In my case, there is just an expectation of a reasonable mpg and as long as its in that range, its not a factor. I’m not interested in 40 or 50 mpg but should be somewhere around 25-30. If a vehicle is way down below 20 for example, I’d consider the engineering faulty and it would be a deal breaker. Same as in decades past except the number has gone from 20 to 30 mpg.
I do pay attention to MPG. It’s not (just) the money–I like engineering, and a vehicle that takes considerably more fuel to do the same job as a comparably-sized car…just seems mechanically suspect, to me.
A car needs to achieve a low total operating cost/mile to be my ride. A dedicated sports car would be an exception, but frankly I find I get more adrenaline stimulation per dollar with two wheels, not four.
Have to agree went to Oilville started at 330 am the Accord averaged 33 mpg ,last week when it was snowing I had to to take the Dakota it averaged 15 mpg ,I’m thinking Mopar ,couldnt you have done a little better ? And I noticed 30 mpg plus doesnt feel like it will bankrupt me ,mpg does matter ,if the wife would let me drive the Honda more ,I would love to leave the Dodge in the carport till needed(I’m not permitted to drive the Honda ,so please dont post on facebook or anything that Kevin was driving the Honda )
Hen pecked ? ,what do you think ?
Gas tipped just over $2 today by where I work.
Only people who have someone that cares can be henpecked. It’s a mixed blessing.
I was amazed when WTI dropped below $40 and shocked when it slipped below $30 for a while. The price has moved toward $40 but it’s anybody’s guess what will happen tomorrow. And I’m skeptical of the “smart people’s” reasons for the plunge.
“And I’m skeptical of the “smart people’s” reasons for the plunge.”
And I hate to say it and give 'em credit, but in the way back of my conspiratorial mind, I start to wonder if it was planned to kick a little rear to the Ruskies, Isis, and Iran. But then again it conflicts with killing the coal industry and boosting solar, so maybe its a rogue black ops team at work. I dunno. 'Spose we’ll never know the truth until the book comes out so just enjoy while we can. I do believe there have been groups within the Executive Branch though working at cross purposes with the administration in the past so who knows? Some groups are just too embedded for anyone to rout out. No? Just a thought. I read too much maybe.
For every simple explanation there’s a conspiracy theory…
@ Same ,perhaps I am not her whipping boy then ? Good viewpoint .
Just yesterday I was talking to another guy at the shop. My first job as a teen was for minimum wage, $3.35/hr. A pack of cigarettes was $1.40 and gas was .90-1.00/gallon. I could work for an hour and just about buy 2 gallons of gas and a pack of cigarettes.
Today a kid with a minimum wage job making $10.35/hr can buy 2 gallons of gas at about $2/gal and a pack of smokes for $7. It’s still pretty close.
I think gas is awfully cheap.
Those who have invested in fracking might consider OPEC to be conspiritors @texases.
It’s the production from fracking (4+ million barrels a day) that’s far overshadowing any increase in OPEC production (maybe 1 million barrels a day). No conspiracy needed to explain this.
But how long can the frackers keep pumping at below break even @texases? My understanding is that the wellhead price for frackers is well below cost.
Who blinks first? The ones wearing the 10 gallon hats or the ones wearing the turbans?
We blinked, months ago. 75% - 80% of the US drilling rigs have shut down, our production is dropping about 100,000 barrels of oil per day each month. The cost to keep existing wells producing is not high enough to shut them in, though. Our production will continue to drop because new wells aren’t being drilled. The existing production is still economic for the great majority of horizontal fracked wells. It’s the small output ‘stripper’ wells, producing less than 5 barrels per day, that are becoming uneconomic.
edit - also, drilling new wells is uneconomic, as described below.
@RodKnox: I was under the impression that the marginal costs of recovering oil were pretty low: the big money costs are prospecting and drilling–once that’s been done, it “makes sense” to keep producing; you’ll just never get your up-front costs back.
Exactly.
@“Rod Knox”, OPEC by definition is a group of conspirators. Every cartel is.
@RodKNox The marginal cost of fraccing oil is well below the current market price for most operators… What is happening is no new wells are being drilled and existing fields are kept producing for the time being.
Eventually they will have to drill more, but they hope the oil price will have risen by then.
The oil extraction business has very high up front costs and many smaller operators will permanently leave the business. That’s what the OPEC gang is counting on.
2.09 today
Its all relative ,when I was making $1.65 an hour ,you could probably get 2 gallons of gas and a pack of Winstons for an hours work ,with probably a few cents left over ,but forget buying anything electronic,gas and electronics have really been bargains the past few years .