How high can gas go before people wake up?

[OdieTurbo]

Originally Posted by andrmtro

Hey everyone,

Here in Minnesota the gas prices are right around $3.30.

Holy f*ck! I though $3.05 was bad!

Originally Posted by andrmtro

Anyway, the main point of my topic is that the gas prices here seem to have little to no effect on how people are driving here. Seems like everyone around here keeps buying and driving their big honking trucks. The highway speed near my house is 60 MPH (which I never go above) and every single morning I get passed by dozens of people (not joking) that are going at least 65, and sometimes upwards of 75.

Even with gas prices ridiculously high, no one here seems to care!

I mean, what's wrong with people? Why am I the only car on the highway (quite literally) being passed and I'm going the normal speed limit (not below, not above, but right on)? When will people wake up and start driving sensibly to conserve their gas?

Agreed. I hop on I-81 North every morning at about 5:15 AM and being that I live in PA, everybody owns a truck or SUV. The speed limit is 65 MPH and I am DEFINITELY the slowest one on the road. I drive about 45 minutes to pick up my co-pilot (guy I carpool with) in Vestal, NY. I'd say an easy 60% of the cars he and I see are SUV's. If not, they are going way fast. Hell, I see a good half-dozen Prius's every day, all flying at 75 or better. WTF?

The funny part, with my new license plate that says "Best MPG 43.5!" I get a lot of people asking, how the f*ck do you get that good of gas mileage? And all I've done so far is up my tire PSI and drive the speed limit.

It leads me to believe that the general public doesn't have a clue about the link between speed and MPG. Nor do they have a clue about selecting a car with good MPG. They just buy what's popular and/or on sale that month. Even my parents got sucked in, they bought a Saab 9-2 (essentially a Subaru Impreza in disguise) that gets 21 MPG! Hello McFly! It's an all wheel drive turbo sports car with wide 16 inch tires on it, a roof rack, and the most un-aerodynamic nose on a car I've seen since the '70s! My mom thought it was pretty though, so they bought it.

Well enough ranting, sooner or later the d*mn idiots in the SUV's and trucks will use up all our damn gas causing the price to hit $4 or $5 a gallon. I still don't think they'll learn a lesson.

[Hockey4mnhs]

they will never learn. i think my dad is starting to tho. he wont change his driveing habbits tho he just wants to fix it with a tdi. i showed him the prius and he dosent "Trust" the hybrids yet!

[brucepick]

Here in the US people mostly want the vehicle engineering to take care of fuel economy.
They don't realize how important their foot is. Forget about feet, they're just using one foot mostly and will pay extra for the auto tranny fuel waster when buying a new car.

Same for safety. They want seatbelts and airbags and a lot of steel and 4WD, then they call it a safe car. Of course if you drive like an idiot it's not safe. The driver is the most important piece of safety equipment but we always talk about hardware.

We have to let people know how important they are in this. Yes a 4-cyl compact will get better FE than a big SUV however you already bought whatever you have. We have to get good FE with what we own, and next time buy something more efficient.

[Silveredwings]

How high can gas go before people wake up?

It's not how high, but how quickly it gets that high. We 'mericans're easily lulled into a false sense of security by the gradual slope.

[JanGeo]

Be interesting to see WHEN they raise the prices - usually memorial day it drops, Mothers Day dropped a little. Make me want to go out and buy a bunch of 6 gallon gas cans and fill them now before the next increase.