So far gas is holding steady at around $3.90/reg. I'm honestly surprised it hasn't hit 4 yet.

just went up again in Central CT. Tuesday it was $4.17 today its $4.30

it went up to ~$4.00 for a couple of days here then went back to $3.85 almost everywhere for regular.

I wonder why

Detroit 3, Toyota all post lower monthly sales
 

Seems as if we, the driving and buying public, may have hit our tipping point based on this story((In part due to economy as well gas prices?):
U.S. consumers’ reluctance to buy new vehicles--especially low-mpg vehicles such as light trucks, SUVs and larger cars--accelerated in May.

Truck sales plunged and major automakers posted sharp sales declines for the month. But small cars achieved record volumes at several brands and the sales winners in May were either fuel-efficiency specialists--Suzuki, Volkswagen and Smart--or were car-heavy brands such as Honda, Nissan and Hyundai.

Total sales declined 10.7 percent to 1.40 million vehicles. For the year to date, sales declined 8.4 percent to 6.22 million vehicles.
http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl...8/newsletter01

FYI: AutoWeek is the consumers/mass market sister to Automotive News.
Automotive News is to the car industry as Variety is to Hollywood.

^^ GM is doing some major layoffs at their truck/SUV plants and shutting down 4 plants all-together. GM has also announced they will be discontinuing the Hummer (which in my mind it's about time... there's nothing about those vehicles that make any kind of sense anyway... I can see military needing huge vehicles like that, but they are pointless for regular people)

Here it is hovering around 3.81-3.87. Has not hit 4.00 yet for regular thank goodness.

I know someone who bought a Ford Mustang about a month or two ago. Otherwise, haven't seen much in car sales recently.

Bad news for anyone thinking of buying a hybrid any time soon:
Battery shortage hurts hybrid sales

With gasoline at $4 a gallon, the market is screaming for more hybrids. But sales of hybrids dropped significantly in May.

Battery shortages are crimping supplies of the Ford Escape Hybrid and Toyota Prius, two of the top-selling hybrids.

Prius sales dropped 37.5 percent in May to 15,011 compared with May 2007. Combined sales of the Escape Hybrid and its stablemate, the Mercury Mariner Hybrid, dropped 26.0 percent to 2,378 last month.

General Motors' big SUV hybrids are not selling well because of their high prices and limited fuel savings.............................
http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl...8/newsletter01

$4.799/gal for premium at one of the more expensive stations in town.

:(

It's stayed around $3.90/$3.91 for regular up until this morning... now we're at $3.96 :(

I knew it would happen, but I guess I really hoped it wouldn't... we are inching closer to $4 for the "cheap" stuff

This is an interesting story from LA Times:
Soaring costs are squeezing gas station owners too

[COLOR=#333333! important]Dealers say fuel and other expenses are rising so rapidly that they can't keep up.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#999999! important]By Elizabeth Douglass and Ronald D. White, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
June 10, 2008 [/COLOR]
Andre van der Valk hasn't been paid in six months.

He has a job, though, as owner of four service stations in Southern California. He hasn't taken a salary this year so he can pour all his money into buying fuel for his stations.
Despite the jaw-dropping prices at the pump -- they jumped 19 cents a gallon in California to $4.43 in the last week and averaged more than $4 a gallon nationwide for the first time, the Energy Department said Monday -- service station owners aren't making the killing that motorists assume.

That's because credit card fees, the price of tanker-loads of fuel and other costs are rising so rapidly that station owners haven't been able to keep pace despite the record prices they're charging.

"People see $4 gas, and they think these retailers are making a fortune," said Ben Brockwell, a director at Oil Price Information Service, which tracks fuel prices. "The reality is these guys are being stressed to the limit."...............................
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedi...,2585887.story

Last night I drove past the gas station because I was running late and figured I could just fill up this morning. Bad choice. It jumped from $4.09 (for regular) to $4.29 over night :mad:

the cheapest i've seen in the past few days is what i just paid $3.939

everywhere else is $3.999

By the hospital where I work it was
$4.55 regular
$4.65 plus
$4.75 premium
AND that is pretty low for my area! More and more families are struggling to visit their loved ones because of these prices.

It's up again... $3.989 for regular.

