From $2.00 gas to $5.00 gas in 4 years

First, As to whether I consider yachts important They are where I've earned my living for the past 20 years and they've been my passion for 50. Boats not being bought affects my wallet, but sometimes we should sacrifice even if just a little.
I am my brother's keeper may be too quaint for some so let's look it another way. The guy who mows your lawn and serves your food or cleans your boat may be raising his children in a shack in the woods made of shipping crates or sleeping in a 3 bedroom house with 30 others. (That's not an exageration). These are the people you trust around you home, family and trinkets. Do you really want them to be desperate? These are the people who can only afford an old gas guzzler, and when they can't even run that.....

Not much will change as long as we live in a Free Market Economy or we Nationalise the Industry like some 3rd World (OPEC) producers where a gallon is less than $2.

I looked at downsizing to a Volvo C-30 T5 or a Mini Cooper S last Month, but after doing some quick math and realising that if we didn’t go out for those $200 diners once a week, or cut back on the Friday afternoon Golf games and those huge Bar tabs on the 19th Hole…or ?.

Cant see much changing though, maybe we’re just catching up to Europe and the rest of the World.
Regardless it’s been a hell of a ride.

Not sure "it's been a hell of a ride" will cut it for the grandkids.
Maybe nationalizing is the answer when an industry turns on the citizens. I remember when the gougers hit Homestead after Andrew their wares were confiscated by the gov.

Note - the following is purely from an American point of view, and relates to American economic realities.

For what it's worth, I make my living off the automobile industry and encouraging people to lust after them, while letting the people who pay those who pay me work at parting those lustful souls from their money. My brother runs two luxury auto dealerships in the New York City area, each in the top ten nationally for the brand.

I'm no crunchy granola flake standing on a soapbox crying out about the falling sky.

That said, the majority of the boating market is not in the megayachts. The majority is in folks in the high end of the middle class, people who feel the squeeze and have to make tough decisions they haven't faced for the last several years... the kids' college tuition or the new Sea Rat TopHeavyAftCabin 4400? Roll a month of the mortgage to the end of the home loan to catch up on the Lexus and Audi?

If the decision is between an Aston-Martin Vanquish, a Lamborghini Murcielago, or a 599 Maranello... well, you're probably not going to curtail your lifestyle right now. The rising cost isn't having a major adverse effect.

But if you're commuting solo 2 hours each way every day with gas prices rising, spending $2-3k a month just on home heating oil for a McMansion, and not cracking into 6 figures? Something's got to give. A little restraint now, separating wants and needs, learning to tell the kids to scale back a bit, and leading by example will reap a lot of long-term benefits. Even if the goal isn't to send a message to the oil companies or car companies or banks, but instead to get your own house in order, then the result will be the same. Cutting back has the same end result no matter what the reason.

Please forgive me for being long-winded or if i sound preachy.

Fuel prices in Egypt have increased by around 40-50% last week. Diesel jumped from US$ 0.14 per liter (US$ 0.61 per US gallon) to US$ 0.21 per liter (US$ 0.92 per US gallon).

:O WHAT THE?!

0.12 € per liter??

no way...

It's true and we're quite pissed that fuel prices went up 50% in a day .

95 Octane is now US$ 0.51 per liter up from US$ 0.33
92 Octane is now US$ 0.33 per liter up from US$ 0.26

Hi,

I think you have a bit generous in your size of a US Gallon. A US Gallon Liquid is equivalent to 3.785411784 Litres or 3.786 for quick calculations therefore your gas is even cheaper than you posted.

14 x 3.786= 53c a US Gallon
21 x 3.786= 72c a US Gallon

Still very cheap fuel for most these days but must be a shock to many of the local people who do not have the levels of income or spare cash that many westerners have.

Hmmm......you are right, I used a converter which used the figure of 4.4048838 liters for a US gallon. Thank you for correcting me.

It was a shock for the local people and there were some scattered riots throughout the country when the government increased the fuel prices two weeks ago. Transportation costs, food prices,....etc. went up on the same day. The liter price is ofcourse cheap compared to other international prices, but the increase in terms of percentage was huge when considering that the average per capita income in Egypt is about US$1400 per annum.

