Just read this CNN article on people’s reactions to rising gas prices. It’s fascinating to see that people are starting to get it. It’s starting to hit home. They do these fairly frequently and in the past they’ve had a lot of mixed opinions. This is the first one that has been overwhelmingly negative.

Personally, we’re getting hit by the rising food prices a lot more than gas. We had our first $30 tank of gas recently, but that’s not really that big of a deal. We use about 2-3 tanks of gas a month. So $15-20 isn’t gonna break us. But we did fuel up my parent’s truck last week as part of moving in our set for The Automat, and it was $50. I don’t know how people who commute can afford 4 tanks of gas a month at $50 a pop. You really start to see how moving to the city can become affordable. If you have two sub-20mpg vehicles and two commutes that require filling up a gas tank weekly, you could afford about $40,000 more house for the price of your commute. That’s nuts.

In the past a lot of artists have drawn images of what they imagine suburbia will look like during a nuclear winter. I wonder if we’ll see that in an “oil winter”?

What do you think? Do you think it’s time to sell your house for one on a bus route, and dump your sub-20mpg cars, or do you think this too will pass?

---

Comments

Julie (www.juliesdramas.blogspot.com)

2008-02-29T21:52:06.000Z

It’s going to get worse before it gets better. I am actually encouraged by some of the actions people are taking in this article. You don’t need that giant SUV to commute to work in the city. People should live closer to their jobs. These are good changes and hopefully the car companies will listen to us and make more fuel-efficient vehicles. I’m hitting a lot of frustration because we want our next car to have a 3rd row of seats and fuel-efficiency is basically non-existant in that class of vehicles. Minivans get 17 or 18 mpg city! So we’ll probably save up for an SUV(!) of all things, the Toyota Highlander Hybrid, because it gets 27 city and 25 highway (due to the way hybrids work its city mileage is better). Or else we’ll just shove our kids into a tiny car and make people who come visit us drive too.

Kate (http://katiekatworld.blogspot.com)

2008-03-01T04:59:47.000Z

I’ve heard people saying that they’re rethinking their big cars. We also had some friends move out of their giant suburban home into a smaller city home. No more commuting, gas, tolls. They said that all added up. And who really needs a 5,000 ft2 house? I mean, other than the family with the 16 kids on TLC. I am thinking about a car that I could fit two carseats into. I am determined to wrestle ONE in and out of my Beetle, if only because I am ornery and contrary. And also, it’s Ryan’s turn for a new car (another wagon) and we don’t want two car payments. Have I sent you the link to that cars for parents blog? Most of it isn’t useful but sometimes they have a good review of a non-SUV that’s good for multiple kids. I don’t know what to say about carting non-children type people in addition. Oh! And I was at the gas station recently and my $40 hurt until the woman in the giant Suburban said, “That was just $90!” Um, wow. How can you afford that?!? And the car payment isn’t small, either. I realize that this was in an enclave, but still. She commented on it.

Kate (http://katiekatworld.blogspot.com)

2008-03-01T05:01:13.000Z

P.S. And what about sedans? Not a Taurus, okay. ;)

Tim (http://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/listblog/tim.html)

2008-03-01T17:16:48.000Z

I hope the Beetle works better than the Golf. I had to actually get into the car to get Stella in and out. And we’re only considering vehicles with 3 rows of seats. The Scion will work great for up to two kids.

Kate (http://katiekatworld.blogspot.com)

2008-03-02T04:50:25.000Z

Yeah, I’m afraid that my experience will be a lot like yours. I was reading about it before and shuddering. Ryan asked what people in Europe do. Seriously. Ryan saw a VW minivan from Mexico here. Are there any (dreaded) minivans that get decent gas mileage? I don’t have much useful to say other than this bites. You want/have to put your kids in the safety seats and yet you don’t want to drive an armored vehicle. I wish it wasn’t so hard.

Tim (http://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/listblog/tim.html)

2008-03-02T15:42:01.000Z

“Are there any (dreaded) minivans that get decent gas mileage?” Not yet.

M1EK (http://mdahmus.monkeysystems.com/blog/)

2008-03-03T16:29:00.000Z

Toyota sells a hybrid minivan in Japan, which they won’t bring over here because it’s smaller than their Sienna model. Supposedly some marketing geniuses told them back when it came out that you can’t ever move DOWN in size on a car model - they ignored the possibility of bringing it over and calling it something else (as in the Yaris sneaking in under the Corolla).