alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

Cheap cars in Asia, expensive gas everywhere

The debut of the $2,500 car is just another reason Americans will pay more at the pump, and highlights a need for some creative urban planning in the developing world.

More: http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/30/news...ney_topstories

refugeefrompistons

Duh... the more people that use gas, the higher demand is, thus increasing the price since supply won't increase at the same rate.

r0tor

iTrader: (1)

more like oil trading...

dothackRAVE

When will they start ******* drilling Alaska already? Preserving the environment's great, but the economy takes precedence over it. Having a nice piece of land to look at is worthless when you're poor and can't do ****.

kartweb

Supply & Demand.

Demand growth is fast outpacing supply growth.

We knew this 25 years ago, and what have we done about it?

We managed to invest a lot more military dollars in the middle east to keep the Perisan Gulf secure.

India is really happy with us for keeping their oil flowing.

We've managed to load our freeways with millions of 3 ton commuter vehicles with a single occupant.

So we may as well sit back and watch the pump prices continue to rise.

JB_Rotary

I would have said because people will continue to pay it.

altiain

iTrader: (3)

There are estimated to be 16 billion barrels of oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The United States consumes roughly 20.7 million barrels of oil per day, of which 12.4 million barrels are imported.

If we drained every last barrel from ANWR, it would allow us to stop importing oil... for a whopping three and a half years. What do you propose we do after that?

HCTR154

Kart, those are some good points, but you forgot about China. When 1.5 billion people start industrializing, then demand for natural resources will skyrocket.

alz0rz

iTrader: (41)

price has dropped a good 10-14c here in the city lately, from 3-29/g to 3.15/g for regular unleaded.

Pleasant surprise in the last week and a half.

al

Razz1

35% of new vehicles sold are SUV.

They have doubled the usage of gasoline.

Before they had a car with mpg now they have a mpg gas gussler.

Supply and demand.

dothackRAVE

Advances in energy efficient technology is made every year. Yes, it takes something like 20 years to develop a new technology, but we don't have to wait 20 years because companies have been doing it since forever.

3.5 years is good enough.

EDIT: Also, increase prices of ALL cars, so the poor and a good portion of middle class people can no longer afford one. This takes away purchasing power from the people for cars, and hence reduces the number of cars on the road.

That, or push companies to develop more "AT ALL COSTS" kind of cars. Prices skyrocket, and fewer will be able to purchase cars. I'm not saying get all companies to make supercars exclusively. I'm just saying, the price of a Corolla class vehicle should start at $26,000, with our cars at $35,000. Of course, they're all fully loaded though.

No more $14,000 econoboxes.

SpIcEz

Raising the price of cars is the solution ? thats an odd one dothackRAVE.

Ok, we drive RX8's, so we are the last ones that should complain about SUV's.

However, I think the transport industry uses tons and tons of fuel. I dont understand why they havent tried to find a way to reduce their consumption. Alternate energy, etc..

I know the petrol companies dont care about us now, but you can bet they are looking for alternate energy options, have studied them and are keeping them locked in a vault. They are ridding the storm right now, raking in the money and once we run out they'll do a hail mary and come up with something new (new from 50 years ago.)

I dont presume to have all the answers or know all the details, but its obvious they arent just sitting around. In the mean time however, they are happy to make their money and happy that prices are rising.

The government is too. gas taxes are a % of gas prices. The more it rises the more money in government coffers.

dothackRAVE

Because I've seen what expensive cars can do.

I come from Malaysia, where imports are taxed to hell to protect the local car industry.

Right now, Kuala Lumpur (the capital) is a daily string of traffic congestion, and gas gets wasted EVERYWHERE.

Look at the cars in the congestion though, and a good 70% of them are locally produced cars (i.e., cheap). An imported econobox over there costs RM80,000. A local econobox (which is all they produce really) costs RM10,000~RM26,000.

All these poor people are buying cars and causing traffic congestion. If you removed the locally produced (cheap) cars altogether, you'll have a far more efficient traffic system, and less time is wasted. Producitivity is increased, gas prices fall because not as many people can afford a car to use gas with, the economy benefits.

