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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
re:What I haven't seen mentioned here is the fact that most other countries have automobiles that get 60 miles to the gallon (US or Imperial, I wonder?) or better. I'm not sure what kind of mileage the average US vehicle gets,
consumer choice. cheap gasoline makes gas guzzlers affordable.
ford (largest producer of SUV's in US) has noticed 'a drop off' in sales the past 30 days.. now they are offering no intrest for 5 years, + a rebate on their biggest SUV's.
some suckers will buy them. and then those of us, who are still buying used, not new cars, will find a greater percentage of vechicles for resale are these same gas guzzlers.
if we had a national policy to set gasoline prices at a realistic level (not just the producers cost, but the cost to environment, and to the military expenditures for 'supporting' oil producing nations,) we too, would be paying $5 to $6 a gallon, and we too, would find it easy to purchase a high milage car.
[end of basic economics rant!]
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Why, Dixbie, mercy me, I plumb forgot the difference in the gallons. Say $5.20 a US gallon. Better? But it WILL be £6.50 a US gallon before too long ... 
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
consumer choice. cheap gasoline makes gas guzzlers affordable.
Not so. Perhaps "the choices of the 90+% of consumers who find whatever the product may be within their *lazy grasp"... but to suggest this is anywhere close to "demand side" economics would be the same as claiming that the lazier you can be the better your "quality of life". I respectfully disagree.
Gas guzzlers make cheap gasoline necessary.
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
But how much of that is taxes? It doesn't make sense to try to compare gasoline prices unless you factor out the taxes, which are nothing more than government's attempt to achieve some social end. Many places I go I see little decals on gas pumps that tell you how much you are paying in taxes per gallon. Do you left bankers concur that taxation is pretty high on petrol?
When we were in Ireland last summer, I noticed that almost all of the cars were new (perhaps less than five years old), and I seem to recall that someone told me that the Irish Government had in effect bought up all the old cars.
I'm wondering if the very high taxes on petrol funded this effort, which is of course a social desire to have fewer gas guzzlers on the road.
BTW, the little Punto I rented got phenomenal gas mileage. Peggy asked me just the other day why we could not buy one here.
TEd
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771 |
Until our infrastructure catches up to fuel cell technology, the hybrids (props to Toyota & Honda) are the best interim step. Thus spake the driver of the Treehugger.
Honestly, I've never once regretted buying my Prius.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
Until our infrastructure catches up to fuel cell technology...
Nah... Until the millions of people that drive realize that they don't need 250 horsepower to go back and forth to work in 25mph congestion...
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
Nope, until either gas becomes too expensive or the oil supply runs out ...
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
It doesn't make sense to try to compare gasoline prices unless you factor out the taxes
That's true if you're just looking at the price of gasoline; if you're looking at the cost of filling up your car you dang well better keep those taxes in there.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
Hard-up German police buy petrol in Poland
ANANOVA -- Hard-up police in Eastern Germany are dodging taxes by buying their petrol in Poland.
Police spokesman Detlef Lueben said officers in the Oder district of Frankfurt took the step because of rising petrol prices.
One in five patrol cars gets its petrol from a Polish filling station, Lueben confirmed.
Compared to German prices, a litre of petrol costs about 20p less in Poland.
But the move doesn't just save money, it also means police are avoiding paying a special German environmental tax on fuel.
A spokesperson for the mineral oil trading association said a body like the police shouldn't be dodging taxes, the Berliner Kurier reports.
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
From the Welsh “Daily Post” - some comments from the owner of a small haulage company:
'The hauliers protested that more than 75% of the cost of fuel in the UK went in duty.
Dai Owen, who has been in the haulage industry since 1958, said he used to run 18 trucks on the Continent.
But he said cheaper foreign competition had hit his business.
"They have cheaper fuel, cheaper insurance, cheaper vehicles and use Bulgarian drivers for £40-a-week. We can't compete," he said.'
When I'm driving at speed past a long line of these eastern European trucks I have the odd worry as to whether their roadworthyness checks are as rigorous as ours. Dunno, they probably are, but I do wonder...
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