1 liter = $1.19USD (£0.74GBP)

I paid £0.717 last week* - my cousin mentioned his local Jet garage had a "sale" one weekend and sold so much fuel they are doing it fairly regularly. I suspect the manager/owner is either going for some sales target to win a TV or something.

Gareth
* Handy when you have two cars that do 15-20mpg each, and everyone else complains they "only" get 35.

I can see why you Brits are so much more concerned about gas milage then...you're paying 3 times what I am for gasoline.

Is it not true that the rising number of SUV's and trucks creates a higher demand for gasoline, which forces prices up for every driver?

Is it not true that when someone buys a whole bunch of candy canes, that it creates a higher demand for candy canes which drives prices up for everyone? Yet I don't see anyone complaining about candy-cane-eating fat people? And fat people are also hard to see around when you're behind them on the sidewalk. They can also have a tendency to give out more than average air pollution after eating mexican. Yet why isn't anyone fighting for CO2 emission standards for fat people? I'm sure if a fat guy and a little guy have a collision then the little guy is gonna be a lot more hurt than the big guy. But nobody cares.

And you were doing so well for a while.

LMAO @ d33zY

horrid, but funny.

haha.

He goes through phases I have noticed.

local Jet garage had a "sale" one weekend and sold so much fuel they are doing it fairly regularly.

Funny you mention Jet. Our local Jet garage (we thought) was always the cheapest, especially if you re-fuelled at weekends, they always run offers then. Last weekend we were driving back home from a well known Sunday market near you and saw a supermarket was selling for (I think) £0.71p/l, our local jet was £0.725/l. Ok, this is penny pinching but I resent our fuel prices and I was passing anyhow

Handy when you have two cars that do 15-20mpg each, and everyone else complains they "only" get 35

My old 1.6l petrol car does 35mpg urban, her (old) 1.6 diesel 50mpg, exactly the same car but different fuel type. Sorry, I hate my mpg and my next car will be a turbo diesel I don't know what car you drive at 15-20mpg but I'm guessing I'd enjoy it's performance (in between petrol station stops that is)

If your gas taxes are the lowest, that's sad. I paid $1.44/gallon for 87 octane today at a place which I know not to be even close to "cheapest"

I haven't bought gas in a few weeks, and when I did, it was near the Tennessee border. I don't remember exactly what it cost.

The main reason I own my vehicle is because it makes more sense for me to possess than other vehicles.

Good. I will agree SUVs can serve a purpose. Most people though simply buy them to keep up with their neighboors. One of my aunts is this way, and they have owned the "popular" vehicle every year now for a while. Of course this decision also led to an expensive lawsuit when their underage son took the SUV on a druken joy ride and seriously injured some guy in an accident. I have no pitty for them and this incident.

Having recently driven a minivan, I can't believe how much people are willing to deal with gas consumption. The minivan got less then half what my Saturn SL2 does for gas milage. Sure, a minivan might be great for the big families, but 80% of the time I see one, only one or two people are in them, and no cargo. And of course, SUVs get even worse milage.

(Edited to clarift the minivan gas compairson part)

Since we're on the subject of gas prices, I figured people would find this site pretty interesting. It even has a break-down of taxes per state in the US.

According to that site, gas taxes average 29% of the total cost in the US and 76% in the UK. Gas is taxed at $0.075 a gallon in Georgia (state tax), which is the lowest tax rate in the country (they range up to 29 cents a gallon). This is in addition to federal taxes of $0.184 a gallon. I don't know if there are any city or county taxes (direct on the gas or indirect in steeper costs for the stations).


On a trip last year, I forgot to fill up on gasoline before I left to drive for home. Gas in Athens, GA was $1.35 a gallon. As I drove down hwy 316, I saw signs for gas for $1.20. I finally was about to run out of gas in Atlanta, so I stopped and got just a few gallons for $1.50 ea. I finally filled up later that night out near Kennesaw, GA for $1.13.

All of those prices are for regular unleaded gasoline in the same state on the same day.

-Biscuits

Sure, a minivan might be great for the big families, but 80% of the time I see one, only one or two people are in them, and no cargo.

In my case, it was $2000 for one which was at the time 8 years old when I needed to buy something quickly, and then I didn't have money for another car, or the desire to be a 2 car family, until this past March. In the 5 years since then I guess we've put something like 130000 miles on it.

When we got to the point where a second vehicle got to be interesting, I made sure we got a car (for $2000 ). Most of the time we don't use the minivan, now. The gas mileage isn't nearly as good as I'd like, but it's still useful to have something which I can move a railroad interlocking machine, more than 4 people, or space for myself to sleep in certain circumstances, and it still works, so...

federal taxes of $0.184 a gallon

Hang on a minute... federal taxes? Taxes paid to the United States Government? Gosh, it looks like SUVs do directly support state-sponsored terrorism then...

Peter

Using a telephone supports terrorism too..

