Has anyone else noticed the outrageous gas prices? It was $3.39 near me and I saw $3.63. It makes me 1) appreciative that I live near the metro and 2) rarely have to drive.
I think it's reached the point where I actually think about the distance I have to drive and consider whether or not it's worth it. Luckily, the city has most things metro accessible... I even found a home depot near a metro station, albeit in a very sketchy area that I wouldn't go to again alone but the convenience is nice. If only there were a convenient Target...
Posted by joann at September 4, 2005 09:27 PMThis is silly. Let's assume that your car gets 30 mpg. Then back when gas was $1.50/g, you were spending 5 cents per mile on gas. The significant costs of vehicle ownership, namely insurance, maintainence, and depreciation, were adding 35 cents per mile for a total cost of 40 cents per mile. Now that gas is $3.00/g instead, you're spending 45 cents per mile instead of 40. Big freaking deal. If you weren't worried about the cost of driving before there's really no reason to start now...
Posted by: justin at September 5, 2005 10:05 PMYup. I was thinking about that too. Also, if you have a car with poor fuel efficiency, its not really worth it to go right out and buy a new car with better fuel efficiency. You have to wait till you actually would buy a new car. Investment in a car has a high upfront cost.
Posted by: James at September 6, 2005 08:22 AMHowever, if you have the car paid off, and you're planning on keeping it for X years, then your only cost is the price of gas. With my car I now fill up for $35 when it used to be $20, every week and a half. that's $1200 a year vs. $700, and I drive less than the average american does. I could buy a lot of stuff for $500.
Sure, each individual mile is only 5 cents more, but $0.05 over 10,000-12,000 miles a year is significant.
but i thought you got rid of your car...
Posted by: kevin. at September 6, 2005 05:12 PMWhen I went out to Cali two weekends ago, gas was cheaper there than in DC. The reasoning is pretty obvious, but its still S-H-O-C-K-I-N-G!
Posted by: Nelson at September 13, 2005 08:55 PM