June 02, 2008

So what's it cost to fill up your tank today?



You know, it's kinda funny, when you don't drive, you completely lose track of gas prices. But I hear it's gettin' kinda silly now, huh?

Off to go catch a train... Heading to Amsterdam for a few days on the way back to England...

(and remember folks, you don't have an oil problem - you've got a Bernanke problem)

77 comments:

blogger said...

Steve Forbes got this one right:

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/0616/031.html?partner=rcp

For now the commodity crisis will continue. We will be treated to more spectacles, such as that of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that raked big oil company executives over the coals. These scapegoats rightly pointed out that oil and gas supplies would be meaningfully boosted if restrictions on drilling and exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf and in Alaska were lifted. But even they didn't point a finger at the biggest villain: the Fed.

Most of the senators on that committee, though, were in no mood to listen. Instead, they railed against big oil and speculators. By all means, close the so-called Enron loophole, which exempts from U.S. regulation energy speculators who make trades electronically. And while they're at it, they should restore the stock up-tick rule for shorting equities--that is, no short selling of a stock unless the price has moved up. But these are only Band-Aids.

The proof of the Fed's predominant role in the current disaster: When the credit crisis hit last August, the price of oil was $70 a barrel. Then the Fed began flooding the system with dollars. Today the price of oil is more than $130 a barrel, even though global demand has declined as economic activity has cooled off.

Anonymous said...

I agree Keith; I own a prius and work from home. i ride my roadbike alot too I live at huntington beach at the water cycling along the beach is easier then parking the hybrid.
i did notice today regular unleaded 4.05 at arco at 405 and brookhurst. I'm like hmmm it now costs me 40 bucks to fill up my tank a year ago it costs me 28 bucks. I think Im a best case scenario so I dont sweat it.
Amsterdam eh? is it herbpanic yet?

Anonymous said...

It would cost $87 to fill my tank. I pray hurricane season doesn't do serious damage to refineries.

Anonymous said...

4.39 for premium in Seattle.

Anonymous said...

Lol these people are hillarious. They probably save $5 at most on their tank. Let's wait in line for an hour for it!

Anonymous said...

Steve Forbes doesn't know what he's talking about.
Take a look at his prediction of 35$ oil made 3 years ago.

http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2005/08/30/afx2195813.html

Oil is NOT a bubble. Suply has been flat for the last 3 years, but demand has continued to go up.
Speculators CANNOT hoard oil, they have no where to place it.
Casey Serin could hoard 7 houses and help drive up housing prices. But there is no Oily Serin out there with 7 storage tanks.

Yes speculators can drive up the price short term, but with no possibility to take physical delivery of the oil, they must sell the contracts to someone who actually needs the oil before expiration.

Anonymous said...

Keith you've officially turned into the MSM. All I see/hear is gas price this, gas price that. Now you've joined the bandwagon too.

You don't drive, great. One less car on the road for me to have to navigate around.

As for the cost to fill up, it irritates me to no end when people talk about "the cost to fill up". That is the wrong metric. The cost to fill up is simply a function of the size of a gas tank and blend of gasoline. Says nothing about the efficiency of the car.

Anonymous said...

Whats it cost?
Must be too much ...

Drivers putting less gas in tank, then running out
Gas Prices (Generic)

Posted: Jun. 1 4:09 p.m.
Updated: Jun. 1 10:40 p.m.

Brent Saba had just dropped a church group off at Philadelphia International Airport on Sunday morning and was heading north on Interstate 95 when it happened: His 15-passenger van ran out of gas.

Saba, a 24-year-old church pastor, made it to the shoulder just past the Ben Franklin Bridge and waited more than 30 minutes for someone to stop and lend him a cell phone. Then he waited a while longer for AAA to arrive with fuel.

With gas prices hovering at $4 a gallon, motorists like Saba are putting less fuel in their tanks - then coming up empty on the highway.

Remember the study a few years back? They concluded that Americans could pay $5 a gallon and not feel the pinch. They were wrong...every SUV and Dodge Ram I see have "For Sale" signs on them but are only worth pennies on the dollar.

There is a bright side though...The roads are getting less congested and thereby much safer. I would rather pay $10/gallon and live than .99 and get run over by a drunk Hummer driver after Brooks & Dunn concert.

Anonymous said...

I think its $3.88 here in Virginia beach/Norfolk area and you would not believe the traffic. It has not done a thing about the amount of people on the roads. We have a very short drive to work, because we bought a house close to where the major work is at. We have about a 10 minute drive to work, our friends bought outside this area and drive up to one and half hours. Its fun to call then right after work and say your home having a beer and they are still stuck in traffic.

blogger said...

