Gas rant

[easyBob]

Originally Posted by Turk

Your pointing out what others want, it sounds like you are just having a sook for the sake of it. Oh dont worry I am a sook too. I wonder if we made a poll asking would you drive the current available electric car saying that it takes over night to charge, and goes for about 70-80 miles on that one charge. Not that impressive, but 100% adequete for everyone I know's transport.

Well, I'd have to vote no on that poll. My drive to-from work is right around 100 miles.

Now you know someone that an electric car isn't adequate for.

-Chris

[Turk]

Originally Posted by easyBob

Well, I'd have to vote no on that poll. My drive to-from work is right around 100 miles.

Now you know someone that an electric car isn't adequate for.

-Chris

That is 1 then .

btw, that is a long trip to work. Mine is about 12 miles, maybe less. And Sydney is considerd a very "Urban sprawl" example of a city where it is wider rather then higher.

[Skanetic]

Originally Posted by Turk

That is 1 then .

btw, that is a long trip to work. Mine is about 12 miles, maybe less. And Sydney is considerd a very "Urban sprawl" example of a city where it is wider rather then higher.

You have to remember that in the US we don't live where we work, we commute a long ways. Hell, my first job was a 40 mile round trip commute.

[nate_v8]

Originally Posted by SixSick6

I'm wondering why all of you are complaining about gas prices when you live in the US? Do you not realize that we have been paying too little for gas for many years? Hell you pay more for a grande Starbucks than you do for a gallon of gas and you don't complain about that? People in other countries have been buying gas by the liter and paying $6-$8 a gallon for years already.

Here's an idea- WALK or ride a bike.

Something about those other countrys paying more is that they have been doing it for a while, therefore they are budgeted around it. In the us this is an almost overnight change and I know I am and probably others are looking at there current budget and wondering how long untill things start to fall apart. Another thing is that for most of the us is our puplic transportation sucks. The price to fill up our cars is not the only thing changing either because of the more costly fuel it is consting more to eat and eventually more for "EVERYTHING" else. There are companies that are losing money because of the jump in gas prices and going out of buisiness or bankrupt, then there are jobless people. I live 20miles from work and I travel with my laptop and occasionaly a large set of blueprints and I also use my car to run back and forth to job sites, how the hell am I supposed to walk or ride a bike.

[Turk]

Originally Posted by nate_v8

Something about those other countrys paying more is that they have been doing it for a while, therefore they are budgeted around it. In the us this is an almost overnight change and I know I am and probably others are looking at there current budget and wondering how long untill things start to fall apart. Another thing is that for most of the us is our puplic transportation sucks. The price to fill up our cars is not the only thing changing either because of the more costly fuel it is consting more to eat and eventually more for "EVERYTHING" else. There are companies that are losing money because of the jump in gas prices and going out of buisiness or bankrupt, then there are jobless people. I live 20miles from work and I travel with my laptop and occasionaly a large set of blueprints and I also use my car to run back and forth to job sites, how the hell am I supposed to walk or ride a bike.

My parents shop is losing money now because of suppliers jacking their prices, so they have to jack theres, then less people buy, the economy goes to [shizzle], the sky falls, and we are all dead.

[D'sMx-6]

I think what everyone is failing to realize is that the high cost of a barrel of oil is affecting more than just gas prices. Sure it sucks that we are paying $4.00+ per gallon for gas, but almost everything that we use on a daily basis is petro-chemical based. Look around your house and I guarantee you more than 80% of what's in it is petro-chemical based. The cost of EVERYTHING is going up and it will continue to do so.

[DrBrown]

Its stupid that people would be petty enough to complain about having to plug in the car after you get home to charge or actually plan ahead for something in life if you need to travel. We are fortunate to even have reliable cars and trucks. 50 years ago when our country was prosperous a family was lucky to afford ONE car and most of us have more than one before the age 25. Time for some people to start counting their blessing and stop being ignorant me thinks! At some point laziness and practicality is going to have to step aside for the greater good of humanity and the Earth in order to use electric and nuclear power.

The key factor in this country is the millions of diesel semis pulling trailors full of consumer goods across the country. Those cant just be replaced with electronic vehicles. These vehicles have laxed inspections and pollute far worse than even an old caprice w/out cats or EFI. It will be 30 years before we have the technology to handle changing our transit engines, if we havent all died from the pollution from China lol.

Bottom line...gas is going to go up FOREVER. It will never just start getting cheaper because in the USA the government rewards oil companies for lying about supply and demand while they make record profits. And the rest of the world suffers as the cost of living rises. Why? Because of nothing more than GREED! As far as Im concerned some of these oil CEO tycoons are going to burn in an oily hell.

