$2 a gallon.......
May. 16th, 2004 11:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poltr1Well, it's finally happened. Regular 87-octane gasoline (or petrol) is now selling for at least $2 a gallon in my corner of the world (Southwest Ohio, USA). For those of you who've already gone metric, 1 gallon is app. equal to 3.875 liters, so that's approximately $0.528 a liter.
How much is it selling for in your part of the world? [Added] I shouldn't be complaining. I've heard that gas is much more expensive in other countries, and we in the US don't know how good we have it.
I think it's going to get worse before it gets better. I don't think the price will ever drop below $1.50; those days are gone. But gas prices will continue to soar. They might even hit $3. It's payback time for all those people who bought those gas-guzzling SUVs in the '90s, when gas was cheap, and supposedly plentiful.
So, what am I going to do to reduce my fuel consumption and increase my fuel economy? First, reduce my travels by car. Second, keep my tires inflated. (Mine are inflated with nitrogen, which, according to the product literature, shouldn't seep out of the tires as much as regular air, which is 79% nitrogen, 15% oxygen, 4% carbon dioxide, and 2% everything else, if I remember the percentages right.) Third, keep the car waxed and roll up the windows when I'm driving on the highway, to reduce atmospheric drag.
Has anyone actually tried that fuel booster that's been hawked in some of the spam messages that have come out in the past few months? "Improves your gas mileage by 27%!" Does it actually work, or is it nothing more than high-tech snake oil? [Added] I found one at easympg.com. It's a fuel ionizer, has 3 US patents, great test results, and a money-back guarantee. Looks promising.
And what's Detroit going to do about it? The Big Three (GM, Ford, and Daimler Chrysler) typically drag their feet on new technology and better ways to improve their cars. Their attitude, I'm sorry to say, has been "People will buy the cars we make, no matter how bad they are". That's how they lost market share to the Japanese imports -- Toyota, Honda, Nissan, et al -- which are now being built here. And Consumer Reports still continues to favor Japanese cars over American cars. Is there a bias? Or are they just better cars? Hopefully the attitude in Detroit is changing, although it's changin too slowly for my tastes.
There are two hybrid cars on the market now -- the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight. Both have gasoline engines which are used for acceleration and highway driving, but the engine cuts out to battery power for city driving. Ford is coming out with a hybrid SUV -- the Ford Escape -- later this year. I'd love to see GM come out with a hybrid under the Saturn nameplate. I might even get one.
And what about fuel cells? The technology sounds promising, but it's still in the R&D labs, and will be for the next few years. Also, as of right now, there aren't that many hydrogen fueling stations. Transporting hydrogen, especially in gaseous form, is hazardous at best; deadly at worst. Visions of the 1938 explosion of the Hindenburg are seared in many people's memories, including mine, along with the announcer saying, "Oh, the humanity!"
Shameless plug: If you want to find the prices of gas at the stations near you, without driving around town, go to gaspricewatch.com. An army of volunteers submit prices to the website, which lists them in any way you choose -- ZIP code, price, age of price quotes. It's a grass-roots version of the Lundberg survey, at a much cheaper cost.
How much is it selling for in your part of the world? [Added] I shouldn't be complaining. I've heard that gas is much more expensive in other countries, and we in the US don't know how good we have it.
I think it's going to get worse before it gets better. I don't think the price will ever drop below $1.50; those days are gone. But gas prices will continue to soar. They might even hit $3. It's payback time for all those people who bought those gas-guzzling SUVs in the '90s, when gas was cheap, and supposedly plentiful.
So, what am I going to do to reduce my fuel consumption and increase my fuel economy? First, reduce my travels by car. Second, keep my tires inflated. (Mine are inflated with nitrogen, which, according to the product literature, shouldn't seep out of the tires as much as regular air, which is 79% nitrogen, 15% oxygen, 4% carbon dioxide, and 2% everything else, if I remember the percentages right.) Third, keep the car waxed and roll up the windows when I'm driving on the highway, to reduce atmospheric drag.
Has anyone actually tried that fuel booster that's been hawked in some of the spam messages that have come out in the past few months? "Improves your gas mileage by 27%!" Does it actually work, or is it nothing more than high-tech snake oil? [Added] I found one at easympg.com. It's a fuel ionizer, has 3 US patents, great test results, and a money-back guarantee. Looks promising.
And what's Detroit going to do about it? The Big Three (GM, Ford, and Daimler Chrysler) typically drag their feet on new technology and better ways to improve their cars. Their attitude, I'm sorry to say, has been "People will buy the cars we make, no matter how bad they are". That's how they lost market share to the Japanese imports -- Toyota, Honda, Nissan, et al -- which are now being built here. And Consumer Reports still continues to favor Japanese cars over American cars. Is there a bias? Or are they just better cars? Hopefully the attitude in Detroit is changing, although it's changin too slowly for my tastes.
There are two hybrid cars on the market now -- the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight. Both have gasoline engines which are used for acceleration and highway driving, but the engine cuts out to battery power for city driving. Ford is coming out with a hybrid SUV -- the Ford Escape -- later this year. I'd love to see GM come out with a hybrid under the Saturn nameplate. I might even get one.
And what about fuel cells? The technology sounds promising, but it's still in the R&D labs, and will be for the next few years. Also, as of right now, there aren't that many hydrogen fueling stations. Transporting hydrogen, especially in gaseous form, is hazardous at best; deadly at worst. Visions of the 1938 explosion of the Hindenburg are seared in many people's memories, including mine, along with the announcer saying, "Oh, the humanity!"
Shameless plug: If you want to find the prices of gas at the stations near you, without driving around town, go to gaspricewatch.com. An army of volunteers submit prices to the website, which lists them in any way you choose -- ZIP code, price, age of price quotes. It's a grass-roots version of the Lundberg survey, at a much cheaper cost.
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no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 06:04 am (UTC)*sigh* ;-)
no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 06:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 12:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 05:25 pm (UTC)And it should stop hovering and land at a lower price.
My understanding is that US supply of crude and refinery capacity are below demand. Canadian supply of crude and refinery capacity are above demand. So if the refineries sell at what would be market prices, the gas goes over the border... We get to pay more to keep our gas here. No fair!
no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 08:56 pm (UTC)Now it's a parking lot for other reasons: Oraange barrels, black barrels, security checks, etc.