I’m ready for the price of oil.....

I've been watching TV and noticed that there are a few car companies offering cheap or free gas for a time with the purchase of a new car. How long do you think it'll be before boat manufacturers do the same thing?
 
TurtleTone said:
I've been watching TV and noticed that there are a few car companies offering cheap or free gas for a time with the purchase of a new car. How long do you think it'll be before boat manufacturers do the same thing?
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Very soon. Probably this year. If they're smart. I'd rather have that than a stupid watch that I can't even select on my own.
 
well if you bought a bigger boat, i'm sure that your watch would be nicer, if you are a pilot that is.
 
TurtleTone said:
well if you bought a bigger boat, i'm sure that your watch would be nicer, if you are a pilot that is.
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I got a Wenger Swiss Army watch on sale at Costco and get many compliments on it. I put the other $2,000 in the gas tank. With my rebate check, I can convince myself that I paid nothing for gas this year.:thumbsup:
 
fc3 said:
Don't even remind me! And it was 2000, not 02. Tech was dead by the end of 01. I'd be retired by now if my freekin' options had vested before 2000!

One one the guys I followed to a start-up was in the company a year and a half before me and vested in his options. He exercised (after two stock splits) and was sitting on a nice 8 figure sum.

sigh

Back to work tomorrow :smt043

Best regards,
Frank C
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Oy, just thinking about it makes me sick, I'm with you, what I had vested and my salary back then, I'd be retired driving around in my 60DA right now but nooo someone had to pull the plug on that, 40k salary cut later and no stock I'm workin for the man again. :smt089
 
Bravo Cagnoli!
 
Yeah, I have seen the ads for free gas too. When you read the fine print. . it is pretty impressive how little those gimmies are worth. Sort of like the "dog food" and "watch" promotions.

- - - - - - -

I think the "answer" is more complex than simply "too much demand" or "greedy oil companies"; rather my opinion is that you have several factors;
1) U.S. trade deficits hurting U.S. dollar
2) Oil speculation
3) U.S. deficit spending hurting U.S. dollar
4) The fundamanetal disconnect between price and demand.
all working together to boost the price of crude.

To speak to item (4) for a moment: Sure, demand of gas for boating is affected by gas prices. . . but I still need a car to go to work. Even at $10/gallon. . .I am driving to work. People are still shipping goods across country by truck. What is happening now is that companies either (a) suck up these added costs-of-doing-buisness or (b) pass costs on to the consumer. Which explains why there is so much talk of recession.

When people STOP doing these things. . .then you will REALLY see the impact on the economy.

I honestly don't expect an end to the current round of never-ending-fuel-price-hikes until the November elections (not that this really means anything . . .but it will affect the "psychology" of the speculators. . .which is one component of what is happening.)
 
There was another person on CNBC this morning predicting that diesel will hit $8/gallon by the end of the summer and $10 to $11 per gallon by end of the year.

There are already people here not going to work. I was talking to a small business owner the other day and for the first time he is getting calls from people saying they have no gas... When a married couple starts having to pay over $1000/month for gas, it will have a devastating impact on the economy as they simply will not be able to afford it.

At $8-$10/gallon, the entire boating industry will be destroyed in the US..
 
april of 2005 i called a premier marina ($125/night regardless of boat size, which is actually fair for boats over 40' but about 30% higher for a little guy like me) on long beach island for a 2 slips in august. they laughed at me. "we're all booked up through the summer, repeat customers every year, blah blah." i called last week for three nights in august and she couldnt commit only b/c they had 4 unrented slips at this point which will be designated "transient" if they couldnt get anyone in them for a season by memorial day. a friend of mine called today and got a slip for the end of july for his 420AC. what a difference 3 years (and even one week) makes.
 
Here's my take on fixing it. Adjust every congressmans pay to say $45K a year with the only benefit to be health insurance and a weeks vacation, maybe a 401k if and only when there is no federal deficit.

