What are you paying for fuel? **NOT AN AMERICA HAS CHEAP FUEL THREAD**

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Today in Holland, truckers went on an short strike because of the rising Diesel prices.
 
I paid $1.489/Litre a couple days ago to fill up. The default prepay limit of $75 didn't quite fill the tank.
(And that lasts me roughly a week)
:(
 
Some of the older pumps are charging by the half gallon because they cant go past 3.99 a gallon, so they are charging 2.03 per half gallon.

Diesel just dropped below the 5 dollar mark
 
okay, I'm moving to US asap for cheap fuel. :ouch:we pay 1.50€ per litre for 95 octane, and about 1.40€ per litre for diesel.
 
If any more talk happens with people saying that America has cheap fuel prices I will shut this thread down. It's been hashed out numerous times. The dollar is extremely weak against both the Euro and the British Pound for one thing so the conversion looks quite bad. Also fuel in America is significantly more expensive then it was even a year ago. Last year at this time I filled up for $3.319, while today if I wanted a gallon of regular it would cost me $4.299..that's 91 cents in a year. 18 months ago in Jan 07 I paid $1.77/gal to fill up...that's a rise of $2.52 in a year and a half.

Fuel in America is expensive for us and has risen quite rapidly as I've shown. Yes I agree fuel is expensive in other parts of the world, and I share your pain. But please don't think you have it worse then us by converting it into USD. If it's high for country complain about your country, don't compare it to others...unless of course they use the same currency and have the same sort of taxes on it.
 
@ Joey D:

I've been thinking about this discussion for some time now. You may remember we exchanged the very same arguments some time ago in this thread, and I made some calculations using the strongest rate of the US$ in the last seven years. Though that I showed that we still paid more than you. You never adressed my arguments though.

Anyway, I know you've been facing an enormous increase in gas prices in a short period of time, and that makes the whole thing especially painful. However, I'm not sure if I can count the counter-argument that "gas prices have always been higher for you Europeans" as valid. As a fact it is true, but I don't see how that makes it less painful for me at the gas pump.
 
Joey D, if you're still going with that seriously odd way of thinking you can as well close this thread. You're basically saying:

"I used to pay $2, now I have to pay $4, you're paying $10 but 🤬 off because you're used to it"

Right. If in your opinion "from basically free to dirt cheap" is a much worse thing than "from very expensive to ridiculously expensive" then OK, that's indeed your opinion. But don't by any means expect that we from the outside the USA understand your ranting - you're still paying easily less than half of what we do. And from our point of view that means the fact that you have cheap fuel.

Unless you can come up with a really good argument to explain how paying $4 exactly is worse than paying $10 this thread is dealt with, or at least make is US only. We "outsiders" just can't be share your pain, we have enough of our own in the form of $145 per tank.
 
I don't think you can compare the two prices since there is a difference in lifestyle.

But why is gas so expensive in Europe? I'm guessing taxes since that was about the only thing I heard. Isn't there a possibility that Americans get taxed more elsewhere?
 
I think that Joey Ds main problem is that people keep converting their prices the easy way. If so, I suggest to incluse a "warning" not to do that in the thread title.
 
My father but the boat in the water today, and we had to fill it up. 120 gallons of premium fuel @ $4.45 a gallon. :sick: We spent over $500.
 
the Interceptor
Anyway, I know you've been facing an enormous increase in gas prices in a short period of time, and that makes the whole thing especially painful. However, I'm not sure if I can count the counter-argument that "gas prices have always been higher for you Europeans" as valid. As a fact it is true, but I don't see how that makes it less painful for me at the gas pump.
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Just my two cents, but I'm guessing the difference in lifestyle does make filling the tank more painful for us than you guys across the pond. Just a few points:

  • Living expenses are much higher over there, thus making gas "cheaper" to you because the price si probably similarly inflated to what we are paying now.
  • You guys have better cars. While you run around in your 50 mpg Renaults, we all are stuck with our 5 mpg Suburbans with 35 inch Super Swampers. Are we retarded? Yes. Are we paying for it? Yes. That doesn't make it less painful for us though.
  • Your country is more adapt to high gas prices. Ours was built in a time of cheap gas leading to bigger distances, a much weaker mass transit system and a country generally built around the car.
  • Similar to above, you guys have been paying a lot for quite a while, so you are used to it and have taken that into account in your daily lives. For us we are stuck living in the $1.50 per gallon era and are not adapting very quickly. Traffic was down for the first time ever in the Seattle area. All of 3%. Again, we are retarded and paying for it, but it still hurts.
 
The reason I say this is because it we went from paying about a dollar/gallon less then 7 years ago to paying almost $4.50 now. Fuel has had a rapid increase in America. I've never said you guys don't have it tough in other countries, actually quite the opposite. I'm pretty sure I said I share your pain in my previous post. We pay a lot in America compare to with what we have been used to for the past 40 years.

