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Maybe this is a good time to start a moped retail outfit  :shock:

100+ mpg

With each moped you buy, you get a bumper sticker for the Mercede's.

"My other vehicles a Puch"

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

I think more people will do the type of thing Keith has done... Private get togethers, take turn partying outdoors someplace and meeting where you aren't bothered by restrictions, and abhorrent expenses of travel.... Some will take turns throwing larger open parties at their home assuming they have a safe area to do-so... Folks like me will be thrilled to jam again even for little pay, and we will likely revert back to our HighSchool days again... Pre-bar.. We were on our own to find a means of recreation... People are traveling less to local lunch shops and fewer grab coffee at Starbucks, and bagel shops first thing AM now around here... On a positive note, HOPEFULLY this will be the reason FEWER smoke,  they can't afford it.. Yet that will likely be the ONLY positive thing to come out've this...Due to stress tho others will also begin smoking that can afford it...  This is pretty ugly, really is.. How about those older imports such as the two-cylinder Honda's ?   Is that a possibility again, less powerful auto's that get higher mpg ?

Only positive thing I can foresee is people depending less on their cars, actually using bicycles, and even walking a few miles rather than living in their car and driving 30 feet to get a newspaper, mail, etc..  Might end up healthier but who knows... (this assumes gas prices shoot up well over $6 per gallon and stay there)

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

I guess I'm lucky.....I live 7 miles from where I work.

It is a straight 4 lane road all the way with no stop signs or traffic lights on the way to work-takes me 10 minutes to commute....I go 3 weeks on a tank of gas, sometimes longer....It holds 21 gallons and gets 15 MPG, and anywhere I need to stop is on the way to/from work.

Even if it gets to 5/gal it won't bother me financially....But many folks won't be so lucky....They have to drive farther, deal with traffic and traffic controls and then do the kid/school/daycare thing plus find a reason to shop everyday including driving to lunch......

Keith, Thing is at 10-20 mpg,   at what gas prices, for what duration would it become impractical for you not to get a smaller vehicle that offers MUCH better gas mileage ?   For many it seems rediculous to not buy a more economical vehicle, which would end up payed for in a short time assuming commute distance, and prices are high enough.  Now would probably be the time to purchase a decent used subcompact vehicle before they start selling on the used market like hotcakes...and dealerships jack up the prices of the 4 cylinder Suburu, Mazda, Toyota, Honda, etc


Scary to think that at some point just saving 15 gallons of gasoline will be a savings of over $100.. 10 mpg city driving becomes unaffordable transportation I'd think...Given enough of a commute.  7 miles shouldn't affect you, yet high enough gas prices, people will need to pinch EVERY drop they can...

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Actually, I'm waiting for GM to get in worse shape AND for gas prices to go up more before I buy a new truck.

GM is already in trouble and starting to cut the heck out of their large pickups...As the gas prices go up, even fewer folks will buy big trucks and the price will get even lower....I want a new 4 door dually for hauling horses....I bet I can get a great price on one before the end of the year.

Oh yeah Keith,  Depending on what happens trucks will be a buyers market for sure !  Either that or production will drop, and keep up with the lesser demand, I'll bet they are reducing some right now.  I don't think they'll ever drop prices too far, they'll just sit on their stock,, What's the outlook regarding how long this situation is expected to last anyway ?  IS this because of a possibility of war with Iran now ?

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

It's more than just Iran...Iran war talk is bad enuff and hurts the markets and causes high oil prices, but it really goes much beyond that....We are in serious trouble Steven....Life will soon change here for all of us...We are flat broke and deeply overextended....The world will soon foreclose on us.

Go look at the currency markets for the last 100 days and you will see how sharply our dollar has fallen....The housing bubble is starting to burst....Folks are getting stuck with more home than they can pay for and huge credit card debts, or second mortgages they used to pay off credit card debt....or both.

The increased gas prices are the final straw for many who were barely gettin by already....They had too much house, too much credit card debt, and increasing ARM mortgages in a deflating housing market....now they got homes they owe more on they they are worth, and their payments are going up due to rate increases while the market value goes down....And don't forget that last Jan the feds forced the credit card companies to more than double the minimum payments folk must make on their outstanding balances.

AND don't forget that we just passed new bankruptcy laws that make it much harder for folks to erase unsecured debts.

Steven, folks never saw this coming, but the banks did.

The banks made it super easy last 10 years to get too deep in debt...Greenspan worked with them to keep interest rates artificially low...Many, many folks then bought houses with questionable credit, where they bought too much house, and they bought them with ARM mortgages, then after a few years when the housing bubble artificially inflated their home values, they got equity loans to pay off their credit cards...Now the bubble is bursting-interest rates are going up, credit cards payments have doubled, house can't be sold for what is owed on them, and gas prices are going thru the roof....And folks can't discharge those debts in bankruptcy.

