Are Gas prices going up in Europe or just the USA?

[Okiewan]

My numbers were from the typical c-store ... at WalMart or one of the major grocery chains here, you can take .06 off the prices I listed.

You don't think that has anything to do with it in this admin, do you? You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. It's politics after all.

Yup, that's the popular opinion. If they really want to scratch the backs of the oil companies? Let the price get to $5+ per gallon so the American people stop listening to the green-whacko's and start drilling here.

 

[muddy226]

The average annual mileage here is 12 000. The tax on the pump is not to cover health care, we have a seperate "National Insurance" to cover that. However, the huge taxes we pay all seem to go into a general and seemingly bottomless pot, and a large part of this goes to the other less well off countries in the EU, as well as providing welfare for those that leave their own countries and come here, and that doesn't even consider our own home grown wasters. Anyway, back to petrol prices. The high price most certainly encourages careful use and consideration for the environmental concerns, and I for one think that the cost of fuel in the US is far too low to allow for sensible husbanding of resources, but presumably the free market will put that right at some point, but will it be too late? In this country the motorist/haulier is seen as a soft target for revenue raising, whilst the airlines who burn far more pay no tax on fuel, or very little. To fill my RM250 costs approx. $12.00 !!

 

[Okiewan]

To fill my RM250 costs approx. $12.00 !!

OMG.

The high price most certainly encourages careful use and consideration for the environmental concerns, and I for one think that the cost of fuel in the US is far too low to allow for sensible husbanding of resources, but presumably the free market will put that right at some point, but will it be too late?

Too late for what?

 

[Masterphil]

To fill my RM250 costs approx. $12.00 !!

Isin't it funny that I'll spend $30 for 5gal of race fuel plus about $9 for a quart of premix, bringing the total to about $7.80 per gallon. And I don't even bat an eye.

The things that this obsession drives us to. :bang:

 

[adamant]

In the uk people buy gas in the litre & the cost is appox, £1 per liter. Work it out if you dare on £10 of gas, £8 of it is tax. Thats why in the uk they don't have big displacment cars, and also are enviromentally friendly. In the fact that they use catalytic convertors & the more your car pollutes in the uk, the more road tax you will pay. In the us gas is so cheap in comparison. :cool: gas in the uk goes up every year 10 years ago it was 50 pence per liter

 

[jmics]

My numbers were from the typical c-store ... at WalMart or one of the major grocery chains here, you can take .06 off the prices I listed.

Yup, that's the popular opinion. If they really want to scratch the backs of the oil companies? Let the price get to $5+ per gallon so the American people stop listening to the green-whacko's and start drilling here.

yeah but then Detroit will lose the great push of the S.U.V., soccer Moms will be forced into volkswagon diesel rabbits and old honda civic like vehicles.

Gas consumption will go down plus the fact it will affect Detroit.

 

[TwinSpar]

I paid $2.65 for diesel 2 days ago and I still have the chip in it! :nener:

 

[muddy226]

OMG.

Too late for what?

Too late for ensuring our successors oil supplies.

 

[Zenith]

Diesel and petrol here is just about $5 per US Gallon. It's hovering around $6.70 per US Gallon in the UK at the moment I believe.
But as somebody said cars over here tend to have smaller engines and be geared towards fuel efficiency. A 2 litre engine is considered "BIG", 2.5 and above just ridiculous, ubless it's a 4x4/SUV which aren't nearly as common as in the US. Insurance is also very much driven by the size of the engine while you're under 25, my first policy (when I was 18) on a 1.2 litre was over $4000 for the year. I'm 24 now and it would still be $1000 on a 1.2 litre. Tax isn't charged by the amount of pollution you create (yet) but does go up very quickly as the engine size increases. Road tax for one year on a 1.2 (petrol or diesel) is $300 per year, but for a 3.0 litre it's $1350!
So you're constantly being encouraged to have a smaller car, more fuel efficient car. My mothers car is a 1.6 turbo diesel (110bhp) and regularly gets 60-70MPH on longish journeys.

Are fuel prices are much higher, but on average we probably get 2-2.5 times more mileage from a gallon of fuel compared to an average car in the US? The cost of fueling a car probably isn't all that different, insurance and tax are though! I should say insurance and road tax aren't as high in some other Euro countries like the UK...


