Thread: How are gas prices affecting you???

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I'm not talking about our hot rods here, we will always find the money to support our car addictions, but I mean in everyday life. Are you cutting down on the amount of trips you take? Are any of you considering more fuel efficient cars? How about using your cars for business, are you having to travel less? Are your vacation plans being altered at all?

Personally I am driving less. Dan and I carpool to the shop now whereas we used to take two cars so one of us could stay longer. I also rethink any trips during the day to run errands, and am considering buying a small import that gets 30+ mpg. Maybe it's time to get my old bike out and get some exercise while I am at it.

I think these ever higher prices are going to affect all of us in ways we haven't ever had to consider, and I am just curious what it is doing to all of you.

Don

Still have our trucks but only drive them when there are two of us or we need to haul something.
Otherwise we drive the Prius that we bought in 06 and the Miata.
Gas prices don't really impact us with this setup.
We expect them to climb to 10.00 bucks a gallon by 2012.

DT

Don, I'm in the motorcycle business and although we have a few riders that commute to work on their bikes, most bikes are as sold and used as "weekend toys". Most bikes are large displacement and/or high performance models. My commuter bike has 158 horsepower and will run 10's in the quarter with hard saddlebags installed, but it only gets 35 to 40 mpg. Heck, my F150 crew cab gets 15 mpg pulling the race car on a trailer, so it's all relative. Motorcycles are not going to save you any money when you add in tires (my tires last about 4 to 6000 miles and cost $300/pair), service, insurance, finance expense, and depreciation expense. You might tell the wife you NEED a bike to save on gas expense, but don't try to sell me on the story because it won't pencil out. The closest riding area for our dirt bike and ATV riders is over one hour away, so they need to factor transportation cost into their weekend expense.

What I'm seeing and hearing others talk about is the high travel expenses to events. One of our class racers spent $700 in diesel fuel going to the Phoenix race this year from Sacramento and back. Several cars have already been parked for this season in our racing group because of expenses or job cut backs. My son and I have already discussed that depending on how we are doing in our points chase this year that we might not complete the full season due to 1000 mile round trips to events. As the class defending champion we feel obligated to support our sanction, but money comes first. We might need to look at other sanctions that have events closer to our home base in the future (Bakersfield and Fontana). I'm not seeing full stands for NASCAR and NHRA TV races. The event promoters should be very concerned for the next two years to see how fast this comes back.

I'm ridin' my 500cc Honda thumper. Costs me $7.00 every week and a half for gas, insurance is $98.00 a year.

Originally Posted by techinspector1

I'm ridin' my 500cc Honda thumper. Costs me $7.00 every week and a half.

Richard, just stay in the RIGHT LANE, because I'm coming around you on your left side. LOL

Signed, The guy on the Kawasaki Concours 14

Just don't try to follow when I take a shortcut down through a wash.

Our Italian food business going to hell. Cost $105 fill van and thats every other day. Top that off just bought new 2008 chevy express van.

Yes, it most definitely makes a difference for me. 1 ton duelly gas engine, which gets used mainly to haul trailers when needed. A lot of the time it's now sitting. But, I can't get along without it just yet. Still have a number of trips to northern Ontario to make, as we get a new place built and get moved in. Last fall I made three trips one right after the other, $1000. in gas right there. I can count on it being more this summer . Trying real hard to make this hydrogen thing work. Not the mason jar bit, but a functional, full fledged, stand alone unit. It will go in the 45 Chev as a test bed, until I can get it to operate in a reliable way for evertday use. We'll see!!

John, you won't believe this, but Sharon just called from LA. She flew over last night to try to get on Price is Right. She got on and runner-upped in the showcase. Won two new 2008 Yamaha XT250's. Looks like I will be retiring my Honda.

I drive a F150 FX4 daily to work 40 miles round trip gas was $1:80 in 2004 when i bought it . Getting a average of 15 a gallon all it does is get me to work and back anymore . Thinking of picking up a old escort for work but people think there gold and prices are high on a 15 yr old model . Do as much running as i can in wife's Escape since it gets allmost 20 a gallon around town V6 .

So far it hasn't changed much for me, but if it goes over $4.50 a gallon. I will be walking.......... LOL
BradC

I just sold my '06 silverado and bought an '08 Saturn. Fuel used is about 1/3, insurance went down. All in all should save about $200 a month.....
I still have my '51 if I NEED to haul anything.....

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

I'm not talking about our hot rods here, we will always find the money to support our car addictions, but I mean in everyday life. Are you cutting down on the amount of trips you take? Are any of you considering more fuel efficient cars? How about using your cars for business, are you having to travel less? Are your vacation plans being altered at all?

Personally I am driving less. Dan and I carpool to the shop now whereas we used to take two cars so one of us could stay longer. I also rethink any trips during the day to run errands, and am considering buying a small import that gets 30+ mpg. Maybe it's time to get my old bike out and get some exercise while I am at it.

I think these ever higher prices are going to affect all of us in ways we haven't ever had to consider, and I am just curious what it is doing to all of you.

Don

Don
Both my wife and myself have been commuting with coworkers this last year. We are considering buying a Toyota Yaris. The stated gas milage for freeway is 35-36 (depending on 2 door or fourdoor models, cars are 11-13k new, (we get Topyotas at cost) so about 258 a month. It will drop our gas bill about 125-200 a month, so it makes sense in the long run, plus they are nice simple little commuter cars!

Drove the Tahoe down here to Vegas last week, was happy/surprised to see the whole way regular was under $4.00.

Of course we can make slight adjustments to the budget to accomodate the price of fuel. What's more important to me is we can get it. All three of the candidates likely to be the next president (and more critically the likely majority of Congress) support idiotic ideas that will lead to rationing, be it "windfall profits" taxes, further restrictions on crude production, or CO2 cap and trade. But when that happens all the uninformed will blame the oil companies rather than the real culprits. Thanks in advance to all those who refuse to learn .

I was looking at a report on CNN yesterday about how Brazil is way ahead of the game. They got smart with the crunch in the 70's and knew they would not ever become dependent on oil from another country again. Their fuel is coming from sugar cane grown in their country.

Brazil, HUH, maybe there is truth to all the money hungry politicians that keep us dependent on oil. I thought United States of America was a super power , how does a country like Brazil figure out the way 30 years ago.

I am in LA gas is getting real close to 4 dollars a gallon.