One of the biggest complaints we hear from Americans, is the high price of gasoline. For some reason, many believe that by simply changing White House adminstrations gasoline will drop to lower levels.

NO that will not happen. Foreign countries supply most of our oil & have total control over the price of it. With China & India has emerging economies, & competeing for oil, the price of gasoline is going to continue to go up.

The only people who can change the condition is US! Therefore, to reduce our dependancy on foreign oil, take your rebate check & put it where your complaint is--BUY A NEW HYBRID OR FUEL EFFICIENT VEHICLE.

Not only are they priced right, $22-to-$26 thousand, but some manufactures are offering 0% financing for 60 months. On electric hybrids, there are federal & state tax breaks available amounting to thousands.

For many--(commuters), who put big bucks in their gas gussling tank--(feeding OPEC). They would more than make up for a monthly payment, by buying one of these vehicles. Many of these Americans would actually save money each month.

Inner city folk, who drive back & forth to work & don't go over 30 miles per hour, would actually be driving all the time on electric battery power, in a hybrid vehicle. Stop & go traffic are great, as the brake on the hybrid vehicle recharges the battery.

For long distance commuters, who drive over 30 mph, take a look at a flex vehicle or something along the lines of a vehicle that gets 50 miles per gallon.

The smaller vehicles today, are made much safer than yesteryear. They have side impact air-bags added & many ad-ons to make them safe in case of an accident.

So, instead of complaining.
Do something to help the enviroment. Do something to stimulate the economy. Do something to reduce our dependancy on foreign oil. And most of all, do something for yourselves.

This post has been edited by Orea: Apr 27 2008, 01:58 PM

Excellent Post,and I completely agree with you. Here in OZ we have exactly the same. People just don't want to change to smaller efficient Vehicles. There are thousands of 4 wheel drive monsters here in Sydney and most have never been off the bitumen,let alone been in mud. Some of these 4x4's take 23 litres of gas per 100 klms.Thats $36.80 AUS to drive 60 miles.
I think we should be spending some of the Billions spent on Exploring for more OIL,on research for alternatives to Oil.
I read somewhere, that General Motors crushed their Electric cars, some time ago,for some reason,when the consumers that had them, liked them.They had to surrender them for crushing,I think. Must find the Story.
These oil producing Countries are crippling our Economies. Iran President says oil is too cheap.
Link.



This post has been edited by DSTM: Apr 27 2008, 01:31 PM

I disagree.

USA citizens would be better off paying on the high interest debt that many are trying to carry.

After all, it just your money that you already paid in that is being returned to you.

Yes, the electric car was squashed in the 1990's. Very little interest with gas prices low. Also the advertising for this vehicle was awful. Big oil is responsible for buying out many corporations capable of replacing them. The Litheum battery for instance--one that lasts much longer than our standard batteries, was bought out by Exon mobile. I believe that the Prius is planning on using these batteries in their new hybrids. They're also on board for 100 miles per gallon!

In the 1990's opponents of electric cars said that we were replacing a gasoline exhaust pipe with a larger electric utlity exhaust.

But today, with the new technology, there is absolutely no reason that every family in America should not own at least one. American families are typically two car families. Buy just one to commut back & forth to work, which is most of our driving. If we did just that, we could put OPEC out of business permanently. The infatuation with big gas hogs has tanked our economy. Everything has gone up in price because of it.

My daughter was having to commute 80 miles per day. She was spending a fortune in gas--"this when it was at $2.50 per gallon". She traded in her car for a VW--Jetta--50 mpg & actually saved money, even with a monthly payment on her Jetta. Today, she still loves this little car. Prefers to drive it over her Jeep Grand Cherrokee. Much easier to handle, easy to park, very quick, lots of power, & great on gas. Butt warmers too!