Maybe they'd see things different, or maybe they'd leave and an average Joe who cares about this country would take that congressman job and do something for this country.

Until then...watch for a catastrophic collapse before anything is done or someone in Washington wakes up :smt013

And Gary, $8-$10 will collapse a hell of a lot more than the boating industry :thumbsup:
 
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Four Suns said:
There are already people here not going to work. I was talking to a small business owner the other day and for the first time he is getting calls from people saying they have no gas... When a married couple starts having to pay over $1000/month for gas, it will have a devastating impact on the economy as they simply will not be able to afford it.
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Yeah, I know how that goes. I drive 91 miles to work one way. Up until October of 2007, my household budget had a $600.00 placeholder for gasoline. I just recently modified it to $1000.00 per month!

My father manages an Inventory firm in Atlanta GA, and he too is having trouble getting employee's to come to work. He is paying them in excess of 13.00 per hour plus benefits for part time work, including vacation, and people are calling in regularly because they don't have enough gas in the tank.....

Rough state of affairs. Thanks tree huggers, thanks a lot.
 
Nothing is going to change unless the Fed changes it's frightening monetary policy, coupled with a reduction in deficit spending. Deficit spending in and of itself is not necessarily bad if used properly for limited periods of time.

We are going to have to have a contraction of money supply of the same level as occured in the late '70s and early '80s. Think 20% Prime Rate. Paul Volker, the greatest Fed chairman ever, saw what needed to be done to stop the runaway inflation (which we have now regardless of what the govt. reports. How the hell can inflation be at 3% when the basic necessities have risen over 20% in price this year alone), and revalue the dollar (after it's horrific plunge against all the major world currencies in mid-70s) and did it despite Carter's protests. Volker accomplished 3 things: Reestablished the dollar as a leading currency; Crushed inflation; Made Carter a one termer:smt038.

Obviously that is the oversimplified version. But ultimately, it is going to have to happen again or we are in deep shat. These are scary times and there doesn't apear to be any one in Washington with the nads to step up. My opinion fwiw.
 
And a big thank you to Bill Clinton for the veto to drilling ANWR while president. It would have been more than up and running by now!:smt013:smt013:smt013 Not to mention no new refineries or nuclear plants in over 20 years.

Way to go tree huggers!!!!!:thumbsup:
 
rondds said:
i agree we'll correct (see "gold in 1980" and "tech stocks in 2002"). will settle in somewhere slightly below $100. peter! where've you been!?
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Heeey Ron,

I was a month in the states with my family.
Traveled al over California.
Man, that is still relaxed to fill your car tank for $80.
If I fill my 360DA tank with 270 Gallons diesel, I pay more than $2000,-:smt101

dbric36 said:
The reason for high price in your Country is taxes. Not because our oil is cheaper.
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Yes taxes here are more than 62% on gas and 50% for diesel....
Your federal gas tax is "only" 18.4 cpg. (dep. on state)
Here in the Netherlands, the price of a gallon is currently around 9,7 dollars. The trend to wards efficient cars have been going on for a long time. But here the only reason for that is taxes on fuel, and cars that makes buying a car with a small diesel engine pay off. Around 50 % of new car sales are diesel models with small engines. Then you get around 40-60 mpg. If the US in general went over to something like that, then oil consumption for driving would go down 50 % But it’s not possible, because the politicians are slaves of their polls. Because of this you need to see a jump in the price at the pump, and taxes to buy big cars. A large Chevy cost 4 times the price in the US here, because of taxes, and one would have to be rather crazy to buy one. If the US would follow in our path, the pump price at the pump needs to get at around 10 dollar or more.
From the European perspective, it feels wrong that they should save and preserve energy, while the US are wasting oil on their gas gurgling cars. They think that's not right. Also I think gas prices in the US are reasonable, even now.

Owww..... don't get :smt013 now.

:grin: Peter.
 
The cost of fuel sucks. I don't see any correction in the near future. $132 a barrell today. Yikes!

