Fuel prices (OT)

[ducksterman]

Just a heads up, Mark.....my Am. Ex. Business card...obtained through Costco...has no annual fee.

[Marco]

Ducksterman,
I stand corrected. The $100 fee is for the COSTCO business membership. The COSTCO AMEX BUSINESS card is in fact NO ANUAL FEE.
Thanks for the "heads up"


Mark

[DShock]

Here is a victim of the fuel prices; Hummer. Sierra Clubers can go ahead and cheer: Hummer sales are down by 36 percent so far this year, the biggest drop among a single brand. Sales of the smallest Hummer--the H3, which averages about 15 mpg--have fallen even more than the brawnier H2, which gets a meager 10 mpg or so. Consider some painful Hummer math: With gas at $4, it costs about $120 to fill the tank of an H2, and then you can only go about 300 miles before forking over another $120. No wonder General Motors is considering offloading the whole division." End Quote.
Doug

[flybinder]

Dougie, thankfully, the Hummer is only going to be "The beginning" to getting some of these over sized, useless rigs, off the market and off the highways.
It's amazing, that in only about two week's time, our car lots down here at the beach have row, after row, AFTER ROW......... of traded in, one to two year old, pick ups, Explorers,Suburbans, Yukons,Hummers, etc.
Obvious vehicles that the average family of even 4, never needed to begin with, other than to "own what the Jones's owned".
Talked to a very upset club member, recently, that traded off his 3/4 ton Crew Cab-large tired-"Macho Extender" and wasn't very happy that this $35,725.00 "toy he "had to have", a year ago brought him a whopping $11,000.00 in trade in value. (Yes, it was paid for, in full, when he bought it new in '07).
And, according to him...... "That was THE BEST DEAL, I could get out of my truck, against a new Suzuki sedan, of the dealers I went to in both Portland and here, at the coast!"
He was simply told, by every dealer he went to: "We not only have 2 dozen used rigs, just like yours, we'll probably have to wholesale them out just to get out from under these gas hogs!"

[Avalon]

Dear Gringo,

Gas is about $ 3.90 a gallon plus or minus a few pennies where I live and travel.

Diesel is a about a $ 1.00 more a gallon than gas which boggles my mind because it's the first and easiest product to extract from a gallon of crude oil.

I own a paid off diesel pick-up which I quit driving to work a couple of months ago when I was dropping $ 100.00 a week just to fill it up for work with no side trips whatsoever. I bought a well used Plymouth Breeze that I financed and I'm still ahead.

I spend about $ 40.00 a week for gas to drive to all the same places I drove in my pick-up. I make a car payment on the little fella, pay insurance for a second vehicle, and still have about $ 80.00 to $ 100.00 left over to drop in the truck's tank for pleasure driving.

I'll never understand the thought process of the guy who was talked about a post or two above? He traded a paid off vehicle to get a more fuel efficient vehicle. He lost $ 26,000 in two years on the trade. At $ 4.00 a gallon and 12 mpg he threw away 100,000 miles worth of free gas to spend more money on fuel efficient car?

Some people have more money than brains. I'm sure he thinks he's saving money though and that's all that counts!

Regards,
Tim Murphy

[flybinder]

Tim, I KNEW, if anyone "caught the idiot humor", that I posted about that guy from our club, selling off a PAID FOR vehicle, YOU would!! I didn't mention "his logic", waiting to see if anyone, else, would catch it! Nice going!

[JohnScott]

Tim and Paul -

I think Tim's math is a bit "fuzzy."

That $35,000 truck dropped a bunch as soon as he drove it off the lot. At the end of a year, or more, of use, he probably would have been lucky to get $25,000 sale or trade value for it, given "the good old days." Maybe more like $20,000.

At $25,000 sale or trade, he "lost" $14,000. At $4.00 per gallon and 12 mpg, his cost per mile would be $.33. At that rate, he could have driven about 42,000 miles for the amount he "lost", not 100,000 miles.

At $20,000 sale or trade value, he "lost" $9,000, which would have paid for another 27,000, not 100,000 miles.

By the time he put another 27,000 or 42,000 miles on that truck, he would likely have gotten a lot less than $11,000 sale or trade value for it, if he could sell it or trade it.

If he made a "good" buy this time around, and keeps it for a good while, he probably will net out ahead in the long run. The higher the cost of gas goes, the better his decision will look as time goes by.

In the meantime, he is contributing to a lower consumption / demand for gas, which may contribute to a lower cost for all of us, and a longer time that there will be a supply. Not to mention the "green" aspect of his decision, which I will mention and applaud.

John

[Avalon]

Dear John,

My math was a little fuzzy. His $ 27.000 loss divided by $ 4.00 a gallon X 12 mpg equals 81,000 miles he tossed out the window because remember, and this is key, HE OWNED THE TRUCK HE TRADED OUTRIGHT!

The dude is an idiot. Now $ 40,000 later, remember again that he traded his truck for a fuel efficient car that cost him even more money, he's getting maybe 30 mpg?

Carmakers just love morons like him, the Planet will slough us all off one day so it could care less.

Regards,
Tim Murphy

[Gringo]

I guess therein lies yet another issue - the energy consumed by the corporation to make the smaller car for you to buy while you old one goes to the wreckers because nobody wants a big car now?

Anyway please let us not argue about our math etc, the point is made regardless.

My father-in-law will drive for miles to save a cent a liter, then you work out the difference on the tankful was maybe 40-50 cents.

[analogbob]

Many State Public Employee Pension Funds are invested big time in Oil Companies and raking in profits from them!

http://spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=13381

Bob