Gas Prices

[Guest Grant Magrath]

Hey Aussies and Americans, here in New Zealand, the price of gas has gone up by a fair bit over the last couple of weeks. The oil companies are saying it's a result of increased demand and limited production, as the other major factor in price, the NZ$, is quite high at the moment (high NZ dollar against US= cheaper oil). What's happening with you guys at the moment as far as gas prices go?

Cheers

Grant

[Mark Simmons]

Grant, Gas prices have risen to over $4.00 dollars a gallon here in "The Golden State" and continue to rise. We've heard the same story line as you over the pond. Demand urged by a recovering economy(?) Also the usual refinery shutdowns to convert to the "Summer" gas we all pay more for. The biggest bee in my bonnet if you will is the" they're off line for maintenance". Why so many at one time in one area ? One would think with all the down time and expenditures that they wouldn't turn nearly as much profit as the ALL do. Cheers, Mark

[Pete K.]

Grant, I'm up here in the Boston, Massachusetts area, "New England" to most folks. Gas now at $3.70 or there 'bouts. Went up 5 - 8 cents /gallon in the last week. Same old excuses... A short 4 years ago it was $1.80/ gallon. "A WICKED BIG GYP" but don't get me going, I'll get booted off the forum.

[dan at larescorp]

In Minnesota gas prices have gone from $2.99/gal to $3.69/gal in less then a month.

[packick]

I am always anxious to hear the oil company's next excuse for jacking up the prices. I am still waiting for the moon and stars alignment excuse. I know it's coming.

[Mark Shaw]

Go here to find local fuel prices in the USA & Canada... GasBuddy.com - Find Low Gas Prices in the USA and Canada

Taxes account for more of the price than most people think.... Fuel taxes in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[414TATA]

Go here to find local fuel prices in the USA & Canada... GasBuddy.com - Find Low Gas Prices in the USA and Canada

Taxes account for more of the price than most people think.... Fuel taxes in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Central Valley of California. Cheapest $3.89 Quick stop (cash price). Brand name cash price this a.m. $4.19

Credit $4.29. More than a 30 cent jump in less than 10 days. 10 cents higher than yesterday. Are we headed for $5.29 on the West coast this summer?

Wayne

[60FlatTop]

When we paid off the mortgage on our house I looked at buying a gas station for a second business. There was only one available in my area of the state. I did a little research and found that there are typically 3 to 4 gas escalations and declines per year. On the rise the wholesale price closely matches the pump price with a couple pennies markup. On the decline the span is greater and allows the retailer a greater markup during those periods. Without the price variations a stable low markup would not allow profit. I couldn't buy a station because self serve and cheap help make them keepers.

More recently we have found that $4.00 per gallon is the conservation point in the US. Above that point people really get serious about minimizing their driving. That threshold actually creates a reduction in volume of gas sold. Although the gas companies keep nudging to acclimate users four bucks is the trauma point and they have to back down to increase sales and maintain crash flow.

Our problem will really hit when economy and reduction measures actually do make a difference and tax revenues from gas sales drop. There will be an irreplaceable loss of excise, road, as well as state and local sales tax.

Then when I pull into the Mobil station to top off my tanks on Sunday evening they will say "Here comes that republican, Bernie; Red, White, and Blew his money on a tank of gas. They say his cars only use one battery each!"

Bernie

Edited February 14, 2013 by 60FlatTop (see edit history)

[Marty Roth]

Local prices have jumped around $ 0.40 in the past few weeks here in the New Orleans area, but still much lower than Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia, Pennsylvania.

I drove from home to the annual AACA meeting in Philadelphia, and returned 2/5/13 to 2/12/13 and saw a huge spread depending upon the locale and the tax structure of the state.

Cheapest diesel fuel was in South Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisiana, ranging from $3.69 to $3.82, but saw a high of $4.49/gal (Diesel) in Pennsylvania.

[jvelde]

$3.49 this morning for 87 octane at my local North Dallas station.

[danhar1960]

It was $1.40 p/l here last night for regular 91. That's $6 + p/g.

I never get how it can be $1.55 coming home and be $1.37 next morning.

Don't know about the other countries out there but an awful lot of the price for our petrol is federal tax, excise tax, state tax, road tax, state levies.................................

It's the biggest rort ever !!!!

Danny

[Guest outlaw car man]

$3.25 at the grocery store yesterday, they give a discount with grocery purchases, I had .20/gal off. So, $3.45/gallon . Probably more up the hill in Mike's region.

People ask how many miles to the gallon I get in the 33 90- My answer is no clue, when it's low I fill it.

I've seen $0.25/gallon in my life as a young man in college, mid to late 60s.

OCM

[Guest WEB 38]

It must me Bushs fault.