Here´s my take, I could be very very wrong, but from what I see, oil is in the grips of a hot-money short-term speculative bubble, not supported by current supply or demand fundamentals

I expect the price to fall back below $100 by the election, and Bush and the incumbents to take credit for the falling price, while they trumpet all their new ideas which will not come to a hill of beans

I don´t expect Bush to even mention the one key word - "conservation". And I expect to hear nearly every incumbent rail on the oil companies for "gouging"

Meanwhile, on the street, expect $5 a gallon gas next month as $130 cycles through to the pumps, with prices rising through September at which point they will start falling back right before the election

Anonymous said...

And all this because the Fed was trying to save the bankers. At this rate even Mr Bernanke will not be able to afford the fuel for his helicopter.

Anonymous said...

The gutless CONgreffs, instead of raising the oil tax, has decided to let the excess dollars go the oil producers. They are hoping for demand destruction, but they don't want to be blamed for high gasoline prices, so the oil companies get all the money, how funny! The price goes higher either way, but at least if they taxed motor fuels some of it would stay at home for investment in other things. The USA is FUBAR because of stupidity.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

who says speculators can't hoard oil?
Morgan Stanley and most of the other investment banks have entire fleets of oil tankers plus miles of warehouse space just for that purpose.

Anonymous said...

Correction, under $100.

Deb said...

Have fun in Amsterdam Keith. I lived there for six years in the 80s and gas was already $4/gallon back then over there.

Anonymous said...

It's the Fed Dammit! HeliBen has made it very clear that he will go to any lengths, moral hazard be damned, to bail out his big banker buddies.

Gas isn't more expensive. The dollars used to buy the oil, to make the gas, are dropping in value down to almost, if not completely, worthless.

You're right on one thing; gas will go down right before elections.

Mammoth said...

$4.25 for the cheap stuff here on the west side of Puget Sound.

But here’s the odd thing – over the weekend the price of gasoline went up by six cents while the price of Deisel decreased by the same amount.

What gives with that?

-Mammoth

Anonymous said...

I blame British Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell. They are evil

Anonymous said...

"The price goes higher either way, but at least if they taxed motor fuels some of it would stay at home for investment in other things. The USA is FUBAR because of stupidity."

Obviously pump price would not be the same depending on tax level (ever driven across state lines?) Why is putting money in the hands of politicians better than keeping the money in the consumer pockets?

Since you are so fond of being taxed, and much of the money you spend for yourself ultimately go overseas to pay for imports, why don't you volunteer 100% tax on yourself, so "the money can stay in the US" What a bunch of crock; you think money stays in the US if the government spends it? US AirForce is the biggest airline in the world, somehow I doubt it watches fuel consumption as carefully as commercial airlines.

Anonymous said...

"BTW, to answer the question, I never fill the tank completely, it stays around 1/2 full. Theoretically, were I to fill it from bone dry, it would cost over $100."

With gas price still not fully reflecting oil price, meaning gas price still has a way to go upwards even if oil price stops rising, I'd think filling all the tanks up early would be the financially astute move, no? I may keep tanks half full if I expect gas price going down.

Anonymous said...

stuck in so pa,

yup, a dollar from 1964, in the form of four 90% silver quarters, is worth over $12 today by the silver content. That makes $3.85/gal gas just around 31cents/gal in terms of those silver quarters.

Anonymous said...

Mammoth,

May have something to do with the seasonal switchover, from heating oil demand to driving demands.

With the economy slowing down, diesel trucking demand may also be down. Also, jet fuel is closer to diesel than gasoline in the distillation process; all the fuel saving measures, like lobbying FAA to ground and cancel flights, may have resulted in less jet fuel consumption, which means more diesel availability, relative to gasoline.

Anonymous said...

About $40 to fill the tank. Good for about 1.5 to 2 weeks.

36 mpg here. I slowed down from 80 to 70 on the highway and mpg went up from 33 to 36.

$135 oil is already in the price at the pumps. That's about 3.20 per gallon. Add in the refinery and trans and taxes and it's $4.00.

The dog that didn't bark. Why aren't OPEC countries cheating on their quotas the way they used to? It used to be impossible for the market to hold high prices due to cheating. Maybe they can't cheat because they're pumping all out and have no spare capacity whatsoever.

On the other hand, you always read about "OPEC's spare capacity" of 2mm bpd or whatever.

