A sore topic

[bekosh]

Re: A sore topic

Check out the SMART car... still petro powered, but it gets 60 mpg. Imagine if everyone drove those... opec would be choking on the stuff. It's just too bad that A: they can't make them fast enough (two year backorder/waiting list), and B: one car can never satisfy everyone's needs, after all, how would any of us tow our boats?
SgtMaj

I checked into these and was unimpressed. Really, really tiny and they only get 35-40mpg. My '01 Hyundai Accent gets 38mpg, has twice the room inside and cost about $3k less.

Quote from www.smartusa.com

Engineering and testing continues to take place on the vehicle that will be produced for the United States. The vehicle is designed to achieve 40 city/45 highway mpg according to 2007 EPA standards and 33 city/41 highway mpg according to 2008 EPA standards. The mpg rating for all vehicles will decrease in 2008 due to new calculation methods that the EPA has adopted. These methods involve measuring mpg while taking into account real life driving conditions such as start/stop city traffic, air conditioning, heating, etc. The gas tank of the smart fortwo is 8.7 gallons.

The Smart cars are trendy right now. I give them about 2 years before they either go bust or move to a more conventional design.

 

[Jerico]

Re: A sore topic

I do computer work for a long-haul trucking company. If it wasn't for being able to charge customers fuel sir charges they would be sunk. The down side is that charge gets passed on to the consumer. To top it off, the new ultra low sulfer fuels pushed the fuel mileage down about a mile and a half per gallon. For a company running around 700000 miles per month just the 1 1/2 mpg is painful.

I've got a great idea. Lets take our food (corn), turn it into fuel (ethanol), knowing that our miles per gallon will go down too. Then we all can pay more, use more, and b!^*h more. Not to mention what it will do if you have a fiberglass tank in you're boat.

I will optimize my trips around town or to the store, choose to skip driving around whenever I can, and keep my vehicle tuned up for efficiency. I even am storing my boat at the lake for the first time to reduce towing miles. As long as I can scrape together the price of a tank of gas for the boat I will NOT give up my one major vice - boating.

 

[300 ray]

Re: A sore topic

I personally cant believe that anyone in this country like (marine manufacturers, Auto Manufacturers, Shipping Industry) have really stepped forward to try and control this problem?? The rising price of fuel is gonna end up being the demise of the economy. There has to be someone with authority in this country that has a hobby like ours that is feeling the crunch like we are, and cares enough to do something about it. It doesnt even seem like anyone is trying to do anything about it????

 

[thefairlaneman]

Re: A sore topic

In 2000 gas was about a buck a gallon.now in 2008 almost 4 bucks = mission acomplished....( note texas is the 4th richest country in the world) go figure

 

[SgtMaj]

Re: A sore topic

I checked into these and was unimpressed. Really, really tiny and they only get 35-40mpg. My '01 Hyundai Accent gets 38mpg, has twice the room inside and cost about $3k less.

The Smart cars are trendy right now. I give them about 2 years before they either go bust or move to a more conventional design.

Yeah I wouldn't own one myself...

Our local news did a story on them in which they claimed to get 60mpg... but I guess they got their facts wrong. Too bad. Most cars today can get 35mpg... my wife's 02 impala gets 32mpg... and I had an old 5.7L caprice classic a few years ago that got 29mpg (granted, I had done some modifying to the engine to get that).

EDIT: Oh, I just found this, this explains the media error...

"In European spec, the car gets better than 50 mpg, but the U.S. version gets about 45 mpg at best."

 

[v1_0]

Re: A sore topic

It doesnt even seem like anyone is trying to do anything about it????

Bottom line: it's up to each individual to do something about it. And the cost will be a powerful motivator to individuals and businesses alike.

-V

 

[gonefishie]

Re: A sore topic

I personally cant believe that anyone in this country like (marine manufacturers, Auto Manufacturers, Shipping Industry) have really stepped forward to try and control this problem?? The rising price of fuel is gonna end up being the demise of the economy. There has to be someone with authority in this country that has a hobby like ours that is feeling the crunch like we are, and cares enough to do something about it. It doesnt even seem like anyone is trying to do anything about it????

The thing is that the person/s that have the power to do something about it, don't want to do anything about it. They probably have a great big gigantic boat too. Why? because #1, they are already rich enough to not have to change their lifestyle no matter how much gas cost. #2, this is going to be controversial but I'm going to says anyway, they're getting richer because of the high prices.

 

[300 ray]

Re: A sore topic

Yeah Gone fishin, I agree 100% with you., but where do we start? I make a decent living have a decent home and a very nice older cruiser. we like to travel through the waterways alot but if the prices do what is expected then I dont know how much traveling we can afford to do. This doesnt just affect me not being able to afford what I like to do but it also is gonna affect all the places we might normally travel to. I am only speaking for one boating family. If no one can afford to visit these smaller towns that depend on boat traffic in the summer months there is gonna be a much larger impact than just paying more at the pump. I have a decent sized boat(was considering up-sizing) but it is by no means brand new, but it costs a considerable amount of money just to store and maintain, before fuel prices even come into play! Personally I just think that someone should be looking at what we do on our weekends and trying to make it more affordable so that we can keep doing what so many of us on the water do. Just my 2 cents wish it would ring a bell in Washington! Dan

 

[ezmobee]

Re: A sore topic

Well I am proud to say that my family has changed it's behavior in light of the gas prices. My wife and I both commute from York, PA to Harrisburg, PA every day (30+miles). We did it seperately for years because I am able to work early (6:30-2:45) and she was stuck working 8-4. She was able to change her work schedule to 7-3 so now we come up together and drive our most fuel efficient vehicle. Sure I've lost some freedom (I get dropped off and picked up) but we're saving a TON of money and giving less to the greedy oil companies.

