Posted on 08/15/2005 6:06:24 AM PDT by BulletBobCo
A friend of mine replaced his stock air filter with a k&n replacement in his diesel work truck. Just replacing that filter wiht a $50 after market replacement gave him an extra 2 miles per gallon. This truck runs 50000 miles a year.
I knew that when I bought the 87 Caprice. 60,000 mile warranty. No problem whatsoever until 61,000 miles, then all the tin parts started to come apart. Those automotive engineers know their stuff, no question.
I have a Honda Insight. Sucks to be everyone else...
I have two good old regular vehicles with over half a million miles on them combined.
My per mile costs are a tiny fraction of what yours will be.
What, because I'll have to buy battery at some point to replace the old one? I've had this car, which has never broken down, since Feb 2001. That's 4 years. I fill it up maybe twice a month. A new battery costs a little under 3k, should I need one, and statistically I may have 5 more years. The good news for me is I want to upgrade to a Prius (mine is a 2-seater).
A little Math:
4 yrs gas for me has been about $2112 at $2 a gallon, twice a month.
These are all numbers that I can live with. I was being permissive with that $2 a gallon too :) We all know they haven't been that low in 2 years. And the way things are looking, they'll be as high as $3 or more before long.
I also have a good old regular vehicle which has served me well too. I'd like to get a nice regular Mustang one day, because they are quite cool. But for day to day stuff, I'll save my good hard cash for Wendy's and KFC.
My point is to focus behind the scenes.
The man behind the curtain.
Sneakyman Inc.
We could have easily had reduced consumption 30% as of 50 years ago.
Imagine not needing any oil from towelhead land ever, that's what could easily have happened.
The whole scenerio could have developed much differently.
I would have liked to have seen that happen.
I'm glad you enjoy your hybrid, but as far as addressing the problem wholistically, it's a bandaid on a gunshot wound.
Yeah, but wasn't "FOAD" an Aramaic expression for "dang it, there's something in my eye"??!?
OK... nah, not really. I got no dog in this fight. I'm just joshin' ya ;-) It's just that this thread's gotten altogether too damn serious.
So everyone understands. Gas tax is computeed per gallon, not per dollar of gas purchased. So it is better that it be cheaper, up to a certain point, so people buy more gas more often
I doubt crude reached its peak (meaning going downhill after).. We're finding more lall the time. Its a matter of extraction. RTight now, and for the next 70 years, we have as much oil as we can get out of the ground with the equipment available to pump in a 24/7 period. The bottleneck is at the refinery level.. Because of that, the price is so high. Part of the price issue is because of the weakend dollar making imported commodoties more expensive, but that does not account for all of the current $67 a barrel price..
A lot of it has to do with speculation. Don't forget though a weakened dollar means imported raw materials cost much more...
The question is how much pain it is going to take till reality comes back into the market. And yes, I suspect this is going to get a lot of Dems elected in 06 and 08.
The Republican Party has clearly demonstrated its complete lack of interest in reducing Big Stupid Government tax revenues or insane spending increases.
So there will be no rollback, much less a real cut in taxes.
We pump 29 billion barrels per year right now, at a 3 percent increase per year demand would call for 230 billion barrels per year in 70 years. In other words, you're dreaming!!! Even with a 1 dollar per gallon increase we are seeing a 1 percent increase in demand. If we get gas to 3.00 per gallon demand might stay flat for a couple of years. Peak oil is just around the corner.
We were at Costco the other day, and went back after dinner for gas, and the price had risen 9 cents in an hour.
In the winter, a lot of the "byproduct" from the summer months gets blended back into the gas. This stuff is of a higher vapor pressure, and contains less energy. So a drop in fuel economy is expected.
Just heard today that orders in my field and ticking down. We make a feedstock for many foods (protein), and the buyers are scaling back due to high shipping costs.
I have been in commodity markets for awhile, and I have a feeling that this is the opening round in a down turn. The price for everything is going up, but the household incomes will not match the increases in the short term. That means many people are going to have to cut back. Which just increases the problem as sales decline, causing prices to rise or production cut back etc.
A mustang buddy on another site is a carpenty trimmer for upscale houses in northern virginia/DC. He said people asking for quotes over the last 2-3 months have really dropped off. He does not yet know of it's a fluke or a legitimiate dry spell. The last 4-5 years have been great and the last 2 years he has turned down all new work because he had people lined up on a waiting list.
Must be a 305 chevy powered caprice.. My 307 olds powered 86 is at 214k and still runs strong.. looks like heck and I dejunked the smog crap off, but it runs great...
It's the 4.2 6. What is that in cu in?
Even big engines can be very efficient.
I was serious when I spoke of hundreds of years of innovations just waiting to be implemented.
The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis (wrote Hustler),
pegged it in this novel of the 1950's (later a movie in the 70's) about control and attenuation of applied technology.
Metaphorically, it reminds me of Chris Rocks bit;
"Cure for cancer?.., are you kidding?,
They're still mad over the money they lost curing polio!!!"
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