Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2011 14:50:17 GMT -5
For you to change your driving habits or purchase a more gas-efficient vehicle? To buy a home closer to work?
I get about 12-14 mpg in my vehicle but I only use about 60 gallons per month. For it to make sense to me to purchase a car that gets better MPG I'm thinking that gas would have to go up to at least $6-7 per gallon.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2011 14:54:49 GMT -5
Probably around $10 I would start to think about changing something.
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Taxman10
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Post by Taxman10 on Mar 29, 2011 14:57:16 GMT -5
changing driving habits, I don't think it'd have to be too much, anytime over ~3.50ish I probably think about my driving habits a little more.
To buy a new car -- i'm with Arch, it'd have to be pretty drastic, just to get a payback on the new car
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Post by illinicheme on Mar 29, 2011 15:00:53 GMT -5
There's pretty much no price gasoline could get to that would require me to change my current habits, because there isn't much to change short of changing jobs.
1) I already drive a relatively fuel-efficient car (~23-30 mpg, depending on the conditions) and take a vanpool to work.
2) DH and I have jobs 60 miles apart and own a home about halfway between them. There's nowhere we could move that would shorten our current commutes.
If gas got really really really insane, we might start thinking about how much extraneous weekend travel costs us, and possibly cut back. (Right now, my desire to do things like go hiking in nice parks is much higher than my desire to save a few bucks on gas.) DH's car unfortunately requires 91 octane fuel, which makes it a bit pricey, but his car does get decent mileage (similar to mine).
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2011 15:01:10 GMT -5
To buy a new car -- i'm with Arch, it'd have to be pretty drastic, just to get a payback on the new car And I'm with them! No way I want car payments right now....
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Gardening Grandma
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Post by Gardening Grandma on Mar 29, 2011 15:07:42 GMT -5
I think it's there now - at over $3.50/g. I just totalled up our gas expense for March and it's over $400 (the budget is for $300 and we've always pretty much stayed within it).
Don't want to buy another vehicle right now. Our RAV4 gets around 25 mpg. But I've been driving a LOT.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2011 15:11:22 GMT -5
Medium grade is almost $4 where I live but I don't think I'd be able to trade my SUV for something I'd want to drive and I don't want to take on a car payment. It's felt really good not having one!
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Mar 29, 2011 15:14:33 GMT -5
I drive a minivan as I'm the one who does dcp dropoff and pickups. Doing that in the Focus was killer hard on my back. DCP is on the way to work. Work is about 6 minutes from home, on an average day. I don't do much driving outside of that so I don't see a lot to change, no matter how high gas goes. As for DH, he's got a 20+ commute and he's driving the Focus.
Our current plan is to drive the cars until they die.
We do have a towing package on the minivan as we've got a boat and a camper (bought used and paid for in cash) so we'd like to keep a vehicle that can tow them. We've got land but we can't leave the camper there due to zoning, we'd have to build a garage and that's not in the works for a few years.
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raeoflyte
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Post by raeoflyte on Mar 29, 2011 15:21:09 GMT -5
I'm about ready to start riding my bike to work 3-4 days a week. I've wanted to anyway, but gas prices are a good kick in the pants to actually do it.
Might decide to use the bike/light rail more on the weekends too when visiting family.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Mar 29, 2011 15:56:50 GMT -5
I put 70 miles a day on my car just commuting to work. However that's only 2 gallons of gas. Even at $6 or $7 a gallon, I'm not selling our house and moving closer. The transaction costs are just way too big. I have no problem buying an electric car, when it's time to sell my current one, but it's gotta have decent range on a single charge. I just have to hold on until Tesla releases the Bluestar.
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Post by dragonfly7 on Mar 29, 2011 16:28:15 GMT -5
For us, it's not so much changing the driving habits as changing my job search. I fully expect our secondary older vehicle to kick the bucket at any time, and there will not be funds to replace it until I've been working for a while. I geographically focus my job search to places between here and the city DH works in so we can carpool, or places near the train/light rail (closest stop is along DH's commute). We are also considering moving closer to where he works when our lease is up, so I'd prefer to work in the same area.
