Falling Gas Prices

[Jason78]

And I used to own a 14 MPG F-150

WHAT!?!

You know that there are cars out there that get 50 MPG don't you?

[GrinningYMIR]

...my car gets 16 mpg

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Remember a few years back the narrative wasn't about actually drilling for oil it was about refining capacity that we lacked so the bottom line is that I don't believe one fucking word we're told and tough shit for the Koch brothers brethren and I hope every one of the cocksuckers go belly up and horses become the next big thing..

[AllPurposeAtheist]

...my car gets 16 mpg

Do you have to drive uphill both ways everywhere you go?

[GrinningYMIR]

Actually yeah, I have to go uphill, then it flattens out, goes down a bit, and then goes back uphill, and pretty much does the same on the way back. 17 miles to get there roughly

[wolf39us]

Well let's see.

My 2012 Honda Civic gets me around at about 30-35mpg  (40+ on the highway)

And my other vehicle is a scooter that clocks about 101mpg.  I don't burn much fuel :D

[stromboli]

My current vehicle averages about 25 MPG, but it is AWD. Getting 14 MPG average out of a vehicle that carries more than half a ton and is 4WD is not bad. Like Johan said, removing every one from the road isn't going to make a large dent in the picture.

If you live where I do, owning an electric vehicle makes no sense. Hybrids yes, and they are finally building vehicles like Toyota 4Runners that are hybrids. I would buy one and will, if I can fine one that suits me. I go places that are easily 300 miles between gas stops. An electric car is a city car, period. Maybe someday Idaho and Nevada will build electric recharging stations in the middle of nowhere, but aren't currently. I'll stick with what I have.

[Hydra009]

My bike only gets 10 mpg.  5 mpg if it's hot out.

g = Gatorade

[Shiranu]

My bike only gets 10 mpg.  5 mpg if it's hot out.

g = Gatorade

Slightly off topic, but I envy people who can ride scooters or bikes. I was planning on getting one until I moved... now I wold have to ride one 35 miles to and 35 miles from to get to class 5 days a week on a country road where people go about 80 mph... no thanks.

More off topic, I think that is a concept alot of foreigners don't understand about American car culture... it is a necessity for many of us, not a luxury. If I didn't have a car, I pretty much could not attend university or find a job outside of working a farm or gas station.

[GrinningYMIR]

I had a friend visit from Poland once, she asked if we could drive to LA the weekend that she was there and I was like "lol wut"

She honestly didn't realize how big the US was, her eyes popped out of her head when I told her it would take three or four days driving to get to LA from where we were, it was funny as hell actually

[stromboli]

My daughter lives 560 miles from my house in another state. I have driven to her place twice. That is pretty much the equivalent of driving from north Scotland to southern England and back. Last summer I put 2600 miles on my car in 12 days. I will typically drive 500 miles on a camping trip. People from Europe or Britain really don't grasp the distances; I know a trucker that had driven over a million miles on the interstate. Just driving West to East across Montana is a 3 day trip.

Unless you've been out west or driven across Kansas or Eastern Wyoming or Montana, you really don't get an idea how big the US is.

[DunkleSeele]

More off topic, I think that is a concept alot of foreigners don't understand about American car culture... it is a necessity for many of us, not a luxury. If I didn't have a car, I pretty much could not attend university or find a job outside of working a farm or gas station.

Well, that's not completely true. Many Europeans commute to and from work over relatively long distances (more than 30 miles each way) and cars are a necessity for many Europeans as well. I myself used to drive at least 30 to 35 thousand miles/year until this year. Now I have a new job and have to drive less, but it's still in the range of 20 - 22 thousand miles/year.

What many Europeans don't understand about American car culture is your love for gas-guzzling, inefficient behemoths (generally speaking, of course). From what we can see from here, many (most?) American cars are unnecessarily big, slow and inefficient. I drive what here in Europe is considered already a gas-guzzler (3.5l engine) and I get 24mpg from that. On the average a car over here will get you 35-40 mpg, and I'm not talking about small city cars! I understand that in the US you always had very cheap gas but, if a car plays such a big role in the life of Americans why didn't people push for more efficient vehicles which would put a smaller strain on their wallet?

[_Xenu_]

WHAT!?!

You know that there are cars out there that get 50 MPG don't you?

Yeah, my F150 gets about that with city driving. But in all fairness, I only have a four mile commute to work, and the first three of that is on the highway. Also, I go to and leave work before there's much traffic, so my gas guzzler really isn't that expensive to keep fueled.

[Mermaid]

I don't fully grasp the reason for the huge swings in oil prices or the consequences thereof. I am certainly no economist but I will certainly enjoy it while it lasts. I feel like we have gotten a significant raise in salary. Between this year and last year, our gasoline consumption has gone down significantly, and the cost of that consumption has been cut by about 3/4 because of prices and our car arrangement.  Despite financing two brand new cars, things are much more flush with us. What a difference a year makes. Whoo.