searcher

In Sep. 2005 I was looking at getting a diesel to replace both my half ton Ford and my gas guzzling motor home. I was driving through town and checking fuel prices. Diesel was running 1 to 2 cents above regular so I decided to buy a used diesel. I went to Texas, bought my Dodge, and fueled it up at that price. The next time I needed fuel, diesel was higher than premium gas by several cents and stayed there.

I was watching CNN this morning and was shocked to find that the $100 a barrel oil is not the result of the Arabs or the oil giants (though they are responsible for the overinflated price at the pump). The problem today is not supply and demand. There is an abundance of crude as well as a good supply of fuel. Price should be stable or dropping. The problem is a few speculators bidding the price of a barrel to the $100 mark. As far as I am concerned the government should be looking into that and controlling it with taxes. If the Speculators continue to have their way, then it won't make any difference if we produce more oil or Brazil's new field comes on line. The price will remain artificially high.

I may get flamed for this but there is no comparison between what we pay for fuel and what the Europeans pay. Fuel in Europe is equal to or maybe a little cheaper than it is here. The difference is in the taxes. They tax fuel heavily and use the taxes to build great highways and mass transit systems. I would be willing to pay higher taxes here if we got the same results. Unfortunately we would get 8 lane highways going to No Where Pa. and "Sun shine" bridges, while older bridges fall into the Mississippi River.

signature600

Fuel quality is also A LOT better in Europe...at least diesel. We've had problems with tractor engine tuned on EU fuel, with smoking, hard starts, slightly reduced power, etc. Most has been traced back to better fuel over there, than there is here!

Chris

wcbcruzer

Nothing some Power Service couldn't fix.

Erska

We're using Euro, but I calculated everything to your currency and your U.S gallons.

Regular 95 octane is about 1.30-1.35 euros per liter, 98 octane or shell V-power 99.5+ octane is little more expensive and Diesel is about one euro per liter.

Don't be amazed by our high octanes. We are only using RON scales, like you guys are using RON+MON scales, so 87 octane is like our 95 and your 93 is like our 98octane. Fuel quality... for that, I'm not sure. And there are clearly some differences in our Diesel fuel.

Chris, what did you do in here? Tell us about it, at least I'm interested

signature600

Was over there with AGCO touring the Sisu Diesel Engine factory...I think in Nokia. Spent a couple days there in late July, when almost everyone was on vacation. People are VERY friendly there, and would actually talk to us in English...very different than in Paris where I spent the first part of the week

Chris

Erska

Oh... I have 90km(55miles) to Nokia and I have been there many times...

I think you saw our traffic also, not so many Full-Sized pick-ups eh? Or any U.S vehicles... Maybe some old Chevy Vans.

Yeah I have heard that French people don't speak english at all... Like us, we talk english a lot to strangers, at least when we're in decent drunk.

signature600

Not speaking English is fine if you don't know how...but when we are talking business, and I know they can speak English, but they refuse, it just ticks me off!

No, not so many big vehicles. Lots of little crap

I could go back to Finland...I kinda liked it over there!
Chris

mmullenax

It's market-driven...signed george w.

retiredchuck

Yep, I got my truck in 04 and thats when it started to go up.And the oil men that are in command Bush and channey,yeah Its all starting to make sense.

wcbcruzer

China and India's increasing oil demands are not only depleting resources but are also partly to blame for the increase in oil prices. Kinda ticks me off actually. But would it be right for us to say they should stop expanding so we can have more resources?

Erska

Diesel reached the highest price ever here in this week. 1.19 euros per liter! That's 6.61 U.S dollar per U.S gallon!

Signature600:

I think you should re-visit here if you did like last time.

You should come here on next August when Finland Neste WRC Rally cup is here.
http://www.nesterally.com/indexe.html
http://www.nesteoilrallyfinland.fi/en/

Shovelhead

Local news is reporting that Diesel Fuel is at a new record for the state of Virginia @ an average price of $3.34 a gallon.

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1107/472222.html

stroop

$3.67 in southern Oregon today

zapata

$3.40 last week here in Katy, TX (West of Houston)...!!!!

I'm getting rid of my truck and going with the '08 FORD Escape Hybrid. I still have a "pay-off" close to $28,000...!!! Not sure if the dealer will cover it 100%
It breaks my heart to sell my truck.

Is my first truck ever and I love it but is also my main commute vehicle (50 miles round trip). Since the price hit the $3.00 I started commuting in my motorbike (40MPG) but if weather is bad (rain) I have to use the truck.

I love the truck but I guess it has to go...I'm on a tight budget and the Diesel price is killing me.

wcbcruzer

Yep, fuel prices will get you. It feels even worse driving a big vehicle these days because nowadays we actually have vehicles that will get 30-50 mpg average. Back 10-15 years ago even Hondas and Toyotas got at best about 25 mpg hwy, which was not too far off from our trucks.