My opinion about higher gas prices 4092

I buy 18-20 gallons each week, and believe me I've noticed the rise in prices. I am a student going to college (35 miles there and back, I make that drive 5-7 times each week, and typically drive about 50 miles each week for errands, going places with friends or the girlfriend, or pleasure. The fact that my car requires 93 octane makes the cost of gas even worse, though the additional $4-tank over 87 as my first car took is negligible, and the additional $2-tank over the 89 octane my old engine took is also negligible, especially when you figgure I spent $42 to fill up this week. IIRC I paid $2.28-gal.

I remember when I got my first car I was paying less than a dollar per gallon. Hell, it was down in the $.85-gal ballpark for a while. That was for 87 octane. premium has always been about a $.10-gal jump for each higher grade. $20 used to fill my 24.5 gallon tank when I would run it down to nearly empty. Now if I run it down to empty I pay at least $50. That's one hell of a jump in price.

I tried the whole econo-box car thing. I got me a $300 '86 Honda Prelude as a beater. Got 27 MPG the only time I calculated it (neat that James got the same mileage... Mine was an '86 1.8l 4 banger, dual carb and 5 speed) and was fun to drive, though painful to be in for more than 20 minutes or so. The insurance increase was ridiculous, and it cost the same to drive either of my Galaxies and get 12-15 MPG but be comfortable and have room to have other people or luggage in the car, so that's what I did. Since no clbuttic car insurance company will insure me until I'm 25 I can't afford to have a beater for my 200-250 mile-week commute to school-work and the Galaxie for going out with the girl, friends or to shows and cruise nights. It would save me a lot in gas, but I've got 5 years to go before I can do that.

Now I find myself leaning out the jets, putting heavier springs in the secondaries, and getting every last degree of timing in as soon as possible to get every bit of mileage I can squeeze out of it. I'm gonna go junkyard hunting for an electric fan and see how much that helkps with mileage. Although the fan I have on there now is a clutch fan it sounds like a freight train when the engine revs up so I know that takes a good bit of power to drive. I hear electric fans will typically gain 1-3 MPG. Worth $20-$30 investment with these gas prices. I wish I had overdrive... I'm considering swapping an AOD in place of the FMX, as with prices so high it will pay for itself in a relatively short amount of time being as how I drive a lot of highway miles (most of those 35 miles to school and back is on the highway), and in the summer I drive more highway miles.

I rarely go for recreational drives anymore. I will do that more as it warms up, but anymore I just slow down on the way to school or work and enjoy that drive. In the summer I'll surely go out and get lsot on the two lane blacktop like I used to, but even the toher day when it was 75* out I wanted to go fora drive but didn't bother, because I don't have the money for it. I used to go out in the boondocks and get lost, cruising the two-lane blacktop all day. I'd go through a whole tank of gas some weekends. Hell, it only cost $20 at most. Now I think twice about going for a 25 mile pleasure cruise, because it all adds up.

I make $10-hr at my regular job for school. For my indepandant consulting I charge $20-$60-hr depending on what the work is. Sometimes I charge a fixed rate for particular tasks. That work is inconsistant though, only as I'm needed for the various people and small businesses I do work for. I regularly get $40-week from my job working at school. I do work for CMU that ties in with that work to some degree which works out to about $80-week, but I only get paid every month or every other month for that. So essentially the only consistant money I get is just enough to put gas in the car. Summer is coming so I'll have to figure something to do for summer.

In any case, yes, I do notice the increase in gas prices. A month or two ago prices were going downa bit and I was relieved when I was paying $30-$35-week in gas. Now I'm paying $10-week more, or $40-mo more. That's a lot to me. That's two dinner for me and the girl and Fuddruckers on cruise night, or going roller skating with her 3 times, or two movies, or 8 lunches for me (don't buy lunch-dinner when I ahve night clbutt anymore, it goes into my gas tank). It's bowling every Monday on dollar night, or pool every Wednesday on $5 night, either with change to spare or both and using it all.

For students it is a lot, especially when you live in teh state with the highest insurance rates in the country (NJ). Hell, I need to change my oil and I don't have the money to do it. I have to wait until tomorrow when I get paid my $80. Then I have a $70 bill on my gasoline card (comes in handy when I'm waiting on a paycheck and need gas). So between that and my oil change I'll have maybe $10 in the bank. I'm waiting on my paychecks from my other jobs, but they probably won't come for another week or two. Then I'll have some money. Gotta put togehter a little money for my trip to Carlisle for the All-Ford Nationals.

As for minimum wage, my girlfriend is telling me aobut some law going thorugh to raise it to $7-hour. Big whoop-de-doo, that isn't enough to live on in NJ unless you live in the ghetto and only eat once a day. Besides, I do't believe minimum wage even applies to part time workers like her and I. Minimum wage doesn't concern me too much beacuse I will not work for minimum wage (I'd have to be very desperate). I have never worked for minimum wage. At my first job I made $14-hour. My parents pay for my school, so I work to pay for my car and whatever recreational stuff I do. Lately my mom has been throwing me some moeny for gas since the prices have gone up so much. I appreciate it very much, because until I get paid from my 'real' jobs I have no money for anything, and I gotta reserve a hotel for Carlisle real soon if my buddies and I are gonna have a place to sleep.

In any case, yes, I buy gas every week and yes, I do notice the price increases. It's made a big difference in my lifestyle the past year now that I'm not working full time anymore. I work far less hours, and because I can't work at a real job only part time I make less money whihc only compounds the effect. This year it used to cost me ~$.10-mile to drive, last week it only cost $.15-mile, now it costs $.177-mile. Figure about 250 miles-week for me and it makes a difference. With todays prices an additional 1 MPG will reduce driving cost to $.164-mile and save me $3.75-week or $15-mo. An additional 1 MPG on top of that will reduce cost to $.153-mile and save me an additional $2.75-week or $11-mo for a total savings of $36-mo. Damn, did I do that math correctly? Seems about right. $36-mo means a lot to me. I'm a computer nerd-gearhead going to school for computer science, so I enjoy doing the math. Even more so for something that costs me money and is automotive related.

Heck maybe I'll go back to the old 2 barrel Autolite 2100 and ditch the Holley for now. I once achieved 17 MPG with that carb on the old engine running on only 7 cylinders. I think at Carlisle I may pick up an Autolite 4100 and use that, so I'll still have a 4 barrel for that extra power but it should give better mileage. No biggie if I don't make quite as much power as with the Holley. In any case, I've rambled on enough for tonight.

Cory