Bend-over gas prices

[agertz1]

$6/gal. for 87 octane, welcome to Ca., or not. I want to fight back ! I want most direct route, to a more efficient flex-fuel, inline four ? Perhaps
something like a Chevy Cruze 1.4L turbo ? In other words, if turbo had enough capacity for more boost on E85, "could" improve mileage with E85,
in street use ? This sorted swap will go in a non-smog car. ( We never had this chat).
Thanks, Art.

[prairiehotrodder]

thats not fighting back. Thats doing what they want you to do.

[HQM383]

Hovering around $2 a liter here in Aus since not long after Ukraine fiasco. I think NZ has it worse. Recently I paid $2.12.

[rebelrouser]

not supposed to be political, lots of reasons for gas prices, Ukraine is big one, oil companies making money back they lost when Covid kept everybody home, take a look at reported oil company profits. What you need to ask yourself is how long it will last? I bought a gas station in 1981, right before second gas rationing crisis, first thing I had to do was buy new pumps so I could sell for more than $1.00 a gallon. I was making 3 to 5 cents a gallon, making all my money in the service bays. I was bad for about a year, then everybody sold the cheap cars and bought back SUV's Then adjust what we are paying for fuel adjusted for inflation. I doubt we will ever see below $3.50 again. So to do a small engine swap or even buy a new vehicle does it really pay off? My old diesel gets 20 MPG and is paid off, can't pull a race car trailer, or my camper very well with a gas engine truck getting 6 MPG and crawling up big hills. So If I deduct the cost of new vehicle payments, even with the cost of diesel fuel $5.29 last I filled up, I can still afford to take a trip now and then. I don't see any less traffic at the local gas stations, only way to get the price down is to stop buying so much, the American way more the demand the higher the price.


https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/05 ... aine%20war

[prairiehotrodder]

In Canada the government is purposely adding a big tax to the fuel (carbon tax) to try and destroy the middle class and get us all on a government handout so they can control us. Look up the great reset or agenda 2030. Its not a conspiracy theory. Its out there for everyone to see. Justin Trudeau has said " you will own nothing and be happy" . He praises the Chinese social credit system where you are monitored, tracked, punished and rewarded for your allegiance to his system. He is also currently trying to take away everyone's guns and other stuff i won't mention here. There may be a food shortage coming soon as well. The Canadian government has imposed a tarriff on Russian fertilizer that is supposed to penalize Russia but is really only hurting Canadian farmers. My father in law is one of them.
Brian

[mag2555]

The Ukraine is not a big reason for high energy cost!
They shot right up 17 months ago with the canceling of the keystone XL pipe that the genus in the White House did on his first dam day in office.

If you did not notice this back in February of 2021 then what can I say other then elections have consequences, don’t they?

The guy who did not get the proper vote count in that 2020 election some 4 mouths before predicted gas in Ca would be 8 buck a gallon by this coming Aug.
Looks in hind site like someone was right!

You need to open your eyes!
You can’t just stop buying gas to make the prices go down because pertroleum is used to make 1000s of everyday products, not only to deliver them or to drive to buy them!
I will likely get banded for posting this, but it’s the truth!!

[Chris_Hamilton]

Oli companies don't determine prices. That's a fallacy. The Spot Market does. Oil and gasoline are commodities just like soybeans, gold, silver, steel lumber etc etc. Supply and demand. When supply is low and demand high you get what we have now. Cancelling the pipeline, shutting down drilling on Federal lands, no new refineries in the US for the last 40 years, OPEC cutting back production, Russian Oil sanctioned, all contribute to the lack of supply. Demand is much higher than supply so prices have skyrocketed.

The Oil Companies are jacking up the prices argument is a red herring. Complete fallacy. When people in charge of economic policy in this country say that, the are either outright lying or they have a complete fundamental lack of understanding of economics. Either way we are screwed.

