OK..enough...how do we get prices down ?

[BuickNut]

Last 4 milage readings with the Tornado installed were : 18.1, 19.4, 15.8, 19.4 MPG (ALL the same route - have no idea what happened with the 15.8 mpg reading...). I'm taking the Tornado out this week and seeing what is contributes vs the K&N Filtercharger alone.

[rmartens]

Kudos to Mr. Buick Nut for his willingness to "go the extra mile" to prove or disprove the effectiveness of his improvements.<P>All in all this has been a very interesting thread.

[Dave@Moon]

Ditto to that! Any kind of decent information we can get on this subject the <I> isn't </I> coming from someone trying to sell us something will be welcome.<P>p.s. Buicknut, do we have the particulars on our truk? (engine, 2 vs. 4 wheel drive, etc.?).

[Guest]

I remember reading a post some time back about getting car prices lower. hmmmm<P>Is this not an issue of supply and demand? We have no real control over supply. But as a group of enthusiasts can we really effect demand?<P>Just my two cents worth.<P>Peter

[Guest]

You persons over in the US are lucky so,<BR>I filled up car yesterday at the exchange rate of 5 US dollars per Liter.<BR>Lucky I have small car and drive not lot.<BR>Gunther

[BuickNut]

I have no connections with anything to do with either the K&N Filtercharger or the Tornado...was just curious about the "wonder" gagets and thought it was worth a try. I'm an engineer with both aeronatutical and automotive backgrounds and the Tornado make "theoretical" sense...it seems to be working. As to the truck I'm trying it out on...it has 186,000 miles on it with the 2.9 L V6 (factory fuel injection) rebuilt at 178 kmiles, manual 5 spd tranny, 4x4 (if I didn't get atleast 18 MPG out of it, was considering parking it for the spring/summer/fall and getting a car for better gas milage...). WAAAY back (before I hit 100,00 miles) I used to get about 22 MPG on the highway...I have yet to try it out that way (though I would expect now to get at least 25 MPG). One thing to consider in this matter though, EXPECT (both better and worse) different results for different applications. If your car/truck is better optimized for air flow into the fuel injection/carburator, you might not get the same gains as I have.

[BuickNut]

..guess the above spoken like a true engineer (..lol). Peter, I guess I hope that maybe some ideas like this might help with the demand, plus maybe getting together with some of the automotive enthusiast groups (if enough of them do it...) putting together some political clout to pressure our govt to look into the validity of these price increases, or (..ok, I'm dreaming here too..) putting together a group to investigate fuel alternative that isn't influenced by the oil companies. Truthfully, I don't consider what is going on as supply and demand..but price fixing. The oil companies are complaining that the old refineries can't keep up, that one broke down, one had a fire..etc. But hey, part of a business it to take some of the profits and put BACK INTO the business for upkeep, expansion, R&D (alternative fuels for instance..), it should be REINVESTED into the company. But instead, it would appear all of the money is going into their pockets...not the way capitalism is supposed to work if there is fair competition going on...sorta seems instead there is a mutual agreement between the oil companies/distributors/refineries/OPEC (!!!) to keep the prices up and NOT do the R&D necessary to come up with alternative solutions in terms of the mother earh (yes, guess I'm a tree hugger despsite my interest in gas guzzling old cars...) and reasonable expectations of supply of a synthetic/alternative fuel. (My VERY long winded 2 cents worth)

[Guest Shaffer]

We could park our Buicks and start walking........ NAH!!!!!!<P>Actually my 72 Buick even with a 455 4bbl, is fairly good on gas. Better than my old 1971 Caprice 4-door hardtop, with a 400 2bbl. that I had.

[Guest nailswede]

GUNTHER!<P>LUCKY you dont live on the moon because there they pay 100 dollar per litre....

[Guest]

Hey Guys ...<BR>Don't look for the government to help us out of this one, and don't blame opec this time.<BR>Gasoline prices here in NYC are already above the peaks of last year .. but the price of oil is $8/bbl lower.<P>Why you ask ??? Lack of competition is the answer my friends. Exxon + Mobil = more than 50% of the market here ! Let's think a bit ... BP + Amoco + I think Arco .... Shell & Texaco in the sack together ... you get the picture. I heard on CNBC .. some oil analysts that said we have lost over 5% of the REFINERY CAPACITY since the merges. THE REASON FOR THE HIKES IS THE OIL COMPANIES CLOSING THEIR REFINERIES IN THE NAME OF EFFICIENCY ... AND THE BOUTIQUE REFORMULATED FUELS !!!! Less supply = higher prices !<P>All of this brought to us by the US Gov't. Allowing those merges !<BR>What makes you think they care if we pay $2 ?<BR>

[Guest]

Wouldn't have anything to do with the $.43 that the federal government tacks on to the price for not doing a damn thing with it, would it?

[Dave@Moon]

I wouldn't be too concerned about the lack of refinery capacity in the U.S. With 2 dyed-in-the-wool oil men in the White House your sure to have one in your neighborhood before too long. V.P. Halliburton, I mean Cheney , pretty much said as much last week. (I think he announced it because they thought W would have trouble pronouncing refinery.) Unless your one of the lucky ones who are to get a "nucular" generating plant next door! <P>(W actually referred to our "nucular" weapons twice last week trying to re-sell Star Wars. Sure makes you sleep well at night, doesn't it? )<P>Oh yea, I forgot. They're also planning on approving a new "nucular" or coal fired electric generating station every week for the <I> next 20 years! </I> So for God's sake, whatever you do, <B> do not buy any compact fluorescent light bulbs!!! </B> <P>So go ahead, use all the gas you want. The oil companies are nice guys!! They'll make more.

[Dave@Moon]

For the benefit of "Roger", here's the ;last thread on this subject. Enjoy!