Fuel prices got me bummed....OT

[Mr. Belvedere]

What the heck is the point to owning and old car if ya can't afford to drive it? I am starting to feel like I have a 3500# paper weight in the garage! Somebody please offer me some hope? If the prices do stay at these insane highs I might as well sell my car, trouble is who'll buy it. These cars will be like SUV's can't give them away. Fuel price at the Chevron down the street is $4.49 per gallon which would cost about $80 bucks to fill up from empty. Sorta sucks all the joy outa driving it. Keep hoping that this will be like the late 70's and early 80's just temporary but its a different world now with different factors driving the costs up.

[55 Fargo]

I have the same sentiment as you, I am also spending a small fortune on Gas, in my part of Canada, gas is $5.00 a US gallon.

We live in the country, both my wife and myself commute to work, but we go to different locations, and I am on shiftwork, so we take seperate vehicles. Plus gas to run my lawn tractor, weed whacker, lawn mower, chainsaw, rototiller, sonowblower, and my baby the 47 Coupe.

So brother I hear you on this one, but we need gas, what else can we do.........Fred

[David Maxwell]

...which won't work for everyone, but perhaps some of you will find help/hope in it:

1. Ride my bike to work everyday.

2. Plan better for trips to the store.

3. When possible, I ride my bike to the store.

4. Drive smarter. You know, all that stuff like "no rabbit starts" etc.

5. Will be buying one of those new Honda Ruckas' or whatever they're called for incidental trips. They're supposed to $2,100 out the door and get 80 mpg's. I currently have a 1980 Honda Express, but it doesn't have enough umph!

6. When I fell like driving the Plymouth, I do it without shame or remorse.

[Don Coatney]

usually not driven long distances. .

Norm;

Speak for yourself. I am driving my car over 700 miles one way next weekend.

[BobT-47P15]

Norm, I guess the good news for your neighbor is that he doesn't have a car

payment to make in addition to the price of gas. So he should be ahead in

the long run.

[greg g]

Well, so far I have had my car to two cruise ins and one show. But its more due to weather than cost of gas. However, I am driving the P15 to virginia this weekend. Mapquest show it as a 380 mile drive. So twice that plus some running around lets call it 950 miles total, divide that by lets say 17 mpg means I will be using about 55 gallons of dinosaur juice. So at 4.10 a gallon the prevelent rate between here and there, works aout to 225 bucks.

Throw in the hotel and some meals, and its a 400 dollar trip. But a couple days with some old cars, some old car folks in general , and some folks who are also dennisons of this board and it as they say priceless.

Sure Glad I don't hafta commute anymore. I have been makig 30 buckworth last 2 weeks lately. It did bug me to put 15 dollars worth in my lawnmower can the other day.........

[JerseyHarold]

FWIW, forklifts with Mopar flathead sixes could be equipped to run on CNG, so adapting a car shouldn't be too complicated. Wouldn't be the way to go for a real show car, but may have merit for a 'driver'.

Harold

[thedahmer]

I am going to buy a geo metro--if I drive it 3000 it iwll pay for itself compared to driving my truck--

[Don Jordan]

Gentlemen,

Everybody take a step back - inhale and relax. It all boils down to priorities. I just yelled at my wife for spending $75 on a needlepoint she got on e-bay. I mean how stupid is that. But then she managed to mention the $59 I spent for a wheel/drum puller. Priorities! We don't go out to dinner as much as we used to - so we appreciate it more when we do go.

I had a car with over 350,000 miles on it. It is a great pleasure for me to drive from LA to San Francisco for the week end. We sort of cut back on that.

Driving an old car is like going to the movies, going to the driving range, bowling, it is not something you have to do - it's just a way to treat yourself.

I don't mean to pontificate but try this on for size:

When I was a kid you could get cigarettes out of a machine for .25 and a gallon of gas was .25.

At the turn of the last century you could buy a 3 piece tailor made suit for a $20 gold piece. Today you can buy a 3 piece tailor made suit for the same $20 gold piece. Not much has changed. When I was a kid we were not rich but comfortable - My father made $800 a month and our house (brand new) cost $14,000 (less than my car).

