Sideways wrote:That's the problem with the US. We're too greedy. our plant workers are greedy and always want more then they make enough. There's no reason why ALL cars can't get upwards of 40 miles per gallon, the only reason we're not doing it is because the car companies would lose money.
I happened to see a commercial for Dodge the other day. You can really see that our interests have changed because they were giving a big percentage off on the big gas guzzling trucks and SUV's. It was like 20% or so off of the MSRP.
2nd that. Oil and gasoline -isn't- going to get any cheaper, and rightly so.
Does every man and woman on the earth need to drive a 2 tonne SUV to work?
In Norway petrol is now between 10-11$/gallon, which I'm fine with, and I drive an Alfa GTV sportscar which drinks 1.5liter/10km.
Seriously, we need to appreciate that we can't keep doing what we're doing now. At least not with China getting their economy up so that every second chinese wants to get a car...
Does every man and woman on the earth need to drive a 2 tonne SUV to work
The short answer to that is no, however in certain types of jobs, such as mine and Derricks, we need big 4 wheel drives as anything smaller is just not practical to us. In England the term we use is " Chelsea Tractors " this simply means that a person uses a big 4 wheel drive as a status symbol and it is only used to take the kids to school and do the shopping. The problem being, that after driving something like a mini, a lot of these people have no idea how to handle a big vehicle and it causes accidents.
So it seems gas prices are slowly dropping, for now. They're under the $4 mark, I've seen it as low as $3.60 a gallon or so around here. Keep dropping a bit lower.
I dont know if anyone else is having this problem, but in oklahoma a new law was passed recently. Apparently almost all the gas stations minus the few Mom and Pop ones, were putting the ethanol in the gas. Basically reducing the actual amount of gasoline in your tank. It was reducing everyones gas mileage by 20 or more miles per tank. Someone found out, and after a big news story, the whole state was in an uproar. I noticed I couldn't get nearly as far with my bike as I used to.
The state government finally stepped in and made any gas station selling the alcohol mix, to start putting labels on their tanks. Most only put "may contain up to 10% ethanol" while the ones who didn't use it put "no alcohol added" I think the Mom and Pop stores business is booming now. 711 has reported a 50% drop in profit because of this.
hah! they've been doing that here for ages. the best part is our older vehicles ('86 fiero, '89 honda scooter, etc.) won't even RUN on the corn-poison. we have to buy premium to get away from it, just so we can drive them! does a 49cc scooter really NEED 91 octane? apparently, cus otherwise it runs like there's water in the tank. paying more for less, as usual.
@Snarl. I can't picture you and Derrick driving a mini through the countryside going to a farm or something. It couldn't even pull the muck spreader for him!! LOL!!
That would be one hell of a funny sight wouldnt it a half ton mini trying to drag a fully loaded muckspreader that weighs about 18 tons. seriously though the fuel prices in this country are sky high which is why we run both land rovers on sunflower or veg oil. the only downside to that is that you ned to service the engine more often and eventually the entire fuel system needs replaceing but even that is still cheaper in the long run than running on diesel. as a comparison diesel costs £1.19 GBP - £1.30 GBP per litre and sunflower / veg oil cost 30p - 50p per litre
we have a choice of 10% ethonol fuel here and it is a higher 95 octane fuel too and I get the same amount of mileage on it and its 3c per litre cheaper too
"Look at Megatron. I'm gonna blast that smile off his faceplate".
I saw the 10% percent signs when I drove through Wisconsin. But apparently Minnesota has been doing it for 11 years, unsigned of course. We loves our corn >.<. There's even E85 fuel pumps at most major gas stations. 5 more years and all of our pumps are going to have mandatory E20. O.O They even put the stuff in diesel now.
If I rode my bike to work I get ran over cause the Prison I work at is in the middle of Shawnee forest in IL. Alot of back roads people drive crazy,plus is 25 mile on way. Oh hey everyone been awhile,unless I play call of duty 4 with ya.
Time Traveller wrote:hah! they've been doing that here for ages. the best part is our older vehicles ('86 fiero, '89 honda scooter, etc.) won't even RUN on the corn-poison. we have to buy premium to get away from it, just so we can drive them! does a 49cc scooter really NEED 91 octane? apparently, cus otherwise it runs like there's water in the tank. paying more for less, as usual.
Just curious, what's with this low 90s octane shit you run?
I saw this when I lived in Australia too, 92 octane all over.
I only run 98 octane on my car, and 95 octane is the standard here.
So why the difference?
Here in the states, the only octane offered is 85, 87, 89, and 91. Im not sure why its different all over. The only other octane I know of is 100LL which is used in our small piston airplanes at work.
Time Traveller wrote:there used to be 102 racing/ performance gas, too. eth adds octane, but not mileage or performance that comes from non eth octane! boo!
That would be because Octane only measures activation energy for combustion and how evenly it burns, not the energy content. So while iso-octane has a octane rating of 100 and ethanol has a rating of 116, iso-octane has roughly 4 times the energy of ethanol, making it a better internal combustion engine fuel.
! Not that it's any better, 
paying more for less, as usual.
