U.S. gas prices 'crash'

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This is not cause for celebration. Unless gas drops back down below $2 a gallon, I'm not gonna pretend like we're getting a fair deal.
 
Why isn't most of Europe driving an electric car yet? I'd buy one without a second thought if gas in the US was as expensive as it is over there.
 
I drove from Utah to Florida in 2001. Gas prices were typically around $1/gallon. I think I saw it as low as 93 cents in Georgia.

This summer it was near $4 a gallon in my area. I'm pretty sure wages haven't quadrupled across the board in the last 10 years.
 
DBT85 said:
What is the average yearly mileage for a car in the US? In the UK it's around 10,000 miles. Also in the UK people drive smaller and more efficient cars more than they do in the US. As I said, I get around 350-400miles from one tank of fuel.

I work at CNBC in the UK and whenever we have the US presenter talking about a Ford Fiesta or any other small car that is normal in Europe guests and presenters complain that they'll get killed by an 18 wheeler.

Don't forget that in the UK we don't have to pay for health insurance, we don't get billed for receiving text messages or for being taken to hospital in an ambulance. So what you save on fuel is offset by those other costs and the fact that on average a US car does more miles per year as you guys are all spread out.
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Average in US isn't that much more, maybe 12,500 miles per year. Where it would really hurt us is shipping. Getting food and other stuff across the country would be very expensive if our fuel prices went up.
 
chaosblade said:
Diesel costs more in America, or at least it was a while back. It used to be cheaper, but it went up and eventually became quite a bit more expensive. Earlier this year I recall it being around $3.80 here while regular fuel was around $3.30.
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Costs more here in the UK too, ~135.9p a litre for petrol and ~144.9p for diesel where I live.

We're lucky enough though that we can cross the border into the Republic of Ireland to buy fuel there where it works out a bit cheaper.

LegendofJoe said:
Why isn't most of Europe driving an electric car yet? I'd buy one without a second thought if gas in the US was as expensive as it is over there.
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Little infrastructure for it, cost of the cars and still the problem of range anxiety with them.
 
Still don't understand why there is different gas prices per region in the us. Besides OMG more cars in Los Angeles times to get rich!
 
I never understood people complaining about gas prices and talking about how they used to be lower. Everything cost less in the past...a pack of gum used to be a quarter, consoles used to be like 299 at most, and so on. Obviously gas prices went up faster but they're never gonna be 99 cents a gallon.
 
Future said:
Still don't understand why there is different gas prices per region in the us. Besides OMG more cars in Los Angeles times to get rich!
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1) States have different tax rates

2) Factors in transportation costs from point of production to point of sale (i.e. refineries in NJ means that we have some of the cheapest gas in the country).

3) California has a specific requirement for the formulation of their gasoline for environmental reasons which costs more per gallon.

Still cheaper than most of the Western world by 20-50%
 
Future said:
Still don't understand why there is different gas prices per region in the us. Besides OMG more cars in Los Angeles times to get rich!
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Part of it is due to varying taxes. Otherwise, it's just people trying to get more money. Gas stations off of interstate highways tend to over charge, for example.
 
CharlieDigital said:
1) States have different tax rates

2) Factors in transportation costs from point of production to point of sale (i.e. refineries in NJ means that we have some of the cheapest gas in the country).

3) California has a specific requirement for the formulation of their gasoline for environmental reasons which costs more per gallon.

Still cheaper than most of the Western world by 20-50%
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The fuel tax in NJ is also one of the lowest rates in the nation, behind only Alaska and Wyoming: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes_in_the_United_States
 
3.57 for 89 in the East Bay.

The best it ever was for me as an owner of a car was 4 years ago around this time. 1.72 a gallon after Obama was first elected.
 
The last time I was able to drive before I started having seizures, it was 95 cents a gallon. 10 dollars almost filled the tank.
 
3.15 here in Carrollton/Newnan Ga. It couldnt have come at a better time. I just started a new gig and taking backroads to the new job gotta be gassed up. Hopefully it drops lower cause you know how it is with new jobs you dont get paid the first payday you are there.
 
MiDNiGHTS said:
I never understood people complaining about gas prices and talking about how they used to be lower. Everything cost less in the past...a pack of gum used to be a quarter, consoles used to be like 299 at most, and so on. Obviously gas prices went up faster but they're never gonna be 99 cents a gallon.
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Well no shit, now that refineries have realized they can charge people three times as much and all they'll hear is a disinterested "Hey...don't do that dude..."

Gas prices don't really reflect the usual price increase via inflation. This is an artificial jack-up of prices through and through.
 
It's been lowering here in northern Europe as well lately, hurrah! Only $8.1 here today. It was almost $9 about a month ago.

I drive about 18-20k miles annually.
 
ReturnOfTheRAT said:
3.57 for 89 in the East Bay.

The best it ever was for me as an owner of a car was 4 years ago around this time. 1.72 a gallon after Obama was first elected.
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Yeah, I remember that. That was well timed, because that was right when I bought a car that gets 12 mpg and has a 26 gallon tank. Actually wound up costing less to fill it up than the car I was driving when gas was $4/ gallon.
 
balladofwindfishes said:
Is their any downside to such a low price (besides gas company profits)?

Why call it a "crash" if it's beneficial to pretty much the entire population
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Also, isn't it normal for the price of gas to go down in the winter? I mean, it went down like 15%, which feels inline with past years.
 