I'll tell you when I sometimes have a tinge of guilt... when I see poor people in an old 78 land yacht barely running station wagon with smoke pouring out the back and 6 kids inside. Every penny goes for rent, food, etc. I've got 6 cars. That's a wee bit excessive. But how many does Jay Leno have?

I'm sorry - didn't mean to get carried away. What started it was the guy who said we should bicycle to work. I'm an old man. By the time I got to work - if I did - they'd have to take me home in an ambulance.

all this thought and thinking - I'm going for a ride.

[Dennis Hemingway]

I know what your talking about, we went to two shows yesterday and I had to pay $4.99.9 for gas for the 56 Chevy and $4.67.9 for gas for the 48 Plymouth, it cost me $105. to leave the station.

Dennis:eek:

[bob_amos]

Yes we all know that the price of fuel is high but there are places that we have no choice but drive to. What I have been doing is drive one of my vintage vehicles to work and back one day a week. I drive to work, 45 miles, by freeway then return by a more leisurly route through the back country roads. I enjoy this drive home. I also use one of the cars to go to the post office on Saturday and make a few short trips when needed. Since I now car pool 3 of the 5 days a week I use to drive I am doing my part in conserving fuels. So, the extra driving of one of my vintage vehicles is still loads less than I would normally drive.

We try to attend more local events these days and avoid the long distance ones. In Sept. the Golden State Region hold its annual meeting in Central California. As of today my wife and I are planning to attend but will only be there the one day of the meeting. We have to attend because I am the membership chairman and she is the treasurer. Not much choice for us. But we won't be staying the 3 days the club normally holds this event. We can cut the motel costs and maybe afford a couple tanks of gas. If things continue to rise we may not even be able to afford that. Maybe we can car pool to this event? We'll see.

With this thinking going on throughout the entire country as well as Canada, there is no way that the economy will have a chance to recover. I know our check that was suppose to help the economy will end up in the hands of the oil people instead of stimulating the economy. People like Richard, aka mr.belvedere, has young children so the pinch is even tighter for him. We are fortunate that our 5 children have grown and live on their own.

It's tough times like these that set the people of North America appart from the rest of the world. We always find a way and will come through it all somehow.

[PatS....]

My old 88 Ram is long ago paid for, runs well is comfortable and trouble-free (mostly), so, my only ongoing expense is Insurance, oil and gas. Even with the ridiculous gas price, it is still only a fraction of what people pay who have financed a brand new hybrid to "save gas"

Our city is so spread out and the transit so bad, you can't hardly function without wheels and I don't feel safe in nor do I fit in a little car, so the Ram will continue to be my DD

Not to mention the fact that up here it's 10 months of winter and 2 months of bad sledding and reliable wheels is even more important. The Ram is still very reliable.

As for my old car...it's nowhere near needing gas yet but it would come under the beer and pretzels budget.

The gas is expensive but not expensive enough to break me...not even close.

What does make me crazy is our own governments could solve this in a year by building 10 new refineries around the continent. But the oil companies don't want that because of the money they are making artificially. The prices are only being driven up by speculators, not expenses, or shortages.

[Robert Smith]

Well, my '46 beast was a daily... wont be anything till the motor is fixed and who knows when that will be. (Started a thread about it)

But, when I was on the road, I was driving to work and back getting close to 20mpg on the free ways... and much less then that on the streets. I know people who do get worse mpg... and they're not driving antique cars! They're driving cars that are 10 years old or less!

I don't tank up very often... last time I did gas was still just under 4 bucks a gal and it cost me 58 bucks! Not too bad but, enough to make me feel it in my bank account.

What a pain in the tank these prices are! And not to get political, but, the mug who's running for office isn't lookin' like an answer to our problems!

=R

[Robin (UK)]

Guys,

I just did a quick calculation.

Here is the latest on UK gas prices...

Yesterday, I filled up with diesel which cost £1.339 per litre.

That works out to $9.99 per US Gallon.

Unleaded is (very) slightly cheaper.

It's now costing about $140 to fill up.

That's expensive.

No... That's crazy!!!

