Are the normies noticing rising gas prices yet? Gas is at a multi-year high price.
 

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1521990073

Gas prices in the US & Canada are back to high points for 2018, and within ~8c of a multi-year high in the US.

UPDATE, April 17: 3 weeks later, prices are now at 2+ year highs, touching 2.74 / gallon in the U.S.

Have normal people started to notice yet? Or are the crew-cab pick-up truck commuter vehicles still flying off the lots?

I know they've noticed in Vancouver, B.C., which recently hit all-time highs (owing to a combination of factors including refinery issues affecting supply).

I think I've been seeing more "5 ways to save gas" types of news alerts than usual lately.

But what really made me take notice was last week 2 friends emailed me out of the blue asking about fuel-saving cars.

One wanted to know the best fuel-miser for his once-a-week 800 km / 500 mi round-trip commute (commercial pilot who drives to Toronto for his 3-day shift flying the giant jets around the world). Previously this was never a topic of conversation.

Another (musician / music teacher who drives to gigs around the area) wanted to know my opinion of the Nissan Leaf EV.

On the other hand, they both already drive 4-cylinder compacts (Impreza 5-speed; non-ECO-Cruze automatic). So maybe they don't really count as normies?

I think people have noticed. I over heard someone complaining about fuel costs the other day. And I think speeds on the freeway are inversely proportional to the price of a gallon of gasoline. People seem a little slower right now!

Compare those prices to for example finnish prices, feels cheap again :D
Would be around 6.5 dollars per gallon.

Yup. It's all relative.

Do the Finns care or do anything different when the prices increase further?

Yup, driving 60 MPH on the highway has people passing me at the same rate as they used to at 65 MPH...people are definitely limited themselves to 5 over instead of 10 over the speed limit it seems lol.

I've heard comments at work about how high it is...but I haven't heard anyone talking about having to trade in for something more economical.

In this little town/city, there's nowhere to go, unless you're commuting in to get to work. Those are the people who tend to drive semi economical vehicles.

This is unlike 8-10 years back, when it flew up to new highs (pretty much the price it was before the latest jump), when everyone was moaning and groaning...when you compare it to the rest of the cost of living here, it's barely noteworthy.

I'm seeing a lot of memes, especially in California. Apparently they're over $4/gallon in some places.

I guess the price rise is due to the Saudis giving up trying to starve out competitors?

IDK: Around here (northern Nevada) prices don't seem to have gone up recently.

I guess we cut down the "for fun" drives a bit.
Econocars are popular here, at least for commuting.
I don't know what would be the tipping point for gas prices where people would do something drastic about it

A big part of gas prices are taxes. Taxmoney brings lots of good things.
That sure went off topic :D carry on.

My wife and I noticed a few local dealer lots have very few cars, both new and used. Virtually all the inventory is in suv's and trucks.

There was a very cheap 2016 Prius V a few states away.

I wanted to get all affected parties to take a test drive with me to see if the seats were useable on a road trip to certain posteriors.

I went to the only local Prius dealer remembering that they had a lot full of the things in 2015.

They only had one Prius in the entire lot, it was a Gen IV and I wasn’t even allowed to sit in it because it was parked up the fake hill ready to take off.

The whole giant lot was full of minivan like vehicles and trucks, only about 5 cars in total out of hundreds on the lot.

How things have changed

Ironically, my wife is going to start working soon and since she has the family car, we're likely going to be looking at full size suv's. I think the Lexus hybrids will be outside our budget though.

Gas is still pretty low around here, $2.3x. I was just planning my road trip for the GGP and noticed it's significantly higher in Pennsylvania ($2.8x), lower in NJ ($2.4x), and about the same in OH as it is here. Meanwhile, at my parents' local station in WA, it's $3.29. That's nearly a dollar price spread just based on where you happen to be.

I don't know what you mean by "normies", but I assume it's some sort of folks who get an oversized truck or SUV with at least 6 cylinders mostly due to peer-pressure than to a real necessity.

On the other hand, since an overwhelming majority doesn't really have any enthusiasm for cars and see them mostly as an appliance, it's quite easy to assume your friends who own the Impreza and the Cruze might qualify as "normie".

It won't get too much higher with so many ev's available and growing in popularity. No way it hits $4/gallon (national average) again.

My last fillup was the highest price per gallon (2.479) without going back a page on fuelly, but many of my fillups within the past 2 months have been right around $2.40 a gallon. Personally, I can't wait for gas prices to rise, I started driving right when the gas prices started backing down, so I never got to see how normal people drive when gas prices are high. Hopefully they will tone down their idiotic driving.

Just made the comment tonight when I saw $3.00 gas. Don't know why people live their lives reacting to the moment instead of anticipating the future.

My sister just got a $4x,xxx Toyota 4runner. Probably gets terrible fuel economy, but it seems nice. I've been on the lookout for a Chevy Spark EV, but they sure are hideous. Trying to hint to my wife that it will be her next vehicle, but I might have to go Lexus 450h.

