Gas Prices Round the Globe

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$2.41 in SF Bay Area

California tends to have higher gas prices than the rest of the lower 48 for a variety of reasons, including: government mandated addition of oxygenators to the fuel in summer (used to be MTBE, now it's ethanol), higher state taxes, special anti-smog formulations other than oxygenation, limited West Coast refinery capacity, somewhat isolated from main domestic areas of oil production and gas refining (those Sierra Nevada mountains are quite high), and they charge more per gallon because they can.

My '78 Dodge pickup truck gets about 13-16 mpg on the highway. Not great, but then it's got a very handy lumber rack that is a big windcatcher. Just got through shelling out $400 for a new set of tires... after the flat in SF picking up a the RCA Whirlpool set, I decided it was past time for a new set of tires. I only drive the truck when I need it to haul something. Most of my driving is in my '97 Neon (about 24 mpg), or the '50 Plyumouth (about 20 mpg). My motorcycle used to get 40+ mpg, but haven't ridden it since the hit-and-run indident last May.
 
The other big myth most here probably know about already is that more times than not the gasoline brand you buy wasn't even refined by that company. Oil companies have agreements with each other to supply the gasoline to their competitors when they don't have their own refinery close by so for example the Forumla Shell you buy in some states/provinces could actually be from Exxon/Esso or Chevron or whomever happens to have a refinery close by. As for the particular brands added ingredients, well the truck driver who picks up the tanker of gasoline just pours those into the tank before he delivers it.
 
I live in a refining town and have several friends who have worked for the oil companies all their life. It used to be a great opportunity, but not so good now. Anyway, one of the problems with U.S. gas production is that they produce about 35 different gasoline formulas. This is because many states, notably California, have certain requirements for additives to control emissions. Also, there are different fuel formulas produced for winter use. The refineries have to flush the systems out between different batches of the different blends. Seems to me that if every state got on the same sheet of music, we could reduce the number of blends produced and reduce production costs.

Having said this, the production costs are not as high as the oil companies claim, they are making huge windfall profits, yet they won't give corresponding pay raises to the employees. In fact, they are trying to cut costs by cutting overtime (formerly the employees gold mine, and a legitimate one at that), job positions (they sometimes don't re-hire when someone leaves - my friends are having to do the work formerly done by two or more), and some benefits. Granted, the refineries here are about to embark on a huge expansion project which will be very expensive, but come on, they can pay their employees a little more (spread the wealth) and reduce the gas prices more than they have.
 
I paid $2.32 this morning @ Costco in Hawthorne (L.A. area)

I picked up a new Toyota Camry Hybrid on Halloween... Nice car for something as "generic" as the Camry. Best tank to date is 37.5 mpg, but lately has been around 33 mpg (I live in a hilly area).
 
My nonhybrid 1999 Saturn got 34mpg on the highway. My dad's 1991 Nissan Pulsar got even better.

I think hybrids are cool and I hope the hybrid technology improves: If you don't trade the car in, the batteries can go out after 5-6 years and cost several thousand $$ to replace, negating any gas cost savings. Hybrids are mainly good if you want to conserve fuel and pollute less. They are not necessarily a good way to save on cost as they are usually more expensive and because of the battery replacement issue mentioned above.
 
...cutting overtime...not re-hiring when someone leaves, etc

Oil refineries are not the only ones cutting or reducing O.T, not filling a vacancies when someone retires, quits or or gets promoted... etc. A lot of major (and also minor) companies are doing this to cut costs and increase profits...... I work for a major Japanese car company and I have seen this a lot in the last few years.

Also, why do you think number of companies are moving, or have moved their manufacturing facilities to China??? Some workers in China only make $0.50 - $1 per day and have very few, if any benifits! Talk about really boosting profits!!

After all... GREED IS WHAT MAKES THE WORLD GO 'ROUND!!
 
My nonhybrid 1999 Saturn got 34mpg on the highway....

Yes that may be true, however you are not comparing apples to apples. The Saturn and Pulsar are both smaller and lighter cars with smaller and less powerful engines, thus will achieve better fuel economy. If I do only highway driving my Camry hybrid gets 37 - 38 mpg (if I keep it below 75...). The Smart cars in Europe (and slowly filtering into the U.S.) get 70 - 75 mpg, but they are very small, very light cars with a very small engines.

