High oil price

[DTM]

It does sound crazy, Krisbarry. I can't see fuel usage dropping until we invent fusion energy.

Americans have not slowed their vehicle fuel consumption at all so far, the price has got to get higher before peoples attitudes will change.

I was in LA in Feb earlier this year and their traffic is bumper to bumper most times of the day. They did have a T2 transit lane which I used often. The transit lane was supposed to help people car pool. In all of the 5 or 6 lanes on the freeway, it was bumper to bumper. On the transit lane, you could have shot a gun down it and hit no one. Looks like the Americans cheap credit isn't affecting their driving habits and most of the vehicles on the freeway were the 4WD type or bigger.

 

[krisbarry]

I was in LA in Feb earlier this year and their traffic is bumper to bumper most times of the day. They did have a T2 transit lane which I used often. The transit lane was supposed to help people car pool. In all of the 5 or 6 lanes on the freeway, it was bumper to bumper. On the transit lane, you could have shot a gun down it and hit no one. Looks like the Americans cheap credit isn't affecting their driving habits and most of the vehicles on the freeway were the 4WD type or bigger.

Australian on the other hand have. Petrol driven 4WD sales have fallen by 35% over the past year, due to the rising cost of fuel. Was reported 2 days ago as a lead story on the channel 10 news.

I live in a wealthy suburb of Adelaide and every second car is a 4WD or SUV, they can afford to drive them but the average "Joe Blog" that owns one has to fork out about $100 to fill the tank. That is a lot of money!

 

[excalibur]

I think we`re dealing with the wrong argumentation guys. There is the man who has to drive his 20 to 40 miles because he doesn`t have any mutual transit to get to work, and there is the big-shot that drives his car to work, which is right around the block.
If we want to teach drivers a lesson: forget it.
The bad news is gonna come from another direction

 

[krisbarry]

I think we`re dealing with the wrong argumentation guys. There is the man who has to drive his 20 to 40 miles because he doesn`t have any mutual transit to get to work, and there is the big-shot that drives his car to work, which is right around the block.
If we want to teach drivers a lesson: forget it.
The bad news is gonna come from another direction

The man who has no transit and drives 20 to 40 miles is down-sizing his car to afford to fill it.

I did the same....I drove an EA Falcon (3.9 litre) and was spending $80 a week in fuel and now drive a Hyundai Excel (1.5 litre) and spend $25.

The savings are huge!

 

[mime]

I just saw interesting stats on the news the other day.

Firstly they showed a graph about past oil spikes and how consumption dropped straight after. However with the current oil spike consumption has risin. I'm assuming that this means oil is not over-valued and the price can still move higher.

Second, it showed the rises in consumption on the G7 nations rose only 2%(I'm guessing over a year, I can't remember the time period..) Whilest China's consumption has risin by 17%.

This sounds really nerdy but I think it'll be interesting times to come with the price of energy.

 

[DTM]

I just saw interesting stats on the news the other day.

Firstly they showed a graph about past oil spikes and how consumption dropped straight after. However with the current oil spike consumption has risin. I'm assuming that this means oil is not over-valued and the price can still move higher.

Second, it showed the rises in consumption on the G7 nations rose only 2%(I'm guessing over a year, I can't remember the time period..) Whilest China's consumption has risin by 17%.

This sounds really nerdy but I think it'll be interesting times to come with the price of energy.

Mime, did you see what the interest rates were for those periods? Is consumption driven more by easy cash and record debt?

 

[mime]

All I'm saying is oil's price can go higher because comsumption is not weakening.

 

[Smurf1976]

I just saw interesting stats on the news the other day.

Firstly they showed a graph about past oil spikes and how consumption dropped straight after. However with the current oil spike consumption has risin. I'm assuming that this means oil is not over-valued and the price can still move higher.

Second, it showed the rises in consumption on the G7 nations rose only 2%(I'm guessing over a year, I can't remember the time period..) Whilest China's consumption has risin by 17%.

Most of the world doesn't have such a large proportion of oil used for power generation and in heavy industry, the easiest uses to shift to other fuels, this time around which makes reducing consumption more difficult. Most of the easy savings have already been made.

There are of course exceptions such as the US with its increasing reliance on gas/oil-fired power generation and of course China. However, the construction of major new coal-fired power plants in China will tend to displace some of their diesel generation so that ought to take a bit of pressure off the oil markets at least for a while.

 

[krisbarry]

Petrol hit $1.23 in Adelaide yesterday, time to down-size those greedy gas-guzzlin' 4WD's, SUV's, 8 and 6 cyclinder cars. Why not drive a 4.

The only down-side of driving a 4 cyclinder car has to be going up hills on a hot summers day with the air-con on.

 

[Smurf1976]

Petrol hit $1.23 in Adelaide yesterday, time to down-size those greedy gas-guzzlin' 4WD's, SUV's, 8 and 6 cyclinder cars. Why not drive a 4.

The only down-side of driving a 4 cyclinder car has to be going up hills on a hot summers day with the air-con on.

I think that depends on the actual car. My Nissan Pulsar (1.6 L) has no problems sitting on the speed limit (80) going up the hill to Mt Nelson heading south from Hobart CBD with the air con going full blast. Actually, it will accelerate quite nicely in 4th gear (manual) and this is a "trucks use low gear" type hill on the way down where about 10-20 is the normal speed for heavy vehicles.

That compares to a 2.7L Hilux ute we had at work that couldn't make it up the hill in 4th or 5th with the air con OFF (and even in 3rd it was foot to the floor and hope that you didn't have to slow down for any reason otherwise it was back to 2nd until you got to the top of the hill).

Some Mazda's go pretty well too. Well, they did 5 years ago when I was test driving them. I do think though that with any small to medium size car that if you want top performance going up hills etc then get a manual transmission.

And make sure that you use the right grade of petrol too. Some small cars are designed for premium unleaded and if you run them on regular unleaded the computer retards the timing leading to considerably less power and higher fuel consumption. There's no point using premium if you don't need to though, in fact there are a few good reasons not to, so check the manual or if you don't have a manual, compare the actual fuel consumption and power with a tank full of each.

 

[mime]

Just get a manul car. Hills are then no problem.

 

[Smurf1976]

Should have added that when I said "check the manual" I meant the owner's manual (book) that comes with car and not the type of transmission.

 

[Reealjrd]

If oil prices increase the time is to come when again bycycles are going to run on roads. As seeing the oil prices most of the countries are in a stress what solutions can be adopded to sole the problem of increasing oil prices.