The USA is quickly becoming enslaved to the world banks.....And those banks are fixing to foreclose.....All of us will be working for less than minimum wage soon.

Keith around 1973 there was another gasoline shortage, I recall around that time NRBQ released "Get that gasoline" blues.... What was the cause of that, and what range did gasoline prices fall within during those days ?  any recollection ?  I don't recall what caused that shortage but people were siphoning gas out've cars all over.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

That was 1973 when OPEC stopped shipping oil to countries that supported Israel....It caused long lines at gas stations and huge price increases.

That gas shortage was nothing compared to what is fixing to happen.

From Cera.. :Gasoline and the AMerican people:
(this is an older article but it show's what transpired in the past...I don't recall how high gasoline prices got in 1973, for some reason during the 70's decade it appears they were highest around 1979 but that doesn't make sense, does it ?)


Price: To make sense of price, one must think in inflation-adjusted terms. Those with longer memories might remember 30 cent a gallon gasoline from the 1960s; but, in today's prices, that would be the equivalent of $1.75. More people will remember the $1.25 from 1980. But today that would equivalent to over $2.50 per gallon. For the purposes of comparison, let us put all gasoline prices into inflation-adjusted dollars. We use 1999 real or constant prices (which, owing to low inflation, are very close to current prices). With that, it becomes clear that the long-term trend in gasoline prices is down. The major exceptions are the periods of crisis -- the oil shock years of the 1970s and the Gulf Crisis of 1990-91. Since 1991, gasoline prices (again inflation-adjusted) have continued to come down, and even at the high prices of this spring are considerably lower than they were in the 1950s and 1960s in most areas of the United States. One of the main reasons for the declining price trend are the continuing pressures on companies to reduce costs in refining and marketing in order to stay competitive.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

It was proven to be artficially, and intentionally created by oil companies(years after), and nothing more has ever been said.....I was going to college, and pumping gas part time.....the lines were never ending, but a four or five hour shift went by like it was only 30 minutes.....kept me hopping constantly.......

Johnny, Any recollection as to what gasoline prices peaked at around 1973 (per gallon at the pump) ?  I don't recall... I was a senior in HS in 1973, using the parents Plymouth Valiant, yet don't recall what I paid per gallon peak here in Southern New England  (CT)  during that time period.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

seems to me upper 70s maybe some place actual hit a buck or more...not by me though.....don't quote me.....we both better look it up........take care.....jj

73-73 was the gas crisis.  Waiting in long lines.   Some stations didn't have gas.

'73 wasn't so much a price thing, it was the fact that it was really hard to find gas.....There were hours long lines and rationing....you could only buy gas on certain days and only maybe 10 gallons at a time.

The '79 crisis was different. You could buy all you wanted, but at a very high price...THAT crisis was artificialy create to boost the price....I had bought a new '78 Honda Civic and sold it a year later for a lot more than I paid for it cause it got 43 MPG.....People were on a 6 month list to buy a new Honda then cause they got such good mileage.....You added your name to the list and had no choice on color or options.

Well,  At least you didn't purchase the Toyota Starlet... Something like 3 cylinders, 55 mpg highway, and you had to push it up an inclined roadway.  I got a 4 door Honda Civic around 81-82... Nice little car, great mileage..Only problem was that the metal on these cars was about as sturdy as tinfoil... 7-8 years after they stopped producing the style  (that looked like a little BMW), nice classy little shape, you no longer saw any on the road, they gutted out....rusted terribly., engines were OK, body's were horrible.. Remember Cadillac's answer to the "gas" prices ?    They made that little Cimmeron  LOL
..hehe...Yeah Datsun, Toyota, Honda, Suburu. Mazda, chevy, and ford had the smaller cars out..I guess Chevy made the chevette, Ford made the escort, The subcompact's I looked at were the Mazda GLC and 323, Suburu, Honda civic, VW Jetta, etc...

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Yep, I bought the '78 Honda new in late '77 for $3008 total including taxes/title and delivery...Then a year later soild it for $4100 when people were waiting on a list to buy a new one....That little sucker would tow my boat (14' sailboat) with no trouble....It had plenty of power and was really fun to drive.

I was working in a chevron station during the 72-73 gas shortage. Price per gallon was about .26 per gallon and peaked about .49 at the end.

That shortage was one of the first tests on Americans and how they would react during an energy crisis. The station I worked at never ran out of gas and would get their tanks topped of twice a week. The owner of the station made a small fortune on price hiking. He also made out really good on service work as he made sure all customers that had their service work done there always had their tanks full.

He retired about 3 years after that shortage and moved to Cabo!

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