YMMV and the EPA ratings

[altivo]

Gasoline prices have dropped a bit here this week. While Harvard (where I work) only went down five or six cents, Marengo (nearest city to where I live) has dropped by 24 cents a gallon in a week. This leaves a 14 cent discrepancy between Harvard's prices and Marengo's, for which there can be no justifiable explanation. The two towns are both located at the intersection of major highways, and have roughly the same amount of competition on gasoline prices (if it is competition at all.) They are in the same county, and just 15 miles apart.

Anyway, I filled the tank in Marengo today, and when I plotted the mileage even I was surprised. For this most recent half tank, the Escape has exceeded 30 mpg. The previous one came in at 29.05 and this one was 30.02. That's significantly better even than the EPA ratings for this car, and finally proves that I was right when I said I could squeeze better than EPA economy out of most vehicles. Whether there will be further improvement on Illinois-blend fuel is doubtful, but I'm hoping to make a trip to Michigan soon... The overall average for the entire time since I bought the car is now better than 28.

Of course, the price drop in fuel is a response to consumers finally starting to rein in their consumption enough that the producers and retailers noticed it. This is a standard scenario that has run a couple of times a year ever since the 1970s: slowly crank the price up until sales drop significantly, then drop it back down but never as low as where it started. After a few months, when people have lost it all in their swiss-cheese memories, repeat the process.

Comments

[corelog.livejournal.com]

We're still at $1.249/litre up here. :P I'm running $20/week for fuel, myself. For a 3.8L, six-cyl, it's not bad. Considering my parents do about $80/week for the van alone.

Even so...I highly dislike gas prices. I abhor the fact that it's doubled within the space of even my memory. Yeah yeah, I know it gets worse as one gets older. But I still highly dislike it. Almost to the point of hate. Why the hell do people consume so much to make it so profitable for the gas companies to do this? Needing to drive is one thing. Needless consumption is another.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I shouldn't tell you that I can remember buying gas for 21 cents (US) a gallon. At the time I had a 175cc motorcycle rather than a car, so I was getting better than 90 mpg too. Now you'll really think I'm decrepit.

Of course since then the general purchasing power of that 21 cents has declined a lot, so that it would probably account for about a dollar of today's per gallon price. The rest of it is price creep, easily recognized when you look at the oil company profit and loss statements. Unfortunately, direct attacks on big oil will do nothing. Instead, we have to put more into developing alternate energy resources, and using less of their products. They are going to fight that all the way, as they have been doing since the 1980s when they got the Reagan administration to repeal all the federal subsidies for alternative energy.

As for people consuming, it's what they do. If you look at developing nations, it's even more obvious. When conspicuous consumption is a status thing, many people are going to fall into the trap. The difference between humans and lemmings is a lot less than we generally want to suppose.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Wow :) That is cheap, oh well I guess nothing can stay supercheap forever, especially when its not a renewable source.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, the price of energy resources has little to do with supply and demand, and much to do with politics and greed.

[chris-sawyer.livejournal.com]

Like the frog in the slowly boiling water.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Precisely. The same method is being used in a lot of other areas as well, such as the Patriot Act with its intrusions on personal freedoms and privacy.

[deffox]

That's significantly better even than the EPA ratings for this car, and finally proves that I was right when I said I could squeeze better than EPA economy out of most vehicles.

I usually get a little under the EPA rating. Around 32-33 MPG for a 34 rating. But there were these slow-pokes I had to pass, and the drive to Canada is so long...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

That icon photo is adorable. I was probably one of the slow-pokes you passed... or would have been. I never go over the speed limit by more than a couple of mph. In an Illinois county that has a terrible record of speeding violations and serious accidents with fatalities, that means I get passed. A lot.

[deffox]

I was probably one of the slow-pokes you passed.

I remember a prior post where you said you didn't speed. I average five over, but sometimes more. I only really have a problem when people can't hold a steady speed so one keeps encountering the same vehicle, or when they try to fight being passed by punching it.

Some of the roads around here I know better than to try and pass on. The regular fatal accident is when someone only looks left when making a right turn, and hits a vehicle in the middle of passing.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I was taught not to pass at an intersection. Usually they are marked as no passing zones here, but many drivers ignore the no passing zones anyway and do it on uphills, sharp curves, wherever they feel like it. The really bad problems in my area are intersections at the bottom of hills. In spite of warning signs and flashers, the idiots coming over the hill continue to plow into traffic they can't see until it is too late.

[deffox]

Yeah, most intersections are marked. Though the last couple accidents on the road I drive were at the golf course and high school entrances.

There is one hilly road that they are making four lane now. I have never tried to pass on that one. Having visiblility is a must, and you can't see far enough ahead to complete a pass.

One of my friends lives in an Amish neighborhood. I know there are people who still drive fast over hills there. One has to be an idiot to do that.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

There are actually people who make a game of trying to frighten horses on the road by honking, racing their engines, squealing their tires, etc.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

The chancellor of the exchequer does the same thing in the UK. He piles tax on fuel until it reaches a critical point. He then knows the limit of people's tolerance for the next 8 or so years, and keeps the tax JUST below that tipping point level...then he dips his toe in the water again sometime later.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think many Europeans who sneer at us for our complaints about fuel prices don't realize how much of the higher price they pay is just taxes. Even here, taxes often account for more than half of the retail price. In theory those taxes are to be used for road repairs and building, and to support alternative transit systems. In practice, somehow, it doesn't work out that way.