Everybody wins, except the poor, who will have to stick with their bicycles. I do think it's a fair trade though.

RWagz

1 ton = 2000 lbs. An Escalade doesn't tip the scales over 3 tons. Nor does a F150 for that matter.

Most of the cars on the road are not 3 tons.

Lesson in unit conversion over, back to your normally scheduled discussion about the oil market/energy crisis.

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

This is the whole point of the artical. Developing countries, mainly in Asia, are making cheap cars that everyone can afford. These millions of new cars on the road, puts a higher demand on oil and drives up the price.

How dare anyone here blame SUVs for burning too much fuel, when you drive a RX8.

dothackRAVE

Make more expensive cars then. Easy. Ban the sale of any car below a certain priceline.

SpIcEz

dothackRAVE

I honestly think your explanation made your comment sound worse.

---------------------------------------------

Screw the poor.

Make cars only for rich people.

Less gas demands.

Lower prices.

Save the environment.

----------------------------------------------

hmm, I think this should be on posters in every major city.
We have a winning marketing campaign here.

Startl_Respons

What about when demand goes up, prices go down? So when demand goes up, sometimes prices go down and sometimes prices go up. In the US's case, why the sudden and ridiculously dramatic increase in prices in the last 4 years? Nothing more than collusion. Let's not overcomplicate the truth.

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

That can be caused by many different things. The price of oil going up due to a weak dollar, a change over to winter/summer blends of gas in the spring/fall, a refinery fire causing the nations output of refined product to drop, the lack of refinery capacity (all US refineries are working at 100% to fill demand), the changes of the cost of government required additives to gasoline and on and on.
I don't presently work for an oil company, but I did work (as a contractor) for 3 years at BP(Amoco). There isn't any collusion between the oil companies. If there was the price would never fall.

fisherdn

It is very tempting for people to blame oil companies because of the unbelievable (and recently record breaking) profits they turn. However, gas prices are truly determined by global supply vs global demand, and taxation. Taxes are a huge part of what we pay at the pump, but i think a lot of people don't realize that. The dramatic increase in the past 4 years is due to supply and demand, simple as that.

77mjd

^^^Everyone is well aware about the recent announcement of record profit (I think it was 40 billion, but I forgot which company). I don't think there is collusion amongst the oil companies, but the fact is they don't reinvest those profits in to their companies (ie new refineries or improve existing ones). That's what angers people. There is no reason to give these oil companies any tax breaks at all. They obviously don't need them and they all should be taken away immediately.

I don't think supply and demand is the driving factor in prices anymore either. Most of it is based on pure speculation by retarded investors. There was fighting in Kenya today. Let's raise the price. There is a hurricane a week away from heading towards Texas. Lets raise prices just in case. There is political unrest here or there. Lets raise prices. This is how it works now. It's about what might or could happen, not what is.

ivory8

i think the real question should be, why is there a 1 dollar difference in gas prices from lets say vegas, to Minnesota (i don't actually know the prices of gas there but why is gas more expensive in big cities compared to rural areas)

my main point is, there should be an average gas price throughout the country....a 1/3 deviation is not right.

kartweb

Trust me I am aware of China's voracious energy apettite. Just finished delivering 37 trucks to the coal mines near Baotau.

kartweb

Oh dear, you are so right.

Escalade Specifications

F150 Specs

The good news is you've been hit square in the face with the point. Did you even see it coming?

Humor aside, over the last 25 years all America has done is sit back at the oil bar sucking off the oil bottle and getting fatter and fatter. We got so fat we couldn't compete in manufacturing so we shipped all that "dirty work" to China, India, Brazil, and Indonesia. Meanwhile they start drinking from our bottle too.

Don't get me wrong, I'm just as much to blame as anyone else. Its just the sad fact of life.

kartweb

Much of Exxon-Mobil profits come from the excessive refinery charges.

Taxes haven't increased much since gas was under a buck.

Supply and demand is definately the key factor nehind the increase. However in a tight high velocity market like oil its also easy to manipulate higher prices through futures purchases.

Of course it probably doesn't hurt an industry to own the White House either. It sure helped the technology industry.