Why it's great to live in the USA

[Davros]

how far do i drive a day = 0
what mpg do i get = 0

i'd stop complaining right now before i tell you i pay £2.20 ($4.50) for the first 6/17ths mile then £0.20 ($0.41) per additional 1/17th mile (bloody licensed bandits )
you may think you're hard done by paying $40 to travel 270miles but it would cost me $1,883.27
anyone want to take pity on me and buy me an aston martin ?

American imports for you should be cheaper
Oh I wish.....

you know its actually cheaper to go to france or belgium ect and buy a car that is made in england + pay all duties ect than it is to buy it in england
how the hell does that work out ?

Why, thank you for your cost-effective and reasonable solution.

convert to cooking oil then

 

[AlphaWolf]

how far do i drive a day = 0
what mpg do i get = 0
anyone want to take pity on me and buy me an aston martin ?

I have a used one... one driver, only driven once for a few miles... in casino royale.

 

[Mize]

There certainly is an issue with the US market getting fuel efficient vehicles, but there's a number of vehicles that are decent size and still do decently in gas mileage (ie ~35mpg).

Such as?
Here are the true (not EPA estimate) 35 mpg cars I can think of off the top of my head:

Honda Fit
Nissan Vista
Mazda 3 (with the small engine, fast one is 26)
Honda Civic?

Seriously. I wanted a good mileage car and wound up going with an A3 since it can get 34 if you baby it in real life (2.0T petrol).

 

[AlphaWolf]

The mercedes E320 CDI I believe is available in the US at least some places. It does around 30-35 highway I think. Toyota Corolla is in the 40 range.

 

[Mize]

For $51k the E320 has an EPA estimate of 35 mpg so it probably manages 32 real world.
The Corolla is a small, slow car and EPA puts it at 35 also. A far cry from the TDI's of Europe.

Europeans get fast, high-torque, good sized cars that push 40 mpg for reasonable money. We simply don't have that.

 

[Davros]

ps: the lotus elise does 40mpg

 

[RussSchultz]

... and US foreign policy since 9/11 has just done soooo much to dampen down the jitters in the oil market...

9/11 and US policy has diddly to do with the rising price of oil.

 

[Mize]

9/11 and US policy has diddly to do with the rising price of oil.

Yeah...uh...right. Oil prices react to this president and is chest thumpin' the way the dow used to react to greenspan. Invading Iraq and ensuring ME instability has had a huge impact on oil prices.

 

[RussSchultz]

Nonsense. Its all about the inelasticity of demand, and the rising demand of China and India.

The middle east stuff has added volatility to the prices, but production has not been impeded to cause the price to rise to 3x what it was.

 

[stevem]

Some random musings.

This is a rather complicated & interesting issue. There's a nice working paper that I can't link to on some aspects of crude oil -> retail pump pricing. The key driver does point to excess demand for refined product (in Western markets), rather than just a slump in crude availability. The market seems to be factoring "peak oil" concerns & pricing accordingly. The geo-political aspect of energy supply security is further affecting markets & is applying upward pressure. Combined with flat/falling non-OPEC production, the price signals are clear. Volatility due to regional issues is causing a greater multiplier effect in spot/futures markets. Recent liquidity contraints in credit/debt markets due to price premium for risk isn't helping medium term pricing on oil discovery risk.

Mize, much to do with the Chinese market?

 

[AlphaWolf]

US foreign policy has most definitely played a role in price at the pumps, the question really is how big a factor? Pennies a barrel or dollars?

 

[RussSchultz]

US foreign policy has most definitely played a role in price at the pumps, the question really is how big a factor? Pennies a barrel or dollars?

I'd even buy dollars per barrel, but not $40/bbl.

 

[PARANOiA]

The only problem with living in the USA is having to put up with all the damn Yanks

 

[dizietsma]

This is probably the best performing diesel car in the UK at the moment

http://www.bmw.co.uk/bmwuk/pricesan...156_2053__bs-NQ==@bb-TEk=@bm-WjVTOQ==,00.html

Those are UK gallons of course so reduce by 6/8ths I think.

Even so that is some storming performance for something that does about 35-40-mpg and is not a small car.

The Mercedes Bluetech engines should give better mpg but less performance as well next year so check those out as well.

Main problem with the diesels are they do not sound very good, my Mercedes V8 sounds lovely and in comparison the top diesels terrible. However aural delights are probably not high up the agenda in the greater scale of things of course.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

Part of the issue there is the price of gas. If gasoline was $9 a gallon in the US, you'd have more fuel efficient vehicles because you would demand them. Even at 14mpg you're actually doing better at $3 bucks a gallon in terms of fuel costs than the guy in Britain who is getting 40mpg but paying closer to $10 (which is really about 33 once you convert to US gallons).

