Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/22 for details.
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/22 for details.
Options
Report Your Local Gas Prices Here (retired discussion, please see the new one)
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Back in 2008, I had to drive the 5th Ave up for Spring Carlisle when the Intrepid died. It rained something fierce all the way home, and the tires on that car are, to put it nicely, "marginal". I was probably averaging 45-55 mph all the way home, probably never got above 60. Thankfully the rain was fierce enough to make everybody slow down, so I wasn't holding up traffic at those speeds. Anyway, on that trip home, I got 18.3 mpg. Yet this past weekend, running more like 65-75 mph, depending on traffic, and even hitting 80-85 a couple times, I still managed 18.
I think gas here has fallen a dime or so in the past few weeks...I think I paid around $3.10 for Chevron premium.
Plus, there would be tank-to-tank measuring error, which you can't do anything about, since you only take it on long trips a couple of times a year. Now if you want halfway across the country and back (probably not what you'd want to do with a 30-year-old car
Yeah, just a 3-speed automatic, but it has a tall 2.45:1 axle ratio, so at mid-range speeds it's pretty quick to downshift to second, which is a 1.45:1 ratio (for a multiplication of ~3.55:1) At higher speeds it's torquey enough to just stay in 3rd.
Plus, there would be tank-to-tank measuring error, which you can't do anything about, since you only take it on long trips a couple of times a year.
I always try to top the car off, and as soon as the pump shuts off, I'll usually try to round up just a bit, to the next 5 or 10 cents. Still, I realize those pumps can vary when they shut off. I wonder how much it can vary from tank to tank? It has a 21 gallon tank. I wonder if it could vary by as much as a gallon, from fill up to fill up?
I've recorded over 20 mpg three times with the car. Got 22.5 on the day I bought the car, bringing it home from West Va. Got 21.9 in 2008 when I drove up to the Mopar Nats in Carlisle. And just this past summer, I got 21.4 doing that same trip. On those trips when I go directly out to Carlisle, the terrain is more level. This past weekend and the weekend before I went to Harrisburg, around the Baltimore Beltway and up I-83, and that route's a lot more hilly.
I've also tracked overall mpg for the car since I bought it back in October 2001. A somewhat depressing 11.5 mpg, overall.
did you try to pump up the tires?
11.5 is worse than my kids get driving the explorer.
239 hp v8 4wd with 3.73 axle ratio and a 300 watt system with subwoofer.
the louder the music, the worse the mileage.
RUG is touch under 2.50.
Screwy
Oil was up around $78 bbl. yesterday. Are we going to have this speculator crap happen again? With everybody still out of work I don't think we can blame it on the SUVs anymore.
Maybe Soros needs a new boat.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
Oh, and we're at $2.42 at the Mustang Giant station in little 'ole Willcox, AZ. Down about 3 cents from a week ago. Been feelin' it's time for a price change but it's not happenin' very fast here in the desert SW. Not much does happen very fast here, though.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
Oh yea, a dime bump to $2.57 in snowy Happy Valley
Or even to PR releases from some arm of the oil industries suggesting there is an excuse for raising prices such as a routine shutdown of a refinery portion to do what is actually routine maintenance or such as needing to produce more fuel oil for the NorthEast (is that going to work this year?) or to explain why all the oil currently being stored isn't really a factor in pricing.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
By DIRK LAMMERS
(AP) - Despite persistently low demand, prices for gasoline have spiked over the past week along with crude oil, threatening one of the very few points of relief for the recession-stricken U.S. consumer: Cheap gas.
That may be frustrating for consumers with few signs people are driving more now than during what was a dismal summer for the travel industry. People aren't buying much gasoline.
"I wish it could go down under $2," said Cheryl Couture, 50, who was filling up at a Speedway station in Columbus, Ohio, where a gallon had risen to $2.55.
Couture has watched as gas prices have ticked higher. Prices have risen for three straight weeks, reaching a national average of $2.574 per gallon of unleaded regular, the Energy Information Administration said Monday.
Our prices in central VA have risen in the last couple of weeks, but you can still find RUG for under $2.40.
Regular fell .04 a gallon here to an average of $2.65 at most stations.
And we've had a house guest all week who has been driving my Subaru around town, and he filled the tank up for me, so I'm a bit ahead for the month.
You tell me. I was basing it on the 6 days I spent in Evansville running on Shell RUG at $2.29 per gallon. I put 275 miles on that tank of gas and got 16.84 MPG. It was much more stop and go than at home. With short 2 mile trips to my daughters from the hotel and out to dinner. longest trip on that tank was to the Audubon Museum 30 miles away in Henderson KY during rush hour traffic. I think the formula for gas in CA is designed for lower mileage. Maybe closer to 10% of that worthless ethanol. I used mostly Shell on the trip to get my 5% discount. The prices were much more consistent in a given area of the country. Here you can have 50 cents difference across the street. Maybe the high priced Chevron would render a higher MPG.