I paid $3.01 the other day. When I was in high school it was only $0.95 for regular and $1.15 for high test. Although I'd like the see cheaper gas prices the environmentalist in me wants prices (because of tax) to be so high that buying gas is prohibitively expensive and people are on the verge of rioting so we can get closer to breaking the gasoline system.
 
The lowest I've seen around here is 3.09. It's probably out of my league price-wise, but I will at least look at electric or hybrid cars as an option when considering a new car.
 
Lord-Audie said:
It is a crash because...

You know...

ummmm.....

Less Billions for the job creators....?
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"crash" in this context means "decline suddenly and steeply" (per Merriam-Webster). Whether or not it benefits people is orthogonal to its meaning.

I don't really see why people are complaining about the word use here.
 
Kod1ak said:
I drove from Utah to Florida in 2001. Gas prices were typically around $1/gallon. I think I saw it as low as 93 cents in Georgia.

This summer it was near $4 a gallon in my area. I'm pretty sure wages haven't quadrupled across the board in the last 10 years.
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Sure they have. I'll bet oil company CEO's are making 4x what they were 10 years ago.
 
LI checking in. Gas prices are bullshit. Every time they mention it will be dropping, it barely moves at all here. Dropped 10-20 cents, yet it will still be the same high price or go down a nickel.

Fuck em.
 
When I was in college, the station next door had 87 octane for $1.19/gallon
 
Socal here and cheapest I've seen so far is roughly $3.50. Prices are down, but I won't celebrate till I see it under $3.
 
In a way this isn't great news for Alberta or my job.

Me saving a few bucks at each fill up sort of pales in comparison to billions of dollars of provincial revenue and how many jobs rely on that.
 
DJ_Lae said:
In a way this isn't great news for Alberta or my job.

Me saving a few bucks at each fill up sort of pales in comparison to billions of dollars of provincial revenue and how many jobs rely on that.
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the environment, lol

I have family in Alberta that benefit from the oil money too :(
 
balladofwindfishes said:
Is their any downside to such a low price (besides gas company profits)?

Why call it a "crash" if it's beneficial to pretty much the entire population
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"Crash" just denotes a fast drop in price. It doesn't not indicate whether this is a good or bad thing.

And it does have good and bad effects. As far as bad effects:
-More pollution
-More CO2
-Worst: Instills a false sense of security such that people may buy gas-guzzlers because they think 'cheap' gas has returned when this is only a temporary phenomenon.

Enjoy the reduced gas price! But don't make the grave error of expecting it to last for a long time.
 
Coldplay619 said:
I remember it being under a dollar here in Canada :(

*sigh*
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THIS!

I remember how it was big news and you couldn't watch a news report without hearing about it.

Now it's "cheap" to fill up at $1.20/L

And it's a bigger punch to the stomach for those who drive cars that require premium gas.
 
If you really have a problem with the current regime, you can start growing your own switchgrass or jetrophia, buy a biodiesel processor kit, and then buy something with a diesel engine.

Boom all your own (naturally renewable) fuel for as long as your willing to do the work.


Otherwise you're just whining about how much the oil giants are charging you for convenience. Actually, you might be near a local biodiesel producer, so you wouldn't have to make your own fuel, just buy from someone close by who has excess supply.

Edit:
speculawyer said:
"Crash" just denotes a fast drop in price. It doesn't not indicate whether this is a good or bad thing.

And it does have good and bad effects. As far as bad effects:
-More pollution
-More CO2
-Worst: Instills a false sense of security such that people may buy gas-guzzlers because they think 'cheap' gas has returned when this is only a temporary phenomenon.

Enjoy the reduced gas price! But don't make the grave error of expecting it to last for a long time.
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This.

speculawyer said:
Well, we did have prices hitting $5/gallon just a few months back, so relatively speaking this is a welcome price drop.
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And this.

We're all slowly boiling frogs :(
 
jmdajr said:
Yup. And I didn't even have a car :\
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I was driving a 1989 Mustang 5.0 at the time.
KuGsj.gif
I needed those cheap gas prices.
 
GameplayWhore said:
The crazy thing is that the time span between gasoline prices being 89¢ in my area (Nassau County, just a smidge East of New York City) and price at the pump flirting with 400¢ was a mere decade or so.
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Gas prices were kept artificially low in the late 90's. Then you had the speculators in the late 2000s that made it artificially high.

Anyways, I have yet to see a "gas crash" in NY. It's still above $4.
 
DBT85 said:
What is the average yearly mileage for a car in the US? In the UK it's around 10,000 miles. Also in the UK people drive smaller and more efficient cars more than they do in the US. As I said, I get around 350-400miles from one tank of fuel.

I work at CNBC in the UK and whenever we have the US presenter talking about a Ford Fiesta or any other small car that is normal in Europe guests and presenters complain that they'll get killed by an 18 wheeler.

Don't forget that in the UK we don't have to pay for health insurance, we don't get billed for receiving text messages or for being taken to hospital in an ambulance. So what you save on fuel is offset by those other costs and the fact that on average a US car does more miles per year as you guys are all spread out.
Click to expand...

That money for health insurance comes out of your taxes, does it not? The NHS is awesome and all but it's by no means free unless you don't pay taxes.
 
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