On this higher octane stuff, remember that your car must be tuned to take advantage of this higher octane rating. That is why ECU reflash companies ask you what fuel you put in so they can map your car to it. Just so you know to, higher octane rated fuel can be bad for your car also. My family took a road trip to Florida from Colorado years ago and my mom put Premium in the car thinking it would run better because that is what you were told back then. Well we burned a couple quarts of oil on that trip. Got to Florida and visited my Grandpa who use to race cars with in the pro circuit and also sold cars told my mom to stop putting that premium crap in the car and get the regular stuff because it was causing her to burn oil. Well we used the normal unleaded stuff on the trip home and burned no oil. This is a little bit of an extreme case because she jumped two levels but still. I put 91 in my car because the manufacture recommends it. If they have 93 I wouldn't be getting it.

 

If it's a lease, just do the min u need to get it back to the dealer/bank w/o any fee's.

 

For me the choice of octane has little to do with being cheap or whether or not someone can afford their car.

Bottom line most people don't like getting F'd at the gas station.
If people stop buying the higher octanes the price will go down.

Your car, your choice...

 

You don't really believe that do you? Because it's not even remotely close to being true.

 

supply and demand. the crazy prices are based on many elements, but I believe greed is one of the greatest factors.

If the product is not selling the price will fall. Look at the housing market if you want prove.

 

That's not how this works at all. The largest factor in the rising cost of fuel in the US is market speculation, not supply and demand. There is no less oil this year than there was last year or the year before that. High gas prices are not the result of the usual supply/demand relationship but are being manipulated by speculators in the trading market. Someone posted a thread with a link to an interesting article that may enlighten you.

 

regulations my friend, regulations...your supply and demand might work in pure economics, but thats not what we are dealing with these days...while the demand did obviously take a hit, its not because less people were trying to buy houses, it was because banks stopped handing out loans to everybody that asked, thus indirectly lessening the demand...as far as gas, thats a whole different animal...while it is greed thats driving oil through the roof, its the greed of traders trading the commodity, not the countries and oil companies...but, HOPEFULLY, as is being talked about, the trading of oil and possibly other commodities will be more tightly regulated, in an attempt to weed out most of the speculative pricing of oil.



^^^+1^^ was typing this as you posted that, thank youu

 

I am not quite sure how this could possibly be true. Oil supplies are limited, we just don't know how much of it is left. It is no secret that it has become increasingly difficult to find new places to drill. That is why there's so much pressure to tap into Alaska.

 

you are talking about what you heard on tv, those ideas are put out there to creative a positive outlook and put downward pressure on the price of oil. if people think we are going to be getting oil from our own country, whether it be alaska, off shore drilling, etc, it will no doubt give people a more secure and comfortable outlook about oil, but thats all.

 

So this thread has gone from "I want to put cheap gas in my G" to the morality of screwing over your fellow man, to supply/demand/speculation relationship of oil prices. Wow. My head is spinning.

 

If you haven't noticed, Premium fuel is now upwards of $.30 more per gallon vs. $.20 it used to be.

87 - $4.13
89 - $4.23
93 - $4.33

Now

93- $4.43+ I've seen as high as a $.47 spread between 87 and 93.

 

"Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking."

cye2k

 

And you believe this is because more people are buying premuim than previously so the retailers are charging more than before because there is a greater demand for it?

I can't say for certain whether that is true or not, but I'm not inclined to think that way. Widening the gap between regular and premium is obviously having the opposite effect of generating more income. As this thread and your buying habits as well as the OP's show, cost disparity will drive people with cars manufactured to run on higher octane to use the cheaper gas rather than pay the premium cost as fuel prices rise. Isn't that counterproductive to increasing the price to make more profit? It would drive people to buy the cheaper gas not the more expensive.

 

which should naturally evolve into....

"OMG1!BBQ!111! - G37s are causing global warming!!"

 

raZr sounds like an educated dude . Supply and demand is econ 101 yes, but it rarely serves as the only answer. It would apply if there were no other variables and supply and demand was examined in a vacuum. Speculative trading has played a significant role in increasing the price of gas. The saddest part of it is that a lot of it has been a self fulfilling prophecy. Five years ago, analysts predicted light sweet crude would be over $100 a barrel. That was then ingrained in the minds of the all the analysts and traders. I used to be a trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and while working there it was obvious that things were being artificially inflated; given the CME doesn't have an oil trading pit, I was exposed to market conditions and sentiment. OPEC also plays a role in the price of oil, but that's another story another post.