How bad do gas/fuel prices have to get?

[bgraham34]

I will tell you if gas gets to 4 bucks a gallon I wont be going anywhere. Right now my wife and I spend 400-500 per month on gas. If gas goes from 3-4 gallons her in NJ i will have to put out an extra 160 per month. That will put me into the red zone.

 

[barnum42]

how much did you pay a gallon like 3 years ago. did you not already pay more than us already. just trying to compair your price increase to ours.

In terms of X Cent per gallon more, the increase will be the same.

The overall percentage increase will be less over here as there huge tax is a flat fee, not a percentage of the retail price.


It's a little out of date, but there is a chart on this website that shows increase in retail price and how much is tax:

http://www.petrolprices.com/fuel-tax.html

Looking at that chart for ten years ago, at today's current exchange rate we were paying approx $3.80 a gallon.

Gas is now going for over £1.00 a litre in many places now.

 

[napnet]

Just get a diesel and run it off cooking oil... i plan on doing that and my friend owns a Chick-fil-a... free oil and i smell like chick-fil-a.... anyways i'd prolly still drive but im only 4 hours away and my wifes car gets 30mpg to the highway so its not that bad. When we drove my truck (15mpg) it was bad.

 

[Nut4Disney]

I've had 2 diesels before(VW rabbits) back in the late 80's. I loved them, I had one with a double tank and I could go more than a month without getting gas. My wife's uncle created a car that runs on cooking oil, it's pretty cool. I've been looking to buy a diesel for months. but besides a truck, the only diesels are VW's and Mercedes and it is very rare to find one for sale in my area. People are hanging on to them with gas prices rising.

 

[mikeanabean]

I think the breaking point will be $4.50 a gallon.

 

[LaughingGravy]

$4.50 does sound about right before there is a revolution of some type.

 

[LilRoo714]

I think the breaking point will be $4.50 a gallon.

People keep talking about a price that will be a "breaking point," but I continue to wonder what will happen at this breaking point. What will people do- start walking? Like a previous poster said, there are very few public transportation options, so what is our alternative? With no significant advancements hitting the market very soon where cars run on an alternative fuel, I'm not sure there will be a breaking point until we have ethanol-powered cars at our dealerships or something! Just my thoughts.:drevil:

 

[barnum42]

People keep talking about a price that will be a "breaking point," but I continue to wonder what will happen at this breaking point. What will people do- start walking? Like a previous poster said, there are very few public transportation options, so what is our alternative?

We hit that point a long time ago - you have no option but to pay the price asked.

I can take a bus to work - but the price of a ticket one way will still pay for a weeks worth of gas for my scooter.

 

[Boray]

I've had 2 diesels before(VW rabbits) back in the late 80's. I loved them, I had one with a double tank and I could go more than a month without getting gas. My wife's uncle created a car that runs on cooking oil, it's pretty cool. I've been looking to buy a diesel for months. but besides a truck, the only diesels are VW's and Mercedes and it is very rare to find one for sale in my area. People are hanging on to them with gas prices rising.

Another alternative is the E-85 (85% ethanol - made from corn). My 2000 Grand Caravan is an alternative fuel car and I have paid as little as $1.99/gal at a gas station about 45 min. north of where I live. I have been running on ethanol exclusively since March. If there were more stations carrying this, my upcoming October trip to WDW would be VERY cheap. (and my mileage has only suffered slightly with the E-85; not enough, though to make me go back to standard gasoline). I think the rise in fuel costs will ultimatly drive us to find alternative fuel sources. I don't think most people are willing to change how they live (ie: cancelling vacations they really want to take), but rather demand changes from our government. (ie: funding alternative fuel research).

At least I hope this is where we go from here. Just my two cents...

 

[Nut4Disney]

I wasn't aware of that. I will have to check into that in our area. I think Brazil has moved to all of their cars being powered by fuel made from sugar, and they are a fairly large oil exporter, not to mention a very large country. If they can do that than so can the U.S. It doesn't help that all of these car companies keep making bigger and bigger SUV's.

 

[metscool]

To have me not there it would be 1 million Dollars:drevil: .

 

[nyfrenchy]

Well, now that we are above $3 here in Orlando, the title of this thread is even more relevant today.

 

[KeithVH]

So does anyone actually know if attendance HAS been affected? From what I've seen, since consumption is up and staying up, general reasoning would lead me to belive park visitations have not dropped.

 

[The Mom]

If gas costs $2/gal last year, and now cost $3/gal, and you were travelling 1500 miles to get to WDW, and you got 20MPG, it would cost you $150 more (RT) this year than last. If you're staying for a week, that comes out to $22/day.

If there are two of you, $11/day. Just skip an extra glass of wine, and you're all set.

Seriously, if you're prepared to spend big bucks on a WDW vacation, $150 additional for gas is hardly noticable. I suspect that hotel rooms, meals, passes, etc for your stay have increased just as much in the past year.

 

[miles1]

Another alternative is the E-85 (85% ethanol - made from corn). My 2000 Grand Caravan is an alternative fuel car and I have paid as little as $1.99/gal at a gas station about 45 min. north of where I live. I have been running on ethanol exclusively since March. If there were more stations carrying this, my upcoming October trip to WDW would be VERY cheap. (and my mileage has only suffered slightly with the E-85; not enough, though to make me go back to standard gasoline). I think the rise in fuel costs will ultimatly drive us to find alternative fuel sources. I don't think most people are willing to change how they live (ie: cancelling vacations they really want to take), but rather demand changes from our government. (ie: funding alternative fuel research).

