Gas prices: Why our apathy now?

[ktesibios]

Current price right now at my usual gas station is $2.439/gal (I live in LA, and California prices are always a bit higher than elsewhere).

Lessee- Li'l Kimchee-pot averages around 24-25 mpg with my usual driving routine. I drive around 3500-4000 miles per year (every year, when I fill out the questionnaire at car-insurance renewal time, I imagine someone at the insurance company looking at the mileage figure and saying "this guy lives in Southern CA??).

Off the top of my head, that's in the ballpark of $350 per year for gas. That's far from a major portion of my living expenses.

Where higher fuel prices do worry me is in the effect they have on the cost of everything else that I have to buy and the effects on the businesses who make and sell those things, and on and on throughout the economy.

When Captain Eads attributed prosperity to cheap transportation in his speech at the opening of the bridge he designed at St. Louis, he mighta been more right than he thunk.

 

[Theodore Kurita]

I am not sure from your post what you propose in order to bring prices down.


The point about people using gasoline seems to be a completely separate issue. Demand -- from the pump owner's perspective -- is inelastic in the short term. I expect gas consumption will only change a little right now.

But you willsee a shift in the long term as people move away from SUV's and ow mileage vehicles when it comes time to replace them. Some manufacturers are already reporting a slow-down in sales. The new hybrid cars will also become more popular with the higher prices.

Speaking of which.

We actually have a waiting list of people wanting to get a Hybrid car. And this is at ALL DEALERSHIPS in our area.

I think the market trend has already begun. People are ditching their SUV's and are going with high millage hybrid alternatives.

 

[ReFLeX]

In Ottawa, ours just went from the mid-70s to 93 cents a litre (3.17/gallon to 3.93/gallon) in a couple weeks, but yes, since it peaked at 1.00 in the summer, there's been little complaint...