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Some areas may see $4.00 gas in April (http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/10/news/economy/gas_prices/index.htm?cnn=yes)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Pumping_Gas.jpgCNN/Money - March 11, 2008

Hours after mentioning $3.20 gas - Ed

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Gasoline will hit a new record high price - perhaps as early as Tuesday - and experts say it will likely continue to soar in tandem with the skyrocketing price of crude.

The national average retail price for gas has already risen 26 cents in the last month, according to the motorist organization AAA. At $3.222 a gallon, it is less than a cent away from the all-time record.

And experts say motorists should prepare to pay nearly $4 a gallon - and in some places even more than that - before the price of gas finally comes down in the late spring as high prices crimp demand....http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/10/news/economy/gas_prices/index.htm?cnn=yes

Sure, gasoline is getting expensive, but a fuel efficient car sure helps absorb the spikes. A least for the short term. I am hopeful small diesel cars and cheaper hybrids are coming in the not to distant future.

Possible silver lining is this might help alternative energy.

i hope this will hit home with automakers and increased sales of fuel efficient and additional reduced sale of guzzlers, i'm sure even the gas-hog drivers can only bear so much.

One thing the article states is that gas will be back to $3 a gallon by summer? I don't see that. Some people seem to think that gasoline use is flexible. It is - but by very little. At $10 a gallon for gas - I couldn't/wouldn't change my use by much. I would probably hit the road at 50 mph instead of 60 but my driving is not optional.

Gasoline use is relatively inelastic. I don't see oil prices falling if so much of the reason is the falling dollar. So I don't see how you get back to $3 a gallon at $110 a barrel???

At 50 mpg - it really doesn't hurt much at all...

I'm sure that the American people will figure out how to use less gas. Autos that go 145 mph with 350 hp are a thing of the past. SUV, like a bad comb over are a thing of the past. Men driving trucks for a normal commutes so they can get their Marlboro man fantasies are a thing of the past. The bottom line is that we can reduce consumption faster than OPEC would have you believe!;)

I'm sure that the American people will figure out how to use less gas. Autos that go 145 mph with 350 hp are a thing of the past. SUV, like a bad comb over are a thing of the past. Men driving truck for a normal commutes so they can get their Marlboro man fantasy are a thing of the past. The bottom line is that we can reduce consumption faster than OPEC would have you believe!;)I hope you are right, but when I'm on the road, on most automotive forums, or reading most comments online to a fuel-economy issue, there's still a bunch of people that have the compulsion to guzzle.

Possible silver lining is this might help alternative energy.

Absolutely. The times are ripe for alternative thinking/energy.

When it comes down to it, I think pure electric cars in some form or another are the future.

About 2 years ago the pain of filling my F150 weekly (typically 32 gallons) had become ridiculous. Even though the F150 was long paid for, the cost of commuting in it was too much. I bought a 2007 TCH and my gas usage dropped to about 1/4 of what I was using. I was hoping for 35 mpg and to my amazement, I've been averaging about 44 mpg. That is a huge improvement over the ~12 mpg I often saw in rush hour driving with the old Ford.

I used to be thrilled if I eked out a 15mpg tank (only possible if there were no accidents the whole week, and traffic kept moving > 35mph - a real rarity in Southern California) Now I get a kick out of trying to get the mpg close to 50mpg. Last summer I managed to go just over 1,500 miles on 2 tanks, averaging 48mpg! Who would have thought the TCH could do so well?

My comment is I don't think I'm alone. There are a lot of folks out there driving SUVs and trucks that could be using half the gas (or less!) if they switched to a car, hybrid or not.

At $10 a gallon for gas - I couldn't/wouldn't change my use by much. I would probably hit the road at 50 mph instead of 60 but my driving is not optional.
There's the thing, a lot of our driving is not optional. We have to get to work, the shops etc. Having said that, there is an awful lot of optional driving going on.
My wife works with kids with disabilities and she says that Early Intervention is the key to minimising the damage done by illnesses to the kids. It got me thinking. I now believe that a form of early intervention is needed in schools for example to educate kids to be more calm in the world. This would have a huge knock on effect in later years. Gentler drivers is but one example. I know, i'm a dreamer and it'll never happen. :rolleyes:

ollie

More of the usual smoke and mirrors here preparing us "unwashed masses" for the next hyperinflation gouge that will plunge us deeper into recession.

Interesting to note, however that rising gasoline prices do not any longer raise "in tandem" with crude oil market prices, as the "experts" in this article say in the first paragraph. The oil cartel stopped following (and using as an excuse to raise gas prices) crude oil prices in April/May of last year. Before that the oil cartel fixed the price of gasoline and diesel strictly in accordance with the market price of crude.

My take on this move is that the oil cartel saw, as we all now quite clearly see, what their price collusion and price fixing is doing to this country. If the oil industry would have continued to follow the market price of crude this country would be in a 1930's depression now. They saw that you simply cannot precipitate hyperinflation like that on any economy without an ensuing disaster.

They are opting instead for a slow, painfully increasing recession.

And "relief may arrive by summer"?? Did that statement make it any easier for you all to take their news flash?? Hope against all hope??

By the way, their smoke and mirrors BS seems to me to be getting more and more illogical.

"The refiners are saying, 'Hey we're not making any money,'" said Tim Statts, vice president of risk management for Summit Energy, a firm that buys energy for big users. "The gasoline price almost has to come up to continue bringing the product to market."

Have you ever been handed a stinking pail of BS like that before?

"refiners are making about $6 off of every barrel of oil they turn into gasoline".

The capitalistic promise is coming apart at the seams? Who should we pass the hat around for?

The oil companies?

The poor investors who counted on the oil companies as "a hedge against inflation and the falling dollar"??

Our honorable duly elected officials who have allowed price fixing and collusion to be the oil industry "modes operandi" for decades??

No, I think we should pass the hat around for Joe Six Pack and his family. Joe just got the Silverado of his dreams but lost his job and is having his house foreclosed on. Now he doesn't have the money to start it.

Lets all pitch in and help Joe, eh?

$3.75 aint that bad, i paid $3.78 last week (diesel). I havent been to walmart as a result. I still ate out. I need to buy some shoes and shorts, which i plan on doing this week. Its almost like it made no difference in my daily life. I hope it goes as well for you guys when gas hits $3.75 as it did for me. :woot:

Still living, (just barely <-sarcasm)
Toast.

The interesting thing is that gasoline stocks are way above normal and still prices are sky high.

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/twip/gtstusm.gif

"refiners are making about $6 off of every barrel of oil they turn into gasoline".

So, with an estimated 20 million barrels used per day, this means that refiners make $120 million per day...I know it's not all going to the same refinery, but yeah, they're *really* hurting.