Dear Tarek,

The converter is using US 'dry gallon' units instead of liquid US gallons. That could be why it did not work. Here are the retail prices in Turkey (These are beyond comparison, lol):

Regular Gasoline: $10,60 per gallon/ $2,80 per litre
Eurodiesel: $10,12 per gallon (Very Low Sulphur Diesel)/ $2,67 per litre.
High-Octane 97 Gasoline: $10,82 dollars per gallon.

A large SUV would fill up for a $292.56. The exchange rate I used is: $1=TL 1.24.

So, stop complaining please

Why should Tarek stop complaining. He should be complaining loud and clear. Meanwhile you should be using a megaphone for your complaints.
SCREAM

........I agree that fuel prices in Egypt were too low and they were heavily subsidized by the goverment, however a sudden overnight increase of 50% is way too much and really shakes and shocks the people and the economy in general. Such an increase should be gradual and take place over a much longer period of time.

NYCAP- this subject has really put a bee in your bonnet

I guess I'm not sure who to scream at though. Sure, the oil companies are making money, but we are a capitalist society so new refineries are being built every day (literally, in Canada). Maybe I'm naive, but it would seem to me that rising prices create a market ripe for competition.
Another added benefit to rising fuel prices is that it will cause every one of us to stop being lazy and will prompt us to figure out ways that we can individually conserve fuel. On a larger scale, it will prompt ingenuity in creating alternatives to oil consumption.
Oh Boy- now I've done it

Ken, Ken, Ken,
Are those refineries being built or storage facilities. Big diference. With storage facilities they can buy low and sell high. In the US they don't build refineries, because they can always claim they need the profits to put into upgrading their facilities and claim shortages due to a lack of refining capabilities (Pure BS) while they buy up and close down private refineries. As for capitalism. It's a rigged game in this case.
BTW- that's a bee we all better get in our bonnet soon before we find ourselves living in the hive. It's no longer a matter of 'well I can afford it so it's not my problem'. This one could swallow the middle class completely very fast.

Refineries in Canada.
The US oil companies aren't building any, but our neighbors are going gangbusters. Codger will probably be better suited to comment on this.

Are you suggesting a monopoly? Cartel?

I think the real core of this thread isn't simply about who is paying more, but just how much we're all getting bent over. Whether you're paying $0.50 a gallon, or $5.50 a gallon is irrelevant when you consider the fact that whatever you're paying today is possibly 40-50% more than you were paying 6 months to a year ago. I don't know about the rest of you, but my paycheck certainly hasn't increased 40-50% in the last year. To the average Joe-worker whose daily routine of driving back and forth to work now costs %50 more than it did not too long ago, that is a big problem.

Monday evening, the gas prices around here were $1.30/L. Tuesday morning they were $1.44/L. (That's about $0.53/gallon in 12 hours.) As of those prices, my monthly fuel bill will now be on par with my monthly car payment. I fully expect a liter of gas to cost well above $1.50 by mid-July when the summer holiday period starts. It used to be called "summer vacation".... now everyone's referring to it as their "summer staycation" because they can't afford to go anywhere.

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GM Closing 4 Truck and SUV Plants in North America



Tuesday, June 3, 2008; 11:03 AM

General Motors will close four of its truck and SUV plants in coming months, expand production of its more fuel efficient cars and move forward with development of an electric vehicle, as the auto giant adapts to skyrocketing energy costs and changing consumer preferences.
As if emphasising the end of an epoch in which American car companies drew profits from building bulk and passenger capacity into family vehicles, the company also said it may dump the Hummer brand -- perhaps the ultimate in auto excess.
Two of the plants to be closed are in the United States -- in Moraine, Ohio, and Janesville, Wis., where the company makes vehicles like the Envoy and the Suburban. The others are truck plants located in Oshawa, Canada, and Toluca, Mexico.

You'd think they would have learned after getting nailed in the 70's to stay ahead of the curve. My sympathies to the UAW members.