What if gas were $10 a gallon

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I would have to air up the tires on my bicycle that has sat idle in my garage for the last 10 years. :)
 
My dad paid $40K for his small house he pulls along. I am trying to figure out how many nights he would have to stay in a hotel to save that much money. An easy calculation at $100/night is 400 nights in a hotel. This doesn't include interest on the loan, insurance on the trailer, maintenance, fuel, etc. I suspect a person would have to live in the thing for two full years to save enough to justify the cost.
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You are comparing two different things. Just because someone wants to own something is not the same as someone buying something for an investment.



For example, my parents paid $26,000 for a motorhome in 1989. They sold this same motorhome in 2004. They owned it for 15 years.



You do not need to take into consideration in what it costs to own, but what it costs to use.



Did your father buy the trailer because he wanted it or did he buy it because he needed it. RV's and boats are toys and not a requirement.



I will get a trailer because I want one. That is about buying something to make you happy.



With that being said, lets calculate what it would cost my parents and us two kids to go on a trip to Florida for two weeks.



Total miles driven, about 3,000. An average size RV (motorhome) will get you between 8.5 and 10 MPG. If I get 8.5 MPG, I use about 353 gallons of gas. The cost of gas would run me with an average of $3.50/gallon about $1,235.50 in just fuel.



A family of 4 with all the stuff you would take would need a VERY large car or SUV like an Explorer. A Honda Fit or a Prius is out of the question. Most people, when planning a vacation want to be comfortable on a long trip. Average of 22 MPG would use 137 gallons of fuel for a cost of $479.50.



Hotel costs are average of $80 to $90/night. for two people. I spend 9 years traveling all over the eastern part of the US. I know what hotels are out there. I have stayed in some places to save some Per Diem, but if I were on vacation, I would never consider a place like that.



Since you have 4 people, cramming 4 people in a room is not fair or comfortable. Lets remember, we want the same comforts a motorhome provides. So we need 2 rooms for every night.



Between $160.00 and $180.00/night is needed for lodging. If you are gone for 14 days, you need 13 nights of lodging. Total cost of (average $170/night) $2,210.00 for lodging alone.



An average campground is about $40.00/night with many around $25.00. A State park will run about $20.00/night and still provide you water, sewer, electric, and showers. For 13 nights, total costs will cost you $520.00.



Food is a big one. With an RV, you can cook everything at the campsite. You can spend the evenings sitting around a camp fire cooking hot dogs, hamburgers, banana boats, and S'Mores. A family of 4 would average of $250.00/food a week. That is $500 for two weeks of food, pop, water, snacks, etc.



Eating at restraunts will kill you. When I traveled we would eat at two restraunts a day with the breakfast meal provided at the hotel. One person, eating modest will eat $30.00/day. With 4 people, 2 adults and 2 kids, lets figure $75.00 MINIMUM per day. For 14 days, that cost is $1,050.



Lets tall this up.



RV

<hr>

Fuel............1235.00

Lodging........520.00

Food............500.00

-------------------------

Total...........2,255.00





Car/Hotel

<hr>

Fuel...............479.50

Lodging.......2,210.00

Food...........1,050.00

-------------------------

Total...........3,739.50



The RV is almost half as expensive. If you buy an RV just to save money, you are foolish. If you buy an RV becuase you like that wat to travel, in the end, the RV on one trip will cost you less.



You buy an RV to keep for 10 to 15 years, not 3 to 5 years. The comfort an RV provides flexibility that NOBODY will ever get in a car. No need to pack and unp
 
I would pay what ever the going price is for fuel and continue driving my cars, vehicles. One day soon gasoline probably will be $10 or more per-gallon in the US/North America. I had mentioned before in another post about recovering fuel cost by owning shares of common stock or pfds. in XOM, Shell or the other integrated oil conglomerates. The dividend play, pay out, is very good and looks like it will continue to go higher based on ever increasing earnings.



John
 
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The money you make will NEVER make up the difference in the increase of the price of fuel.



Investing is not the answer.





Tom
 
Life was good yesterday.

Life is be good today.

If I'm here tomorrow life will be good then too.