[Dandy Dave]

Never mind gasoline. Try and heat your house with $4.00 a gallon Furnace oil. Mother lovers. I unhooked the greedy l'il pile of iron and put in a wood stove with hot water coils. 20 times more the carbon foot print, but until oil drops to a managable price, I'll keep burning wood. (Tree huggers with stocks in Big Oil, take a hint.) I hope they choke on my wood smoke... Say, I have a new country song comming on... Dandy Dave!

Edited February 18, 2013 by Dandy Dave (see edit history)

[Buicknutty]

Here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the prices have just cracked above the $1.30 per litre, which at about 3.8 litres/gallon, makes it nearly $5.00 per gallon. Some "cut rate" stations sell for 2-4/litre cents cheaper, but the vast majority sell for exactly the same pump price for one side of our big city to the other.

The really strange and annoying thing, is that less than an hours drive out of the city, gas sells 5-10 cents less. Have no idea why gas in a small town is so much cheaper than the city.

Keith

[Mark Shaw]

Kieth,

Check how much city tax is part of the price... and consider the cost of doing business in the city versus the small town...

[Guest Grant Magrath]

Never mind gasoline. Try and heat your house with $4.00 a gallon Furnace oil. Mother lovers. I unhooked the greedy l'il pile of iron and put in a wood stove with hot water coils. 20 time more the carbon foot print, but until oil drops to a managable price, I'll keep burning wood. (Tree huggers with stocks in Big Oil, take a hint.) I hope they choke on my wood smoke... Say, I have a new country song comming on... Dandy Dave!

Sorry to disappoint you Dave, but burning wood is carbon neutral, because you're burning wood that's renewable, and the new growth absorbs the carbon dioxide that you've produced burning your wood! You're an environmentalist!

Cheers

Grant

[Guest Grant Magrath]

Based on your formula Keith, our gas is NZ$8.40 a gallon. Or $7.09 in American dollars. A huge amount of that is in tax, with more to go on over the next 18 months or so. Damn.

Cheers

Grant

[Buicknutty]

Grant;

I would think that you are using Imperial gallons, which we used to use, before metrification in the 70's? I think that the Imperial gallon is about 4.5 Litres?

Mark;

At this point, we don't have a city gas tax, just the usual Provincial and Federal taxes (which are PLENTLY), but there have been various ideas to add a cent or more of a City tax to gas to fund transit, etc., but nothing has been decided upon. Yet.

Though certainly some costs are less outside of a large city, but some years ago it was the other way around, and at that time (I haven't always been a city dweller) we were told it was because the volumes of fuel pumped at the city stations were much greater, the mark up was a bit less.

Keith

Edited February 17, 2013 by Buicknutty
grammar (see edit history)

[Guest WEB 38]

$3.89 here in a small town in Indiana. Bill

[GARY F]

on fri.here in SC it 3.38, on sat. it went up to 3.48. goes up a couple times a week

[FLYER15015]

Grant, and all,

I just returned from a jaunt out to the "land of fruits and nuts".

Colorado = $3 49 Buena Vista

Utah = $3.39 Salt Lake City

Nevada = $3.29 Las Vegas

Calif = $4.17 Ontario

Took the '02 Lincoln Towncar, and the onboard computer says I got an average of 26.4 MPG.

I put the cruise on 70 and just watch the gas guage go down.

Put 40 psi in the tyres for the trip, and Quaker State 10-30 full synthetic in her along with a can of "Restore"

The old girl turned over 120K within sight of the house upon my return, and burnt 1/2 qt of oil for the 2400 mile trip.

So long as our nit wits in Washington keep printing and borrowing $$$$$$ so everybody can have a free obamaphone, our dollars will keep declining in purchasing power.

You really don't want to get me started....................

Mike in Colorado

PS Now the nit wits want to force us to use 15% CORN/GAS. Sandy's gonna love this stuff in his "33's.................

Edited February 18, 2013 by FLYER15015 (see edit history)

[Guest Grant Magrath]

Grant;

I would think that you are using Imperial gallons, which we used to use, before metrification in the 70's? I think that the Imperial gallon is about 4.5 Litres?

We use litres here Keith. I just used your 3.8l X 2.209(price per litre). That's for 91 unleaded. We went metric around the mid 70's. Which was good, because I speak both imperial and metric!

Cheers

Grant

[Guest Harry HT]

In Finland 95E10 (10% ethanol **** gas) $8.20 USD per gallon.

-Harry-

[Dandy Dave]

Sorry to disappoint you Dave, but burning wood is carbon neutral, because you're burning wood that's renewable, and the new growth absorbs the carbon dioxide that you've produced burning your wood! You're an environmentalist!

Cheers

Grant

That's good. But I still hope big oil chokes on my wood smoke. :mad: Dandy Dave!