[agertz1]

My post was actually asking for technical advice about improving thermal efficiency, during use of E85 in a flex fuel engine ? Being in Ca.,
I have no political ax to grind/lol.
Tech advice please ? Art.

[Truckedup]

Buy a used Chevy Cobalt SS turbo... Stock it will run high 13's and near 30mpg ...Can be upgraded to 300 hp without much trouble and more if you are adventurous...Nothing parties like 300 plus hp in a 5 speed 2900 pound front driver with a limited slip...And the handling is equal or better than the other similar cars..

[1980RS]

Buy a used Chevy Cobalt SS turbo... Stock it will run high 13's and near 30mpg ...Can be upgraded to 300 hp without much trouble and more if you are adventurous...Nothing parties like 300 plus hp in a 5 speed 2900 pound front driver with a limited slip...And the handling is equal or better than the other similar cars..

I used to have a lot of fun at work smoking those Cobalt SS turbo and S/C cars with my 94 Z/28. Some of those little turbo 4's are pretty fast though.

[Bob Hollinshead]

And right now we are releasing a million barrels per day out of our reserves to try and bring the market price down????? WTF? Oil we stocked at bottom barrel pricing that we'll have to put back in.

[Truckedup]

Buy a used Chevy Cobalt SS turbo... Stock it will run high 13's and near 30mpg ...Can be upgraded to 300 hp without much trouble and more if you are adventurous...Nothing parties like 300 plus hp in a 5 speed 2900 pound front driver with a limited slip...And the handling is equal or better than the other similar cars..

I used to have a lot of fun at work smoking those Cobalt SS turbo and S/C cars with my 94 Z/28. Some of those little turbo 4's are pretty fast though.

And some had fun smoking the V8 rear drive cars...All fair play....

[1980RS]

Buy a used Chevy Cobalt SS turbo... Stock it will run high 13's and near 30mpg ...Can be upgraded to 300 hp without much trouble and more if you are adventurous...Nothing parties like 300 plus hp in a 5 speed 2900 pound front driver with a limited slip...And the handling is equal or better than the other similar cars..

I used to have a lot of fun at work smoking those Cobalt SS turbo and S/C cars with my 94 Z/28. Some of those little turbo 4's are pretty fast though.

And some had fun smoking the V8 rear drive cars...All fair play....

Yup all depends on what's done to the cars.

[rfoll]

It always comes down to $ per mile. That has to include the purchase price and maintenance costs of the vehicle. Many years ago I looked into the idea of buying a 30 mpg car to replace my 18 mpg 79 Impala. With gas at about $1.25/gallon, it didn't work out. It was cheaper to pay at the pump than pay for the car. On top of that, I really didn't think I would enjoy driving a 4 cylinder go cart. Every 100,000 miles or so , I just built a fresh motor. Gotta love the Chevrolet for the inexpensive costs. When the car got over 400,000 miles I sold it for what I paid for it in 1988. Bought another one with only 100,000 miles on it for $400. It gets 18.7 mpg like clockwork. When the prices got over $4/gallon a few years back I bought a Honda 125XL to drive around town. Everything here is 2 miles away. It got 90 mpg. I saved $3000 in fuel in 3 years and sold it for $500 more than I had in it. The fuel mileage in the Impala picked up because I wasn't driving around with the choke on. I bought a KLR250 to replace the Honda, something that you don't mind driving 100 miles round trip. I gets 85 mpg. I picked up a Honda 1200 Aspencade for $800. I only gets $45 mpg. If I drive it to Portland, (70 mile round trip), once a month, It pays for it's insurance costs. Again, $ per mile. What are you willing to settle for. If I still had a 50 mile round trip to work I might have to look harder at things. I know plenty of people who make long round trips to work.

[Racer71]

My wife’s 04 jetta tdi has 513k miles and still knocks down 625 mi per tank of fuel, pretty hard to beat. That’s why we have a few of them in the family, but off-road diesel and it’s cheap as gas.