Declining production from older fields, little new production, increasign demand...equals higher prices.

Maybe demand will go down in the long run with plug in hybrids and people livign closer to work, chosing smaller cars. But it will take a while.

The smart thing for the gov't to do is to keep gas at $4 even IF oil prices fall. That way conservation incentives would remain in place.

Anonymous said...

To the people claiming oil isn't a bubble - read this post by Mish:

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/05/quantifying-commodities-speculation.html

It isn't just oil - all commodities have experienced insane increases that can not be explained by supply/demand.

Mark in San Diego said...

4.09 in Anchorage, 4.16 in Fairbanks, and $5 on the road in rural Alaska. . .leaving tomorrow for Sunny SD. . .where gas prices are about the same as Alaska.

Markus Arelius said...

Orange County, California

Regular 87 octane at $4.18 per gallon at Costco (membership required). But it's $4.19 at Shell so big deal.

Save fuel. Drive a motorcycle and wear a freaking helmet - for safety and better aerodynamics.

Anonymous said...

Hey Keith have you ever rented one of those super high mileage diesel cars over there in the land of the Euro? Are they slow? Do they smoke? Are we missing the boat?

Good Time Charlie

Anonymous said...

I got gas this morning. Premium is $4.39 a gallon. My tank is 12 gallons, I put in 11. $50 give or take. One tank lasts me a week. Not so bad really.

edd browne said...

In a year I think we will look
fondly on the time of 4 dollar gasoline.
There will be a dip to clear speculators,
but the demand/supply reality will
prevail next year.

Brazil has a new find, but the chances
of that are shrinking since most parts of
the world have been explored for oil.

And we should not burn the oil we have
found for important reasons, including
CO2, hydrocarbon products, and the right
of future generations to have some fossil oil.

Burning it will be a sin cursed for centuries.
I say an unethical life is not worth living.

Anonymous said...

I drive a VW Jetta TDI. Quick little diesel that gets 50mpg. It's like a hidden treasure in the US. I want to replace my second car with another TDi but there just is not enough around.

Smart Car, how smart is a glorified gokart that gets 36mpg?

Getting more super high mileage diesels is part of the plan this website is trying to get support for, take a look, Read S.2958

www.AmericansForJobsAndEnergy.org

Anonymous said...

reality:
Gas moves in lockstep with oil. There is no wait for the cost to be baked in. Keep an eye on things and you'll see. There is no $5/gallon guaranteed, just because oil is at a certain price per barrel now.

You mentioned being financially astute. You know what's financially astute? Not talking out of your ass.

Anonymous said...

Geeez. did you see the corvette in line just to save a few bucks? what, $6 on 20 gallons? 30min in line? don't these people have jobs?

i filled up the other day. my "cheap" station had cars 3 deep at the pumps. I went across the street where it was .04 more with no waiting. Cost me 40 cents more to fill up.

time == money

Anonymous said...

BTW, to answer the question, I never fill the tank completely, it stays around 1/2 full. Theoretically, were I to fill it from bone dry, it would cost over $100.
----------------------------

I have always wondered what MPG improvement you would get if you only put a 1/2 tank in maximum.

Anonymous said...

Amsterdam?! NICE! Next thing you tell me you're going to Helsinki, you DOG you!!! (If you know what I mean!)

LOL!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Just paid $4.39 for home heating oil. That's $439 for less than half a tank on a standard (small) 270 gallon tank.

Roccman said...

We have a food problem Keith ...

Because we eat oil ....

and the barrel is running dry.

This has ZERO to do with the fed.

Enjoy the dieoff!!!

Anonymous said...

+-120 USD to fill up my Honda Fit.

PJ

Anonymous said...


who says speculators can't hoard oil?
Morgan Stanley and most of the other investment banks have entire fleets of oil tankers plus miles of warehouse space just for that purpose.



How much can they store when the US uses 21 million bpd? All of the supertankers and warehouses in the world wouldn't make a difference. They would need several underground saltmines to even make a minor difference.

Anonymous said...

The Mexican...

People are idiots...they are willing to wait in line for 45min to save about .30 a gallon.

.30*20 gallon tank = $5.00

Oh shit they saved a whole 5bucks...dumb asses!

Anonymous said...

Now the Democrats are bailing out the insurance industry with taxpayer money:


WASHINGTON -- As hurricane season begins, Democrats in Congress want to nationalize a chunk of the insurance business that covers major storm-damage claims.