[414TATA]

Harry HT and Grant

I am just curious. Is a percentage of your fuel tax used to fund National Health Care? I've heard some countries use part of their fuel tax to fund their "free" health care system.

If so, I was thinking If I add the monthly cost of my private health insurance premium to my gasoline cost and divide it using the current $4.19 per gallon the per gallon cost is just about the same as Harry's.

Wayne

1941 Buick

Edited February 20, 2013 by 414TATA (see edit history)

[Guest Grant Magrath]

Yes, some of it goes into the general tax fund for health. Not completely free here in NZ. You can still pay $40 - $50 to visit a Doctor, and there are prescription surcharges too. Not like the good old days when we as a country exported way more than we imported, and health and education were completely free, yes, even college! And full employment. But then the UK had to go and join the EEC in the early 70's, our exports (beef, dairy, wool and lamb) had nowhere to go, and that was the end of that.

Quite a bit of tax on fuel goes to roading as well. But get this........here in NZ and in Australia, we have a Goods nd Services tax on pretty much everything of 15%. Not sure what the Aussie rate is. And when they calculate the price of fuel, they add the taxes to the fuel company's cost, then tax the total at 15%! So our tax is being taxed! Same with what you would call city taxes. Here, we call them rates. They're taxed at 15%. Yep! Another tax on a tax! Same with car registration or licensing.

But it's not so bad here. Although I could easily live in Australia. Don't worry Danny! I'm staying put for the time being!

Cheers

Grant

PS Sorry for the boring NZ history lesson!

[Sweet64rivi]

Government makes more profit of a gallon of gasoline tha any oil company that explores for it, drills for it, extracts it, ships it, refines it, tanker trailer it to and sell it at the Kwiki Mart.

[Guest Grant Magrath]

You got that right Kevin!

[danhar1960]

Come on over Grant, you must be one of the few Kiwis that aren't here already. :) (just don't mention the underarm incident)

There is a figure that gets thrown around here all the time about the tax that is on petrol. One of the many taxes on our petrol is considered a "Road Tax".

Only 5c of every dollar collected as "Road Tax" actually goes to the roads. You only have to drive around on some of our roads here in Sydney to see the lack of spending on roads. The latest rort down here is Tollways. Private companies build the freeway/tollways but get the goverment to change the roads in the area to funnel you on to the tollways. We have a 10% GST also that gets put on top of all the other taxes, duties, levies...........

We've had E10-91 here for years. I've never had any problems in the cars we have (my bash about daily driver is a '96 Hyundai) but have never used it to run the '39.

I did though make sure that any rubber used in the '39 fuel system was ethanol resistant.

Danny

[dan at larescorp]

Government makes more profit of a gallon of gasoline tha any oil company that explores for it, drills for it, extracts it, ships it, refines it, tanker trailer it to and sell it at the Kwiki Mart.

And the oil company has to pay other taxes for every step you listed.

It's amazing to think that with all of the money they are taking for taxes that they can still remain broke.

[Guest WEB 38]

If we cant fix the roads with $4 gas can someone tell me how IKE built all those Interstate highways on .25 cent gas? Bill WEB 38

[jenz38]

Here we pay 1.65 Euro per Liter 95 oktane Gas (5% Ethanol) = 2.17 US Dollar at the Moment.

Thats for the Gallon (4.45 Liter) 9.69 Dollar .

There from is 55% PetroleumTax AND 19 % Salestax Thats double Cash for our nice Government.

[Buicknutty]

Here in Ontario, Canada, we also have a 13% "Goods and Services" (called the HST)tax, and the tax gets taxed here, likely more than once.

That's why the government doesn't want to help do anything for the fuel consumer, since the it costs, the more they make off of us all. Currently $133.7 litre here in Toronto.

Keith

[Guest Grant Magrath]

During the war when gas was rationed, some people got around it by installing some sort of contraption on their running board that did something with charcoal. Anyone know the story behind that? Seems like a good period accessory, and a way of cutting running costs! There's one on display at the Southward Car Museum in Paraparaumu. (say THAT fast!).

Cheers

Grant

[JohnD1956]

Probably an acetylene gas, like the early headlights. Probably works onthe low compression engines.

[Guest Grant Magrath]

Sounds familiar John. I should get off my butt and research it!

Cheers

Grant

[Dandy Dave]

Acetylene Generator. Add H2o to calcium-carbide. What Is Calcium Carbide?

Very corrosive. Try to find a good brass one for your early car with gas lights today. Dandy Dave!

[Paul Dobbin]

Paid $3.73.9 today in North Gerogia while a few miles later it was $3.89.9 in North Carolina. Both up about 40 cent in the last three weeks.

I have a lighter foot than anytime in the last 50 years because of it.

[Mark Shaw]

Charcoal Powered Cars: They were Smokin’ | The Ayson Chronicles: A Life Online