neil

Down to $1.79 now.

Steerpike

Damn! Don't want to rain on everyone's parade, but only when gas was at $4 / gallon did everyone (even the REPUBLICANS !!!!!!!!!!!) start agreeing on alternative fuels, higher efficiency, etc. If gas stays this low, all those ideas will gather dust and the big-three will keep churning out monster SUVs ...

I'm enjoying the lower prices (since I drive almost 100 miles a day) but I hope it doesn't drop much more!

englishinfl

If you'd watched Obama yesterday on 60 minutes, you'd know he said that he feels that researching alternative energy is even more important now, for the very reasons you just mentioned.
With a bailout in the offing, there won't be money handed out to keep producing gas hogs, it'll be incentives for fuel efficiency.

Janek66

The oil companies racked up so much profit, maybe they would like to bail out the big 3?

englishinfl

I doubt it, the only people they're interested in is... yes, themselves.

Steerpike

I agree it's every bit as important, but reality is, people will slide back into bad habits if there is not the financial incentive. Let's face it, that $4 price at the pump was one hell of a motivator!

I was thinking about the 'Big Three bailout' issue. If they do it (and I'm not at all convinced they should), they should a) gut management, b) set aggressive targets on fuel economy. They should be required to produce a 'Prius killer', and to cut production of the monsters.

I heard some guy on TV talking about the big 3 issue; he said that, if they did 'go broke', then they would actually enter chapter 11, and keep working. This would be their 'excuse' to break the union contracts, and so on. I don't generally support 'anti-union' rhetoric, but I do believe the auto-workers have dug themselves into a big hole. As long as management also changes, I'd be ok with that in this case.

Janek66

I'm not so keen on allowing them to break the workers contracts either. But they have to put some heavy strings on this thing if they are going to bail em out. Definitely sack the management.

Steerpike

That was a point made on my favorite weekly 'talk' show - Bill Maher's Real Time (HBO). The oil companies should be REQUIRED to bail them out!

I read somewhere that Toyota gambled that the US was going to tighten fuel economy standards way back and thus invested heavily in the hybrid technology. The US govt. never did implement the higher standards (thanks to idiot Bush/et al), but the Prius was a big success anyway and now, they have a 10-year lead on the technology. I don't know about where you guys live, but here in CA, Priuses are EVERYWHERE. And on a recent trip to Vancouver, BC, most of the taxis around town were Priuses too.

neil

Are people really stupid enough to think the price won't go as high again, or higher?

Janek66

Love Bill Maher. And yes, that's where I got it from

But no, in WV they are still driving F150's and giant old chevy SUV's. Don't see too many hybrids and the ones we do see have VA or MD plates on them, certainly not WV.

englishinfl

What would even make you ask that question? Naievity?

People's memories are short lived, especially if you have a truck that does 10mpg. In fact I'd go as far as to say people's memory of the price of fuel, is probably directly proportional to the size of the car they drive.
10 mpg = "we never had a problem with oil prices, did we?'

englishinfl

F150's? Pft, you baby's! Come to Pasco county, it's all 250's or 350's here, and if you aren't jacked up and dont have a big exhaust, then shame on youuu!

Brit3964

I'm sure we'll see an increase in gas prices again next spring. I think this current low price period is a blip on the radar screen. Hopefully they won't go as high as last summer but who knows?

Round here, SC is the Land of the Big SUV and trucks. The number I see driving around with just one person in them is amazing. Supposedly, they bought them for carrying the kids & school events etc. And most of them are new ones, not just older models. Tons of Chevy Suburbans, Cadillac Escalades etc.

Back in 2000, Bush allowed a tax rebate for vehicles over a certain weight and cost more than 30k, which just so happened to suit Ford & GM who were building SUVs that fitted that category. As far as I know, that tax rebate still exists.

Steerpike

Wow - another misguided tax cut!

When I bought an Acura Legend back in '92, I had to pay a 'gas guzzler tax' because it was under some mpg limit (even though it was a reasonably efficient car for a V6 3.2 liter) and/or some kind of 'luxury car tax' - an extra penalty on cars over $30k, if I recall correctly. I didn't mind paying either.

What bugs me the most is that SUVs were never required to conform to the national 'mpg' targets that apply to cars. The original logic of that exemption was that 'trucks' were used by 'working people' and they should not be penalized ... fair enough, in a way, but - they extended the 'truck' exemption to SUVs, which were nothing but car alternatives. The 'Big 3' have spent millions lobbying congress to keep that exemption, millions they could have spent making their cars more efficient.

I now have three friends who own Priuses. They all LOVE the car. I took one for a spin and, to my surprise, it drives like a regular car. I often see them in the fast lane doing 85 mph around here too; they are not the crappy underpowered things I expected them to be. One friend prefers using it to her BMW 325 ... I kid you not ... she loves the fact that it has so much interior space and storage. Kinda like the Tardis ...

tamms_1965

We bought one for the winters here and all of the home reno we're doing...and DH wanted it, but he only drives 2 miles to work. (Plus, I want to get a little camper some day.) We got tired of borrowing the neighbor's. Last year, when we have a big snow, I'd get the day off, but take DH to work so I could take/pickup my grown children from their part-time jobs. It's a Ram 1500 and gets about 20 mpg, but it's small compared to what else is on the road around here. People love Hummers in my neck of the woods.