The proposal -- backed by giant insurers Allstate Corp. and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., as well as Florida lawmakers -- focuses on "reinsurance," the policies bought by insurers themselves to protect against catastrophic losses. The proposal envisions a taxpayer-financed reinsurance program covering all 50 states, which would essentially backstop the giant insurers in case of disaster.

The program could save homeowners roughly $500 apiece in annual premiums in Florida, according to an advocacy group backed by Allstate and State Farm, the largest writers of property insurance in the U.S.

But environmentalists and other critics -- including the American Insurance Association, a major trade group -- say lower premiums would more likely spur irresponsible coastal development, already a big factor in insurance costs. The program could also shift costs to taxpayers in states with fewer natural-disaster risks.

"This bill makes it a little bit too easy for the state to go to the federal government for a bailout," said Eric Goldberg, associate general counsel at the American Insurance Association, an insurers' trade group.

The legislation passed the House with bipartisan support, 258-155, late last year, despite a presidential veto threat. Although a Senate vote is unlikely this year, proponents are trying to make it a litmus-test issue in the presidential race. The two Democratic contenders, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, in their recent visits to Florida -- a key swing state -- have both voiced support for the plan.


http://tinyurl.com/694vjv

Anonymous said...

A Bernanke problem lol....... Yeah, we got a Bernanke problem alright. We also got a Goldstein, blumenthal, Perle, Wolfowitz, Feingold, Chertoff, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc problem. Are these people related in any way????????

Honica Jewinski

Out at the peak said...

It was $4.32 at Chevron today (Sonoma County, CA). My buddy filled up his Accord for $60 for almost 14 gallons.

Yesterday, I filled up at Costco for $4.11/gal.

Anonymous said...

reality sux. BWAHAHA!!

They could eliminate the income tax if they taxed imports. Get with it reality.

Anonymous said...

4.20 is pretty standard all around Chicago for regular unleaded. I've seen as high as 4.49 for regular and 4.79 for premium.

Anonymous said...

Its around $3.95 a gallon here in Phoenix. I have a 2003 Hyundai Elantra (a very good car). It gets 24 MPG in very heavy city driving and 33 MPG out on the highway. The tank is 14 gallons, but I never let it get down that low before filling up, so at today's prices a 10 gallon fill up would be $33.95.

Anonymous said...

4.29 for regular in Redmond, WA. Saw the price this morning outside my bus window on the way to work. I see more and more people taking the bus.

Anonymous said...

i never fill up... cant afford it, i always do half tanks. but if i did:

34 gallon tank x $5.43/gallon (diesel) = $184.62!!!!

Anonymous said...

I would love to see diesel drop. Not in my town, $4.99 - $5.09. At
those prices it would cost over $150 to fill up my truck.

Ironically I bought the diesel because it was more fuel efficent than a gas truck for pulling / hauling. Even with up to 30% more efficeny a full dollar a gallon more kind of wipes that out. Still after pulling with the diesel I wouldn't go back to a gas. Kind of like high speed internet vs dial-up. :)

Living in SoCal with the threat of wildfires I always keep 1/2 tank or more in it, just in case.

My daily driver cost has more than doubled since I bought it 10 years ago. Used to be $15-$20 now it is $35-$40 to fill it up.

It only goes up....

Unknown said...

Its now $4.58 for self service 87 octane here in Armonk, NY. Elsewhere in Westchester County, NY it is somewhat lower in price
at around $4.35 per gallon. I figure $5 per gallon within a month and over $110 to fill up the company SUV, easily.

Lost Cause said...

Play-money is being handed out by the pallet load, or do you not read newspapers either? Hand billions to speculators, and they speculate. It is what they do.

Anonymous said...

I actually hope that gas hits $5 a gallon this way houses in the far out suburbs will beocme worthless and house prices in my close to Manhattan area will see their property values increase. Sadly, we are losing many buyers who choose to live in stupid middle of nowhere subdivisions so that they can get more house for their $. But the tide will turn if gas breaks the $5 mark.

Anonymous said...

"Remember the study a few years back? They concluded that Americans could pay $5 a gallon and not feel the pinch. They were wrong...every SUV and Dodge Ram I see have "For Sale" signs on them but are only worth pennies on the dollar."

Who funded such a flawed study? Exxon Mobil??

Frank R said...

I had a speaking engagement up in LA today. It was 80 mph all the way. No traffic at all in either direction (53 miles each way). Absolutely amazing.

I guess the combination of high gas prices and illegals leaving is working. I say go to $6 a gallon!

Anonymous said...