[JIPJOBXX]

I kind think about my old 42 as a fun car and not to worry about the price of fuel. I have a small Honda that's get an average of 32 mpg and so which car do you think I use the most???? Of course the Honda and the old Dodge for car shows and just to take a cruse in.

The price of fuel has only jumped a one dollar in the last year so I figure that one more dollar per average mpg is not going to kill me. But if I was employed I would certainly look for another means of transportation or share a ride. Jon

[JIPJOBXX]

Now grab your socks! My old Wanderlodge "Motor home" get 10 miles to the Gallon. To fill it up it cost about 600 dollars!!! Now some of my buddy's coaches get only 5,6 or 7 miles per gallon. We went to a special get-together of these old motor homes last weekend and one guy came down from Canada and he figured it out that it cost him almost 1000 dollars to make a round trip from his home to where we had our camp out. Now that's got to hurt!

PS. Just think of the poor RV industry???????????

[JIPJOBXX]

Now this makes sense!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[steveplym]

I'm with you guys, wondering where the gas prices are going to stop. Saw on the news a few weeks ago it may go up as high as $7 or $8 and would be too expensive to run even a nascar event. Who knows, if this country would tap into our own oil reserves there would be plenty for quite a while. Anyway, that is for another thread.

My '47 gets almost the same mileage if not better than my daily drivers. So going 30 miles in the Plymouth or 30 in the Dakota is about the same amount of gas. These gas prices make me glad I never put that big block in the car.

[david lazarus]

You guys got it cheap !!!

I pay $2.08 NZD per litre, converted that is $6.45 per US gallon !!!

However even at this price I would pay 3x this price for gas for my toy, based on what I have spent on the car...the gas is small change.

Now my wife and I spend over $1700/month on gas for our daily drivers....that hurts. we are boycotting BP in an effort to drive a bit of competition into the cosy little monopoly that exists down here.

[kevinanderson]

I'm just damn glad that gas is available. I top my tank off as soon as it starts to get between full and 3/4. Doesn't seem quite so painful then.

You guys that live out of the states, is alot of your gas dollar going for road and social services vs. in the states?

And, are your fuel companies making record profits?

[Tony Cipponeri]

Yeah Norm, I heard the same thing about the price going above $5.00 by the end of July. We are leaving on a trip this Thursday, so look at all the money we will save by going now. A neighbor of ours son works on an oil drilling crew, here in our United States, and they are drilling full time. The only thing is that they are drilling to within a couple hundred feet of the oil and stopping, and going on to an other location. They are doing this while they are waiting for permission to get the oil. He also has said that the indians in S. Dakota are now building a refinery. They claim that there is enough oil in S. Dakota to supply the U.S. for 20 years. I for one would rather make our American Indians RICH instead of a bunch of arabs. We need to drill our own oil! We also have to get out of NAFTA. Just my ideas. Tony C

[PatS....]

In Alberta, nearly 35% of the price of gas is taxes. We even have to pay tax on a tax.

US Taxes, State by State: http://www.albertagasprices.com/tax_info.aspx

Remember, the current rise in gas prices has nothing to do with shortages or anything else...it's purely speculators.

But government still gets their cut, and they are drunk on oil money.

If we get another natural disaster or another 9-11 type disaster, prices could double.

[fireman_033]

Saw on the news today where in Tijuana Mexico gas is 2.19 a gallon and people in southern cal were drivin across the border to get the cheaper gas. HOW COME A LINE DRAWN IN THE SAND CAN MAKE GAS 2.00 A GALLON CHEAPER???? SOMETHING IS BADD WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[PatS....]

We are for sure being had big time.

[steveplym]

Tony' date='

I became friends with a Geologist back in the late 90's. He told me there was tons of oil deep under the Rocky Mountain area. Problem is, most or all of it is in national parks and they were not allowed to drill there because of that. Couple that with the lack of refineries. We need to set aside the those rules so we can go after that oil.[/quote']

I heard that too Norm and I also heard that they found another hot bed of oil somewhere else, possibly North Dakota? Government will have to get past the tree huggers for that. May have too as the economy is in real trouble.

Oil companies are making record profits, but nobody wants to tackle big oil. State of IL is making plenty on fuel tax as well.