2 gallons

9/26/2008 1:53:17 PM

Quote :

"isn't that bad for your fuel pump?"

at that point my fuel pump is still submerged. i'd wager that when the light comes on for any other car, it would be the same. you can still go 70+ miles when the light comes on.

TMI:
i've got a 17 Gal tank, the light comes on at 12-13 Gal. I could make it another 125 miles before I REALLY ran out of fuel.

9/26/2008 4:27:01 PM

i've yet to find a car whose light doesn't come on with 2.5-3 gallons to spare...the vast majority are 3, but i think some of the really tiny ones are 2.5...i've never heard of less than that

9/26/2008 4:47:58 PM

if they let gas stations raise prices to what they wanted this would not be a problem. capping the prices with this executive order lead to a shortage of gas as it became a race to fill up instead of people with more need paying more and being able to get gas.

9/26/2008 5:02:28 PM

good thing i only drive 100mi a day

...

9/26/2008 5:08:29 PM

i have a 14 gallon tank and my light comes on with 2 gallons left

9/26/2008 5:09:34 PM

you know, i don't think i have a light on my car

or at least it's never come on if there is one

9/26/2008 5:12:51 PM

what kind of car

9/26/2008 5:36:18 PM

Quote :

"if they let gas stations raise prices to what they wanted this would not be a problem. capping the prices with this executive order lead to a shortage of gas as it became a race to fill up instead of people with more need paying more and being able to get gas."

So you'd rather get cheated out of your money than be forced to go green? haha. I'm actually really happy this is happening. All those kids whose parents pay for their gas/cars/everything now get a taste of the real world.

9/26/2008 6:01:28 PM

Quote :

"All those kids whose parents pay for their gas/cars/everything now get a taste of the real world"

i don't get it... do their parents stop paying for gas when there are shortages?

9/26/2008 6:09:47 PM

um, no, but if there's no gas then they can't fill up

[Edited on September 26, 2008 at 6:24 PM. Reason : a]

9/26/2008 6:21:35 PM

i can go 450 miles on 10 gallons with ease so I'm not worried. I'll siphon a lawn mower first.

9/26/2008 6:28:09 PM

so their "taste of the real world" is that they can't get gas, but neither can you? you totally win there.

i mean, i agree that parents paying for gas is pretty lame (especially in college), but i don't really see how they are getting a taste of the real world by having to wait in line for gas that they still aren't paying for.

9/26/2008 6:34:18 PM

the point is if there is no gas, they can't get gas--which is the same situation as a college person that is out of money--they can't get gas either

it isn't difficult to comprehend.

9/26/2008 6:53:12 PM

Quote :

"um, no, but if there's no gas then they can't fill up"

i'm pretty sure if parents are still paying for everything at this point, they're going to go out of their way to make sure little susie q has a full tank before it runs out





nice try, though, sweetie

9/26/2008 8:10:29 PM

Damn, wish my car was in NC and not IL. 23 gallon tank, locking gas cap. Could keep the 60mpg bike going for a LONG time on 23 gallons. 4 months or so without having to buy gas would be nice.

9/27/2008 9:49:51 AM

^^exactly

9/27/2008 10:51:03 AM

Quote :

" So you'd rather get cheated out of your money than be forced to go green? haha."

what? by capping prices gas goes to the people that get there first and have the time to wait for hours to fill up. if you let prices rise naturally people will only buy gas if they feel that the cost matches their need.

9/27/2008 12:20:54 PM

Quote :

"I'm actually really happy this is happening"

9/27/2008 12:27:03 PM

Quote :

"if they let gas stations raise prices to what they wanted this would not be a problem. capping the prices with this executive order lead to a shortage of gas as it became a race to fill up instead of people with more need paying more and being able to get gas."

No.

Ever heard of inelastic demand? Well, gas is an Econ 101 example of inelastic demand (along with other essentials). You'd see the price shoot up towards $10+ a gallon (at least) before things corrected themselves. It wouldn't become a need issue since it would just be pricing fixed and low income people, along with small businesses, that need the gas just as much (probably more) as the area Soccer Moms out of the market.

9/27/2008 12:35:10 PM

The demand to burn gasoline is fairly inellastic (nothing is perfectly inellastic) but the demand to store gasoline is not. This demand is a function of time expectation. If people expect gas prices to be lower in the future, such as next week after the supply problems are fixed, then they will wait to fill up until they have too, hoping to wait until low prices return. But if they believe rightly that the current price is artificially low due to government rules and will only go higher in the future as the lower priced stations run out then they will fill up a half full tank now, even though a half a tank would have probably carried them for more than a week.

And that is where shortages come from. The supply of fuel in most crisis is plenty to supply the demand for the actual consumption that occurs thanks to the large storage capacity of the multitude of gas stations. But consumers respond to the threat of a shortage by shifting the storage of fuel from gas stations to their own tanks, causing the shortage. Stations will sell as much fuel in a few days as they used to sell in a whole week, a pace the system is simply not built to handle.

