kind of oil that the US produces....is not all the best oil for making gas.(refer to article I linked above) But so does our own production volume...versus our own consumption. We need to produce more (not less...like current legislation is trying to do so they force us over to overpriced electricity/batteries and feeding that money grabbing scam machine...yes..the electrical lobbying will become just as big and powerful and evil as our current oil lobby)
But..back on 2020...let's just recall those nice numbers and prices...America producing more oil than we consumed, and...those nice low gas prices...low to mid 2 dollar range...oh yeah....good times...

Post by **Philip** » Fri Sep 22, 2023 8:47 am

US Oil production today is more than it was in 2020 (it is the most ever, actually):
2020 - 19.27 million barrels per day
2022 - 19.99 million barrels per day
We've decreased our imports from OPEC and the Persian Gulf, and increased imports from Canada over time.
Yes, we consume a bit more over time too.
Yes, we import some ~8 million barrels, but we also export about the same, so it's a wash.
We produce as much as we consume, it's been like that since ~2019. If you go back to 1975 all the way to 2007, we were producing about 60% of what we consumed, yet gas prices were cheaper, even adjusted for inflation, so the numbers tell me price is not related to energy independence (even though we achieved it), and all that political talk for the past few years. We do have some influence on crude oil prices per barrel, but OPEC has more control on supply, they export much more than us.. Ultimately it's a global market driven by supply and demand.

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/oil ... xports.php

Yes, gas was cheap back during Covid as global and US consumption dropped sharply, the Oil futures went into negative numbers for the first time in history.

There is $2 difference per gallon between CA and FL right now, now that's difference in taxes.

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Fri Sep 22, 2023 11:56 pm

If I felt safer I'd gladly bike the 14 mile round-trip to and from work.

The roads are not good odds in my opinion.

I'll stick to the woods on my bike rides and pay for the convenience and safety of a gas vehicle.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Mon Sep 25, 2023 3:46 pm

I'm not seeing any neutral (independent...non-.GOV biased sites)..that report we made more in 2022 than in 2020.
Go to 5 year view here...and there's a noticable dip 'tween '20 and '21
https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_crude ... year%20ago.

Go to 5 year view here too....similar chart curves as above one.
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-sta ... production

CA is showing what the rest of the country can look forward to if newsom goes for POTUS.

Post by **Philip** » Mon Sep 25, 2023 6:40 pm

Well, I was quoting the eia.gov site I linked.. In any case it was very close, and twice as much as 10 years ago. If you want to be exact, looking at all those charts the huge drop in production was March 2020, because of the pandemic (under Trump)... Then it has been increasing back up steadily. Yes, it went up and down, but it is trending up. I see the big relevance to the pandemic, rather than the administration. And if you go further back like 20 years, we didn't have "energy independence" with both parties, we had less than half the production, we were producing 60% of what we were consuming, etc. and it wasn't reflected in prices at the pump. Also, more crude production doesn't seem to reduce price at the pump, since it's a global commodity and we export as well. We produce as much as we consume, yet prices are high. The times prices at the pump were low are when there was pandemic (sharply reduced consumption), and 20+ years ago when we weren't "energy independent"... So "pump baby pump" doesn't seem to do much for prices, ok, yes, it is nice to be energy independent politicly, but it is not reflected by prices at the pump.

Easto · Post by **Easto** » Fri Sep 29, 2023 9:00 am

$5.69 at Costco this morning. It cost $86 to fill up 3/4 of the tank on the new Pilot. Fortunately, the Pilot pretty much lives in the garage. Almost 1 year old with less than 4k on it. Although we really enjoy driving around in it the avg mpg is only about 18, so the Accord which can be 28mpg usually gets picked when we're expecting to put on my miles that day. Regardless of the type of driving the Accord can easily get 10-15 mpg more than the Pilot.

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Fri Sep 29, 2023 11:44 pm

$5.99-$6.59 here.

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Fri Sep 29, 2023 11:52 pm

Long time ago I visited a ranching property near Livingston Montana.

My folks bought adjacent property with an easement right through their house and outbuildings area.

Huge gas tank, probably 10,000 gallons at least.

I see and feel that extra cost but can't even imagine what they must go through trying to figure out when to buy.

Post by **Philip** » Sat Sep 30, 2023 1:52 pm

$3.42/gal here.

