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http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_01_12_a_suv.html

Been reading through this, interesting read. Personally living in Detroit and seeing every second person with a MASSIVE (no one got small suv's like subarus and simile ones always the BIG ones) SUV drove me nuts. Then it was even worse when they bitched about the gas more then anyone else, yet all they had the darn thing for was to go to work and get groceries. I can see uses for SUV's but 90% of them on the road biggest off road experience will be going over a curb. Now take buffs SUV, he atleast is doing some home renovations and such, needs more cargo space, and goes out to shooting ranges and such with boat load of stuff, so ok fair use and its not one of these huge ones either. But its a interesting read to be honest.

If oil prices continue on their current trend, the oversized SUV's will go the way of the Dodo Bird eventually.

ya well be happy at what the 4:10 you pay in the us we are close to 6$ a gallon here in Canada eh. And again no one can explain why its so high in canada to me as anyone I ask say well middle east and some other bs, which I always have the plesure of informing them that Canada is a oil exporter, we sell oil to the US even, um so since we are a producer with our own refinerys why are we worse off is price then the US lol.

But speaking of oil prices killing suv take a look at this one
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/06/rising-gas-pric.html

VEGETA wrote:Canada is a oil exporter, we sell oil to the US even, um so since we are a producer with our own refinerys why are we worse off is price then the US lol.

The price of oil is determined in the worldwide commodities markets. The only countries that have cheap gas (ie price below market) are those countries with nationalized oil companies where the price is subsidized by the government. For example, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Plus, Canada has much higher taxes on gas compared to the US and thus adds even more to the purchase price.

and the reason we are havign gas market spikes is not due to a lack of supply....its due to the Dollar being in the toilet. When money market funds can make money for thier investors in the dollar....they moved to commodities, and the already volitile markets get even more so because of all the new players and new money in that part of the market. When "our friends" the Saudis, say there is no reason oil should be pricing where it is.....then you know something is wonky...."our friends" the Saudis are not happy because...shocker...they now have HIGH inflation due to a lot of money is now flowing into their economy and saturating it.

The fed recently "figured it out" for them selves after a few months of economists telling them to stabilize the dollar.....and I would expect interest rates to climb in the coming months

ya ya its more price gouging in reality lol. so the other day gas went up 10 cents here per liter ok, why, some moron said he expects oil prices to see 150$ a barrel by late summer while everyone else said stabilizing or going down. so 1 guy says it, price hike 10cents. Ok um well one fun fact is that in Canada it takes a total of 90 days before an actual increase per barrel of oil to actually get to the pump level. IE the gas at the pump was payed for 90 days earlier (not exact but general idea). So Gas at pump should go up according to what happened 90 days ago ok. But some guy out of the blue says oil going up and they hike the gas at pump immediately. the price of a barrel dose not even need to rise, but oil companies use ANY excuse to jack the price now which in last weeks case one guy out of 50 said something, ok now they have a excuse to raise prices on something that an't even happened.

I use to work in a oil refinery in Canada, I was a computer geek but you find out some fun stats and info. Also had a proff in collage who worked for oil company's for 30 years, and between the 2 of it you realize pump price and the price per barrel are not as related as you would think. Canadian oil company's keep posting record profits per year but then turn around and say oil that we got out of the ground ourselves refined ourselves, transported and even own the gas stations is going to cost more because middle east is hot today, or mike in accounting said he thinks he herd bill the janitor say oil will go up in stock market. Petro Canada for example owns oil refinery's, owns oil fields and gas stations, they drill it to selling it to Canadians directly, no middle man. So yes more tax but % of tax stays the same oil company's raise the price on there own which in turn increases the amount of tax collected even tho the 5 of tax remains the same. Basically its price gouging. I also realize we sell oil state side and to other placess and make a boat load but instead of the oil company's saying we got lots of cash for export we can lower prices a little to make everyone happy in Canada and still make billions, they don't, they price gouge instead for more cash. and Canadian government who is well aware about the Canadian company's price gouging and has been pressured for years to do something sits back and dose crap. Why, higher price means more taxes for doing nothing. but even Canadian government feeling it a little now, as Canadian Navy just docked a bunch of ships, saying hey we can't afford the gas to run the dam things now. So maybe they will finely look into it.


O and um just saw buffs comments, Canadian doller is doing amazing compared to what it was a while ago. It has gone up, yes some of it is the Us 4 going to shittier but Canadian has gone up. So not as big a impact here, but again it dose affect us to. but I did hear one a while ago thats still being used to explain to Canadians why our own oil is so expensive, which is " if we sell it cheeper the Us will come here and buy it all". Um ok so charge a bloody export tarrif on it have a nice day issue solved lol. We got so many tarrefs of crap coming into Canada lets make one that dose Canadians some good for once lol

Veg its because the world oil market is "pegged" to the Dollar...not the Canadian dollar.....not the Euro, Yen, Rubble, Peso etc.. When the dollar goes down and in the past 3 years it has TANKED, it costs the world (except those like Qtar, who 2 months ago unpegged from the dollar) to buy oil.

Its not price gouging. Your local gas station has to buy fuel about 2 months out in orer to schedule for delivery. Places that are chains (QT, 7-11 whatnot) have slightly lower pump prices because they can buy in volume but still have to buy 2 months out and sell for a price to cover that......this isnt rocket science

I was able to wade through all the typos in your last post Veg but it turned out to be a pretty interesting one! LOL

I believe Alberta is the big oil country up in your neck of the woods huh?

which dollar are you talking about buff. And trust me there is more to it then just world price of oil. I even worked in the oil company for a year and talked to people, seen value of a barrel drop while pump price goes up, then barrel goes up and price goes up again. trust me there is definite price gouging going on in Canada. I don't know the Us system to know if it happens or if its just world cost but ya seen enough and talked to enough people in the Canadian indestery to know its happening in Canada.