On that note, has anyone tried HyperMiling? Google it if you don't know what it means.

I averaged 20.8MPG in my Caddy with a 6 speed manual, and have ATTEMPTED hypermiling for one week. I'm up to 27.4 mpg.

Basically, I do two things. I drive slower. (I live in Michigan, the avg highway speed is between 75 and 80) I'm trying to stay around 60 to 65MPH. It's actually hard to do, but most of my time in the car is on the way to work, or on the way home from work, and I'm in no real hurry...

The other thing is coasting to red lights, and paying attention to green lights that are probably going to turn red. The coasting part is fun, and I turned it into a bit of a game. It helps to have an instant MPG readout in your car to see what the value of each action is. You have to be consistent, it's not necessarily easy, but it's a fun challenge.
Sorry for going off track
 
Peter, you are wrong in one sense. We americans pay tons in 'taxes', just not as much as other coutries as far as petrol. I have had this discussion with my family in Italy many times and they are SHOCKED! at how much we Americans pay for college. And Health Insurance...! Your taxes go to pay for such things where we are on our own here.

I will not spend 6 figures on gasoline, that is for sure, but will you spend that much on tuition for your 2 kids? Americans MUST 'save and preserve' for these college costs (and retirement for that matter) where there is no burning need to do so in many European countries, given the 'entitlements' they have. We also have property taxes, use taxes, luxury taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, self employed taxes and the list goes on.

At the end of the day, we all pay too much in taxes, regardless of what country is on your passport and how they get it from us.
 
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Still LauCo said:
Basically, I do two things. I drive slower. (I live in Michigan, the avg highway speed is between 75 and 80) I'm trying to stay around 60 to 65MPH. It's actually hard to do, but most of my time in the car is on the way to work, or on the way home from work, and I'm in no real hurry...

The other thing is coasting to red lights, and paying attention to green lights that are probably going to turn red. The coasting part is fun, and I turned it into a bit of a game. It helps to have an instant MPG readout in your car to see what the value of each action is. You have to be consistent, it's not necessarily easy, but it's a fun challenge.
Sorry for going off track
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I've been seeing that around here and it is the most annoying thing going on. Go by a smaller car if it is that bad but get out of the way! I burn more fuel in a single weekend on the boat than I do in my car all year so there is no way I'm going to drive around like a old man dork on the road.
 
Four Suns said:
I've been seeing that around here and it is the most annoying thing going on. Go by a smaller car if it is that bad but get out of the way! I burn more fuel in a single weekend on the boat than I do in my car all year so there is no way I'm going to drive around like a old man dork on the road.
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I don't coast when there is someone behind me, and as someone who normally drives very aggressively, I understand and hate slow drivers... I know how to stay in the right lane when going (still above) the speed limit, but not 80 or 85...

I stay out of people's way. Besides, I didn't say it was that bad, I just wanted to see what I could accomplish in one week of changing habits. Sheesh
 
gerryb said:
Peter, you are wrong in one sense. We americans pay tons in 'taxes', just not as much as other coutries as far as petrol. I have had this discussion with my family in Italy many times and they are SHOCKED! at how much we Americans pay for college. And Health Insurance...! Your taxes go to pay for such things where we are on our own here.

I will not spend 6 figures on gasoline, that is for sure, but will you spend that much on tuition for your 2 kids? Americans MUST 'save and preserve' for these college costs (and retirement for that matter) where there is no burning need to do so in many European countries, given the 'entitlements' they have. We also have property taxes, use taxes, luxury taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, self employed taxes and the list goes on.

At the end of the day, we all pay too much in taxes, regardless of what country is on your passport and how they get it from us.
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You are right about health insurance and college, but our taxes on income, use tax, property tax, sales tax etc. etc. are all much higher here.....
And yes, we both pay tax and therefor are living in "good" country's
But I was talking about the use of energy.....
What do you think about that.
 
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