Boo :(

It is now officially $60.63 to fill up a CAVALIER. WTF!

Wow, wish Phx was still in the 3 dollar range. I need to fill my car up and the cheapest gas I've found is between $4.09-$4.15 (but that was this morning, I'll wake up tomorrow and it will probably be 5 cents more :rolleyes::mad:)

Gas Prices
 

Several Factors to consider Katelyn.

1. DOLLAR WEAKNESS
The fall in the value of the dollar against other major currencies has helped drive buying across commodities as investors view dollar assets as relatively cheap.
It has also reduced the purchasing power of OPEC's revenues and increased the purchasing power of some non-dollar consumers.
OPEC oil ministers have noted that although prices are rising to record nominal levels, inflation and the dollar have softened the impact.
Some analysts say investors have been using oil as a hedge against the weaker dollar.

2. FUNDS
Since the Federal Reserve cut U.S. interest rates in mid-August last year and central banks pumped billions of dollars into financial markets to ease a credit crunch, oil and gold have risen.
Investment flows from pension and hedge funds into commodities including oil have boomed, as has speculative trading. At the same time, the credit crunch has brought some other markets, such as the U.S. asset-backed commercial paper market, to a virtual standstill.
Some of that money has found its way into energy and commodities, analysts say.

3. DEMAND
While previous price spikes have been triggered by supply disruptions, demand from top consumers the United States and China is a main driver of the current rally.
Global demand growth has slowed after a surge in 2004 but is still rising and higher prices have so far had a limited effect on economic growth.
Analysts say the world is coping with high nominal prices because, adjusted for exchange rates and inflation, they have been until recently lower than during previous price spikes and some economies have become less energy intensive.

4. OPEC SUPPLY RESTRAINT
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, source of more than a third of the world's oil, started to reduce oil output in late 2006 to stem a fall in prices.
Fewer OPEC barrels entering the market helped propel the rally and consumer nations led by the International Energy Agency have urged OPEC to pump more oil.
At its meetings since December, OPEC has agreed to leave output unchanged, saying there is enough crude in the market. It next meets formally on September 9.
Few in the group believe there is much it can do to tame a market it says defies logic.

5. NIGERIA
Supply of crude from Nigeria, the world's eighth-largest oil exporter, has been cut since February 2006 because of militant attacks on the country's oil industry.
Oil companies and trading sources have detailed 559,000 bpd of shut Nigerian production due to militant attacks and sabotage.

6. IRAN
Oil consumers are concerned about supply disruption from Iran, the world's fourth-biggest exporter, which is locked in a dispute with the West over its nuclear program.
Western governments suspect Iran is using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies this, saying it wants nuclear power to make electricity.

Interestingly enough a few months ago Goldman Sachs predicted that the average price for a barrel of crude would be $140.00 for 2008. More recently Morgan Stanley predicted that number to a $150.00 average before July 4th.
Fuel refiners and marketers have passed only some of the increase in crude prices down to consumers at the pumps. In my opinion, energy prices are not the fault of oil companies but are due to soaring crude oil markets. I do not believe that raising taxes on oil company profits is a viable solution. Higher taxes will make it harder for to compete abroad with state-owned oil companies for shrinking energy resources. Oil companies bear some of the highest tax burdens. For example, Exxon's effective tax rate is about 49 percent of revenues. The American Petroleum Institute answers complaints about windfall profits with statistics showing oil industry profits per dollar of revenue are in line with other industries, actually lagging some such as pharmaceuticals.

Sadly, gas prices have already hit $4.00 in my city...in the most expensive stations in the most expensive part of town.

Near where I live and near where I work, they still are hovering between 3.85 and 3.95.

I have yet to pay 4 dollars per gallon to pump gas- thank goodness.

^^^ I posted that on May 1. Today, that station has 4.89 for Regular! That is about one dollar higher than other stations around the state!! I don't get it... :confused:

And I thought the station around here that's 20 cents above everyone else [within 3 minutes] was bizarre.

I mentioned to my boyfriend yesterday that I wouldn't be surprised to see NJ hit $5 by the end of summer. Then he proceeded to get a devilish grin on his face, because by that point he will have sold his car and moved to Manhattan. :mad:

WTF! $4.89 for REGULAR???