9/29/2008 11:50:49 AM

I was pretty sure the shortage was because the pipeline that supplies Charlotte, Atlanta, Western NC, etc. was only operating at 50%.

But maybe I'm crazy...

9/29/2008 1:27:27 PM

dugg for econ 101 in this bitch

9/29/2008 1:30:38 PM

Quote :

"If people expect gas prices to be lower in the future, such as next week after the supply problems are fixed, then they will wait to fill up until they have too, hoping to wait until low prices return."

If gas drops $.40 in the next two weeks most people probably wouldn't save more than $5 or $6 by waiting to fill up. I see no point in that. Buy it if you need it. You're going to use it eventually anyway.

[Edited on September 29, 2008 at 1:33 PM. Reason : l]

9/29/2008 1:32:45 PM

Still really glad I bought a scooter.

9/29/2008 1:35:37 PM

I've definitely had problems finding premium lately. But if that's the worst that we get here, I'll consider myself lucky.

9/29/2008 5:20:52 PM

^ premium is the only kind I can find the last couple of days. Granted I haven't stopped at every station or anything. After the 3rd or 4th I just filled up with premium

9/29/2008 5:43:39 PM

^Maybe it's just where I've been looking, but at least around my house, premium is hard to find. I went to 5 gas stations last Saturday afternoon and found:
-Mid-grade only (76 @ Western/Method)
-No gas at all (BP @ Hillsborough/Gorman)
-Regular only (Crown @ Hillsborough/Gorman)
-No gas at all (Exxon @ Hillsborough across from Meredith)
-All 3 grades, where I filled up (Hess @ Western near Food Lion)

Perhaps it's changed since Saturday though.

9/30/2008 1:21:35 PM

I "have" to run premium in my car.
The tank is 14.5 gallons and the light comes on when 13 are gone. This gives me approx. 40 miles to get gas once the light is on.

I haven't had a problem getting gas anywhere ::shrug::

9/30/2008 1:26:31 PM

Quote :

"But if that's the worst that we get here, I'll consider myself lucky."

i haven't had a problem finding regular. premium on the other hand. tankers are showing up pretty regularly now though. the people who freaked out and filled their tanks have gone away. demand is going back to normal.

imo the best thing to have done would have been to fill up before the "crisis" and then kept topping off your tank every chance you had.

9/30/2008 2:40:40 PM

Seotaji, why? Now that the event is over prices in North Carolina will gradually return to the national average which is almost 40 cents a gallon cheaper than the current average. Not to mention the extra gas you spent contantly driving to get gas, but also the gas you burnt driving many miles searching for stations that have gas; then once you get there spending as much as $4.49 a gallon when next week prices could be below $3.29 (prices below $3.20 are currently common in many states, $3.07 is the reported price in Oklahome City).

In other words, by constantly filling up during the crisis you have hurt others by making the shortage worse but you have hurt yourself by wasting time and a potentially very large amount of money.

9/30/2008 11:17:47 PM

Quote :

"In other words, by constantly filling up during the crisis you have hurt others by making the shortage worse but you have hurt yourself by wasting time and a potentially very large amount of money."

here's the thing. my proposal would only work if you lived or drove past a gas station during your daily activities. i drive by them everyday (extremely easy to get in and out of).

the highest price for premium was $4.09 in my neighborhood.

If you keep your tank full (which I do), then at $3.75 (what I paid before the crisis) I would have paid $45 to fill an empty tank, or $22.5 if you fill up when you have half a tank remaining.

I filled up before this "crisis" was a spark in most of those idiot's minds as a matter of routine, not b/c of mass hysteria.

If, during my activities, I pass a station with premium, I would fill up and need at most 2 gallons. That, at lets say the highest rate of $4.09, is $8.18. But usually I would only need 1-1.5. Wow, if gas prices drop to the nationwide average of $3.50 for regular, well I use premium which is going to be $3.70. Man those $0.05 are going to bankrupt me. Hell even with the additional "dumb tax" during the "crisis", it only cost me $0.68 more than usual. Man, I'm really feelin' it now.

How is my topping off my tank with 1-2 gal. of gas, hurting anyone or wasting a large amount of money? Since the gas station is ridiculously easy to get to and get out of, a 5 min stop hurts nothing AND keeps me prepared for anything.

I laugh at your ridiculous notions.

[Edited on October 1, 2008 at 12:44 AM. Reason : wj]

10/1/2008 12:40:25 AM

I've got a 200 gallon tank I'll be using to surplus gasoline once the current situation subsides.

10/1/2008 12:43:52 AM

Five minutes, that is fast...
Well, over a week doing that every day that is 35 minutes you wasted, not much of an issue. But few of us were that lucky. Some here in this very thread said they had to go to three or more stations to find their premium. If we are absurdly optimistic and assume it only took 15 minutes to visit all three each day, then it is now 1.75 hours of their life they spent just finding gasoline that week. But that is not all, while driving around for 1.75 hours at 30mph and 20mpg, they burnt 2.625 gallons in the week just driving to get gas, or $10.74 at $4.09 a gallon.

