Do you really care about fuel prices?

[porsche356a]

Environmental and political impacts aside...

Think of your take home income and what you are really spending percentage-wise to drive...

Run the math, does it matter?

[gprsh924]

For running and operating the cars in our family, it is an annoyance, but something crazy would have to happen for it to really have a significant impact.

However, it will start hurting a little bit at the lake when we run the ski boat, waverunner, and (hopefully) new pontoon boat all summer. We will probably go through 35-40 gallons of gas every weekend.

[kach22i]

I drive only 5,000 miles a year and it's killing me..............the rest of you are on your own.

Every man for himself.

[legion]

I figured out a few months ago that barring out-of-town trips, the wife and I use 12 gallons of gas a week, which is 48 gallons a month, and 576 a year.

Including out-of-town trips, we us about 870 gallons a year, or about $2,600 a year worth of gasoline. About 2.6% of our gross income.

[RANDY P]

Only hurts when I drive more than an hour at 16 MPG in the black truck.

In reality, I can handle the swings it's just mostly a bad annoyance. It's never going back down, face it.

rjp

[Tim Walsh]

I think this depends on what your threshold of significant is.. At the currently gas prices with the current MPG of our vehicles and our current driving habits, we're spending about 7-8% of our take home on gas... It's pretty significant to us.

I think we're in the minority of this board though. My wife is an itinerant teacher which is a double whammy(not much take home $ + LOTS of miles) and I live 30 miles from work. Combined total 800miles a week not counting any trips out of town. This combined with the lousy mileage that her truck gets(a 2.2L s10, but it's still ~25MPG) really adds up. EDIT: that's about 29 gallons a week.

Yes we're looking at conserving, Her truck is about to lose it's daily driver status for something much more economical.

[island911]

What hurts is the foreign dependence. ...unless it's from Canada, eh?

For those in colder climates, heating oil/gas costs are very significant..

[cl8ton]

Its annoying when pulling in to fill up, I care but not much I can do to control it!

Like the other poster, I will feel it this summer with my pontoon boat in the lake all summer
35-40 gals a weekend of already high lake/marina fuel.

Last year I was paying $4.85 at the marina!

[masraum]

Nope, I never even look at the cost to fill-up.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Of course I care, I never like spending more money. I haven't bothered to figure the percentage of our income that it constitutes, but $60 into my wife's SRX is never fun. I have changed my habits to help keep costs down, I replaced my Silverado with a Saab, folding utility trailer, and hitch for the SRX. I drive my 30 MPG Saab whenever possible. It helps that I only have a 5 minute drive from the house to both work and school, and that my son's school is even closer. This makes driving our gas-guzzling SUV family car less painful.

At what point would I change? What would I change? Quit going to work? Quit taking my son to school? Sure, we could trade the SUV for a minivan, but I'd be lucky to gain 4 MPG.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Of course I care, I never like spending more money. I haven't bothered to figure the percentage of our income that it constitutes, but $60 into my wife's SRX is never fun. I have changed my habits to help keep costs down, I replaced my Silverado with a Saab, folding utility trailer, and hitch for the SRX. I drive my 30 MPG Saab whenever possible. It helps that I only have a 5 minute drive from the house to both work and school, and that my son's school is even closer. This makes driving our gas-guzzling SUV family car less painful.

At what point would I change? What would I change? Quit going to work? Quit taking my son to school? Sure, we could trade the SUV for a minivan, but I'd be lucky to gain 4 MPG.

[Rick Lee]

I rarely look at the price, since I usually go to the station that I know has the best price around. When I'm on the bike, I really don't think about price, as you tend to take gas in your tank more seriously when out in the sticks on a bike. Wifey and I commute together in her Mini and I reckon we use about 17 gal. a week for that. Weekend stuff is negligble. This will all change when we move to Phoenix and she has a serious commute, I work from home and weekend trip distances are vast.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by island911

What hurts is the foreign dependence. ...unless it's from Canada, eh?

For those in colder climates, heating oil/gas costs are very significant..

Amen on that...we heat with oil. Gas lines came to our area 2 months AFTER I'd spent $7K having our heating system overhauled...not sure if the savings would be significant enough to switch to gas.

Driving? We only drive around 7,000 miles per year. Gasoline prices don't bother us much, other than it galls me to pay that much. I'm old...I can remember "gas wars"...19.9 for regular.