At the gas station I frequent it is now $3.99/reg. though I was driving around last night to meet up with some friends and saw in parts of Dallas there are still some areas in the mid-$3.80s

In July, my co-worker & I are going to start carpooling a couple times a week. We'd start right now, but she drops her daughter off at the sitter's and I wouldn't want to leave my car in that neighborhood! July 1, she starts at a new sitter in a different, safer neighborhood.

Although, if I took the hubby's caddy and it got stolen, we could get a fuel-efficient car to replace it without breaking the lease! That is an idea... Hmmmmmmm

We are still holding steady at $3.89 for regular. Happily I'm off for the summer and not taking a lot if unnecessary trips so I won't have to refill my tank as often.

I paid $3.95 the other day, at an out of the way gas station in the sticks, but it was just one exist past where I would have gone. I thought it would be cheaper there because last time I got there it was only $3.85. But everywhere else around here is ~$4.00

I'm really dreading our July road-trip to Missouri this year. Luckily my CR-V gets decent mileage, and uses regular. It will be about a 2,000 mile trip, but we have to go... hubby is in a golf tourney, and they won't fly our dog in the Summer. (He flies often with us in the winter-- only on delta or Northwest, because the other airlines suck at animal transport.)

Filled up hubby's truck at Sam's yesterday and it was $3.89. Everywhere else in town is at around the $3.93 mark.

not at all related to gas prices, but why don't other airlines let you take your dog in the summer?

I fly American and have never had any problems with taking my dog with me. It costs almost as much as an add'l seat even though it counts as a carry-on luggage piece

I do understand Marketing 101 but why is it that those NOT IN NEED get the good stuff at no or very little cost?

Honda hopes Hollywood glitz shines up fuel cell car

TAKANEZAWA, Japan -- Honda Motor Co. is hoping a little Hollywood star power will add sparkle to its new fuel cell vehicle and make the FCX Clarity the greenest car on the red carpet.
Actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Harris, as well as film producer Ron Yerxa, are among the first five customers tapped to lease the garnet red no-emissions sedan.
While the car is rich with public-relations opportunities, it is still largely experimental. Honda expects to lease only about a half dozen in the United States this year, and about 200 in both the United States and Japan over the next three years.
The first car rolled off the line here today and will hit the streets of southern California next month. Yerxa, known for his work on "Cold Mountain," will get the first delivery through Honda of Santa Monica, one of three dealerships chosen to handle the leasing.
Keenly aware of the image coup scored by Toyota when celebrities rolled up to the Oscars in the fuel-efficient Prius hybird, Honda intentionally chose stars among its first Clarity customers.
"We wanted a few celebrities because at this time it's important to spread the message," said Stephen Ellis, Honda's manager of fuel cell marketing, here at a press event.
Yerxa and Harris were flown out to Honda's New Model Center north of Tokyo to attend a line off ceremony attended by President Takeo Fukui. But also on hand was Jon Spallino of Redondo Beach, Calif., a purported example of the hoi polloi lining up for the car.
"I'm going to take it to places to show it off," said Harris, whose roles included the bride-turned-terrorist in the television spy drama "24," "That's what it's all about."..............
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dl.../62741773/1176

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl...923001566/1065

That crap burns me up too! Do people really buy XYZ because they see someone famous using XYZ?? I'd rather support a company that did good deeds in the community.

I AM in marketing, and I'll tell you that, YES, OF COURSE THEY DO! Clothes, accessories, make up, cars, even dogs! People want to look like the stylish, rich and famous...not the poor. Just the truth.

Anyway, I read an article about this yesterday and I was under the impression that at least Jamie Lee Curtis purchased her car. Don't know about the others since they weren't mentioned in that article.

Just came across a follow-up Op-Ed piece about this.
Rather interesting read:
Is Hydrogen Just Hype?

Regular folks can forget the Honda FCX Clarity.