There certainly is an issue with the US market getting fuel efficient vehicles, but there's a number of vehicles that are decent size and still do decently in gas mileage (ie ~35mpg).

We already demand them! Every car manufacturer in the U.S. now advertises their > 30MPG cars in EVERY advertisement. Sales trends show that new car sales are moving more towards hybrids and high MPG gas vehicles and away from gas-guzzlers.

The problem is: not everyone can afford the multi-thousand dollar investment in a new vehicle, just to save a few bucks at the pump each week.

 

[Humus]

@ ~$3/gal that's near $40 every week just to go to work and get home, with a trip to a friend's house thrown in on occasion.

Doesn't look very expensive to a European that's for sure. That seems like rather modest price for commuting by car. For densely packed countries like most of continental Europe I suppose people don't travel that far on average, but for a country like Sweden with about the same density as the US it's not uncommon to drive as much as you do, especially considering that the US is much more urbanized, and that with like 3x the price of gas.

The only reason I see why Americans should whine about gas prices is because the relative price increase the last few years have been much higher than in Europe. That's because the majority of the gas price in Europe is taxes anyway, so a change in market prices of gas doesn't change the total price that much.

 

[ShootMyMonkey]

We already demand them! Every car manufacturer in the U.S. now advertises their > 30MPG cars in EVERY advertisement. Sales trends show that new car sales are moving more towards hybrids and high MPG gas vehicles and away from gas-guzzlers.

Mmmm... yes and no. I seriously doubt that there's any definitive trend coming from the consumer end of the market towards more gas mileage out of the vehicles. Most consumers in the US just want cheap gas because they feel it's their right. They still want to have their Hummers and not care about anything else. Those who buy high-mileage cars are about the same percentage as it's always been and those consumers generally don't buy American cars, which is something that has American manufacturers worried (hence the need to advertise that they're competitive). Secondly, there's also the concerns over the CAFE laws (which are infinitely stupid in their own right, but that's a different matter), which means that all manufacturers need to try and push the consumer towards the high mileage vehicles in order to meet compliance with CAFE standards.

Hybrids and high mileage vehicles in the US will only sell well if you can package it as a no-sacrifices vehicle. Put out a hybrid 5.0-6.0L V8 RWD land yacht that gets 30 mpg with a 350+ bhp peak rating and sell it for a base price in the low 20s, and then people will buy it. Try to do the same thing with a Prius-like vehicle, and the people who buy it will be those who are pretentious and egotistical enough to think they're saving the planet by buying it.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

Doesn't look very expensive to a European that's for sure. That seems like rather modest price for commuting by car. For densely packed countries like most of continental Europe I suppose people don't travel that far on average, but for a country like Sweden with about the same density as the US it's not uncommon to drive as much as you do, especially considering that the US is much more urbanized, and that with like 3x the price of gas.

The only reason I see why Americans should whine about gas prices is because the relative price increase the last few years have been much higher than in Europe. That's because the majority of the gas price in Europe is taxes anyway, so a change in market prices of gas doesn't change the total price that much.

You'll note that I did mention relative price increase as one of my major reasons for complaint, in addition to the actual price itself.

 

[ninelven]

Try to do the same thing with a Prius-like vehicle, and the people who buy it will be those who are pretentious and egotistical enough to think they're saving the planet by buying it.

...Go outside, look up at the sun, smile.

 

[Verge]

You'll note that I did mention relative price increase as one of my major reasons for complaint, in addition to the actual price itself.

aren't alot of oil transactions bought and sold in dollars...

if anything, oil in europe should be getting cheaper... the value of the dollar another factor hurting the price here in america.



then we have farmers growing corn and other such products trying to make ethanol based fuels... which are fermented by burning oil to beging with. So now corn costs more money at the supermarket, as well as every other vegatable as supply decreases from all the farmers converting to corn. Price of pork/beef/chicken has increased, since feed prices have now risen, since people are using their corn for e86...

ethanol fuels cost americans more than they save, it's a completely stupid idea, and they should be boycotted. I can't believe our crap media hasn't run a story on this absurdity.



so gas is more expensive AND groceries are more expensive, and our government is wasting more taxpayer dollars on subsidies... And people wonder why a reported "socialist" canidate is leading the election polls... woohoo, a great time to be a middle class american