Gosh, maybe it's time to discover fuel-efficient cars and trucks??
posted by Jim at 5:05 PM
Jim Meyer, owner of a licensed Dallas, Texas dealership blogs about motorsports, oil prices, carbuying, related topics and finding your next used car or used truck.
10 Comments:
Well, the gov't does give a tax break if you buy a hybrid vehicle, such as a Toyota Prius. The rest, you're probably right....
On the bright side, it looks like regular gas prices are headed back down to about $2.40 a gallon.
I believe a secondary purchaser also gets a tax credit, but I am not certain of that. Yeah, hybrids cost a little more, but resale seems to be holding up, too. Plus, they're also scarce on the wholesale market. The price depends upon what year and model you are chasing.....
Hi! Just wanted to contribute my $10 (inflation!!). We bought a Toyota Pruis Hybrid 2 weeks ago, and though I don't know how to access all the bells and whistles, I have been quite impressed with the gas mileage. When the odometer said 250 miles and I had a half tank of gas, I pulled into the gas station and filled up...for $15! It's been about that amount pretty consistently. I haven't talked with my CPA as of today, but the dealership told me I would get a $2000 tax deduction on this year's taxes; I doubt it's a recurring deduction. However, with the decrease in gasoline consumption, I expect to have myself paid back for this EXPENSE within 4-6 years. I still have to get oil changes every 5000 miles, but significantly less with a smaller engine.
With respect to the gas prices declining, I don't believe this is a permanent shift. I expect the producers are lulling us into a false sense of contentment, and that they will ramp up again within a few months. That's my point of view!
With the price of fuel showing no signs of retreating to previous comfortable levels, do you forsee that alternatives such as ethanol being a new growth market? I have received some feedback from researchers at the University of Illinois where they are evaluating production of Miscanthus and Switchgrass in Illinois to produce ethanol. They indicated that in the UK the demand for these has really taken off and those growers who built up nursery stock of
Miscanthus are now reaping the benefit, but of course it is a gamble. Has anyone seen any markets developing in the USA for this alternative form of energy?
You may see some information on Miscanthus at:
http://miscanthus.cropsci.uiuc.edu/experiment.html
University of Illinois trials show it to provide at least double the yield of switchgrass at sites in Illinois. But it is more expensive to establish because it must be planted from rhizomes. Because the University of Illinois has only started growing this in the USA, stocks are very limited - they are bulking up what we have at the University. There is a company in Europe that might provide rhizomes or possibly contract plant:
http://www.bical.net/
There is information about switchgrass at the USDA's site:
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=PAVI2
and costs of production can be seen at:
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/ncnu02/v5-267.html
Switchgrass "cave-in-rock" is considered the best adapated for S.
and Central Illinois and you should be able to obtain this from seed merchants.
I have not found any markets in the USA yet. It appears to primarily be research only at this time.
You're way over my head, buddy. Maybe someone else with more brains than me can make us both smarter.
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I never thought the day would come this soon... the day the CEO of our largest oil company encourages consumers to use less of its
product. The price in Maple Valley for super unleaded for my Subaru is $3.40 per gallon. My commuter bus is nearly full leaving Maple Valley on my way into Seattle
in the morning. Ridership has really taken off within the last month.
What is it that our energy secretary Bodman thinks is going to happen to stabilize prices in the next 2 to 3 year window? Improvements in energy
consuming technology (demand side)? Improvements in drilling technology(supply side)?
Supply naturally meeting demand as price increases to force individuals out of their cars significantly and into other forms of transportation? (At what price does this happen?) Economic downturn in China and India
and United States? Has he factored in the ever decreasing production in existing oil fields? Is he considering the development of
yet-to-be-discovered oil fields - that can't be because it takes more than just a few years to get a new oil field to production (constructing the infrastructure of the field and constructing the transportation to get product to market takes many years). I am really at a loss to figure
what is going to happen in the next few years to bring prices down. If any one you can explain this one, I'd like to hear it.
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