Anyway I will close the thread if this sort of stuff continues.
 
Well, Philly certainly has made some good points at how Europeans already have adapted to higher fuel prices, while you're only just beginning to. But then again, we're all car enthusiasts, so we'll probably both end up with Lotus Elises using the same amount of fuel.

Anyway, a way out of the problems you addressed probably is to state how much fuel prices have raised in the specific country of the poster. That way, we'll see the acual significance of how much heavier the burden has become. Taking your numbers in account, fuel prices have raised about 350% within the last seven years.

For Germany, I found the following raises:

Regular (ROZ 91)
2002: 0,94 Euros
2008: 1,51 Euros
raised by 60.6%

Super (ROZ 95)
2002: 0,95 Euros
2008: 1,51 Euros
raised by 58,9%

Super plus (ROZ 98)
2002: 0,99 Euros
2008: 1,56 Euros
raised by 57,6%

Diesel
2002: 0,77 Euros
2008: 1,51 Euros
raised by 96,1%

As you can see, the rais was pretty much constant for all kinds of regular fuel, only diesel had a significantly higher price increase. That hit many european countries very hard, as a lot of people bought diesel cars within the last years. They were taxed higher, but used less and cheaper fuel. Now thought, you're just left with higher taxes and a bit more economy.

Anyway, I do understand that your raise has been significantly higher, and you've just entered the slow and painful process of adapting to it. In the end, I suppose that we can meet in the middle and say that we're on par regarding the evil numbers on the fuel pumps.
 
Philly
  • Your country is more adapt to high gas prices. Ours was built in a time of cheap gas leading to bigger distances, a much weaker mass transit system and a country generally built around the car.
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Leading on from this, there's also the fact that your country is only a smidge smaller than our continent. I remember when Joey came over and stayed in Oxford; he said that from there to London - a distance of 60 miles from the centres of each - was a fairly short journey, but when mentioning this to Brits being told he would need a packed lunch and a spare change of clothes because it's so far. (OK, a little bit of hyperbole, but it was something along those lines.)

In contrast, I went to a town 15 miles from my house the other day to have a meal and watch the new Indiana Jones film. The showing we wanted was sold out and we were wondering whether to go home or wait for the next one. We decided to wait; we'd come all this way, and it was rather a long way to come just for a meal, so we stuck around and watched the movie.

None of which would stop me gasping in suprise at how little I was spending if I did fill a car up in an America, though. It's just what I'm used to.
 
at 1.50 a litre gas is about 5.70 per gallon. which is 1.30 more than what i paid the last time i filled up my z. my escort gets an ASTONISHING 35mpgs. in america that is pretty much at the high end of things. save your Prius and other hybrids or whatnot, 35 is the most that us americans can hope for. which, from what i understand, is not true in Europe. now, if you dont want to drive around in an economy car, thats your choice. i chose not to when i bought a car that was rated at 16mpgs in the city. so the fact that i pay 60 bucks to fill it up doesnt matter in this argument. its not a necessary car. and i dont care what kind of crunch SUV drivers are facing. unless theyre a family in need the space. minivans dont fare much better on gas, either. choices are limited to cars that get 20 highway. maybe if a diesel wagon was offered here in america, they wouldnt buy it, but then they would be choosing to pay whatever they pay for their SUV or minivan. if something is readily available to you and you pass it up for something bigger or faster, while it may suck to fill it up, it was your own choice.

for commuters, who cannot rely on the absolutely abysmal public trans here in washington state, an economy car at 35mpgs is the best we can really hope for. being that an average commute is about 20 miles (and not all highway,) and there are grocery stores and every other store we need ill-placed about 5 miles from the housing development in *suburb,* a lot of people are probably using about 2 gallons a day. for necessary uses.

i have the fortune to live within walking distance of things i need most, so this gas crunch really doesnt warrant any moaning from me. but i dont think most of europe was so terribly designed that commuters have to hop in their car for every little thing. but a lot of us here do. so sure, our gas is 1.50 - 2.00 per gallon cheaper, but our poorly designed cities and suburbs dictate that we travel more distances, and our "market" dictates that we travel those distances in cars with less than acceptable gas mileage.
 
Roo
Leading on from this, there's also the fact that your country is only a smidge smaller than our continent. I remember when Joey came over and stayed in Oxford; he said that from there to London - a distance of 60 miles from the centres of each - was a fairly short journey, but when mentioning this to Brits being told he would need a packed lunch and a spare change of clothes because it's so far. (OK, a little bit of hyperbole, but it was something along those lines.)
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The only major cities I can get to in a day's drive are Spokane, Boise or Portland at 5,9 and 3 hours respectively. So you had better pack your bags because you'll be staying overnight if you go to either of the first two, and you have a long days worth of driving if you want to get anything done in Portland for a day trip. Things aren't so bad farther east though. I can get to a lot more cities in a day from Hope.