VEGETA wrote:Petro Canada for example owns oil refinery's, owns oil fields and gas stations, they drill it to selling it to Canadians directly, no middle man. So yes more tax but % of tax stays the same oil company's raise the price on there own which in turn increases the amount of tax collected even tho the %(fixed your typo here) of tax remains the same.

Which that company puts into exploration, research and deveopment, equipment upgrades, equipment mantainence etc... Right now on the international markets, many nations are closing their territories to outside expoloration, or like in Venezuela, out right steal the leases, property and all the equipment and or refineries and nationalize them, ask Exxon Molbil how much that costs....

Also here in the US our esteemed congress are debating on weather to cut our own throats with a Carteresque windfall profit tax...also known as socialism and hammer oil companies for doing their jobs, and BTW NOT settign the price oil sells at. Who do you think will be harmed the most by this legislation if it actually passes?....and if Obamamessiah win it may actualy be passed.

If you have a 401K, Pension fund, mutual funds......they are all heavy in shares of oil companies.....so not only will be continue to pay at the pump....congress will also be raiding our retirement accounts....

ok....rant over....for now

ya heard about that bill

Let me put it this way, welcome to Canadian taxes baby


tho tell u one thing that an't helping. when was the last time the Us made oil refinery, long time ago. Every year Bush (I hate him but on occasion he gets something right) says letma make new ones as current ones are all at 100% capacity, he even will give up old military basses to build them on. congress slaps him down yearly. so basiclay even if the US and Canadian tapes that new field found under US/Canadian border alberta area, they can't refine any more per year then currently being done.

VEGETA wrote:which dollar are you talking about buff. And trust me there is more to it then just world price of oil. I even worked in the oil company for a year and talked to people, seen value of a barrel drop while pump price goes up, then barrel goes up and price goes up again. trust me there is definite price gouging going on in Canada. I don't know the Us system to know if it happens or if its just world cost but ya seen enough and talked to enough people in the Canadian indestery to know its happening in Canada.

what dollar do you think I'm talking about thats in the tank? The world oil economy is pegged (as in bought and sold) to the USD (US dollar) has been since oil became an economy. Follow me here Veg....if the dollar is in the tank....and it has lst value then in world petro dollars it costs MORE to buy a barrel of oil than it did 2 years ago irregardless of commodity price.

I worked for a year in a appliance dealership when I was 20....ergo I know the pricing structure of todays appliance "economy"?

If the price of oil goes up...the pump price goes up because....shocker...the people who have the pumps have to cover buying the next delivery of gass at the new higher price....if oil never comes down this is a neverendign upward trend, and where we find ourselves today. If at some point oil goes down, then once the pump price has paid for the prior higher priced (in oil) then it starts to come back down, it lags because the pump price is, if you will, pegged to gas yet to be delivered.

interesting discussion here:

the other side of this is that sure, right now the Saudi's are making tons of money, but they're looking long term -- if the price goes up too much (and there's already signs of this), even silly americans will stop buying oodles of oil and THAT will hurt oil producing countries long term. The need to keep the price low enough that Americans stay addicted to cheap oil (and really, gas in the US is relatively cheap) and don't bother looking for alternatives.

Even now gas is relativity cheep in the Us compared to Canada and european countries in general. I agree with buff is saying but on top of that in Canada there is pricing gouging on the go, I have had people in Petro Canada tell me right to my face that on long weekend for example oil prices are jacked just because they can. Yes oil hooked to world economy but there always some ont he top being taken by oil company's, at least in Canada.

Well petrol prices in UK are reaching critical meltdown point. Diesel has gone up £0.16 a litre ($0.32) in the past three weeks alone and it looks like it will continue to rise every week at this point!

We have already had a large protest from the Haulage firms, that because of Diesel price rises have now got an average £15,000 ($30,000) increase in running costs per individual Truck!!

Petrol has also risen here by £0.10 a litre in the same time period plus the government are introducing a huge Road tax price increase for cars with 2.0 litre engines and above and by price rise i mean from £200 a year to £400 a year!!

Current prices are Diesel £1.299 per litre thats $2.598 or $11.794 a gallon!!

Petrol is £1.189 a litre thats $2.378 a litre or $10.796 a gallon!!

As a result of these rises, food prices have shot up over 10% in the past month.

Electricity and Gas prices for your house in Britain has risen by over 25% in the past 6 months. The Economy has hit crisis levels and the housing market has started to fall, prices are already droping dramatically as people can no longer afford to buy houses as they no longer have the spare money they used to because they have to spend so much more on food and keeping their house warm.

The banks are no longer offering the fantastic mortgage offers they were a year ago because so many people are defaulting thier payments now and getting thier houses repossed, a report in the news today said that house sales in britain were at there lowest since records began!! No one is able to sell thier house as no one can afford to buy!

The Government also eliminated the lower 10% income tax bracket at the budget in March meaning people on lower incomes now have to pay the higher 20% Income tax.

It's just gone nuts, absolutely nuts so many people are going to have nowhere to live, Renting a house in the UK is now more expensive than buying one, so those having thier house taken off them have nowhere to go!

GODDAMM money grabbing, backstabbing, lying sons of bitches in the Governments of the world today have royally screwed us all and now the economy is f**ked big time and all we do is go ho hum.

Time for a Revolution, Time for a new way of running this planet without the secrecy and bullshit of todays political system.

Don't ask what that should be, but the current world order need changed.