This post has been edited by Orea: Apr 27 2008, 02:15 PM

I'll be spending mine fixing my "gas guzzler". Mostly in paint and a lowering kit (front and rear springs are worn out). 12 mpg is perfectly fine by me. I'm not crying about $3.50 per gallon. As for why the Electric car failed (and why the Hybrid will) the operating cost for one of these was(is) exponentially higher than a conventional car (Insurance and repairs). As for GM's lovely "Cylinder Killing" vehicles (8 clylinders when you need them, 4 when you dont), it was tried before in the 70's and it grenade'd engines left and right and this batch will do it too.

either that or I'm buying a new laptop.

I want electric cars, I believe they can make them, but they won't because of the oil lobby. Electric cars=no more need for mass amounts of oil

PS. for those that don't know, my friend manages a gas station and told me its a mandate to have all gas prices over $4 everywhere by end of May. Guess where my $600 rebate check is going, right into my tank

I think Electric Cars will be our Transport of the future.Hydrogen is too expensive to produce, in great quantities.
The Battery technology, is getting better all the time. I think Hybrids are just a stepping stone to full electric. I am convinced the Oil companies, had a say in the destruction of many electric Cars previous.
We will allways need Oil,but if we can lower the demand,that we have now, Oil will be cheaper eventually. Less dependancy on other countries for Oil, will force OPEC to lower the price of Crude. Demand governs the price of Oil.That my take anyway.

In the end, electricity isn't that much better than gasoline.

Electricity still has to be produced through coal and other natural resources that create enviornmental pollution. Just because it doesn't come out of our cars doesn't mean it isn't coming out of somewhere.

I'm not sure if I already stated this, but what we need most is a more effecient engine. The average engine now has only about a 7% effeciency. That's really low. If you could make that 70% effecient, you would need one/tenth of the amount of gas we use now.

Granted electricity is better than gasoline. Just not that much better. A more effecient engine would outdo both of those, IMO.

Coal fired Power Stations are being fazed out, Sphinx, for cleaner alternatives.No more coal fired power stations are allowed to be built here,anyway.
If your so worried about a little bit of Electricity,to charge the Batteries, better throw away your Washing Machine, and start doing your washing by hand.
Soon Electric Cars will charge one bank of batteries,and draw power off the second bank, while in motion,so I don't see a real problem,at all.

This post has been edited by DSTM: Apr 28 2008, 03:00 PM

Really?

Europeans switching back to coal.



This post has been edited by DSTM: Apr 28 2008, 03:12 PM

Sorry JW, I edited your post by mistake,when I wanted to reply to your post.
6.OO AM no sleep.

No harm, no foul.


*goes off to invest in coal*

This is not Europe. Our Government has Hydro Electric Generators, and putting up thousands of wind Generators.Many homes have Solar Panels now. All a step in the right direction,to use natural energy,to take some of the load, off our Power Stations.


This post has been edited by DSTM: Apr 28 2008, 10:59 PM

Uh, this is not Australia, either.

I probably will not spend my US Tax Rebate on Australia. Sorry.


I'm all for alternate power sources, though.

Even though we're still getting a large amount of energy from burning coal, the upside to getting electric from the grid vs. energy from gasoline in terms of environmental benefit is that not everything is coming from coal, in places it's supplemented significantly from other cleaner sources such as nuclear, solar, wind, and geothermal.

Geothermal may be an advantageous realm for the oil companies to move into once oil reserves become much more scarce and/or unprofitable. They have to modify their technology to a certain degree to suit the needs of making a geothermal plant instead of an oil well, but the overall idea is similar enough that they could make a very profitable transition. Basically no matter where you drill into the earth you get heat, then you simply flush the hole with salt water and funnel the steam into turbines to get power. I think as that becomes more widespread it will become a major source of clean, renewable energy in place of burning fossil fuels and natural gas.

In the short term though, the good options in terms of vehicles now are diesel cars, hybrids, and flex fuel vehicles, although the ethanol fueling stations need to be more widespread. Also, we need to move away from getting ethanol from corn and refine the process of getting it from grasses, other fibrous cellulose sources, and generally plant sources that aren't used for food. Pitting fuel needs and food needs from the same sources just leads to more environmental impact over the overall farming resources and kind of defeats the purpose.