So in a time of short supply you increased the amount of fuel you burnt. And the more dire the situation, making your daily search even further from your daily routine, the more you would have burnt doing it.

So, even if there was enough fuel supply to meet daily demand, then everyone following your advice would increase consumption (even if everyone was as lucky as you and it only involved driving the 20 yards, parking, and restarting), creating a shortage.
And that is completely ignoring the storage factor: if normally everyone drives to 20% and then refills, the average fuel tank will only be 60% full. By following your advice and filling up at 80%, the average fuel tank is now 90% full. That additional supply (30% of all the gas tanks in the city) must come from somewhere. And it comes from draining the tanks at gas stations. And if there was not enough stored underground at the tanks then they all run dry, and those that burn more than a tank in a given week (such as those travelling) will be out, while those that take a whole month to burn up a tank drive around with a full tank.

So, yes, if the shortage is minor like the one we just had, then you don't cost yourself or others very much. But if the shortage becomes severe, you can cost yourself the fuel you had if your constant searching for fuel comes up empty, potentially hundreds of dollars, and strand those fleeing a catastrophy with no fuel at all.

10/3/2008 10:01:56 AM

Quote :

"premium is the only kind I can find the last couple of days. Granted I haven't stopped at every station or anything. After the 3rd or 4th I just filled up with premium"

You're telling me you wasted maybe a half an hour to an hour of your life looking for a station that had regular instead of premium to save $2-4?

(now if all the stations were in the same spot I understand).

I feel that the current shortage is b/c the pipeline has been running well below its normal capacity b/c of the refinery shutdowns, not b/c of people freaking out over prices. Every day this week I've seen more and more stations run out of gas. Does this make me anxious to fill up? Yes, b/c I've heard nothing in the local media about supplies going up any time soon.

10/3/2008 10:12:34 AM

Now it's not so much about not having gas, it's just being able to get it. There are some crazy ass long lines at most of the gas stations off 40 here in Burlington. I had to wait about 20 minutes to get gas at 7:30 am. I've not tried in the afternoon yet, but most looked grid-locked after work. Luckily, 17 gallons of gas will last me about 3 weeks.

10/3/2008 10:18:35 AM

I was in Charlotte last weekend and NOBODY had gas. And when a station did you had to wait in line behind 30-40 cars for hours to get it.

fuck that, I'd get up at 4am to go find a station over that shit.

10/3/2008 10:23:13 AM

Quote :

"So, yes, if the shortage is minor like the one we just had, then you don't cost yourself or others very much. But if the shortage becomes severe, you can cost yourself the fuel you had if your constant searching for fuel comes up empty, potentially hundreds of dollars, and strand those fleeing a catastrophy with no fuel at all."

So really you had nothing to add to the thread, so you are fear mongering. This only works if you aren't constantly driving outside your immediate area and have a station close by.

even if everyone topped off their tanks like I did, it wouldn't strand anyone except those who consistently drive with empty tanks or who were unlucky enough to wait until after the rush.

[Edited on October 3, 2008 at 2:23 PM. Reason : d]

10/3/2008 2:15:31 PM

Doesn't everyone in Raleigh have all three types now?

What are some current prices....all I see around campus is 3.89

10/3/2008 2:47:41 PM

I went to 5 gas stations last night on Glenwood (around the WalMart area) to find that 3 were completely out of gas, the 4th only had regular.

Finally the 5th one had premium (was on the motorcycle).

10/3/2008 2:50:16 PM

Yeah I've noticed a lot of stations running out completely or running out of certain grades on Glenwood and Hwy 401.

Last night I filled up at the Exxon on 401/70 just south of I-40. Premium was $4.14 I believe.

10/3/2008 2:59:06 PM

Give it about 1 to 1.5 months, and we should see gas in the low $3, possibly lower. Places that havent been disrupted by the pipeline, are seeing starkly cheaper fuel. In Oklahoma City, you can get gas for about $2.90. We have higher taxes, but when the spot prices are more inline with the futures prices, we should see some relief.

10/3/2008 3:07:08 PM

^I'm in total agreement with you on that. I just want to know when its gonna happen!

10/3/2008 3:16:20 PM

I filled up for $3.53 this morning... lowest in a year and a half.

10/3/2008 4:20:17 PM

Drilling would only increase our supply by a very small % of our total consumption while increasing our dependency on oil and further delaying 21st century fuel technology.

10/3/2008 5:16:16 PM

had to go to three stations to get premium. they were all in a row so it wasn't a complete PITA.

10/3/2008 5:24:42 PM

^^I got news for you, if its in the ground we're gonna suck it out.

10/3/2008 5:41:55 PM

ok but if you start today 2017 is when you will have your first barrel.

10/3/2008 5:44:40 PM

Thats pretty interesting, can you send me a link for that? Seems way too long. Is that for offshore or ANWR?

also thats only 9 yrs off, we'll still be using oil in abundance then.

10/3/2008 6:06:20 PM

Isn't the gas shortage problem supposed to be gone by now? I thought Easley said by early this week, there would be more gas coming to the state.

10/3/2008 6:11:48 PM