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Plain Old Petunia
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Post by Plain Old Petunia on Mar 29, 2011 16:59:33 GMT -5
I get about 30 mpg, to improve that much I would have to get a tiny car and that is impractical for my family. I drive 3 mi to work, so not much room for improvement there either. I need my car sometimes during the day (have a few clients for whom I have to pick up/drop off their paperwork, a few for whom I go to them), but not everyday. I am planning on trying to ride a bike one day per week this spring, so will have to see how that goes. More for exercise than for saving on gas money, but I won't mind the savings.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Mar 29, 2011 17:16:41 GMT -5
I think hundreds of thousands of other people would "break" before I would. Right now I buy one tank of gas per month - but I could take the bus to work without too much adjustment - except I would lose an hour of sleep. So, it would have to be pretty expensive. By that time, all of the people who live in the suburbs would be bankrupt and going crazy - so whatever resolution that would happen would have happened long before I got frustrated.
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so1970
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Post by so1970 on Mar 29, 2011 17:23:28 GMT -5
when im home i try and ride my harley more than drive my truck but going to and from the boat a 13 hr. drive i use a company truck & company gas so i'll not be changing my habits any time soon.
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midjd
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Post by midjd on Mar 29, 2011 19:53:06 GMT -5
I put 70 miles a day on my car just commuting to work. However that's only 2 gallons of gas. Even at $6 or $7 a gallon, I'm not selling our house and moving closer. Same here, though I drive a bit farther - about 3 gallons a day, maybe 1 gallon over the weekend. For us to live within 25 miles of where I work would require a major downgrade on the house (or upgrade of the cost). If it stayed above $6-7/gal for an extended period of time, I'd imagine our executive director would start allowing most of us to work from home at least a few days a week. Or I could probably sleep in my office... we have a gym/shower downstairs, I'll bet I could get away with it for a while
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steph08
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Post by steph08 on Mar 29, 2011 20:09:55 GMT -5
I drive 80 miles roundtrip to work, though I carpool so mostly only drive that 2-3 days a week on average, depending on carpool partner.
I get decent mileage - about 23 in the winter and almost 30 in the summer months so I am not trading in my 15 year old car just yet. I have never had a car payment and don't plan on one for a few more years, when I will get something just as fuel efficient (hopefully higher).
Though the carpool partner broke down when we first started carpooling back in 2008 and traded her Jeep for a Subaru. Though she was upside down on the loan and rolled everything into one loan and then talked about the gas money she was saving, but had just spent like $20k on a new car...I don't think you are going to make that back in 5 years.
If gas gets to $4.50 or $5, I will probably ask to work another day a week from home (I currently work one day a week from home) to help offset the costs.
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schildi
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Post by schildi on Mar 29, 2011 21:09:46 GMT -5
Probably around $10 I would start to think about changing something. Same here. We spend under 1.5% of income on gas. If it becomes 3%, so what?
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cronewitch
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Post by cronewitch on Mar 29, 2011 23:46:48 GMT -5
I use about 10 gallons a week. So at $10 a gallon it would be 100 a week for gas. I could take a bus for about $25 or so. I can afford to waste 75 a week, I don't want to take the bus. I sometimes now stay late at work to let traffic clear to save gas and I might start going early or asking if I can work 10-6:30 instead of 8-4:30.
If it gets to 20 a gallon I would probably retire.
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SVT
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Post by SVT on Mar 30, 2011 0:27:29 GMT -5
Although I drive 80 miles per day on work days and I work 7 days every 2 weeks, it would take A LOT for me to change anything. The car I have now currently gets 30-32 MPG. I'm living cheap, as far as rent goes, right now so there isn't really anything I could do differently.
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Urban Chicago
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Post by Urban Chicago on Mar 30, 2011 10:42:09 GMT -5
We live about halfway between jobs for DH and I, and fortunately, starting in April we can both take the train to work. It's less convenient for DH, so he doesn't currently take the train often, but we'd probably change that around $5/gallon.
However, I think he'd actually prefer to change jobs. Gas price would just be one more shove in that direction.
True for me too, and since I'm in the city, in a good neighborhood, and on the train lines, I expect a clamor of people trying to move into my neighborhood, hopefully raising home prices!
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Poppet
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Post by Poppet on Mar 30, 2011 10:44:46 GMT -5
Funny how $4 gas was horrific a couple years ago and now it's pretty much no big deal around here. I don't hear anyone complaining this time around.