"I woke one day this week to find the future had arrived. Honda had made the hydrogen car a reality through its FCX Clarity. I yawned and went back to bed. Nothing had really changed. Hydrogen cars were still an appealing fantasy, a mirage that recedes just when it seems within reach.
Of course, the media (newspapers, Web, TV) was saying the opposite. The Honda was on its way to showrooms, just in time to save the planet and help the world kick its gasoline habit.
Too bad none of that is true.".......
......"The problem: all the inconvenient truths that Honda and other fuel-cell makers keep glossing over. Yes, the technology is intriguing. But it will still be several years (at best) before you’ll see hydrogen cars in a showroom. Don’t believe me? Ring up some Honda dealers and tell them you’d like to put a down payment on a shiny new FCX Clarity. After they stop laughing, we’ll talk.".......
......"
....."You — meaning the average car buyer — will never own this hydrogen car, no matter how much you’re willing to spend. You can’t take one for a test drive. If you live outside of California, you will likely never see an FCX Clarity on the road.
At the plant in Japan, several of the first recipients were on hand to see their hydrogen cars take shape. Honda has selected roughly 100 Americans — including celebrities Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Harris — who will be allowed to pay $600 a month to lease an FCX Clarity for three years, and then return the car to the manufacturer.".......
......."And why is it always celebrities? Why should the rich-and-famous get the first and often only crack at these sci-fi cars? You can answer that one yourself. Where there’s a celebrity, there’s a TV camera. To Honda, it doesn’t much matter whether real people drive the FCX Clarity, or whether it does anything to save fuel or ease global warming. What’s important is that people see Honda’s green conscience in action."..........
http://editorial.autos.msn.com/artic...topart=hybrids

A post in two parts:

Part one...

Sister in law from Detroit is in town on business and says that gas is $4.07 there. She was amazed that gas at the Safeway store next to us was only $3.87. And, having spent at least $50 in a food shopping trip using my "Safeway Club Card," I got a 10 cent per gallon discount, so I paid $3.77.


Part two...

An oil company spokesman on our local NPR station last week said that prices were generally lower at grocery stores or big box stores because they don't depend to gasoline sales for their profit. He also said that, contrary to what we've been told, US refineries are not working to capacity, but have some "confortable" head room. If that's true (I obviously really don't know), it flies in the face of what "Big Oil" would have us believe.

VIVA LA TACO!!!
 

Free tacos with gas receipt from Jack In the Box

Disclaimer: I don't work for Jack In the Box, nor am I affiliated with them. I just heard about this and thought I'd pass it on in light of today's high fuel & food prices so I'm not trying to spam. If the mods think it should be deleted, please feel free to do so. </end disclaimer>

Jack in the Box is giving away 2 free tacos with a gas receipt on Thursday June 26th!

Viva la Taco! lol

I was taking to a business man up in Nantucket and he told me gas was $5.00 on the island!
And heard on a news show, not sure just which one, the other day that US refineries are working at about 89% and that is just about the normal rate given normal shut downs for maintenance.
I personally have not fact checked that.

Gas around me is $4.22-$4.25. How sad is it that I saw a station near where I was today at $4.03 and thought that was a major bargain?

Gas is going down! It's dropped about 5-9 cents on average this week. I'm at a little more than half a tank, but I'm tempted to go refill just in case it spikes again before I get paid on Friday.

I think it's because it gets too hot and they won't want to be sued when the plane lands and you find out your dog died from heat exhaustion during the flight. That's the gist I got when I inquired about flying Delta with my dog.

I'm so tempted to pump and run somedays...but most of the gas stations are pay first then pump. I hate paying $4.26/gal for 93..I try to aim for the Sunocos that have 91

One place in town had it for 4.05, another on the other side had it for 3.91. When is it called price gouging?

I don't know, but I found 3.79 tonight. I was tempted to stop but it was midnight. Hopefully it won't be 5 bucks by morning.

Where do you live?;)
May be the only part of the country with lower prices.

You may wish to double check your manual to see if you really need to use Hi-Test in your car. Only about 5% of cars need to.
As for gas and go-shame on you.
There is a station here that even though it is pay up front, they have more cameras than any three banks I have been in.

it's amazing that gas is cheaper ON the highway that at ur destination...


I drove to NYC and saw at a few rest stops that gas was JUST under 4 dollars whereas IN NYC the average was 4.25 and the highest I saw was 4.39.....


Amazingly enough at one rest stop there was a HUGE line for people getting gas at 3.99.....

I remembered a 'hidden' gas station my cousin showed me....gas was 3.92......in and out in 5 mins with a full tank..and no line