The Gas City has E85 for $2.66, 87 octane for $2.76
One Speedway had one sign 87 octane for $2.759 with 89 octane for $2.859. Then on their other sign the prices were reversed. :confuse:
Just this past Saturday (10/17), I had filled up the Intrepid for $2.369 (87)
Must have been that huge increase in demand or decrease in supply. Oh wait, neither of those things happened, silly me
Sunoco at Rhawn and Verree in NE Philly:
RUG = $2.63
Ultra = $2.89
It's not such a shock when they've been overcharging you for months on end already. :P
Like pf_flyer said, what the heck is going on? Are things reversed now, demand is down so prices go up? Pre-Halloween rush? Too much rain? I really don't beleive it's just the dollar having a slight decrease in value as being the sole reason.
Same here. Looking over my records I actually paid more per gallon yesterday than I did at this time last year!! Earlier in the month I was paying over a dollar less when compared to last year.
Let your wife know that in-tank pumps really don't like constantly being ran empty, the fuel actually helps keep them cool. But seeing as it's a GM I'm sure the tank probably has about 3 ~ 5 gallons left when the gauge reads empty.
Heck, Hondas are somewhat like that as well.
I think we've created the equivalent of a few full time jobs around here when you add up the time of guys going up to change teh pump prices every day. We've broken $2.50 here.
In the city over the weekend I saw prices as high as $3.10 and as low as $2.85 for 87 octane.
It's hard to tell if prices are going to decrease further the more we go into winter - last year this time prices began to plummet.
Hmm, that's good to know. Maybe that's one reason why my Intrepid's low fuel light comes on when it still has about 4 gallons left, while my '79 New Yorker, which still uses the old mechanical pump mounted at the front of the engine, triggers the light with only two gallons left.
I'm sure those in-tank fuel pumps aren't exactly cheap to replace, either.
But I do usually fill up before the light comes on. And you're absolutely right that in-tank pumps aren't cheap to replace.
We're now in the low $2.50s range for RUG in central VA. But there are huge variations for the higher grades -- some places have the once-typical 10-cent increments, while others are pushing nearly 20 cents! I guess it says premium buyers aren't as price sensitive.
I rarely fill up until my tanks get down to E though, and often not until the light comes on, and I've never burnt a fuel pump up.
Gas remains $2.69 for regular here in Boise. It's been holding there for weeks and weeks.
Most times you have to drop the tank to get to them, or remove the truck bed; a few vehicles have access panels but even then it's a pain. :sick: Oh, and most seem to go right after you fill the tank
Also about all in-tank pumps are pusher design, as are most aftermarket external electric pumps. They push fuel better than pull while the on-block, lever-type pumps are puller; they have the lever creating the vacuum or "pull", to pull the fuel to the carb.
If you belong to Sam's Club or have a Kroger discount card, you can get it for a little less.
Got back home and was immediately $.20 cheaper!
Also found that while pretty thrifty on highways that Impalas get awfully thirsty around town!
When we drive to NYC to see our sons, we always fill up here in VA before we leave and then again in Jersey.
Our RUG is still slowly drifting downward, to $2.48 at Hess and $2.49 at Sheetz.
I have noticed my old fill-up station (Jewel) is now matching the Mobil and Shell in prices for each grade. Before they increased each grade in price by 10 cents with Mobil and Shell increasing by 11 ~ 15 cents between the grades. Now Jewel is running the same, an 11 cent increase between 87 & 89, 13 cent increase between 89 and 93, matching Mobil & Shell.
lemko, "How does gas at $4 and higher impact you?" #2176, 20 Nov 2009 8:15 am
I'd say bragging. Last time I filled up my '76 LeMans, I didn't even do that well!
The two Pontiacs hit me to the tune of about $45 apiece. Pickup got me for about $43. The NYer was the most painful, at around $53, but the last time I put gas in it was in June!
As for pricing, gas went back up a bit. $2.899 at the Citgo for 93, $2.919 at the Shell. And today, I hit one of each, as gas stations will sometimes give you a hassle if you try to use your credit card more than once in a short amount of time.
$2.73 regular (pricey, and the durn pump was slow. The bicycle cop rousting people in the alley made the wait easier though.
$2.87 for mid-grade
$2.97 for premium
$2.95 for diesel. That's a little bit bigger differential over regular than usual.