Gas Prices?..Don't bring this to me!!!

A lady I know recently replaced her '00 Sedan Deville with a brand new '05 model. Ordinarily this wouldn't bother me except that for the past five years she has been complaining without end about the ever rising gas prices. So I did a little computation and came up with the following guesstimates:

approx price of '05 Sedan Deville $50475 locally, price of Buick model LeSabre (for comparison) $27795...difference $22680. Figuring the cost of gas (she uses premium) will rise to at least $3.00 per gallon, this amount of money will buy 7,560 U.S. gallons.Now, let's assume she drives 15,000 miles per year and give the Buick an average of 24.5 mpg combined city-highway driving. That means the Buick will use 612.24 gallons per year to travel 15,000 miles. In summary, this means that the additional cost of the Cadillac would purchase enough gasoline to allow the Buick to drive for 12.34 YEARS!!!!! Understand...I don't care how she spends her money, but as I see it there would be no hardship on her whatsoever if she were to buy the Buick instead. It's almost as nice, almost as comfortable (in fact I would be hard pressed to measure the differences)and would transport the same number of passengers and virtually the same amount of cargo. Granted this is but one example and others in a different situation may disagree, but I say if she chooses to drive the Cadillac she has no right to complain about gas prices. Agree/Disagree?

Reply to
GrtArtiste
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No offence, but by your logic everyone should be driving Geo Metro's. Seriously, I myself have a 3800 II engine, and though it can get 30mpg on the highway, I like the car enough that even if it got half that, I would probably still keep it. Perhaps this woman simply likes the Caddy better then a Buick or another car. I myself am used to Pontiac's. I had 5 of them over the course of several years, then bought an Olds and hated it until I got back into a Pontiac. Yes they are all GM, but I still like the Pontiac's better.

Reply to
80 Knight

No offence taken, and I'm not about to suggest everyone drive a roller-skate. This isn't about personal preferences. Just trying to point out that this person would save a bundle and sacrifice very little by driving the Buick instead. By the way...how much does a litre cost at your location? I imagine the figures would be even more dramatic.

Reply to
GrtArtiste

Here I drive a Sierra, a Blazer, a Grand Prix, an older Silverado and an 05 Mustang (and other members of my family drive cars and trucks of roughly the same years and sizes). The Sierra gets about 18.5 mpg on the highway, the Blazer gets 17.5 on it, the Silverado I have no idea with. The Mustang got about 35 mpg on its last trip of about 500 miles and it gets about 15 in the city and the Grand Prix gets about the same. The Sierra has a 34 gallon tank on it and when it comes time to fill it up it can easily get into the $70 range.

My family is always complaining about gas prices and so am I, but before I got the cars and trucks I realized that they most likely wouldn't get that good of mileage and I still ended up getting them. It's just one of those whatever you want and are comfortable with.

Gas prices are one of those things that pretty much everyone can complain about, no one likes paying more then they need to and everyone is so conditioned to the lower prices. Just last year here gas was about 1.60 a gallon, now its up to 2.30.

But when the time comes to replace the Blazer in a couple years it's going to be replaced with either a Tahoe or Expedition. I COULD get a more fuel efficient vehicle, but it's what I want/need at the time.

Reply to
Phillip Schmid

First off go sit in the back of a 05 LeSabre for 10 minutes then sit in the back seat of your friends 05 DeVille. You wouldn't want to ride around the block more than once in the back seat of a LeSabre. Its horrible, especially on long trips.

Consumer Reports Magazine indicates you can use Regular grade 87 octane fuel in the Deville. MPG is rated at 18/ 26 the LeSabre is rated at

20/29.

If that is possible to use regular gas, then you'd be paying the same for gas as what you'd put in a Buick with a 3800 V6. The Caddy would just get a little less MPG and think about how much faster your friend can blast off from the light.

Here is an sample story my dad used to tell folks when he heard they were considering buying a small econo box over something a little more practical.

In 1979 his secretary bought a V W Rabbit Diesel TO SAVE MONEY ON GAS. At that time a 79 Cadillac Coupe De Ville was only $1000 more than a Rabbit.

What she paid in repairs over the next 6 years she owned the VW were no where near the costs she would of endured had she bought a 79 Cadillac instead.

I can't remember how many times she had to have all 4 injectors replaced at $1200.

The Brain box was also a common failure as was the glow plug. A definate $$$ pit.

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

Sometimes people who buy a more expensive car, although they pay more, in the long run it ends up costing them less in repairs than had they purchased a more inexpensive car that they had to put alot of money in to maintain it.

Harryface

05 Park Avenue 91 Bonneville LE, 303,555 miles
Reply to
Harry Face

Right now, the lowest price in Ottawa is 82.9 c/L, which equates to $3.12 per US gallon (1 L = 3.785 US gallons)

Reply to
Brad Clarke

All I am saying is maybe she prefers the Caddy to the Buick. Just as I prefer Pontiac's to the rest. :)

Here in Ontario, this afternoon gas prices that I saw were at the 85.7 or so mark.

Reply to
80 Knight

30mpg

Not really as you are going to the other extreme here. I too though take no pity on someone who pays 50 grand for a car and then complains about the price of fuel for it and buys the cheapest gas they can find too.

Reply to
SnoMan

YES

mike

GrtArtiste wrote:

Reply to
Mikehunt2

I wouldn't mind the higher gas prices so much if the increases went to help society instead of making already rich people more rich.

Reply to
Scott Buchanan

Damn capitalists!!

Reply to
Hairy

Well you can take "comfort" in the fact that futures trading on oil products (started under Reagan in 84) adds 5 to 7$ to the price of oil between the well head and the refinery and the futures on the finished products adds another 5 to 10 cents to each gallon so that "middlemen" that do nothing other than take profit add about 15 to

20 cents to the price of a gallon of fuel just so they can have a "living" too at your expense.
Reply to
SnoMan

Don?t know what you are worrying about. Here in the UK, fuel prices are 90p per litre, that means, 90p x 5 = 4.50gbp per gallon, equivelent to $8.09 per gallon. Hmm, nice and fair that aint it! Would you want to pay them prices in the US?

Reply to
Clayton_Emms

Actually, US gallons are 3.785 liters, so you're paying $6.12 per US gallon. Still, it's quite a bit more than in the US. The reason for this is that, in Europe, gasoline is taxed so that we pay for the cost of the environmental damage of our burning it, while Americans aren't doing that (just yet). 80% of the pump price of gas in Europe is tax.

-tih

Reply to
Tom Ivar Helbekkmo

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