Introversion

You also have to remember the US have virtually no viable mass transit in most places. I live in New York City where most people don't have cars. I can go months without being in a car, but that is unthinkable for most of the country. We have the best highway system in the world and one of the worst rail systems.

Yeah, and the kicker is that in all of this, my state actually CUT FUNDING TO PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.

What. The. Eff.

How's class?

What's the price in Europe? Here, it's $2.63/US Gallon, so 3.8:1 = about $.70 per metric liter.

Depends where you are in Europe...

At my local supermarket, it's *Does conversion into dollars* about $1.70 per liter, thats what, $6.30 a gallon?

The GoldFish wrote:How's class?

Just finished.

I was getting ready before. As in, finishing an assignment. That I hadn't started.

doormat wrote:Would you pay 25 grand for a super-compact? No? THAT's why the US uses so much gas.

That's assuming that someone HAS 25 grand for a super-compact or, for that matter, no need for anything larger. I own a little '95 Saturn SC2 and know for a fact that if I head of a family that car simply wouldn't work. It might be good on gas and decently fast (yay performance chip) but it has no room in the back seat.

That said, many people do buy vehicles that far exceed what they need with them. You do NOT need something like a Cadillac Escalade as a family vehicle (or at all for that matter...) -- a minivan with a little inline-4 or V6 has more than enough room and power to get most people by.

Over here in Australia, big engines are popular. One of the best sellling cars is a GM-Holden Commodore, a family sedan which comes with a choice of a 3.6 litre V6 or a 350 c.i. Chev V8, and then people complain that they spend too much on petrol.

I have a 4-cyl 1.6, much more economic.

I honestly don't believe they still put V8's in family sedans. That just seems very excessive to me. I mean, I can see putting a powerful V8 in something like a 'Vette (if you can afford the payments on that, odds are you can pay to fill up the tank).

I'm quite happy with my 4-banger. Not only is it much better on gas than my old car's V8 ('82 Oldmobile Toronado -- nice car but I would never be able to afford the $50+ to fill up the 20 gallon tank) but it's much easier to work on. Changing the spark plugs and wires, for instance, is trivial on my Saturn (a few minutes, tops), but on the Olds it would have been a rather involving job.

Although the English have both the Jaguar and Aston Martin which have both put V12s in their cars.

Erh... I'm driving a subaru justy 1.2GLI... If I'm not mistaken, a car like mine will sell for about a 150$ in the US... maybe even less. A litre of 95octane fuel costs around 1.25$ here in israel. I'm just thinking how many lifetimes of portability I'll be able to afford in the US after only one workmonth

What I'd realy like is that new volkswagen car (golf GT). It generates 170hp with a tiny 1.4litre engine, and the reports say it consumes only one litre per 13km on average. Too bad it's gonna cost around 55,000$ here in israel :\

A reason for fuel prices going up might be the conflicts in the iraq area... An army consumes unbelivable amounts of fuel during wartime. I remember a number from the first golf war... Something like 22 bilion litres of fuel per day (not sure about this though)...

ToRmEnToR wrote:A reason for fuel prices going up might be the conflicts in the iraq area... An army consumes unbelivable amounts of fuel during wartime. I remember a number from the first golf war... Something like 22 bilion litres of fuel per day (not sure about this though)...

Given that world oil production is only about 13 billion liters per day, that number is way off. It cost the US around 1.5 billion dollars a day to wage the Gulf War, so their fuel consumption would have to be much, much lower than the 22 billion figure you gave.

Than maybe it was 22 milion?

Well, look at it this way. Ford build 2 family saloons (sedans) in the same market sector. The Taurus and the Mondeo. (The taurus is for the US market, the Mondeo is european). Now tell me why the US uses so much gas.