[Turk]

DrBrown while everything you said was true. Dont bring China into this. Without them prices would be a lot higher. You cant complain that a country makes heaps of pollution when you buy everything from them. Besides America makes the most, then Australia after that per person .

[funzie]

Well China has a lot to do with the rise in gas prices. It is a huge country which has been steadily and quickly growing over the last few years. They rely heavily on diesel which is why over the past 1.5 years the price of diesel in the states went from $0.30 less than regular grade gas to $0.20 more than premium gas. They are especially demanding more diesel now after the quake, to fuel their generators, transport workers, wounded, clean up debrys, rebuild. It takes a lot of bulldozers to clean up a raized city.

Gas companies should not be blame, they are not the ones that dictate the price of gas. It is the market who sets the price, then you add taxes, transportation cost, and so on. There is not one single entity where the blame should be set on, but on thousands, from automakers who spit out huge(and useless) SUVs, to the city planners who built highways instead of public trains, even credit card companies which send out pre-approved card applications to people that declared banckruptcy just a month before, and to whoever decided to borrow from social security in order to make the minimum payment of the national debt.

[gehofff]

While we pay record high gas prices; Exxon/Mobile reports record profits, two years in a row. Maybe you need to read up a little bit more too, because diesel is a hell of a lot more than 4.30 a gallon. Now don't get me wrong, we have been paying too little for gas now for years, and it's high time America woke up and started driving fuel efficient cars, but thanks to the economic downturn that has been coming since the 80's, alot of people can't afford to buy a Honda or any other fuel efficient car.

The reason that there is absolutely no public transit is because we (as a nation) like having things our way, how dare you suggest we sit on the bus next to some slob?!?

[/sarcasm]

[DrBrown]

Originally Posted by Turk

DrBrown while everything you said was true. Dont bring China into this. Without them prices would be a lot higher. You cant complain that a country makes heaps of pollution when you buy everything from them. Besides America makes the most, then Australia after that per person .

Actually thats a a lobsided argument. 92-93% of the overall wealth in the United States is earned by a measely 1% of the population. If you averaged the income of every American it would look like we make loads of money when in fact its only because a small percentage earn billions to trillions while the rest do slave labor and go into debt just to have a home and feed their kids. It doesn't help that we pay atheltes millions per year to play with their balls. But thats another discussion! lol

[nate_v8]

On the topic of plugging in an electric car, do you forget to fill up your gas tank? If not then why the hell would you forget to plug in your electric car.

I wish we would come up with more public transportation, my wife drives a little over an hour to get to work 3 times a week and I drive half an hour 5 days a week. I would love to ride a bus to my office.

[easyBob]

Originally Posted by nate_v8

On the topic of plugging in an electric car, do you forget to fill up your gas tank? If not then why the hell would you forget to plug in your electric car.

It's not really about that. It's about charge time. It takes a few minutes to "recharge" your car, while it takes hours to recharge the batteries in the electric car.

Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike electric cars, I just don't think they are ready yet. More tech, and they will come.

-Chris

[SinCity]

Originally Posted by easyBob

It's not really about that. It's about charge time. It takes a few minutes to "recharge" your car, while it takes hours to recharge the batteries in the electric car.

Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike electric cars, I just don't think they are ready yet. More tech, and they will come.

-Chris

IIRC GM was developing a gas turbine/ electric back in the early 90's. That project supposedly got killed and the rights to the battery pack they designed was sold to Chevron Texaco. Gas was cheap for years so an electric vehicle really wasn't cheaper to own. Now times are changing.

Electric cars for short commutes will work fine but are not capable of traveling long distances without long charge times in beween. That is where electric cars with small turbocharged engines will come in.

I do agree with you on the large truck thing. I have a 7,000 lb diesel truck that is used mostly for towing. So far, no electric vehicle around is capable of towing my toy trailers around. If I gave up all my hobbies I might be able to get rid of the truck, but unless gas/ diesel gets astronomically expensive that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

[Mr.Mecha]

I don't know about you guys but I mostly drive for pleasure. I work downtown and instead of paying $7 for parking and whatever in gas I ride my bike.

With China out of it's industrial revolution and the amount of cars on the road increasing every day gas prices will do nothing but go up until people stop driving everywhere.

If you think you Americans are pissed here in Canada we have the second largest oil reserves in the world and we're paying more than you. You used up your oil long ago.