well i think its normal the people in the US bitch about it because they are used to dirt cheap gas prices... its all about what is/was normal where you live
also the US is much more wide spread than european countries so the make alot more miles
all in all every country in the world suffers, the gas prices here are completely through the roof. ($9,75 a gallon)

I know that might hurt American life style, but please
GET RID OF 4L+ TRUCKS FIRST!

I understand that you are one of the top oil producing nations in the world, but I'm just saying that what has happened to your fuel prices should be no great surprise - if it can happen over the pond so easily (our fuel prices admittedly haven't quite doubled, but they are pretty much there from a few years ago) surely some of you must have seen it coming? Also, I agree with kievdesign's point that most cars in America seem to be on the gas guzzling size, whereas over here we have adapted to our government shafting us left right and center for fuel by demanding more efficient engines so that we can get more out of the fuel we use; is that even happening over there? Every other advert I seem to here on American net radio channels seems to be about the horsepower and so on of your engines: I can't once remember hearing anything along the lines of "more efficient", "miles per gallon" or "more economical".

Wait until Iran gets invaded , it will hit $10, easy.

i pay twice as much as you guys... trust me.. it will get worse :)

2.65 a GALLON here and holding. But I think it might go up a bit now that the US has hit 4

saw $4.93 too

Who said it was any great surprise? Bitching does not have to mean people are surprised.

Bitching can sometimes mean that people just don't like the price of something.


And yes, is that even happening over here?... yes, it is. In fact it's been in the news quite frequently of late, people losing money on their SUV's left and right, people trading them in and getting much less than they thought, and buying smaller more economical vehicles. The wave has started. Bus ridership is up lately and I suspect it's going to keep rising, thus eventually the demand for gas is going to go down, way down in fact. People will simply drive less, drive smarter, and bus it more.

The oil companies are doing themselves no favors by continually upping their prices. The higher they raise th e price the less gas they're going to sell, period.

I WISH it was $4.00.

I just saw $4.69 two blocks from my house.

There's no money in petrol

From the reactions of many here it seems unexpected.

I'm glad to hear that, and clearly I only have an outsider's view into the entire situation. Out of curiosity, I'd be interested to know how many Americans/Canadians are thinking of "downgrading" their cars, or how many currently have larger capacity engines.

I posted a thread on another board about this, around 6-8 weeks ago when gas prices were rising but still a lot less than they are now. I said people with gas guzzling SUV's were are starting to find it difficult to sell them, and that people who owe, say $12k on their vehicle, are trading them in or selling them only to find that they can't even recover what they owe for it, thus taking a loss. People argued with me of couse.

Then just a few weeks ago someone else posted the same thing, but now had a few news links that backed it up. Well... where were the nay sayers then? But there's more. Some people actually read this and their only thought was that they could now "pick up a sweet SUV for a song", wringing their hands like idiots, when in fact they simply can't or won't see the writing on the wall... that owning such a vehicle is started to cost much more than it's worth. Fillups that used to cost $70 now cost over $100. Resale/tradein value in the shitter. People that buy them, even for "a song", are very short sighted.

Your average working class person, office workers etc, people who commute to work, are all panicking here, or starting to, and are thinking of ways of changing their gas consumption habits. Some are of course clueless and don't seem to care, that is until gas goes above $150 a litre, then they'll clue in pretty quick.

Me, I have a fairly economica V-6, I work from home, thus I only drive it maybe two or three times a week, just to go to the store, run errands, or drive out to the parent's house in the burbs for a visit. I tank up maybe once every 4-5 weeks. :D

I honestly have to thank you for your posts - I am aware my preconceived ideas of USA consumerism can be vastly out of line with the reality of the situation and it's always good to know more about world affairs.

You should post your engine size on the poll I've made here before it disappears into the ether.

Done and done.

One thing you're leaving out here is the demand elsewhere in the world is rising. China, India, Brazil, etc. They can't magically start pulling another 10 million more barrels out of the ground per day and refining it, so it makes sense. Current demand is about 85 million barrels a day I believe, and current supply matches that. In around 6 months (thanks to the growing economies of the world) demand is expected to rise to around 86.5 million barrels a day, and supply is expected to rise by about 300,000 barrels.

This bullshit about getting OPEC to simply pull another few millions barrels a day out of nowhere is just that, bullshit. Supply is actually at about it's peak, so with demand still predicted to rise over the next year at current prices do you really think they care that people in the West are riding more buses or trains? Don't think so, demand is only going one way for the time being, and that direction is the same as their profit - up.

True, for the global picture, yes. But it will affect N. American interests to a degree. Also, if several hundred million people across Europe and N America go downsizing their vehicles and using public transportation more and driving less and buying less gas across the board (which they are starting to do right now, all of it), that definitely will affect the oil business somewhat at least. How can it not?

I'm not saying it will cause prices to drop, that's fairly naive at this point. But if the Chinese etc start to do the same due to rising prices over there, well, I'm not willing to say one way or the other how that would affect things. I do know that continually raising oil prices isn't the smartest thing OPEC can do. It's obvious that the higher the price at the pump is, the less people in general are going to drive, the more economical vehicles they are going to buy.

Of course, if they actually WANT demand to go down, they're going about it the right way. Price it right out of 50 or 70% of the world's population's budget and demand for gas will always go down. Has to. Something has to give eventually though, because with higher fuel costs comes higher transportation costs, which results in higher food costs, and higher costs for pretty much any consumable item that has to be transported before being sold.