Bones Brigade
for commuters, who cannot rely on the absolutely abysmal public trans here in washington state, an economy car at 35mpgs is the best we can really hope for. being that an average commute is about 20 miles (and not all highway,) and there are grocery stores and every other store we need ill-placed about 5 miles from the housing development in *suburb,* a lot of people are probably using about 2 gallons a day. for necessary uses.
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Don't forget that whatever highway driving you are doing on your way to work will more likely than not be stop and go. And then there are the hills between you and your grocery store. As I have mentioned before, I get 12 mpg going the 2 miles between home and the grocery store.
 
Joey, i dont understand your argument at all, it just doesnt make sense. While yes, this thread was not intended for the discussion of america's cheap fuel prices, its almost an inevitable discussion in this thread. I mean really. Calm down, quit acting like a mod, or just close the thread problem solved.
 
It's been an on going discussion throughout this thread that doesn't need to take place. Fuel is expensive and has raised quite a bit for American standards. We have a right to complain about fuel being high and it irritates me when members from other countries assume we have it easy here because our fuel is "cheap".

I'm also not acting like a mod since I can't ban people, delete posts, or do any other admin like activities. Premium members have the ability to lock threads if they don't like the way they are going, it says so right in the ad for it. I'm not going to lock it with out a warning first, which seems fair. This seems to be a popular thread and it would be a shame to ruin it with nonsense. If the topic of who has it easier in terms of fuel is one someone else would like to discuss, then open a new thread in the Opinion Forum.
 
Dead_Poetic
Joey, i dont understand your argument at all, it just doesnt make sense. While yes, this thread was not intended for the discussion of america's cheap fuel prices, its almost an inevitable discussion in this thread. I mean really. Calm down, quit acting like a mod, or just close the thread problem solved.
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See my post on the previous page. And then take into account that the price of our fuel has gone up 350% in the last 7 years while Europeans have seen an increase of 60%. That is why the discussion doesn't have much point to it. I know we are paying far less than the Europeans, but we very well could have a right to complain about the price of gas.

Part of me is certainly glad about the rising price of gas, seeing that my chance of getting run over by a monster truck is going down 👍.
 
Roo
In contrast, I went to a town 15 miles from my house the other day to have a meal and watch the new Indiana Jones film. The showing we wanted was sold out and we were wondering whether to go home or wait for the next one. We decided to wait; we'd come all this way, and it was rather a long way to come just for a meal, so we stuck around and watched the movie.
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I drive around 15 miles when simply test driving vehicles at work. 15 miles is a short drive IMO.

Awesome comparison, never thought of it that way.👍
 
Around where I live in Florida prices are fluctuating between $3.80 and $3.90 a gallon. Quite a bit more from it being $2.10 when we moved here three years ago, and we thought that was high.
 
Diablo'
Around where I live in Florida prices are fluctuating between $3.80 and $3.90 a gallon. Quite a bit more from it being $2.10 when we moved here three years ago, and we thought that was high.
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I believe the price of 87 octane has creeped just above $4.00 per gallon here in southwestern Ohio.
 
I've already seen and heard the rolling argument over the volume comparison between US gallons and the litres that the rest of the world uses. the standing argument is that because america buys by a bigger volume, they have cheaper fuel prices.

apparently, metric users can't get it through their head that a US gallon is America's equivalent, in fuel, of the rest of the world's litre, as viewed from US eyes. remember that!

americans buy fuel by the money amount, rather than by volume. i assume most people don't know how big their tank is, just how much spare change after bills they have to keep a vehicle rolling. even in this day and age of four bucks a gallon, people still buy 5 or 10 Bucks worth only...which is enough to get them to work, rather than bother to buy so many gallons worth. they're only concerned with getting back and forth to work. only constant runners, like myself, tend to buy gallons worth.

when it hit 3.65, even I stopped topping up my tank. I've had to repeatedly tell clients, now, that I cannot run places at or below a certian fuel tank volume for the little bit of cash they DO have. feeding 6-10 kids and making 1000 dollar plus monthly payments on their properties keeps their cash short, and this without any OTHER major bills to pay.

I think the rest of the world tends to forget the vast distances the Americas have to put up with between places, and the large gaps that exist between filling stations, as places are abandoned or absorbed by huge companies and downsized.
note that I said AMERICAS, here. I don't know how Canadians do it.

public transportation in the US is rather thin. our trains, for example, are almost entirely oriented to hauling bulk cargo around. aircraft usage has pared down due to attrition of companies and the annoying saftey BS we now have to go through thanks to a bunch of religous purists. this only leaves buses, and those were expensive to begin with.

a freindly reminder to europeans that in the US, Deisels still have a "stinky, noisy fuel hog" reputation, and will have for some time, bio-deisel and low-sulphur nonwithstanding.
 
Not to mention diesel is what? About a dollar more then petrol now in some areas. People fill up based on price, like you said, which is probably why they won't bother switching to diesel.
 
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