Gas prices have been pretty flat for several years, with the exception of the spike during covid.

$3.49-$3.69/gal.

But I'm not a heavy duty driver.

The differences to me amount to the price of a small coffee a couple of times a month. And yet the hysteria over those differences is a big factor in keeping republiQans in office.

It's like the people who complain about the prices of the McMansions they insist they need.

using a whole tank of gas during a day's worth of off roading or whatever they're doing. Me? I'm very happy w/ my one full tank's worth of gas purchased for a whole month.

Being in STLMO, carpooling and driving to work oftentimes is a 70- or 80-mile trip one way, and we got lots of people doing this sort of commuting every day. Those in KCMO are too, doing the same thing. I have noticed over the years a shift in the people living in the actual city limits of STLMO (I don't know about KCMO), but the population is shifting to a lot more retirees, etc., I am guessing that they want the amenities that the city offers, the museums, the restaurants, the urban life. Plus, I've read that they too, don't want to drive so far.

We do have, here in the city lots of parks so that's an added bonus, w/ Forest Park and Tower Grove Park (Bernard Shaw and Botanical Gardens).

That's fine w/ me. I don't want to drive everyday 70 or 80 miles one way, for that matter, even if it were 10 or 20 miles one way, it's still too far, too much.

but i drove a lot of door knockers to ia in 08, too.
was just mentioning that every 4 yrs, gas spikes. not just to make an issue, but to make gotv more expensive. filling up on the way to ia was the 1st time it ever topped $100.
funny part about that is someone on xitter was bitching just the other day about filling his gas hog, and being outraged it was $100. that was 16yrs ago, dude.

but we all pay the price at the grocery store. Just about every retail product got to the store on a fossil fuel truck. Eventually, all these products follow the price of gas.

but slowly the tide is turning. It needs to come from the top - things like tax breaks for manufacturing only electric etc. Companies like Volvo are already doing it (albeit in other countries). That's why we need Biden or even more progressive folks in office. I know it is frustrating, but the problem is not awareness. If you want to change behavior in a capitalist country, you work on the rewards.

after my first car (1954 Chevy, 6 cylinder), which I didn't buy. Cars were always transportation and an necessary evil. not fashion statements. High priced gas or low priced gas didn't matter much because they didn't eat that much of it.

This gets a lot of airplay on one of my favorite streamed stations:

It's like half of America is sharing the brain of one goldfish. I live in CA where gas is always more expensive. And even though it's So Cal, we still get a brief price surge in September when they make the winter blend switchover... every year... same time. And every year local news stations used to dispatch to the gas pumps in September to report on the surge in gas prices where they interviewed drivers of large SUVs who all complained about how ridiculous it was to spend over 100 bucks to fill up their gargantuan polluters. I always wondered how people who were too dim to recognize the connection between owning a gas guzzler and the expense of filling it up could possibly be smart enough to earn the money to regularly fill their vanity vehicles up.

But I do have sympathy for those who ACTUALLY NEED large vehicles.

Because of my arthritis, I find it difficult to get in and out of a regular sedan. The truck is MUCH easier.
Fortunately, now retired, I don't plan on driving nearly as much.

I did travel from Arizona to Texas for the eclipse. Funny how gas prices in Texas were around $3.10 a gallon, some places at $2.99.
I get back to Maricopa County and it's $4.19 a gallon.

I know we don't have refining capacity in Arizona and the gas needs to be piped in from the gulf coast, but seriously?
That costs a dollar a gallon?? C'mon.....

Is that reasonable fuel efficiency? It's a 4 cylinder engine.

I get about 17 mpg on the highway (most of what I drive when off the farm) in the Silverado 1500 P/U. The vehicle has a small V-6 cylinder engine, 4- wheel drive, pollution controls, computer controlled ignition that anticipates camshaft advance and retreat depending on rpms and incorporates oxygen sensors. I assume that it's mileage isn't seen as reasonable mileage.

I use about 10-15 gallons depending on the month, in the pick-up. Mostly to go back and forth from Farm Service, Farm and Fleet, and a building supply company.

I use about 15 gallons a -WEEK in the Corolla iM doing mostly interstate highway driving. That car also has computer controlled ignition, modern bells and whistles, and has all the required pollution controls. In town, with all the stop and go, the iM gets 29-30 mpg.

I'm not a rocket scientist, but according to my knowledge of maths, the iM is using much more fuel per week. I suspect that it's volume of consumed fuel is in the end producing more of the overall oxides produced under high pressure and temperature.

I also have a small 4-cylinder diesel powered tractor, which has all the mandated pollution control. That vehicle runs for 6-8 hours on a 5+ gal tank of fuel depending on rpm's needed to operate the hydraulics of the front-end loader, mower deck, or to pull implements in low gear and 4 wheel drive It does jobs not measured in distances, but the distances I do use it for are typically less than a couple miles at a time. A tank of diesel will get me through 2.5 2-3-hour long complete snow clearings using the 60 inch wide front end loader (which requires periodic dumping of snow to the side of the drive) that converts to 4-6 passes on the farm's 800 ft lane/driveway, not quite a mile. That's a bit better operational hours per gallon than I get in the operation of the Corolla iM.

In general, the Corolla can't do much "work" but it's fuel efficient at highway speeds. The truck is made to do work as is the small tractor. Forgetting all else, personal carbon footprint, and that footprints value to my weekly productivity involves much more than gas mileage.

Every other car is a HUGE pickup truck! They are considered a luxury item and have a price tag to match!

I call them the Cadillac of the south!

When i bought my electric car in 2015, it was expensive, but I knew that annual registration fees were seriously discounted. I figured at least it would be a cheap car to have during my retirement years. In the early heavy driving years, the partial payback was no gas, free charging at superchargers; but during retirement, I’d keep it indefinitely, and because of very cheap annual registration fees.of $35, over 20 years it would cost $700 in registration. CHEAP REGISTRATION WAS A FACTOR IN THE MATH OF AFFORDING AN EXPENSIVE ELECTRIC.

I bought an electric because it felt like the right thing to do for the planet, and i was in a position to afford it. But I also knew if i kept it for the rest of my miserable life, it would be a cheap car to own in retirement.

I was wrong. Because GOP ideologues hate electrics (and some democrats are compromisers who get sold on a simple-minded fairness argument even when it is rooted in bullsh**. ) All over the country, the GOP cookie cutter lawmakers have pushed extra fees for electrics. “Oh, that with all of these electrics, we won’t collect enough in road taxes.” So I’m now paying $366 a year for registration. It’s one more expense making it difficult to picture myself actually retiring. Over 20 years this will add up to over $7,000 instead of $700.

But i hardly drive, because I’m semi-retired. I’m hardly even USING the roads. And I’m glad this isn’t a 2 car electric household.

It was just one more method of punishing the liberal middle class, like the fact that SALT tax deductions are still limited to $10,000.

Naive thinkers get sold on the idea that “its only fair that every car pays for the roads” because they’ve been taught to believe in the fairness of user taxes; but everyone is already paying for the oil wars and the asthma and the global warming. None of it is fair. If I drive 30 miles a week with a gas powered car, I might be paying $20 a year in gas tax; if i drive 300 miles a week I might pay $200 a year in gas tax. But whether i drive 30 miles or 300 miles per week, i will still be paying the $200+ per year because of the extra fee on electrics.