I'll say it again, something has got to give eventually.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/mai.../ccview109.xml

"Crude is now moving almost reflexively as a sort of "anti-dollar", a currency on steroids with eight times leverage. No matter that the global economy is slowing hard. Bad is good for oil in the topsy-turvy world of commodity funds."

This is what you got, when you have FED and Treasury trying by low interest rate policy, to bailout wallstreet banks, without any respect to average Joe, while those yet to bankrupted banks are trying now to get out of their own mess by playing a commodity boom too..
Now everyone and his gradmamma are speculating in oil on futher dollar debasment.


Of course there supply problems too, but the speculation factor is big too as we can see on $16 surge in the price of oil on small dollar devaluation over two last trading days last in recent week.

The Central Eurobank head told it few weeks ago: "to cut interest rates at this point would be the same as taxing the people to bail out the banks. Cost of extra inflation would be the ultimate sign of moral hazard to save banks."

now you guys in the US got a pay for monetary policy of your institutions, in addition to supply problems.

Yesterday the medium grade was $4.50 here in Northern California. $4.69 for the good stuff.

I saw a speech on the news the other day where someone was talking about this nature reserve in Alaska talking about how beautiful it was, and then asked everyone in the audience to raise their hand if they had ever been there. The audience was full of nature lovers and tree huggers, and not one of them raised their hand. The truth is we are talking about Alaska here, and only a small percentage of the population will ever make it up there.

Besides, we already drill up there. I've seen Ice Road Truckers.

Around $2,20 here per Liter or ~$8,30 per gallon.....:(

edit: recounted and it's actualy even higher :(

Agreed, could never work out why their vehicles needed to be so large.

Americans view cheap oil as some sort of birthright. Half a century ago, they were the world's largest exporter of oil. Now they are the world's largest importer of it.

And the demand for the liquid gold in China and elsewhere is only just begining...

hahaha

what the fuck!!


:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

anyway, kinda nice seeing all the democrats get off the road :)

4.69 here this AM. :D

you guys are lucky .. £1.39.9 a litre here
thats £5.596 per gallon or $11.192 in dollars

so time you stopped your whining and think yourself lucky

No insult intended, but what an incredibly idiotic thing to say to others. So you have it worse, so what? Do you not think that if the price of gas in Venezuela was raised from 12-14 cents per gallon up to a whopping 40 cents per gallon that the people of Venezuela wouldn't bitch?

Of course they would. Maybe not here, but they'd bitch.

Get over yourself. When people see the price of gas rise by 30, 40, 90+ cents a gallon every few weeks they are going to bitch no matter where they are or whose got it worse.

since january its gone up by 45p per litre thats like $3.60 per gallon
its gone up by more than what most of you are paying
i recon i have the right to bitch on as much as the next man
as does anyone else in the UK

Closest gas station here is $4.21 for unleaded. Sams Club is $4.04. I managed to find a station with mid grade for $4.11 last night.

9.19$/gallon here :(

Exactly my point, everyone has the right to bitch.

1.33 here

thats what they said about Iraq. We'd see $20 barrels of oil.

Same here, $70 to fill the tank.

$4.73 for premium... Oh well. it's a necessity. :)

Well IMP we ALL have 2 pay wayyyyyyy to much.

:)

exactly! NO WAR FOR OIL!!


er... uhm....

anyway.... what about that global warming....

:thumbsup

I'd rather pay $6 a gallon than drive that.

4.00?

gas here in porn valley is 4.87 now. station owner told me its going to be 5.50 by end of june.

You apparently didn't read the link.

I clicked on it and there was a picture of an ugly car. That was all I saw.

Trust me, I'm not surprised.

http://world.honda.com/news/2008/408.../images/01.jpg

What the fuck are you talking about?? :1orglaugh

I told you I looked at your ugly burgundy car. I looked at the white one, too. It looks better than the other. But I would still pay outrageously high gas prices rather than drive what's in that first pic.

actually instead of worrying about Alaska and the 1 years worth of oil, we should find out why iraq is only operating at a third of capacity? Until the dollar comes back gas is going to be expensive,there isnt a shortage.

Its not always that easy. Some people need their trucks for work, to tow trailers/boats, etc.

"There is no justification for the current rise in prices," Saudi Arabia says..

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...y/5828380.html

That's badass.

Interested to see what the other auto makers will come out with in this line. Better looking hydrogen fuel cell cars can't be far off on the horizon.

$4.09 per gallon? that's $1.08/liter - that's fucking cheap!!!

In EU, specially in my country (cz) gas costs $2 / liter - that's $7,56 per gallon

everyone's a capitalist when they feel its working in their benefit. the moment there is a backlash... suddenly everything is unfair, not working and broken and needs to change radically.

here's an idea... how about a free market economy? this is America right? the market will adjust, prices will come back down, vehicle fuel economies will improve tremendously, SUV's will become extinct for the most part, energy policies will change, alternative fuels will be explored more etc etc etc. Let the market do its job and suck it up. you had a good run. get over it.

as Europeans are pointing out, we have had absurdly low gas prices forever.

It's getting crazy!

I agree with you on almost everything you've said (the sentiment about Americans being capitalist when it pleases them), but as always, I need to reiterate this:
Europeans drive significantly less and they have subway systems in place.