On the medical side of things; yes the government pay for quite a bit of it but you'll tend to buy a lot of the medicines yourself. Medical insurance is becoming far more common now though, within a few years I think most people will be paying for it as you do in the US.
Public vs. private? You certainly can't make a sweeping statement like 'public is always worse' because there are some countries that do public services VERY well. You often here horror stories of people in the US getting $200,000 bills for medical costs when they didn't-have/couldn't-afford medical insurance. I think there's a lot to be said for the fact that that can't happen here. Yes there are long queues, which is a failing in how the health system is being run here, but there are a number of other Euro countries where they run it public but properly and this isn't an issue. By the way, it's not like if you come in to a hospital here from a car crash that they leave you for dead till the queue clears. If it's something serious you will be seen ASAP, as fast as in any hospital round the world I'd imagine. It's the not so serious cases that tend to get stuck in queues.

 

[MikeT]

Umm. . . nothing is free - they pay for it in their taxes and they pay more for it - either in actual cost or in the ridiculous wait times, which sometimes cost them their lives.

Now that's expensive.

That is kind of what I meant.

 

[MikeT]

1.09 a litre here up from .99 a week ago. 3.785 litres in a US gallon = $4.13 a gallon here right now.

That's that "free" health care system for ya. ;)

 

[2wheels]

energy use

everyone is forgetting housing. We use a lot of energy for heating and cooling. read in a Canadian newspaper that Canadians use more energy per person than people use in the United States.

 

[MikeT]

My mothers car is a 1.6 turbo diesel (110bhp) and regularly gets 60-70MPH on longish journeys.

You meant MPG right? If so, that is really good. My 2.2liter Accord gets about 27-29 MPG and that is considered good. Wish Icould get 60MPG

 

[MikeT]

everyone is forgetting housing. We use a lot of energy for heating and cooling. read in a Canadian newspaper that Canadians use more energy per person than people use in the United States.

It's colder up there brrrrrrrr!

 

[ellandoh]

60-70 thats better than the hybrids ive witnessed :whoa:

 

[Chevalier]

EDIT: Oops, this is actually Zenith, I posted from my brother's PC...

LOL, MPG is what I meant!! The car is rated to get 65.7MPG doing extra urban driving and this is what we tend to on a long trip (long trip means 100 miles in Ireland by the way, not 1000 :) ). Of course it is only a 1.6 turbo diesel so it's no rocket ship, but it gets you from A to B...

Imagine what would happen in the US if next year everybody bought a reasonably efficient car instead of a gas gussler. Demand on oil in general would probably be halved, that would get the price of a barrel down pretty quick... And would you really be losing much going from a 20MPG car to a 50-60MPG car? They're doing some pretty impressive things, power wise, with diesels over here at the moment. I'm looking at a '00 BMW 320d at the moment, 150BHP but 64MPG extra urban, 40MPG in town... Who needs more power then that like?

 

[91KDX]

I hauled show pigs in a heavy steel livestock trailer down to the Illinois state fair in Springfield, with my 1990 Ford F150 when I was 17. I calculated it to be about 7 mpg. Springfield is roughly 190 miles from Dekalb il. 380 miles round trip and I think the gas prices then were $2.80? Thats the worst gas milage I have ever gotten. I hauled the pigs for a friend of mine, and helped her show them, if i remember correct she won Reserve GrandChampion with her Barrow. Im not a big fan of Showing livestock but if you ever get a chance to visit Illinois State fair, I suggest it, the night life is really wild!
I would like to be a firm believer in Biodesiel, and E85, but unfortunalty i dont think resting that much weight on an already frazled industry is a good idea. Genetics has paved the way for 150+ bushels/acre, but unfortunately those acres are being bought up by developers. Farmers would rather sell off their land to developers and retire rather than spend there time worrying about finances and making limited budgets work. What farmland is left is going to be dry due to the drought last year. I remember reading last fall that this area needed like 110 inches of rain inorder to restore the moister content in the ground. Last years crop wasnt as bad as people think. The moisture in the ground was enough to supply the crops and make decent yields. Now that the crops have used up that moisture, the ground is dry. Thus we need one heck of a wet spring to restore the moisture content. I would like to see more pressure and money go to the farmer, but unfortunatly I dont think Farming is going to prove as reliable as everyone thinks. But there will always be enough corn to curve the supply needs. As of right now I dont think we have any other GOOD choices. No replacement can ever be as good and effecient as Fossil Fuels. Right now I think our future lies in Corn, Soybeans, and Orange peel waste. Just my .02 cents, although i may seem delusional, take note, I have just gotten in from a 12 hour (satur)day of field work.

Benjamin

 

[Reesknight]

Gas Prices Around the World

Check this out:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/27/news/economy/global_gas/index.htm

 

[TY250]

I'll try to get the conversion rught here... In Australia we are paying around $1.35 to $1.45 per litre! Let's see, that's $6.08 to $6.53 per gallon. Diesel is another A$0.25 per litre more. In some Outback towns it can be over A$2.00 per litre!
I think I will stay with my 4 cylinder car for a while yet.