San Diego: $4.09/gal at Costco last Friday. Today it's $4.19 at Costco.

Anonymous said...

stop driving gas guzzler$ eeediots!

Anonymous said...

I saw something we can sorely use now. How does a low-cost 80mpg car sound? Go to Google and punch in "messerschmitt car". This gem was made in the 1950s and 1960s and was designed by the same German engineer who designed the world's first fighter jet.

60 years later, it's still hard to beat German engineering. With a cleaner engine, this two-seater would be perfect now with the gas prices. But would it sell?

It's 3 wheel with one back wheel and the two seats are one in back of the other, like a 2 seater fighter jet. You enter and exit it by opening the bubble canopy, again, like a fighter jet, and the steering column looks like a flight yoke! The narrow body helps with aerodynamics for the good gas mileage. They came with a 200cc 2-stroke (dirty!) engine with 4 gears.

This contraption shows that once you think out of the box you CAN make a car good on gas. It'll just have to be streamline and airplane-like. Now, if you made this thing a hybrid, you'd get triple digit mileage with a triple digit top speed. A normal car has a wider cross section which worsens aerodynamic drag. The Smart Car 2 seater has this drawback so it gets "only" 50mpg in the non-hybrid version. Of course, we could use aerodynamics so it'll look more like a Tomcat instead of the WW2 fighters with crude aerodynamics.

Anonymous said...

you're taking a train to Hampster Land?

Where's that?

Anonymous said...

I work close to LAX airport, and the price for Thrifty gas was $4.51 for regular 87 octane today!

Anonymous said...

Location: 40 miles outside Boston
Station: Exxon
Price/gal: $3.98
Cost to fill Chrysler T&C Minivan: $64.24.

Unreal.

Anonymous said...

You're "Slacken" just a bit too much there - regular unleaded gas in HB has already hit the $4.17-$4.20/gal mark.

Working at home is nice, I prefer it as well, and with prices jumping as they are businesses better start offering telecommuting to more workers.


HB Slacker said...
I agree Keith; I own a prius and work from home. i ride my roadbike alot too I live at huntington beach at the water cycling along the beach is easier then parking the hybrid.
i did notice today regular unleaded 4.05 at arco at 405 and brookhurst. I'm like hmmm it now costs me 40 bucks to fill up my tank a year ago it costs me 28 bucks. I think Im a best case scenario so I dont sweat it.
Amsterdam eh? is it herbpanic yet?

Anonymous said...

In 1940, oil was $1 a barrel at the wll head, it cost me $4 to fill up my car. $4 was one days salary for me at thet time in San Diego.
One day's salary , minimum wage in California, is now $66. $66 /16 gallons is $4.15 a gallon

Gasoline now is cheaper than it was , in relation to salary, that it was in 1940 in San Diego

Wellhead price in 2007 was $64!

Based on well head price , gasoline should be about about 66 x.15 or $9.90 based on well head price 1940 compared to well head price 2007.

How bout them apples.

Jack

Anonymous said...

Here in Thailand gas is $5 per gallon. Interestingly the 8 hour daily minimum wage is $6 yet the roads are jam packed with everyone driving. I guess people view driving as a necessary convenience for now. How far can people stretch? I guess wait & see.

-BC

Anonymous said...

Gas is as cheap now as when I first learned how to drive, when its adjusted for inflation. Makes me laugh when people brag about how their house has doubled or triple in value since they bought it but cry about the cost of gas or milk. This is one of the best things thats ever happened to our society.

Anonymous said...

I got my licence in 1990. Gas was about $1 IIRC. Now it's $4. But A movie was $3.50, now it's $10. I used to go to baseball games and tickets for the outfield upper upper bleachers were $1. Now cheapest seat for the same team is $6. Used to cost $0.75 to ride the subway - I know since I rode it to school every day for 2 years. Now it's $2.25. Dow Jones was 3000 in 1990. It's 13,000 today.

Only thing different about gas is the sudden jump in price. Had the price gone from $1 to $4 over 18 years by 10 or 20 cents a year, nobody would have noticed. But it jumps $2 in a couple of years and everyone freaks out.

Which is why I think once people realize this is the new reality they'll calm down and stop spending an hour in line to save $5.

Anonymous said...

People who are claiming that oil isn't a bubble would have a case if it weren't for the fact that ALL commodities have done the same thing over the last year.

It's all being driven by commodities speculators. Supply and demand does not explain it.

Is the world eating twice as much food this year as we were last year? I hope not. I'm sure the "oil isn't a bubble" people would have you believe that, too. Wake up people - you're no different than the sheeple who were led to believe that condo prices had reached a "permanently high plateau".

