Seriously, we're in a Lexus forum! Please don't tell me that some of you are putting 87 in a LEX!

 

$2.69 for 87

 

I know, right.......I'm so scared to put anything lower then 93 in my car. I'm scared it might explode.

 

lol, the ES300 doesn't need premium. Plus I don't drive it hard or anything either. I'm pretty adult-like in my driving, especially for my age

I paid $2.59 last night in Algonquin

 

87 in my GX. If it doesn't require higher than 87, then you are just wasting $$$.

The highest price I have paid for gas was when I ran out while on Lake Tahoe. $4.50 at a marina!!

I wonder how well the new Hawaii gas price cap will work. Seems a little anti-american to limit the free market like that. Since the cap changes each week and the new cap will be known before it goes into effect, will people wait to buy gas if they know on Sunday the cap will drop? Or rush to the pump if they know it will go up?

A little of topic, but why doesn't anyone (i.e. the media) seem to be focusing on the fact that the oil companies have had RECORD PROFITS during the past couple years!!! If the price of a barrel of crude is the problem, then their costs would be higher as well! Obviously, they are increasing the price of gas well beyond their increase in costs to produce gas. So the problem is not with OPEC or the daily price of a barrel of oil, as the media seems to focus on, but rather with the oil companies taking advantage of the situation and price-gouging in order to get higher profits!

Sorry, I just spent $60 to fill up my GX and am a little tweaked right now...

 

You know, I've never even really looked at it that way. You're certainly correct though.

 

No doubt it will have lots of unintended consequences, and suppliers may even limit how much they send to Hawaii since they don't do as well.

Not so on the last part - DEMAND is at an all time high, so even a fixed profit per gallon will result in higher and higher earnings because earnings are per share, not per gallon or anything.

Again, not so. It's demand driven. Now could oil companies reduce their margins? Yes. But OPEC could also deliver oil for less than $65 a barrell (their cost is about $8 I think!).

Price controls don't work. Even if all the governments world wide put price controls on gas all that would happen would be MASSIVE corruption of politicians and lobbying for special exemptions, variations, and bribes to get allocations.

In a market where everything produced can be consumed prices rise. Until a more widely available alternative comes about or supply increases, prices will continue to rise. Is it a major threat to the world economy? No. If people are suddenly crushed by gas prices, companies will permit more car pooling, telecommuting, governments like the U.S. will eventually allow more nuclear power plants (as they should have decades ago), etc.

 

hmmm... maybe it's time to stop looking for a GS and start considering (gasp) an ES

 

That's exactly what I was thinking earlier...I swear to god....

 

I understand supply and demand, but demand is NOT that much higher than other times in history (as a percentage of overall production, not gross consumption). Have you heard of a rash of stations running out of fuel? Oil company supplies drying up? Neither have I. That is because there is plenty of supply.

I see what you are saying about the increase in profit being simply due to an increase in units sold. If they had a fixed profit per gallon, and they sold, say, 30% more fuel, then you would expect that profit would increase by 30% (not counting neglible cost cutting measures they might have implemented during the year, etc). In the past couple years, profit has increased significantly more than their increase in product sold. As an example, take a look at Chevron's 2004 Annual Report:

http://www.chevron.com/investor/annual/2004/financials/

In their words:
"Net income rose sharply on the strength of upstream operations and much-improved results from the downstream businesses in 2004. Special-item charges in 2002 reduced earnings more than $3 billion" (which means they actually banked $3 billion more, but thanks to carry-over write-offs from 2002, the number looks lower on paper)

Sales increased 24%. Net profit increased 84%. If you look at the 5-yr Operating Summary, actual amount of product manufactured and sold was near the lowest in 5-years... yet they still nearly doubled their profit. So the assumption that they made and sold more product is not the reason for improved downstream businesses... which to me translates to, "We charged more for our stuff so we made more money selling the same amount of stuff!"

It will be interesting to see what the 2005 Annual Reports say

 

"Full service premium"?? There are still stations that have full service? What does that price translate to in "folks that pump their own gas" dollars?



*Sorry, edited the wrong message DOH!

 

Thanks for the background. Maybe their 24% increase in sales doesn't only come from selling oil? I've no idea all the sources of revenue Chevron has. Also increased earnings can come from lower cost of operations - increase refinery efficiency, outsource parts that are not their core competencies, sell off less profitable businesses, consolidate like functions in businesses they acquire (like HR, legal, accounting, IT, etc.). All these things can massively increase earnings (bottom line growth) on flat sales (top line). I've been with companies that do this. But

 

I don't even turn on my A/C anymore

 

It was $2.85 yesterday and this morning. On my trip back down the same street an hour later, it was $2.81.

 

You burn MORE gas with your windows open.