posted May 23 2008 11:39 AM                

Now that gasoline prices for even regular unleaded are tiptoeing around the $4.00/gallon mark, has the cost of fuel caused you to change the way you do things?

posted May 23 2008 01:18 PM                

We didn't do a lot of traveling before, but now we certainly don't do much at all, except to work and back. We carpool mainly and it's a bitch because we have to be at four different places at the same time and are still supposed to work full days. We groan and take big gulps everytime we pass gas stations and see the prices climbing, it's very scary when you barely make enough to live off of and have two children to support. The cost of living has risen so much over the past year that it's left us broke, in debt up to our ears and very cranky and depressed. We never eat out, we never go out to events unless they are free and close by and visiting family or taking a vacation is out of the question. I hear tell from sources who actually have investments in oil that gas prices will reach $5.00 by the end of the summer and $6.00 by the end of the year. Others are saying that's way to low, that if oil is going for $200.00 a barrel, we'll be looking at $8.00 a gallon.

posted May 23 2008 01:24 PM                

I was listening to D.L. Hughley on and XM comedy channel, and he was talking about the inequities of war ... that if old, white guys who voted to go to war actually had to fight it, they'd be less likely to vote for it. And he went on and riffed about how the war in Iraq was about oil... but it was obvious how old the clip was, when he added that he didn't want to fight for oil, but if it meant keeping gas under $2.50 a gallon, he was all for it. That I happened to be passing a gas station with the prices in front that were up around $4.00 that made it a lot less funny.

posted May 27 2008 07:53 PM                

What's scary is that predictions that it will be over $7.00 a year from now may have been nothing more than wishful thinking.

posted May 30 2008 02:38 AM                

Having just done some rapid conversion of pounds to dollars and litres to gallons, we pay in excess of $9 per gallon over here.

Although cost is a factor in planning any trip, the price increases haven't fundamentally changed the way that people use their cars.  However efficiency is a much bigger selling point than I believe it is over there, and after seat count the fuel consumption is often the primary consideration in car choice.

posted May 31 2008 05:44 PM                

Efficency is attainable - but folks so far are unwilling to make the compromizes required. Without a doubt, Honda could be pumping out cars that get 75 mpg on the highway without breaking a sweat - but we would have to be willing to give up some safety.  Back in the bad old days - I had a Delta 88 with a 455 cubic inch monster motor. It weighed a total of 3800 lbs and had a back seat that you could throw an orgy.

BadBill's G35 sports coupe weighs exactly the same amount - and its got a back seat that is great for birth control (unless your partner is a "little person").

WIthout the safety concerns - that car would weigh a 1000 lbs less - Its not just airbags, its the extra steel for crumble zones and side door impacts. On the other hand, its also got an alloy motor, not cast iron so they saved weight in those areas.

WIthout regard, get rid of that weight and milage could go up a lot. I imagine that a "new" copy of the old Honda Civic I had in the early 80's that got 40 something mpg then would get 75 now.