It's another bubble, idiots.

Anonymous said...

Anon 6:28,

There are 42 gallons of liquid in a barrel of petroleum, not all of that can be turned into gasoline. The typical refinery yield of a barrle of oil is 23 gallons for gasoline, the rest for diesel, asphalt, paraphin wax, plastic etc.. You do the math, how can $3.20 commodity gasoline price (before tax bringing it to around $3.85-4/gal at the pump) be fully reflecting $132/barrel oil price?

"You know what's financially astute? Not talking out of your ass."

Look in the mirror please.

Anonymous said...

"reality sux. BWAHAHA!!"

Ony if you managed to run your own life into a wall.

"They could eliminate the income tax if they taxed imports. Get with it reality."

Do some basic math before spouting off. At 100+% tarriff rate on all imports, smuggling would become the leading industry.

Anonymous said...

"This contraption shows that once you think out of the box you CAN make a car good on gas."

This contraption would have to be classified as a motorcycle, not a car, to be US street-legal. Three-wheels and under 1800lbs would indeed qualify it as a motorcycle. There are plenty motorcycle and mopeds that can deliver 60+mpg, if safety is not one of the top priorities.

Anonymous said...

"Is the world eating twice as much food this year as we were last year?"

No, but there are more than half a trillion dollars newly created in the last 10 months chasing everything up in the world. The housing price would have been cut in half and DJIA would be at 6000 if not for that new money sloshing around; likewise, commodity has been driven up. There are several ways for DJIA-to-pump price to be 3000:1, either DJIA at 6000 and gas at $2, or DJIA at 12000 and gas at $4 work out the same in terms of relative value. The savers who stash the US dollar and pensioners who have to live by fake inflation adjsutments are the ones screwed.

Anonymous said...

You yahoos that think $5 gas is ok because it will make people conserve, cut traffic or the best one....Because they can afford it, need to put some more thought into this. The price of gas is not an island unto itself. It filters through the economy increasing the cost of everything. Farmer use a lot of diesel, that boat that caught your lobster burns a lot of diesel. The bus company is paying a much bigger fuel bill, time to raise the fares. That should get you started on the thought process.

Everyone in America is taking a huge pay cut because of oil prices. If you can afford it, good for you. The rest of us would like some relief.

Anonymous said...

Yes, "reality" the Messerschmitt would be classified as a motorcycle. But the 3 wheel thing will be less dangerous from being non-balancing, and with the fairing/fusalage usable in all weather. It'll never pass insurance crash tests, an obvious compromise.

Like how we greatly improved on the Me-262 jet, we could easally improve on that "car" invented by the same jet's designer. Consider a recumbent motorcycle with full fairing with spring-loaded "training wheels" and the fairing designed by Burt Rutan.

The drawback of a normal motorcycle besides it being balancing, is that the bike plus rider is not streamline and would have a bigger cross section compared to the recumbent faired motorcycle - exen with faired axles for the "landing gear" outrigger wheels. That Fritz Fend had the right idea. Reduce the frontal cross section first. You can see this made obvious with Bonneville Salt Flats racing cars and old (circa early 1960s) Indy cars.

Earth to Carmakers!

Anonymous said...

"60 years later, it's still hard to beat German engineering."

Is that why they lost 2 world wars?

Anonymous said...

"A Bernanke problem lol....... Yeah, we got a Bernanke problem alright. We also got a Goldstein, blumenthal, Perle, Wolfowitz, Feingold, Chertoff, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc problem. Are these people related in any way????????

Honica Jewinski"

So now were blaming the Jews for high oil prices? The above post is borderline anti semitic. Bush and Cheney are not Jewish names the last time I checked, FYI.

Anonymous said...

$3.84 Gallon at Sams Club,Utah.
'86 Toyota Camry
Getting 28 mpg all in town driving.

If you want something that really works, get Redline Si-1 Complete Fuel System Cleaner.

If your intake valves have deposits, injectors dirty, this stuff really works. Added about 4mpg with my engine and greatly increased part throttle response. It's all about Poly Ether Amines (Research It).

Anonymous said...

Please explain to me, how exactly is buying half a tank of fuel instead of filling up saving you ANY money on gas? You spend less that way? It lasts longer? I do not think that I follow the logic here, but what do I know...

Disappointed in U.S. said...

A company in San Diego is making a a modern day Messerschmitt:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2008-01-10-aptera_N.htm