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Peace77
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Post by Peace77 on Mar 30, 2011 10:45:02 GMT -5
I wouldn't change anything.
Paid for cars that get good gas milage. Moving closer to DH's work would cost much more than gas.
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hoops902
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Post by hoops902 on Mar 30, 2011 11:40:15 GMT -5
It would take $10/gallon for me to make any meaningful changes...and an expectation that $10/gallon was going to be around for a very long time.
We're talking approximately $5-6K per year upswing in gasoline at that level. Moving to a more fuel efficient vehicle would recoup me a portion of that. Moving closer to work would be very helpful, but it also likely means my home is worth less as the cost of commuting into larger cities rises.
The biggest issue really relies on whether I think that price is here to stay, or some temporary jump.
I suppose at a smaller rise I'd be more inclined to combine trips or something, but I already do that now. I'd probably be more inclined to find a job closer to home that pays less than I would be to move closer to work.
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hurley1980
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Post by hurley1980 on Mar 30, 2011 11:50:07 GMT -5
Funny how $4 gas was horrific a couple years ago and now it's pretty much no big deal around here. I don't hear anyone complaining this time around. I noticed that too. I think its because there was some warning this time, and we've been in this situation before, so people were more prepared. Back in 2008, no one really expected the price to rise as far or as fast as it did, and therefore, hadn't made any changes to accomodate for the extra cost. That was also shortly after the economy collapsed, and alot of people were seriously hurting. I drive a newer Cobalt, so it gets pretty good mileage. My house is only 12 miles from work, which isn't that far considering how spread out Sacramento is, and if prices got really bad, I could use the light rail/bus system. It would take me an hour longer, but it would be more worth it, than selling my house, buying a new car, or finding a new job! Those all seem a little extreme to me unless you were already contemplating making one of those changes...
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DVM gone riding
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Post by DVM gone riding on Mar 30, 2011 12:56:00 GMT -5
I too have said 6-7 and I would stop driving home for lunch. I have a fairly efficient vehicle so it would have to be really high for me to buy a different vehicle right now. I would never move just because of gas prices. about 10 and I would rethink a lot of other "optional" driving.
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jkapp
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Post by jkapp on Mar 30, 2011 13:07:43 GMT -5
For you to change your driving habits or purchase a more gas-efficient vehicle? To buy a home closer to work? I get about 12-14 mpg in my vehicle but I only use about 60 gallons per month. For it to make sense to me to purchase a car that gets better MPG I'm thinking that gas would have to go up to at least $6-7 per gallon. I would be about the same...I need about 45 gallons of gas per month and my truck gets around 14-15 MPG (with the 10% ethonal swill gas mixture) or 16-17 MPG (with regular gas). I figure if I bought a new/used car with better mileage I could afford about $300/month for a payment - so gas would need to be over $7/gallon for that transaction to make sense. Now, I am looking into buying a new(er) vehicle in the next year or so anyway so I might look into something more fuel efficient. But here in WI I still want something with 4WD (so maybe an Escape hybrid?)
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jkapp
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Post by jkapp on Mar 30, 2011 13:18:37 GMT -5
Funny how $4 gas was horrific a couple years ago and now it's pretty much no big deal around here. I don't hear anyone complaining this time around. My feelings are the same...no big deal until twice what it is now. The biggest difference today is the anti-Bush crowd can't blame their savior Obama, so they sit quiet. IMO it never really was about the gas price, it was more that they just hated Bush. And as another poster pointed out, this has happened before (rather recently) so people have experience coping with it this time around.
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Mar 30, 2011 13:23:16 GMT -5
I don't even look at gas prices. When my gauge says 1/4, I fill it up. My car gets about 30 mpg and if I want to go somewhere, I'm going. I have bigger things to worry about than the price of gas.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2011 13:28:15 GMT -5
I don't even look at gas prices. When my gauge says 1/4, I fill it up. My car gets about 30 mpg and if I want to go somewhere, I'm going. I have bigger things to worry about than the price of gas. What if gas was $100 a gallon?
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Mar 30, 2011 13:31:24 GMT -5
Well, OK, at $100 per gallon I would pay some attention to it. I don't really waste gas now, so there's not much I could change to cut back on my usage.
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