BaLa · Post by **BaLa** » Tue Oct 17, 2023 10:01 pm

Went to AZ few weeks ago spent the night in Laughlin NV.
Crazy how high it was over there

Went to Houston this weekend running low on Gas...put like $20 @3.39...That was high.
Topped it off when I got home...like $2.67.
I don't drive my Car Much like 15 miles to work.
Wife is like 2 miles from her work. Wish Gas would go up. Keep some more of these idiots off the roads.

Still 2.67 I guess

https://ibb.co/VqNZ87W

Easto · Post by **Easto** » Wed Oct 18, 2023 8:10 am

We took a trip to Las Vegas last week. Usually the price there is much lower. Not this time. To save a little money we usually try to fill up at a local Costco

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Wed Oct 18, 2023 10:30 pm

Down to $5.26 this past week.

Post by **Philip** » Thu Oct 19, 2023 8:14 am

I was going to post yesterday as well, down to $3.10 for regular here.

Easto · Post by **Easto** » Thu Oct 19, 2023 8:14 am

Costco this morning $4.77

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Sat Oct 28, 2023 12:26 am

Close to $6 for a couple months, back to $4.98.

Easto · Post by **Easto** » Sat Oct 28, 2023 8:48 am

Costco is down to $4.55

Post by **Philip** » Sat Oct 28, 2023 10:20 am

Slightly up from the lows, filled up for $3.20 yesterday.

Easto · Post by **Easto** » Sat Oct 28, 2023 7:44 pm

The sad thing about all these high prices is that its keeping me from doing more driving and doing things. Years ago I would jump in the car just to drive down to Huntington Beach to see what the waves looked like. If I saw that a particular store had something I wanted I'd drive out and take a look at it. Now, I'm doing a lot more sitting around.

FunK · Post by **FunK** » Tue Feb 13, 2024 4:25 pm

I bought a Tesla Model 3 Performance. Love that little beast of a machine.

Bet y'all never thought I'd be the guy doing that.

But it is a fantastic little car and the acceleration is nuts. Handles really well and obviously the tech is great.
Y'all might not know that I'm in Germany now (after 12 years in Japan) and it's a really fun ride, especially on the Autobahn. I've never been in a car that rivals my CBR1000RR in acceleration until I got this.

I also have my 7k dollar mini-van. I call it the "Mommy Magnet". I can hear the panties droppin' when I drive past the mall and all those single moms with 4 rugrats see me rollin' through the parking lot with enough room for all their bang trophies and their groceries. Even with all that, I still have room for all their emotional issues. It's some Chrysler POS. It hauls large appliances and keeps my kid entertained with the DVD player. But she gives two shits about that when she can literally play car racing games using the steering wheel in the Tesla.

Post by **Philip** » Wed Feb 14, 2024 8:22 am

Germany, interesting. Teslas are great, my thinking is they're great if you drive in town, less than 100 miles per day, not so much for road trips and long range driving in the US if you have to do drive more than 3-400 miles in a day. Electricity is cheaper than gas (especially in the EU, heh), but not free to charge, and you pay a premium up front. Maintenance is less, but not everyone works on electric cars, and you're pretty much dependent on the company.

I thought about going electric last year shopping for a car for the wife, but wanted a crossover/small SUV and ended up buying a 4-cyl Honda HR-V that does like 30 mpg and is half the price of Model Y. I am happy with it, maybe next time.

FunK · Post by **FunK** » Sat Feb 17, 2024 1:14 pm

Prices will continue to drop. I'd hold out as well for a bit. I wouldn't buy an EV other than a Tesla though, that's for sure.
Definitely fun and the tech is great.

Post by **Philip** » Sun Feb 18, 2024 9:09 am

I've driven a Model 3 and a Model S.. They're definitely getting more common and popular, and yes, they're fun to drive.

Easto · Post by **Easto** » Sun Feb 18, 2024 10:14 am

EV's haven't really appealed. Probably for all the usual reason that you hear i.e. range, charging times, resale value. Then the price of a home charger including installation. Then... if you decide to go ack to internal combustion you have this charger on your garage wall that is of no use. One of the problems the way I see it is that there really isn't an "entry level" model or brand.

FunK · Post by **FunK** » Thu Feb 22, 2024 1:41 am

I charge mine off a standard wall socket (220v) and that handles 99% of our charging. I don't even have the upgraded home charger. For road trips we use the supercharger network, which is great.

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