[Chocaholic]

I think you're missing the real story by focusing on your cost only at the gas pump. The cost of food and goods that require transportation over the road are also impacted. It's difficult to calculate the exact impact, but I'm reasonably convinced it's the primary culprit in our economic slow down. Much more than the mortgage fiasco (which has been overblown beyond recognition).

We live in a rural area...80 miles/day just to take and retrieve the kids to/from school. I'm 71 miles from the airport, 25 miles from the nearest small city. Add a ski boat, pontoon, jet ski, motorcycle and the gas bill around here definitely has an impact.

[porsche356a]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

I think you're missing the real story by focusing on your cost only at the gas pump. The cost of food and goods that require transportation over the road are also impacted. It's difficult to calculate the exact impact, but I'm reasonably convinced it's the primary culprit in our economic slow down. Much more than the mortgage fiasco (which has been overblown beyond recognition).

We live in a rural area...80 miles/day just to take and retrieve the kids to/from school. I'm 71 miles from the airport, 25 miles from the nearest small city. Add a ski boat, pontoon, jet ski, motorcycle and the gas bill around here definitely has an impact.

I realize that there are other costs, but I am just not seeing much of an impact.

But, I live in the city (40 mile round trip to work), walk a bunch, and don't have a family.

Granted my car choice isn't the most fuel efficient, but a few more MPG or a few bucks extra for food aren't worth a lifestyle change.

[jyl]

Wife drives appx 10K miles/yr, her Prius gets 40mpg average - 45mpg in summer, 35mpg in winter.

Assume gas could be $3.00 or $4.00/gal, assume her car could get 20mpg or 40mpg.

$3.00 and 40mpg = $750/yr on fuel
$4.00 and 40mpg = $1,000
$3.00 and 20mpg = $1,500
$4.00 and 20mpg = $2,000

So going from 20mpg to 40mpg vehicles saves $63 to $83/month, depending on gas price

Given already a 40mpg car, going from $3.00 to $4.00 costs $21/month more.

If had 20mpg car, would cost $42/month more.

Actually her old car got <15mpg, but never mind.

So, basically, you care less about higher gas price if your car gets better mileage, pretty obvious I guess.

[VINMAN]

Due to the fact that I have a 90 mile round trip commute. Yes it concerns me. Plus the price of diesel is killing me. Even though I get high teens- low 20's with my truck, it sucks.

My boat racing this year will take a hit. Im sure the race fuel will be up around $9.00 a gal.

[Scuba Steve]

Yeah, I care. Enough to take the train when the weather cooperates. $1.88 for a ticket each day (w/ company discount) vs. $4.55 in gas driving. It comes out to about $750 / year if I commute each day by train and gas is at $3.50/gallon.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

More annoying than anything.

It does however impact my travel plans. I don't travel much at all anymore. Too expensive but more to the point, there are too many (stupid) people on the roads in general nowadays. Especially on weekends. I'm better off staying put, not going out of town if I can avoid it, and just going for a bike ride or working on my cars at home.

The irony - I spend all this time & money on fixing up cars that I'm too afraid to ever drive for fear that I'll have some idiot slam into me, or because actually driving anywhere is too frustrating due to all the traffic/idiots. It certainly isn't enjoyable unless you're willing to head up to the canyons at about 5AM on a Sunday.

Welcome to SoCal.

[JavaBrewer]

My wife's Land Rover Discovery now costs $110 to fill up and climbing. We do that once a week. Short trips to school and store in a SUV sucks the gas harder than longer trips on the highway. I think she's averaging 9-10 mpg... I'm lucky in that I scaled back my commute times/days by working from home a couple days a week and commuting during off peak hourse to avoid traffic. My car, Audi TT, gets high 20's mpg average so that's ~ $100 month gas for me.

I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt. Sure I'd like to spend less, and we are changing our driving habits, mainly no more idle weekend driving around just to see stuff. I can't justify trading my wifes Disco for a more fuel efficient vehicle for two reasons

1. Wife loves her Disco. Serious home happiness issues would result if I replaced it with a Prius or econo car. Divorce would ensue if I put a minivan in the garage
2. Depreciation, sales taxes, insurance, registration, all these costs associated in replacing a vehicle buys alot gas. It would take years to balance.