If you spend you day worried about the price of gas, global warming, storms, asteroids or anything else you cannot control you are going to miss the best part of your life "today".



If you want to consider a real problem. It hasn't rained here for 45 days, I washed the trac yesterday. It's raining. Problem: Don't like to fish in the rain.
 
Tom,



So what your saying is if I have $10k a year in dividends from Exxon and the price of the stock continually, over time rises and the dividend continues to rise over time, it would never make up the difference ?



John
 
Compared to how much you have invested vs. the average guy has to invest, he would be money ahead if gas prices remained the same.



If you are getting $10K/year in dividends, we know you don't have $500.00 invested.





Tom
 
To a point I don't really care because I'm self-employed and most of my miles are business miles (my office is less than two miles from my home) so it's a write-off. The more I spend in gas, the less the govt gets in taxes....and there's a lot of people in my boat.

To a point....but this is partly why I've always leased my trucks, in case this day came. If gas is too expensive and my truck isn't worth a hill of beans, it's not my problem.
 
Some recommended reading on the issues behind high commodity prices. See link below.



Very little to do with actual consumer demand.



 
Wow. Great read, Rich. Very enlightening. I wonder how many people here who are lambasting the "record profits" are vested in a corporate or gov't pension fund? It would be extremely hippocritical to bitch about the profits in that case, because limiting those profits would hurt your pension fund.



Here's some more enlightening info about gas prices:



May 21, 2008



Truth In Politics: Illinois Gas Prices And Taxes

Reporting

Mike Flannery



CHICAGO (CBS) ¯ Tired of seeing the price at the pump jump every time you need to buy gasoline? Well, the record-high price of gasoline in the Chicago area is linked to a record-high rate of taxation: nearly 20 percent of the Chicago price.



As CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports, tax refugees wait in long lines on Indianapolis Boulevard in Northwest Indiana. They jockey for position at a pump, lured by prices that are 20 cents a gallon or more cheaper than just a few blocks away back in Illinois.



"It was $4.20. I can come over here and get it for $3.93," said Tikvah Wadley, one of the many fleeing Illinois taxes.



Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin complained to oil company bosses at a hearing on Capitol Hill about Chicago having the highest gasoline prices in the United States. Largely ignored was the role taxes are playing -- an astounding 10 levels of taxation.



"Does it trouble any of you when you see what you're doing to us?" Durbin asked..



In the city, Motor Fuel Taxes originally for building roads currently go to the Feds, Illinois, Cook County and Chicago. The 9.25 percent sales tax is split among Illinois, Chicago and Cook County's share of the state sales tax; a county home rule tax; RTA transit tax and a Chicago home rule levy.



The watchdog Civic Federation says that on a $4 gallon of gas, the total tax is 79.2 cents. That compares to 77 cents in Los Angeles and 65 cents in New York City.



"Every time the price of gas goes up, the tax goes up with it," said one motorist.



And that, of course, is exactly the point for the politicians. Gov. Blagojevich, for example, is counting on the high price of gasoline to bring at least an extra $220 million in the State Treasury in the fiscal year that begins this July. Most of that will be used to balance the way-out-of-balance budget.



(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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20% in taxes!!! Just to put it in perspective, the actual profit margin, not the "obscene billions of dollars in profits" is only about 8% Who's really making "obscene profits" here? Looks like gov't to me...:angry:



 
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Poland has 22% sales tax and then 22% more Excise tax on their fuel (total tax rate of 44%!). At $8.50/gal, that is almost $4.00/gal in taxes. Fortunately, I can get this all refunded back to me as a non-citizen each quarter. It adds up quickly, since each quarter I get back around $600.
 
From the sound of the achor newsteam in Erie this morning, many are thinking gas in NW PA will be at 5.00 a gal by end of Summer!



on a funny note, Local PA paper here distributed a Things to go and see vacation mag with the paper. I suggested to Ford Guy, that we mail it back to the editor of the paper and ask "Who is going to Fund everyones fuel to visit any of these places?"



:D in the mean time... we are driving to L'ville then on to AZ and Back to PA.



YEA! I get to see the high cost of Fuel NATIONWIDE for myself! :lol::p
 

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