Pulaski

My perspective, and source, is probably different from yours.

Pulaski

I just found this from a couple of weeks ago. A 1929 Bentley 4 1/2 "barn car", the owners thought it might be worth £30,000, ...... Auctioned for £700,000! It has original chassis, engine, gearbox and axles.

Mr Weeze

Weekly Gasoline Price Update: Regular and Premium Down Again, WTIC Up - dshort - Advisor Perspectives

Gasoline typically tracks Brent. Macondo was in 2010. I don't see it.

sir_eccles

Some twat on Velocity probably thinks that would made a wicked rat rod and make it hella flush yo!

Pulaski

There's a lot of noise. The question is "what would oil/gas be selling for if Deepwater Horizon hadn't blown up?" I wouldn't ask an oil engineer how to answer such a question any more than I would ask an economist for advice on operating a drilling rig.

Mr Weeze

Right.....

Edit to add: here's a presentation given 3 days before Macondo and the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

https://www.ihs.com/pdf/price-Foreca...0913046532.pdf

Owen778

Agreed.

1. Risks associated with drilling affect the upstream oil sector. Gas prices are controlled by the downstream oil sector. Even if you consider that integrated oil companies, who are in both upstream and downstream, might be able to transfer costs from one to the other, they then wouldn't be able to compete with the companies that are only downstream.
2. Oil is a worldwide commodity. Oil from the Gulf of Mexico, produced post-Macondo, has to be able to compete with imported oil that can be drilled and produced without the risk of "incurring fines". If it can't a new field doesn't get developed.

And this brings us to what actually happened, post-Macondo, in the Gulf of Mexico. When drilling finally resumed after the moratorium was lifted, it was with extra drilling procedures and materials and extra oil spill response to make drilling safer. Wells became more expensive to drill, and so fields had to be slightly bigger than before to be economic to take forward to production. This would have pushed the price of crude oil up slightly in the short to medium term, but such changes in global supply should have equalised out by now.

So to answer your question, "what would oil/gas be selling for if New Horizons hadn't blown up?", the answer is, "Most likely exactly what it's selling for now."

Oh, and the drilling rig was called the "Deepwater Horizon". "New Horizons" is a space probe.

FlaviusAetius

That's not a joke. Just got a notice regarding a settlement of a lawsuit filed by some of my colleagues in Delaware and NY against Kinder-Morgan. The former holders of the Partnership shares will get peanuts ($0.10 per share held per quarter for about 5 quarters) out of a $27,000,000 settlement. The plaintiff lawyers get 25% of the fund and another $650,000 for costs. Not sure if I should fill out the form to get my $100.00, but it would pay for dinner with my wife at Olive Garden.

Yes, what would the Government spend an $18,000,000,000 fine on?

Steerpike

Some very high-level generalizations:

1. Japanese models have higher reliability than US and European models.
2. European models (esp. BMW/Mercedes/Audi) have higher repair costs than Japanese and US models.
3. Japanese models have the highest resale values.
4. Driving a Japanese car here doesn't have the stigma it has in Europe.

1. Within the Japanese models, Lexus have the highest reliability
2. Acura tend to offer very few options (most features are included) making them easier to 'price compare'. Lexus tend to have more individual choices. Nothing like BMW, though - where you can choose different steering wheels, gear shift fobs, etc - making the pricing/buying stage very challenging.
3. Lexus have always pushed a 'smooth and quiet' goal, while Acura pursue technology/performance. I've had several Acuras but now want to get something as smooth and quiet as possible, so am entertaining the Lexus RX350. I got the Honda CR-V last time because I'd never had an 'SUV' (or CUV), and wanted to spend less first time; turns out to be a perfect format for me so I'm now ready to spend more within the category.

The current trend with many vehicles seems to be towards 'handling' ... even Lexus are pushing a 'performance' image. This, to me, is a step backwards because you end up with a stiffer suspension, noisier interior, larger rims/lower profile tires that result in bumpier rides, etc ... but I'm probably in a minority on that one. All the mags/review sites focus on performance/handling and give very little praise for quietness, smoothness.

The good news is, these days, reliability is pretty good on all makes/models, so you can choose based on other factors. Edmunds have a pretty good website to let you review features.

This site does a good summary of reliability. Strange to see Buick up there - that's a new development! Look at the placing of European models in the list; only Mercedes make it into the top 10, with Audi/BMW in 15/19th place.
J.D. Power: Lexus ranked most reliable, Buick up to #2

sir_eccles

Pulaski

You've been living in the US for too long!

Nutek

Every car I ever want to own has this.

WJS

Thank you so much Steerpike for your comprehensive reply. I will be interested in driving the Lexus and the Acura RX or MX. The Nissan Murano seems to be getting good reviews as well.

The Acura at the moment just looks more attractive than the Lexus to my eyes but perhaps it's only because it looks quite foreign to me still being located in Europe. Would be interested to know if you do decide to go with the Lexus in the end.

markonline1

I agree with the Japanese car comment. It still amazes me that the Accord and the Civic are constantly rated as 2 of the best driver focused cars on the road. I think that says more about the other cars here. Whereas they are both undoubtably good cars, I think I'd crash through falling asleep from boredom if I had to drive one regularly.
Bigger rims don't equal better handling, quite the opposite past a certain point. Plus if you get a decent chassis, you can still get a relatively smooth ride, although it will still probably be too stiff for some. I'm with Nutek, every car I own has to be able to put a smile on my face through a corner.

Steerpike

Like I said, I'm probably in a minority here. But I do think there's a good deal of brainwashing on this topic. 'performance' doesn't come without a penalty. On my old Acura TL, for example, the rear seats didn't fold - because folding rear seats reduce chassis stability. I put some different tires on it at one point, and it was a disaster, because the whole geometry was very complex and different tires threw everything off.

The issue of bigger rims/ low profile tires is more one of 'fashion', I think - a lot of cars offer a 'sport' version with bigger wheels, and lots of people put 'low profile' tires on their cars supposedly to improve handling, but this is completely counter to comfort.

Personally, I drive between CA and AZ once a month - 750 miles each way - and I find that noise, vibration, roughness, etc drive me crazy. Conversely, I go round tight corners at high speed about once a year ...