In this day and age, even masturbation supports terrorism.

expensive lawsuit when their underage son took the SUV on a druken joy ride and seriously injured some guy in an accident. I have no pitty for them and this incident.

because it was an SUV?

Of course this decision also led to an expensive lawsuit when their underage son took the SUV on a druken joy ride and seriously injured some guy in an accident. I have no pitty for them and this incident.


I'm not sure I understand how the decision to buy an SUV caused their idiot son to get drunk and go for a joyride??
I think I'm missing something here.

I'm not sure I understand how the decision to buy an SUV caused their idiot son to get drunk and go for a joyride??
I think I'm missing something here.

He drove the SUV in the first place due to the precieved image of "cool". The lawsuit came from a number of factors, including the damage the SUV caused to the other party involved, both to the car, and to the health of the driver.

Had he simply chosen to be a bit less cool and taken a car, the lawsuit probably wouldn't have happened as the guy involved would have been fine. Of course, the son probably wouldn't have gone on a drunken joyride in the first place if he was acting with any sort of intellegance.

My problems with SUVs come from the laws that protect them (The entire light truck crap), the fact that they are typicially driven by people unaware of the differences, and the fact that most have never been off road, hauled 7 people, or towed something large. The arguments I have seen here seem to indicate SUV owners here have valid reasons to own them.

As far as the fuel argument, remember that MPG does somewhat equate to the polutuon a vehicle will put out. As some of our European friends have pointed out, our US engines are absolutly horrid on efficiency and polution.

I'm going to trade my SUV in for a sports car.. I hear they're not cool anymore, and get much better MPG..

As for light truck.. If everyone drove pickups instead of SUV's, would you still have the same argument? Same mass, same handling, same emissions, same chance to not get hurt when you run into a compact car. It seems like your entire dissagreement with an SUV is that it's a useful form of pickup, which amazingly has become poplular. Heck, as most people who drive an SUV only drive themselves, it's almost as if they bought a truck anyway, so what's the difference?

If everyone drove pickups instead of SUV's, would you still have the same argument?

Yes.

Any of you own your own business? You might want to think about buying a Hummer....

http://www.msnbc.com/local/pisea/104601.asp?0cv=CB20

F'ing loopholes... I got a measly $2000 deduction for my Honda Insight.

-Jeff

In the mid-1980s, he said, Congress tightened rules about how much money can be written off on luxury automobiles used for business -- but excluded vehicles with a gross weight of 6,000 pounds or more, partly an attempt to help farmers afford tractors, large trucks and other heavy equipment.

This is the sort of half-assed lawmaking that pisses me off. If they wanted to give farmers a break for buying tractors, et al., then why wasn't the law written that way?

Yeah, I pointed out the tax loophole thing in the other thread.

I *love* this bit in the article:

In reply to:

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Other vehicles besides the H2 that qualify for the tax break include the Mercedes-Benz M-Class SUV and Chevrolet Suburban and Tahoe, and some pickup trucks and cargo vans, according to Pierman. (the CPA who is quoted in the article)
He lamented the attention to the tax incentive.
"I think it's actually bad because Congress may close the loophole," he said. "If they see something that the public sees as 'too good of a thing.' You know, subsidizing gas hogs."

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We wouldn't want the great unwashed to find out about our little secret - and now the toys might be removed because of it.

- bummer, dude.

In reply to:

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There are also complaints about the H2's fuel economy, about 10 miles per gallon.

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Thats bad - I think the tractors farmers were intended to buy under the legislation probably get better MPG that the H2.

In reply to:

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Bellevue resident Karen Santa, 46, is aware of that sentiment. Since she switched from driving a Mercedes-Benz and bought her H2 in December, activists have left a note and a bumper sticker on the vehicle.
....

Still, Santa is pleased with the vehicle's handling, appearance and her global positioning satellite system.
She's already taken her H2 off road in the snow and has used it to pull her son in a sled on Crystal Mountain.
"It's a fabulous vehicle. You just push a button and say call home and it calls home," she said of the telephone feature.

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And you need a H2 to do these things!?

In reply to:

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This is the sort of half-assed lawmaking that pisses me off. If they wanted to give farmers a break for buying tractors, et al., then why wasn't the law written that way?

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I guess if the law had been written that way [i.e. "tractors" only - whatever the legal definition of a tractor is - the ones I've seen lately are basically SUVs on farm tyres - except they run on diesel, and cost more] , the new H2 would have been reclassified as a tractor by Marketing and Legal long before it was released.

Hmm, I can see it now, that mighty H2 pulling the farm implements over the ground and doing a fine job at 10MPG or less at it does so - bit of a problem at the ends of the fields where it has to turn, but its really, really good on the straight lines.

I don't know what car you drive at 15-20mpg but I'm guessing I'd enjoy it's performance

Well, one performance ('85 Camaro) and one is more for fun (Caprice cop car, on the left if you have pix turned on)

I was intending to get a more economical car to do long journeys with, but I think I've painted myself into a corner now!

Gareth