I'm seriously thinking about selling my dodge caravan and buying a toyota Echo. I cant believe these Prices. It's insane. I'm definately gonna walk more. I'm in Mississauga Ontario and the price of gas is $102.1 a litre.

CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY

No kidding with the gas prices! This definitely makes the kids & I walk more too.
Luckily we're in small town Orillia (about 30,000) which makes it a nice walk to get around to the places we need to get to.

The gas here has been at 104.9 for awhile now

Could be worse. In Vancouver the price has been hovering around 1.10 for the last week. Thank god we drive an Echo!!!

Ha, I'm MOVING in 2 weeks! Gas is at 104.9 here, can you IMAGINE how much it's gonna cost to fill the moving truck! :P It's 120 KM from house 1 to house 2.

While I realize that people are going to hate me for this, I have no problems with gas prices, and I have no problems if they go higher. Sure, it sucks to have to shell out more money for something I got cheaper previously, but seriously, we have been spoiled.

Even at the current prices, most other countries outside North America pay 2-3+ times more for their gas. We have been so spoiled, it's ridiculous. And what have these cheap gas prices given us? Look at most driveways, you'll see, 3, 4 and sometimes more cars. There are often more cars than family members. Not to mention most of them will be big trucks, SUVs, vans, etc... If you want the convienence, you have to pay for it.

Another thing most people don't realize is that (for example - I didn't do the math, too lazy), but your average large car or SUV will do half the mileage (MPG) a smaller car does (often even worse). So in other words, driving an SUV is equivalent to driving, say, a Civic and paying over $2/L for gas.

We spend way more money on much cheaper liquids (water, pop, beer) of much less importance than gas. Why is that okay?

Originally posted by MaxPower2000 There are often more cars than family members. Not to mention most of them will be big trucks, SUVs, vans, etc... If you want the convienence, you have to pay for it. Another thing most people don't realize is that (for example - I didn't do the math, too lazy), but your average large car or SUV will do half the mileage (MPG) a smaller car does (often even worse). So in other words, driving an SUV is equivalent to driving, say, a Civic and paying over $2/L for gas.

OK, so what about those of us that don't HAVE a choice, and NEED a larger vehicle? With he, I and all of our kids, we have 6. Can't fit THAT in a Civic. For the record, we DO have a Civic as well, for when it is just 2 or 3 of us. But try to get more than 4 in there and you're screwed!

I guess that if WAGES kept up with inflation, a lot of us wouldn't have such a hard time with it. But when you're already scraping by, this kind of increase hurts badly!


If it were he and I alone, we'd even look atone of those ugly little smart cars! But then only one of us could go grocery shopping!

For anyone in the GTA....this is a good website to check out for good gas prices. You can search by area which is convenient.

Toronto Gas Prices

Well here is an address for all of you in Winnipeg, it will tell you where the best gas prices are as well as the highest prices.

http://www.winnipeggasprices.com/

you can even do a search in your area of the city. It's pretty good to have handy.

When our car died last month we were trying to figure out if we could live without one...no prob for me...I don't drive but hubby has been driving for over twenty years and really didn't want to start taking the bus everywhere. Long story short, we got (he picked) a Dodge Caravan. It's actually cheaper to fill then the car (1984 Delta 88). Hubby is ticked that he has to pay so much for gas but just puts $20 - $30 each visit.

Originally posted by angelface OK, so what about those of us that don't HAVE a choice, and NEED a larger vehicle? With he, I and all of our kids, we have 6. Can't fit THAT in a Civic. For the record, we DO have a Civic as well, for when it is just 2 or 3 of us. But try to get more than 4 in there and you're screwed!

Well, the way I see it, there is a cost to having a larger family. You can't expect to have more kids and not have to pay more in gas or car expenses, just like you expect to pay more in food, clothes, etc.

The baby boomer generation had no SUV's and mini-vans and yet they survived. The generation before that had twice (or more) the family size and most didn't even have cars and survived. So I think it's safe to say that civilization will survive.

Don't get me wrong, I do understand that there are needs for larger vehicles, but it's also because we've been spoiled and it's so hard to get rid of a convience. Many of us don't even remember what it was like to be car-less. If you want a big car to bring all your gear to camp, or drive your big family around, or to carry around a ton of brick when you want, you'll have to pay for it. You can't expect to get capabilities above and beyond simple transportation and not have to pay for it.

Ok, granted

My neighbor rented a Smart Car Cabriolet for the weekend and is loving it! That darn little thing is growing on me...... and its got enough leg room for me, I'm impressed. You can't help but look at that darn thing and giggle...

My pet peeve is SUV's, mainly bc I drive a Civic & can't see past one when it's ahead of me. (I hate not being able to see all the traffic! ) Take a good look & you'll see they're all over the road, & on the commute to & from work, often with just 1 person in it, not a family. Is that necessary? But I also don't like them when they, & all the other too-large vehicles, are simply status symbols. Too many ppl drive massive luxurious vehicles & they don't have 4+ family members. But, they pay the price, don't they? North American's (2 member families I'm referring to) should be more like Europeans, & drive smart cars.

Need a ? Check this out.

Originally posted by MaxPower2000 ... The baby boomer generation had no SUV's and mini-vans and yet they survived. The generation before that had twice (or more) the family size and most didn't even have cars and survived. So I think it's safe to say that civilization will survive. Don't get me wrong, I do understand that there are needs for larger vehicles, but it's also because we've been spoiled and it's so hard to get rid of a convience. Many of us don't even remember what it was like to be car-less. ...

Well, yes and no. 40 years ago life was a little slower and we had stores that were within walking distance. Houses were built on a grid system so you were seldom more than a few long block away from (timely) public transit. Today we have the 'convenience' of big box stores all centralized far away from the residential areas. We have residential areas that are built like a maze (when we were looking for a house, we looked at houses in one of these areas but realized it would take us 15+minutes to get to a major throughfare and 10 min to get to work from there.) Overall, I feel we cannot compare past generations use of automobiles to today because our 'environment' has changed.

On the flip side, I read and hear on the news the clips of people moaning and groaning about the cost of gas. Where was all the complaints when it hit $0.95? It was OK then, or the media outlets just didn't push the story, but the prices break $1.00 and the media frenzy is unbelivable.

There are also a lot of people who just don't get it. Last weekend we were coming back from the lake, and the number of cars/trucks/whatever that passed us that were well over 120kph was astounding. There was a hummer who must have been doing 140+. During the week lots of drivers still believe the gas pedal is an on/off switch, and this coming winter I expect to see even more cars idling empty because their owners have a command start and want the car nice and warm before they get into it.

Oh boy, time to stop ranting....

Zen.


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