A Few Thoughts About Oil Company Price Gouging and Unobserved Effects.

[MarianJack]

One of the things I'm somewhat surprised to see is that nobody has noticed a possible effect of the price gouging that the oil company apologists get away with dismissing on the early morning comedy (oops, I meant "news") shows.

For DECADES, the oil companies and the auto companies have been hand in hand (hand-in hand, C-O-L-L-U-S-I-O-N, hand-in-hand) as they suppressed formulas and technologies for fuel efficiency and alternative fuel sources.

Then all of a sudden come Katrina & Rita.

Up here in central Maine, in some places gas went up $1 a gallon within 48 hours and stayed at about $3.15 for regular until roughly mid-October. At the time I was working a nightmare of a job that had me putting 500+ miles on my car EVERY WEEK! I had to face the hellacious choice of driving our Accent, which is great on gas but agony on my arthritic knees, or our Cherokee, which got 10-12 fewer miles a gallon but that I could get into & out of with A LOT less pain. I saw SO MANY suvs, minivans & sports cars in front yards and on the roads with hand made "for sale" signs. The car dealers up here were DYING!

I remember telling ChicaAzul that the oil companies were really fucking the auto companies (as well as the rest of the country) with their greed. I remember telling her that the auto companies would fuck the oil companies RIGHT BACK on general principal. There is no honor among thieves.

Suddenly and amazingly, Hybrids appear.

This summer, ChicaAzul and I are going to say goodbye to our beloved Cherokee. We'll probably get
a nice used minivan thats a few years old. We want a minivan because we get LOTS of visitors from PA (some we see more now than when we lived 45 minutes away). Oddly enough, when we take visitors to tourist attractions, cars with Maine plates don't seem to get ticketed. Go figure. We won't get a hybrid because on our budget, we won't find one we can afford.

But in another year or 2, when its time to trade our Accent, there WILL be Hybrids on the Used car lots. Additionally, just like pocket calculators and microwaves in the 70s, VCRs in the 80s and DVD players in the 90s, the prices of Hybrid will likely come down.

Maybe in this auto v. oil company situation, they who fuck'em last will be they who fuck'em best!

The "news" media will not notice this. They're too busy covering paris hilton & brittney spears, but has anyone else here had similar thoughts?

Thanks in advance for any comments.

[magellan]

1. Yes, we're waiting for the same thing

We also have a Cherokee we love, it's our only car and we drive it very little, usually filling up once a month or so. But we keep seeing the Prius commercials on tv, and have decided to wait to buy a used one or something similar evnetually. We bought our Jeep used too. I've never understood the desire to have the newest car out there!

Like you, I predict the auto companies will get their revenge...though I don't think they regard it that way. It's just good business. When you've got a lot stuffed full of gas guzzling SUVs you can't move because of high fuel prices, you've got to rethink your product or die.

[Divernan]

2. New Jeep Patriot most comfortable car I've ever driven.

I personally drive my Saabs for minimum of 200,000 miles. I had reserved a midsize car for a 4 day rental on a trip last week. The rental company was out of midsizes and gave me a free upgrade to the Jeep. I was not happy anticipating poor mileage, handling/parking the larger vehicle, etc.

I was surprised to find that it claims 30 mpg for highway driving.

What really blew me away was the driver's seat, which was the most comfortable thing I've ever sat in - whether car, ergonomic chair or any other furniture. Like you, I have "bad knees". Usually doing all the driving I did for those four days, plus 2 days of air travel in a tiny Beechcraft, would have left me crippled for a couple of weeks. Not this trip.

Re: Prius. One of my kids bought one - must have been three years ago and is very happy with it. I've driven it and like it fine. When I have to replace my current Saab (probably not for 4 more years when it hits 200,000 miles), I'd be happy to get a Prius or similar hybrid car. GM has taken the Saab dealership away from the independent & highly reputable foreign car dealer I've dealt with for decades and merged it with their mega dealers. The "local" GM dealership's service dept. is not only at a great distance from my home, but has the well-earned reputation of being over priced, rude and incompetent.