On battery life and replacement costs: there is not enough data yet to show exactly how long (in time or miles) the hybrid battery packs will last. I read somewhere that some hybrid vehicles are being used as taxicabs on N.Y.C. The article said they are getting 125K - 140K miles on the original hybrid battery pack before replacement.

Hybrids are not for everyone. Depending on where you live and how you drive you may or may not see the fuel mileage benefit. They really do shine in stop & go - slow & go driving, like on our LOVELY freeways here in the greater Los Angeles area.

Yes I agree, if you only look at the actual cash outlay of the purchase (a hybrid is more $$$ compared to a non-hybrid equivalent) and cost of the replacement battery pack VS. the cost savings of better fuel mileage over the long term…. No it probably doesn't pencil out.
 
I still think Hybrids aren't worth it.. If you can drive a shift, than you can get a Corolla LE with the 6-disc cd changer and cruise and get around 38 mpgs overall. An automatic would get about 36. A civic gets a tad better mileage, but i can not verify this. My 04 Saturn Ion got 35-37 and it had no cruise. My ranger 4 cyl got 25 city, 30 hwy. Nathans accent gets 35 mogs. My step dads eleantra gets 36-38 mpgs...
And..
If you can stand a little tin can, a 3 cyl or 4cyl metro or swfit or hatchback civic from the past will get upwards of 45-48 mpgs.

Now if they come out with a hybird like the VUE, with a minimal cost differance, then i might be more tempted. There will be a corolla hybrid for 2009 or 2010... I might be more tempted with that as well..

I have driven a prius and hated it... The car was not worth the money.. I had a hard time dealing with the dash layout and couldn't get comfertable behind the wheel.. Also would like to see one with a stick shift..
 
1986 Nissan Pulsar

Best car I ever owned.

Roomy, spacious, fun without inviting criminal attention...

Mid-thirties gas mileage too.
 
Nissan Pulsar..

I loved them as a kid... I thought they where beautiful.. My dads 2nd ex wife had one and i loved hers.. It was a 1988 Although she sold it and bought a 1986 volvo with green seats in 1992... That her son totoaled when he bent the struts after smashin into 36 mailboxs..
 
Some years ago a young lady in town with a Pulsar just a couple weeks old ran it into the rear of my grandmother's 1975 Chevy Caprice at an intersection. Guess who won?

I never knew who was the girlie ... until she hired-on at the theater. I overheard her talking about a "wreck" that happened a couple years prior with an elderly woman ... listened for the details and quickly figured it out. I didn't let on to her for quite a while. Man, you shoulda seen her face when I dropped the tidbit on her head, LOL.
 
You could take a piledriver to a Caprice and not do serious damage....

(Another car like this was the original Dodge Dart. As recently as ten years ago, I saw elderly people still driving them around here....you couldn't kill 'em!)
 
Crown Vics are too
Grams and Gramps had a 2001 and he always backed it into things and it never phased it.. They decided a car was too much to drive, so they whent back to an SUV... OY!
 
About

$6.67 for an gallon of standard diesel over here (that's US gallons, not the larger British ones). A local recycling centre near me sells biodiesel, and I quite fancy trying it, except that it can solidify in the tank in cold weather. Maybe wait until the summer!

But there's the hidden costs too - I pay about $303 a year road tax, $587 a year third party fire & theft insurance (for a 1.8 litre, 11 year old car, full no-claims discount), and where I used to live I paid $234 a year for the priveledge of parking on the street too! Can I presume it's cheaper over the Atlantic?

Si
 
What's the road tax for? Usually road construction/repair taxes are included in the cost per gallon or litre over here at 3 levels, federal, state/provincial and sometimes city/municipal. Course that doesn't mean they spend it on strictly road construction/repair. Some of it probably goes to other "worthy" causes like stadium building deficits etc. and other government white elephants.
 
The cheapest price here in Toronto is about $0.68 Canadian cents per litre or around $2.57 per gallon. It used to be around $1.30 per litre a couple of years ago! I seem to be seeing alot of Smart cars, and Toyota/Lexus hybrids around the city as well. I'm also planning to get a hybrid when I'm old enough to drive, which is only a couple of years away.
 

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