Gas Prices.... Completely Outrageous!!! How Much Are They Where You Are???

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by irishgrl

What the rest of the world pays......

gas around the world

ok whats up with this??

United Kingdom $5.94


why is CHINA so LOW????????

They buy the most oil.

[bretonbanquet]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

Actually it's not. The United States is the second largest purchaser of petroleum, only eclipsed recently by China. The States is a far larger country dependent on driving for getting from point A to point B. We don't have the sophisticated rail system that Europe does. I wish we did. We buy oil in such quantities that we should not be paying these prices. We are most definitely getting gouged.

I wasn't referring to that. And our rail system is so expensive that even with our exorbitant gas prices, driving is still much much cheaper than taking a train. Plus there isn't an extensive rail system now anything like the one we used to have years ago.

[danax6]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

Actually it's not. The United States is the second largest purchaser of petroleum, only eclipsed recently by China. The States is a far larger country dependent on driving for getting from point A to point B. We don't have the sophisticated rail system that Europe does. I wish we did. We buy oil in such quantities that we should not be paying these prices. We are most definitely getting gouged.

Well, we don't have the cheap national flight fares that you guys have. Or an airport in every city.

Train fares here are even more expensive than gas.

[Rickypt]

I haven't owned a car since 1989 and haven't had to pay attention to any stories about rising gas prices. I find my life to be very simple; I walk from my apartment 10 blocks to BART, I take BART three stops, and then I walk three blocks to work. $45/month for the MUNI pass that let's me use BART within the city. No car payment, no insurance, no tickets, no stress.

[markolas]

Originally Posted by Rickypt

I haven't owned a car since 1989 and haven't had to pay attention to any stories about rising gas prices. I find my life to be very simple; I walk from my apartment 10 blocks to BART, I take BART three stops, and then I walk three blocks to work. $45/month for the MUNI pass that let's me use BART within the city. No car payment, no insurance, no tickets, no stress.

I'd love to be able to take the bus to work, but I live on the opposite side of town. I'd have to leave the house at the ass-crack of dawn, it'd be a two-hour commute, and I'd still be late for work. If gas gets anymore expensive, I'm going to have to look for another job closer to my apartment. Luckily, my car will be paid off this year, so I can get rid of it if I need to.

[Rickypt]

Originally Posted by markolas

I'd love to be able to take the bus to work, but I live on the opposite side of town. I'd have to leave the house at the ass-crack of dawn, it'd be a two-hour commute, and I'd still be late for work. If gas gets anymore expensive, I'm going to have to look for another job closer to my apartment. Luckily, my car will be paid off this year, so I can get rid of it if I need to.

Yeah, clearly most people aren't able to give up their cars. Public transportation in this country is awful, with a few notable exceptions. There's a great article in a recent New Yorker about long commutes and how, in most cases, jobs aren't located near where people live.

In the Bay Area, many people commute a couple of hours so that they can buy a house or having cheaper living way out in the far suburbs. I wonder, though, how much they are really saving when you add in the price of gas. They certainly aren't enjoying quality of life by sitting in a car for 2-4 hours per day.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by Rickypt

I haven't owned a car since 1989 and haven't had to pay attention to any stories about rising gas prices. I find my life to be very simple; I walk from my apartment 10 blocks to BART, I take BART three stops, and then I walk three blocks to work. $45/month for the MUNI pass that let's me use BART within the city. No car payment, no insurance, no tickets, no stress.

No shiitte!!!

I live across the street from a MARTA station and there is a grocery store in my building. I am within a ten block radius of anything I want and I can take the train to most people's houses and, if not, they are a $10-15 cab ride away. I drive MAYBE once a week. When the lease on my car is up, I am so not getting another one. I may, instead, do flexcar (www.flexcar.com) -- they have five cars within two blocks of my house.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by Rickypt

. . . In the Bay Area, many people commute a couple of hours so that they can buy a house or having cheaper living way out in the far suburbs. I wonder, though, how much they are really saving when you add in the price of gas.

They are still saving a bundle. If it costs them $500 a month less to live far out and gas is $.50 more a gallon than it ought to be and they buy 80 gallons of gas (four 20 gallon fill ups) a month, they are spending only -- That is only $40 more a month. So, that pretty much is a mostly insignificant increase considering the cheaper rent and that groceries and staples generally are cheaper in the burbs.

That also assumes all the 80 gallons are going for the commute, which likely is untrue -- and a car that gets around 15 MPG -- If you get a car that gets 30 MPG, you'd be better off on that $40.

Originally Posted by Rickypt

They certainly aren't enjoying quality of life by sitting in a car for 2-4 hours per day.

I totally agree!!!!

[JazmenFlowers]

Originally Posted by Rickypt

I haven't owned a car since 1989 and haven't had to pay attention to any stories about rising gas prices. I find my life to be very simple; I walk from my apartment 10 blocks to BART, I take BART three stops, and then I walk three blocks to work. $45/month for the MUNI pass that let's me use BART within the city. No car payment, no insurance, no tickets, no stress.

god...you are my hero. I would love to be rid of my $600/month car note and $130/month insurance. sigh.