Living in Buffalo Chip, Flyover county, I'm semi-insulated from gas price swings. I say semi-insulated because generally if there is any excuse to raise the price they are on it like flies on isht but when market forces seem to indicate pressure to lower prices they take their sweet time. That said, the local prices have barely budged all winter.

Don't be so optimistic in that regard...

In the height of $4+ gas, people were still driving it like they stole it.

They were trying to get to the gas station before the price went up again.

With respect to fuel economy, drivers who don't regularly visit a dedicated fuel economy forum are probably normies. :)

Not much hope, because so much idiotic driving has nothing to do with speed or fuel economy. They can talk on their cell phones just as well at 55 as at 75 :-(

^ HAHA! (Don't deep six that one, Old Tele Man!)

I have stopped at the same truck stop for the last couple of months and paid $2.259 a gallon, but suddenly it is $2.559, and I do not see any lower prices in my five-hour drive.

I do not know how worried to feel about that since I just quit my job and moved. I do not know how much I will be driving and where the cheapest gas in my route will be.

I drove 511 miles today and was looking forward to getting cheap gas in the Phoenix area, but when I checked, the lowest in the entire valley was $2.339. I stopped in a small town twenty miles north of my hotel when my gas tank read empty. As far as I know, it was the only gas station in town. It was dimly-lit, most of the pumps were out of order, but those that did work were so close together that if someone was already at the adjacent one, you needed to wait, because the hose did not reach your fuel tank.

Then I saw that it was $2.899.

Three dollars' worth of gas was more than enough to get to Phoenix.

The interesting part was that I was repeatedly delayed leaving home, and needing to drive 511 miles, I drove 75 in a 75, and 70 in a 65, instead of 65 throughout. Most drivers flew past me, but for half an hour or forty-five minutes, as I drove south from Flagstaff up and down mountains, it seemed like hardly anyone drove the speed limit, and I was passed very few times. It was interesting to see a semi struggling up a mountain in a 75 zone. I felt quite excited passing them. I made sure to carefully read each speed limit sign because yes, I was driving the speed limit, but nobody else was.

However, once it leveled out everybody drove like they were trying to attract the police.

How much would you like me to pontificate on this subject? Driving a semi myself, I see all kinds of behaviors, but what you described there in the mountains, I see regularly from coast-to-coast.

That makes some sense, but anyway, even though most "normies" are aware of the importance of fuel economy due to budget constraints (at least in a s#!thole country like mine) the overwhelming majority of them actually don't even lurk about finding a fuel economy forum. They're still more likely to look at model-specific forums where showing off becomes actually more important than looking for an actual solution to what they perceive as a problem.

front page news
 

OK, I don't remember the last time I've seen a fuel efficient car advertised on the front page...

Today's Ottawa Citizen:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1522329974

I am confident they will sell by the dozens, at least!

That’s an understatement.

I’ve tried to show how just a change in approach to solo driving can underwrite RV vacation travel. I NEVER get takers responding with questions, even after I’ve detailed experience and showed numbers. Long posts. Going back a decade. Nothing difficult. Just records and some planning.

Think about it: 5,000-miles of “free” fuel to go on the average RV driving vacation (one trip or many).

Last December while I was taking some days off at my mom's apartment in Florianópolis, I saw an ad for the local Volvo dealer on the last page of Diário Catarinense featuring a XC60 hybrid. But it's not even available in Brazil (by now only the XC90 is locally available in hybrid versions).

Don't feel bad - it's been around $2.80-2.90 herebouts for a long time ($2.50-2.60 if I need to go to Carson City).

Been quite a while since I drove that way, but isn't it basically downhill all the way?

When you go south from Flagstaff it warns you of eighteen miles of downhill grades, but there are definitely uphill portions. I usually downshift to stay around the speed limit, but once I get closer to the bottom, I often cost in neutral. The uphill portion bleeds off my excess speed and requires me to start accelerating again.

When I drive from Phoenix to Show Low people always pass me going uphill, so I felt surprised they drove differently south of Flagstaff.

I just checked, and the average price is at a 3 year high in Canada.

confirmation bias?
 

Today: the first time I've ever seen an online ad for the Pacifica hybrid ... "SAVE GAS!"

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1522794163

I'm glad I "upgraded" when I did.

The ad at the top of this page is for a 2017 RAM 2500 crew cab that has total "savings" up to more than what I paid for either of my current cars. Not sure if it's because there's a market for them or they're desperate to get rid of them. Either way, I'm gonna have to pass.

Where do we place our bets on whether or not economy cars will start appreciating in value?

I think people in the market for a new vehicle are regretting the SUV they bought only 5 years ago.

Really glad I learned about ecomodding and saving gas when I lived in Canada. I fill up for less than $30 and I go over 500 miles between fill ups in my 2010 Insight and +700 miles in my 2000 Insight!

I switched to a 2001 Insight back in 2015 out of necessity, gas was like $4/gallon where I lived in Ontario at the time, and I was making minimum wage part-time doing factory work. Ever since then I've never looked back!

Yeah, and even after the "savings", they're still asking enough to pay off my mortgage :-(