"High gas price amnesia" is setting in again

[MetroMPG]

Image: A Siegel

Fuel prices are dropping, following oil prices down. They're near 4 year lows lately.

I read a good phrase recently describing car buyers who have "high gas price amnesia". (It's about the U.S., though it probably applies to many other countries as well.) When fuel prices drop, they buy a lot fewer efficient cars and head for thirstier crossovers, SUV's and pickups, without thinking of what's happened in the past and is likely to happen again:

Consumers, Krafcik says, just seem to have short-term memories. "I think it's fairly interesting from a cultural memory standpoint, that American car buyers, for the most part, don't seem to have memory of gas prices two, three or six months ago," he says.

The comment was made in an article specifically about hybrids, because sales are off ~5% while overall auto sales are increasing.

Of course, right now we're seeing the same trend here in the forum: Overall activity (post/threads and visitors/searchers) tracks oil prices very closely, so it's no surprise there's less activity now than there was a few months ago.

[Daox]

Yep, I saw $2.99 for regular this morning. I should go buy a truck! (Oh, wait I already have one )

[Xusn96]

My last tank fill on Monday 11/27 was @ 2.899. It's wonderful and still too high all at the same time. I'll be really thrilled if it ever gets below $2 and stays. That actually makes a difference in the pocketbook. an I remember 6 months ago, it was 3.899 here in WI IIRC.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Xusn96

That actually makes a difference in the pocketbook. an I remember 6 months ago, it was 3.899 here in WI IIRC.

Whereas instead of going about three weeks on $20 worth, I can now stretch it to a full month.

[cowmeat]

I don't care if gas prices fall below two bucks a gallon, I still want to conserve as much gas as possible!
If my hypermiling in the Insight cancels out the effects of just one gap toothed git-er-done in his big dumb F250 dually with his inbred kids and pitbull hanging off the side rails in the back, glaring at me as they roll coal around me . . . . . then maybe there will be some gas left when my grand kids start to drive.

[jcp123]

Yeah, getting MPG has become a more ingrained hobby for me. It's been 9 years since I started the hobby, and although I haven't had the bug to pursue many mods or take up more drastic hypermiling techniques, I am still irked when someone else is in the captain's chair of my Echo or it rains, or a school bus stops off in front of me, etc. If I had the hot rod I plan to start next year, I may not care about that, but otherwise, I have some sort of strange internal drive to strain for good numbers on that MPG record. 40+ is pretty good for me, more is impressive (I do miss the salad days of the mid-40s I was getting) but I am satisfied. Under 7 cents/g at current prices means I'd make decent profits were I sent anywhere and paid for mileage.

[RustyLugNut]

Originally Posted by cowmeat

I don't care if gas prices fall below two bucks a gallon, I still want to conserve as much gas as possible!
If my hypermiling in the Insight cancels out the effects of just one gap toothed git-er-done in his big dumb F250 dually with his inbred kids and pitbull hanging off the side rails in the back, glaring at me as they roll coal around me . . . . . then maybe there will be some gas left when my grand kids start to drive.

And when needed, will use synthetic hydrocarbon fuels.

[user removed]

8 days, 20 bucks, 274.6 miles, $2.709 agallon. A little over 7 cents a mile in a $300 car.

If that is not cheap enough I can ride the bike for half that.

I remember 12.9 cents a gallon from over 50 years ago.

regards
mech

[tvbd56]

day by day I see the gas prices dropping 2-5 cents here in sacramento. It's a good thing but in the back of my mind it makes me think that it's not going to take a lot longer to pay off the money I have put into my car in gas savings

[Arragonis]

Thanks to the high taxes we pay here a litre of Diesel has tumbled from a heady £1.29 to a (gasp) £1.22.

To get to US prices per gallon multiply that by 3.96 (litres to wimpy US Gallons - and yes the spelling is Litres and not Liters because Litres is French - deal with it) and then multiply by 1.60 (GBP to USD).

And yes we pay 40% tax on top of that, but we have an NHS