 

[Navy Jr.]

Re: A sore topic

You know, maybe gas prices aren't our only problem. I mean, gee, look at what has happened to the overall wealth of our country in just the last two months.

There are things happening in the financial markets that I only partially understand, such as securitized mortgages, CDOs, hedge funds and the like. But today (03.14.2008) was the announcement of the bailout of Bear Stearns, one of the largest investment banks in the world, by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York via J.P. MorganChase. Yesterday was an example of a good old fashioned depression-era bank run against the Bear.

For now, the pundits are saying the danger is limited to certain investment banks, not commercial banks. And Bear Sterns was noted for its volume of questionable securitized mortgage debt. But one can't help but wonder what's next.

Liz Ann Sonders of Charles Schwab says we are most definitely in a recession, and that it's just a question of how deep and how long. Banks are tightening down on mortgage originations (which hinders moving the inventory of unsold new/used/foreclosed homes), homeowners are getting notices from their home equity loan holders that their lines of credit are being frozen due to their homes' value falling, fuel price increases are being passed along to everything we buy, health care costs are out of control, and consumer confidence is plummeting. And, she warns, the effect won't just be to the domestic markets. Foreign markets, who we depend on to buy more of our stuff as our dollar falls, will also be affected.

It's all very alarming... if we want it to be. All this bad news has a way of perpetuating more bad news. Perceptions sometimes become realities.

But someday, and it might be a year or two or ? down the road (your guess is as good as mine), there will be a press release that will read, "Foreclosure Rates Now Less Than a Year Ago," or, "New Mortgage Originations on the Rise Compared to a Year Ago," or, "Liquidity Concerns Abate with Increase in Consumer Confidence."

Let's hope the pain won't be too bad before we get there.

For some, it's already been all too very painful. Take British billionaire Joseph Lewis, for instance. Last summer he invested $860 million in Bear Sterns when its stock was trading in the $160/share area. Today the stock closed at just under $31/share. He has lost 80% of his investment in just 6 months...

 

[SgtMaj]

Re: A sore topic

You know, maybe gas prices aren't our only problem. I mean, gee, look at what has happened to the overall wealth of our country in just the last two months.

Yeah, but ultimiately it all boils down to the gas prices... the gas prices have pushed this country into recession over the past 6 years.

 

[beerfilter]

Re: A sore topic

"I've got a great idea. Lets take our food (corn), turn it into fuel (ethanol), knowing that our miles per gallon will go down too. Then we all can pay more, use more, and b!^*h more. Not to mention what it will do if you have a fiberglass tank in you're boat. "

Not to mention that the cost to grow the corn increases with the cost of crude .
Fertilizer , herbacide , pesticide , fuel costs for tillage , planting , applying the chemicals , harvesting , drying , loading , transporting , etc ...

This is a small picture of our dependance on oil .

HERE IS A CHALLENGE FOR EVERYONE:
Find ANYTHING in your house that was not manufactured , transported , packaged , sold , etc.. , without the benefit of petrochemicals .

Difficult , impossible ?

This is the nature of the juggernaut we are facing .
Modern agriculture is hugely dependent on oil , it cannot function with out it .
We can feed ourselves and many other nations at the moment .
Take away the cheap energy and 100's of millions are going to starve , worldwide .

The IMMEDIATE solution to our dilema does not exist .
We can pump faster/more , for a short period .
We can build more refining capacity to process the crude .
Solar is inefficient and expensive .
Wind power is subject to the vagaries of weather .
Hydro-electric has minimal chance to add capacity to the grid , as virtually all the major rivers have been damned allready .
Atomic fission takes a decade to permit and construct a new plant , if nobody raises an issue .
Sustainable fusion is still a pipe dream , despite the billions poured into research .
Geothermal is relegated to the few locales that are geologically suitable .

Being that oil is traded openly as a commodity , the demand sets the price .
The entire world economy is based on the availability of energy .
More precisely , it is based on the INCREASING availability of energy , to drive the economy .
When we can no longer pump enough , fast enough , the whole world economy will come to a screaching halt .
In all situations where this has happened , the result was world war .

Think 1929 , multiplied by a thousand , and , inject the availability of nukes , chemical , and , biological weapons .

We may yet become 1 world , the THIRD world , for the 2 billion (maybe) survivors to struggle with .

Have a nice day .

 

[thefairlaneman]

Re: A sore topic

The solution is simple. A solution that will not only give jobs to those wanting to do the work others wont do and eliminate the need for using gasoline for local transportation 100% at the same time.....the answer is RICKSHAWS.......or maybe donkey carts.

 

[SgtMaj]

Re: A sore topic

Or we could do what Brazil does and become energy independant and say up yours opec!