[Rickypt]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

They are still saving a bundle. If it costs them $500 a month less to live far out and gas is $.50 more a gallon than it ought to be and they buy 80 gallons of gas (four 20 gallon fill ups) a month, they are spending only -- That is only $40 more a month. So, that pretty much is a mostly insignificant increase considering the cheaper rent and that groceries and staples generally are cheaper in the burbs.

That also assumes all the 80 gallons are going for the commute, which likely is untrue -- and a car that gets around 15 MPG -- If you get a car that gets 30 MPG, you'd be better off on that $40.

I was thinking in terms of being able to get rid of the car completely, but most people aren't going to be able to do that.

The New Yorker article focused quite a bit on Atlanta. Many people living in suburbs south of Atlanta but work north of the city. Their commute is horrendous.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by Rickypt

I was thinking in terms of being able to get rid of the car completely, but most people aren't going to be able to do that.

The New Yorker article focused quite a bit on Atlanta. Many people living in suburbs south of Atlanta but work north of the city. Their commute is horrendous.

The suburbs north of Atlanta are horrid. If you leave downtown after 4:00 p.m. or your house after 7:00 a.m., you are looking at a commute that can be two hours to downtown. Fortunately, MARTA just opened a new train station that can serve that area. Sadly, it does not go far enough north and the commute will likely be 30 minutes to the train station and and hour on the train to reach downtown (most likely work downtown). And, if you do not work near the station, the bus system is horrid, if it serves that area at all. MARTA frequently breaks down and is run by what is generally considered to be a gang of fukcing idiots.

Also - did you check out www.flexcar.com

I fugure it costs me $1,000 a month total (gas, ins., pmt, etc.) to have my car. If I had a less expensive car, I could reduce that to maybe $700. I drive about 10 hours a week and that is a large estimate. Flex cars can be rented at about $9.00 an hour, which is $360 a month for 40 hours a month. So, I so going to try that when my lease is up.

[markolas]

Originally Posted by JazmenFlowers

god...you are my hero. I would love to be rid of my $600/month car note and $130/month insurance. sigh.

My god, what kind of car do you drive?? My rent isn't even $600 a month!

[skcin]

Wow. Just read the whole thread. There's 10 minutes of my life I'll never get back. I just want to ask - isn't real estate a lot higher over there too? Apartments featured on House Hunters International are usually between $250,000 & $500,000 U.S. - and they're really small! You have to take cost of living into account if you're going to argue who's worse off.


Gas is around $2.95 here. Costs me about $40 to fill my little Hyundai SUV up, and if I only go to & from work & on errands locally I can usually stretch a tank out for at least a week. I haven't figured it out in a while, but I think I get close to 18 or 20 mpg. My husband's p.o.s. 4WD truck, however, gets about 7. He fills up (at least $50) probably 5 or 6 times a month. We're just waiting until I pay my vehicle off so he can dump his & get a newer one - preferably with much better mileage.

Mary - your mileage sounds reeeeaaalllly bad. A car to commute wouldn't be a bad idea. Maybe you could take your 4WD off the road when it's not snowing & put a small car on during that time. That's what many people do around here.

[sparky]

Originally Posted by markolas

My god, what kind of car do you drive??

No ****. If I wanted to pay that I could get that Mercedes G 500 SUV I covet. But with god as my witness, I am never paying car payments again, Scarlett.

[markolas]

Originally Posted by sparky

No ****. If I wanted to pay that I could get that Mercedes G 500 SUV I covet. But with god as my witness, I am never paying car payments again, Scarlett.

I bought my current car in 2002. It's a 2001 Chevy Cavalier, and had approx. 44,000 miles on it when I bought it. In the five years that I've had it, I have yet to put 44,000 miles on it, so something was screwy right there. But I was stupid back then and didn't know anything about buying cars.

The car was worth about half of what I paid for it when I drove it off the lot. The dealer would not let me talk to my own bank when I tried to get it financed through them. The bank turned me down; the reason the dealer gave me was because I didn't have any "car credit"...what a load of ****. The reason the bank turned me down was because they knew it was worth half of what I was paying for it, and if I ever defaulted on the loan, they'd be out of a hell of a lot of $$$. I ultimately got it financed through Ford Credit at 14% interest.

To top it all off, after I'd signed all the papers, I immediately felt like I'd made a mistake, and told the dealer so. His response (and I quote): "We all make mistakes in life." There's actually more to the story (that involves my mother, and the reason why this scumbag was so eager to make the sale, and it's one of the many reasons why I don't currently speak to my mother), but my blood pressure is already too high just from telling this much of the story.

So, yeah. I've always told myself that I would never get another car financed as long as I live.