Californians hit with unprecedented gasoline price jump

diehardbiker said:
Your right, Hybrid vehicles will use more gas on highway than on City.

The idea of Hybrid is when one stop it, it generates electricity and feed back to batteries which saves gas. Alot of stop and go in the city so hybrid makes sense. On the Highway, there is nothing to feed back to batteries so no savings.
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it's mainly because:
1. gas engine will kick in after 25mph
2. at cruising speed, it will be combination of gas and electric engines
3. at red light, gas engine is off

and yea - at highway speed, it's all or mostly gas engine so you're basically not saving any money on gas. good thing is that hybrid cars have long warranty. I believe Prius is around 8 years or 100,000 miles warranty. that's not bad!
 
Nothing to do with demand. The reason behind is politicians blamed truckers for road destruction and blamed on trucks that beats up road too hard than cars, so what fuel type do you think most trucks uses? You guessed it, its Diesel that is why it got higher highway taxes.

Plus today newer trucks gets better mileage, meaning less tax paid for highway so kicked it higher.

My truck weights at least 3 times more than average cars, 4 times more than compact cars.

Foxrac said:
Additional to highway tax for diesel, the diesel has high demand and low supply that caused diesel cost to be more because oil companies, along with hefty regulation don't bother to build more refineries for diesel to keep cost at lower or match to gasoline.
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Foxrac said:
Like I said - the life isn't easy, period.

If you can't afford to pay high gas price so time for you to use public transportation or change your plan to make convenience to you, or look for more income.
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Now, you know that isn't a reasonable or fair statement. Not everyone has public transportation available, or they have a business that requires driving commercial vehicles. Also, if they have to charge higher prices for the products and services they provide in order to recoup the gas expense, that will effect everyone.
 
Foxrac said:
...I have other idea - go buy car with alternative energy....
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Alternative energy isn't always a good substitute in every vehicle. Also, despite what people think, "alternative" doesn't always mean cheaper, more available, or environmentally friendly.

Do you think commercial vehicles can all be instantly exchanged for "alternative" energy vehicles? Can business owners invest in entire fleets of new vehicles? Absolutely not. Some just go out of business, period.
 
diehardbiker said:
Nothing to do with demand. The reason behind is politicians blamed truckers for road destruction and blamed on trucks that beats up road too hard than cars, so what fuel type do you think most trucks uses? You guessed it, its Diesel that is why it got higher highway taxes.

Plus today newer trucks gets better mileage, meaning less tax paid for highway so kicked it higher.

My truck weights at least 3 times more than average cars, 4 times more than compact cars.
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If you take fuel tax as only reason so it will be supposedly only 7 cents more expensive than gasoline (diesel is 7 cents more than gasoline after fuel tax calculated in state + federal), but the diesel in here is around 25 cents to 50 cents more than gasoline, so I felt that fuel tax is small portion (28% or 14%). That why I added demand/supply, or lack of refineries to support more supply to make diesel more costlier.

I think it is EPA thing because they are very anal about oil refineries and heavily regulation too.
 
ambrosia said:
"It's insane," said Matt Hurd, 35, as he filled up at a San Francisco gas station near the Bay Bridge. "Especially with this thing," Hurd, who works in real estate, added, motioning toward his white SUV. "It's going to cost triple digits to fill it up."

Am I the only one who wonders why people still drive these things? Seems kind of insane to unless you have a lot expendable income.
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Maybe they carry a lot of people, animals, or materials. My Hubby can't cram his business into anything smaller than a commercial full-size van. After the wrecks I've been in, I don't feel safe in anything smaller than my Jeep Cherokee. I drive as infrequently as possible.
 
Reba said:
Now, you know that isn't a reasonable or fair statement. Not everyone has public transportation available, or they have a business that requires driving commercial vehicles. Also, if they have to charge higher prices for the products and services they provide in order to recoup the gas expense, that will effect everyone.
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Excuse me - my post is obviously toward at regular customers, not business customers. It is just part of suggestion.

I didn't mention about business customers, so if the fuel cost hit business customers so they will obviously increase their cost of product, that's really too obviously because the food cost have went up because of fuel cost.

I think you should know about what I'm talking about, even I didn't mention about commercial vehicles, so it is all about regular customers who buy gas for commute.
 
TXgolfer said:
Power, room, price. Trust me those little electric cars (I have one) are no fun on long trips or through the mountains. Also no fun when going to the golf course with three or 4 sets of clubs. I also believe the electric cars pose a greater risk to the environment in the long run.
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I know what you mean.

In a couple weeks, TCS will be going camping. He will be carrying several passengers, all their camping gear, including tents, plus towing a utility trailer full of fire wood, driving in a mountainous area. He will be driving a Jeep Commander, not a Chevy Volt.
 
Reba said:
Alternative energy isn't always a good substitute in every vehicle. Also, despite what people think, "alternative" doesn't always mean cheaper, more available, or environmentally friendly.

Do you think commercial vehicles can all be instantly exchanged for "alternative" energy vehicles? Can business owners invest in entire fleets of new vehicles? Absolutely not. Some just go out of business, period.
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I know that alternatives are not always perfect, but it is good for some people.