At least I hope this is where we go from here. Just my two cents...

We have the same van, and while I eagerly wait for E-85 availability its not going to happen any time soon. Wide-spread distribution of E-85 requires changes to pipe lines, gas stations, and other parts of the distribution chain. And guess who owns the distribution chain? The oil companies that are charging $3.50 per gallon of gas and making record profits doing it.

As for a breaking point that will affect WDW, I don't know if there is one. I have to agree with Mom, that if you're spending a couple of thousand dollars on a WDW vacation, an extra $150.00 or even $300.00 probably won't deter you. I wouldn't be surprised if more people actually fly to WDW than drive there, anyway.

It may start to affect DLC, since most visitors are "local" tavelers that drive there.

 

[Craig & Lisa]

I completely agree. If you look at current plane prices, depending on how many ppl are in your group, driving can be much much cheaper. My family is from Chicago, we drove this last trip...and saved hundreds. Even though it was a huge drive, it was well worth it.

That's why we are driving from NJ. I figure that we may fill the tank 3 times to get there and 3 more to get back. My wife's truck has a 22 gallon tank so I'm pretty sure that we may pay between 45 and 55 a tank. So it looks as though we will pay less than 400 for the trip. Can anybody do that with 4 people on a plane?? Not likely, the only down side is that we will have to stop for a short time out so we can get a short nap to re-energize, makes sense, don't want to drive into any ditches along the way.

 

[George]

That's why we are driving from NJ. I figure that we may fill the tank 3 times to get there and 3 more to get back. My wife's truck has a 22 gallon tank so I'm pretty sure that we may pay between 45 and 55 a tank. So it looks as though we will pay less than 400 for the trip. Can anybody do that with 4 people on a plane?? Not likely, the only down side is that we will have to stop for a short time out so we can get a short nap to re-energize, makes sesnse don't want to drive into any ditches along the way.

I almost drove off of an overpass outside of Tupelo, MS once. My dad and I were driving straight through from Tampa, Fl to Batesville, Arkansas. Scared me to death! I had fallen asleep. This happened about 18 years ago. I woke up right as I was veering off the interstate. It was about 3 in the morning. I immediately woke my dad and told him he should drive. I learned how easy it was to fall asleep behind the wheel and I was extremely lucky. I get a little nervous just recalling/recounting the incident.

 

[sbkline]

If gas costs $2/gal last year, and now cost $3/gal, and you were travelling 1500 miles to get to WDW, and you got 20MPG, it would cost you $150 more (RT) this year than last. If you're staying for a week, that comes out to $22/day.

If there are two of you, $11/day. Just skip an extra glass of wine, and you're all set.

Seriously, if you're prepared to spend big bucks on a WDW vacation, $150 additional for gas is hardly noticable. I suspect that hotel rooms, meals, passes, etc for your stay have increased just as much in the past year.

That's pretty much what I was going to say as well. If I run my van until the light comes on, I can put a little over 18 gallons in it. It takes about two fillups each way, plus probably at least one while there depending on how much driving I do there. So if it goes up a dollar a gallon, and I fill my tank up five times, at 18 gallons each time, that's around 90 dollars more that I would pay in gas. And, like you said, if I have the money to pay 2,000 dollars or more for a trip to WDW, another 100 bucks due to spiraling gas prices isn't gonna make much of a difference.

 

[Slowjack]

IMO its not the millage of these big cars that is the problem. they have always been around. its the dam oil companies that are making huge profits while they can before it comes to a point that we don't need oil as much & they are stealing from the working class.

Oh, come on. When demand increases, price increases. Lower mileage cars increase demand. Oil is a fungible resource and there are many providers that, except for bottlenecks in refining capacity and so on, the oil market responds very accurately to changes in supply and demand. Of course, oil companies could theoretically increase prices by lowering demand, but since they are selling more oil than ever, that's not the case.

As for "huge profits"...well, let's see. Exxon-Mobil in 2006 reported about $40 million earnings on $365 million in revenues. That's about an 11% profit margin. Royal Dutch Shell earned $26 million on $318 million revenue, only about 8% profit margin.

These margins haven't changed a whole lot in the last few years, which means the dramatic increases in the raw amount of earnings is caused primarily by selling more oil...which is to say, increased demand.

Now let's look at the Walt Disney Company,,,$6.5 million earned on $34 million of revenue...a whopping 19% profit margin.

Or let's look at this another way. If the oil companies are making about a 10% margin on gas, then for a $3 gallon of gas, there's about 30 cents of profit in there. Of course it would be nice if there was a non-profit oil company but it would only drop the price to about $2.70, which is still a lot higher than it was a few years ago. And consider that the average total of federal and state gasoline taxes is about 46 cents a gallon, more than the oil company profits.

Summing up, finding a way to use less gas will of course mean you will pay less for gas total, and it's the only way to lower the unit price, as well. I don't enjoy paying $3 a gallon any more than anyone else, but getting angry at oil companies for charging us more for a finite resource that we keep demanding more of gets us nowhere.

 

[bayoutinkbelle]

It won't stop me from driving to WDW. Flying is not a choice I make.

I have made some changes in how I drive locally, though. And my parents (both retirees) just traded in both their cars (Honda Accord and Dodge Ram truck) for a Honda CRV. Gas was a major factor in their decision.