Excuse me - I didn't mention about business owners, or commercial vehicles. I'm talking about regular customers so don't be upset at me. See one above about business.

Unfortunately, the life isn't easy and you have deal with fuel cost like everyone in around world.
 
Jiro said:
eh *shrug*

$3.75 in here. simple solution for Californians - either move to where gas is cheaper... or get a motorcycle/bicycle. you've got nice weather all years around. *shrug*
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Just had to fill up my car today. $4.00 a gallon....over thirty dollars to fill up a Corolla.
 
Jiro said:
eh *shrug*

$3.75 in here. simple solution for Californians - either move to where gas is cheaper... or get a motorcycle/bicycle. you've got nice weather all years around. *shrug*
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I don't think you want all those Californians moving into your neighborhood. :giggle:

The reason their gas costs more is because California requires them to use special blends of gas that cost more to refine, and is limited to only certain refineries to provide.
 
Foxrac said:
Oh, after one member helped me, so I understand about what are you saying.

I love F-250 and has strong interest in diesel engine because they are high reliable and long run.

I have no interest in electric or hybrid cars because they are not reliable and their design is flawed.

I prefer big and tall truck.
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What I meant was the aversion to diesel vehicles in North America. I don't know what it is, maybe people still think they're noisy and slow and smoky? That was true in the 80s, not any more! Even the smallest cars in Europe are available as diesel and if you do a lot of miles then it is the option to pick instead of gas.

Only VW seems to sell diesel cars here and people who have a TDI Golf or Jetta swear by them!

Diesel Cars Make a Comeback in the U.S.: Scientific American
 
metalangel said:
What I meant was the aversion to diesel vehicles in North America. I don't know what it is, maybe people still think they're noisy and slow and smoky? That was true in the 80s, not any more! Even the smallest cars in Europe are available as diesel and if you do a lot of miles then it is the option to pick instead of gas.

Only VW seems to sell diesel cars here and people who have a TDI Golf or Jetta swear by them!

Diesel Cars Make a Comeback in the U.S.: Scientific American
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Oh yup, I got it now.

Yup, US is really SLOW for availability of diesel vehicles for customers, however it is widely available for business owners for many years, especially shippers.
 
Foxrac said:
Excuse me - my post is obviously toward at regular customers, not business customers. It is just part of suggestion.

I didn't mention about business customers, so if the fuel cost hit business customers so they will obviously increase their cost of product, that's really too obviously because the food cost have went up because of fuel cost.

I think you should know about what I'm talking about, even I didn't mention about commercial vehicles, so it is all about regular customers who buy gas for commute.
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But that has an impact on hardworking middle and low income people as well. You just proved our point. Lower and middle income people cannot escape the costs of high gas prices just by taking public transportation. They still require goods and services provided by people affected by gas prices.
 
Reba said:
I don't think you want all those Californians moving into your neighborhood. :giggle:

The reason their gas costs more is because California requires them to use special blends of gas that cost more to refine, and is limited to only certain refineries to provide.
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There is another reason too. Gas stations in California tend to be smaller than is most areas (probably because of land prices) which means stations purchase less making delivery costs a bigger hit. In fact on of the reasons I ditched my truck out there for a tiny car is because it was so hard to get in and out of gas stations.

Also the "convenience store" portion is MUCH smaller, so gas stations have fewer alternative items to profit on.

(Granted this is in the cities. not rural parts of CA)
 
TXgolfer said:
There is another reason too. Gas stations in California tend to be smaller than is most areas (probably because of land prices) which means stations purchase less making delivery costs a bigger hit. In fact on of the reasons I ditched my truck out there for a tiny car is because it was so hard to get in and out of gas stations.

Also the "convenience store" portion is MUCH smaller, so gas stations have fewer alternative items to profit on.

(Granted this is in the cities. not rural parts of CA)
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Ah. Good points.
 
TXgolfer said:
But that has an impact on hardworking middle and low income people as well. You just proved our point. Lower and middle income people cannot escape the costs of high gas prices just by taking public transportation. They still require goods and services provided by people affected by gas prices.
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Also, Reba, please read below.

First, I admitted it was tough comment (or unfair statement) because I received tough comments from some of you, so that why, it was my turn to being tough at you about situation with gas price.

I understand that expensive gas price is painful but not surprised about gas price have went up, AND unstable. I'm not happy because our country wasn't prepared to handle the expensive gas price, after oil crisis in 1970's and high gas price in 1980's. I believe about fault is between politicians and voters, they are supposed to solve the energy crisis, but some people are not educated about how much importance is natural resource (oil) that we need. I wasn't born in 60's and 70's to make happens.
 
TXgolfer said:
There is another reason too. Gas stations in California tend to be smaller than is most areas (probably because of land prices) which means stations purchase less making delivery costs a bigger hit. In fact on of the reasons I ditched my truck out there for a tiny car is because it was so hard to get in and out of gas stations.

Also the "convenience store" portion is MUCH smaller, so gas stations have fewer alternative items to profit on.

(Granted this is in the cities. not rural parts of CA)
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When you get to sprawled desert area, like in San Bernardino and Riverside, you will see plenty of big gas stations, they are pretty flat with mountain in background, but it is different if you are in SF or LA.
 
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