Gas prices

AWS

AWS

Custom Accessory Maker & Retired PM Staff
I hear people whining about gas prices and got to thinking about my Pinto from another post.

For all those whining about gas prices jumping a buck and change, wish you would have been here in the 70s when gas doubled IF you could find it. I traded my used pinto in on a new Bronco custom ordered from the factory and it was nearly an even trade. People were screaming for high gas mileage cars.
 
I remember lines a mile long and only being able to buy on odd or even days depending on the last number of your license plate. Those days sucked and so does the price today.
 
I did something very similar, in '78. Gas was switching over from Leaded to Unleaded and the refineries were telling us that the Unleaded process was costing them more, so we were getting charged for it. :rolleyes: Total BS, because I worked at a refinery and knew better. :sneaky:

At the time, I had a VW Rabbit, which got an unheard of 40 mpg. :)
In 1979 I traded it even up or title for title at a GMC truck dealership, for a '78 Chevy Scottsdale 10 4x4 p/u truck, that got 11 mpg/city and 13 mpg/hwy. I ended up talking/dealing with the manager of the dealership, because he didn't want to trade titles and wanted to "make some money" on the deal. I told him that I have what everybody wants and he has what nobody wants for gas mileage. :unsure: He asked why I wanted it and I said, "I have a great job, make good money, I'm single, don't have any other bills and this is what I want." Then he said, "I don't know whether to swap titles or hire you." :ROFLMAO:

We swapped titles and I drove the truck home. :cool: I wish I still had her today.
Scottsdale 1a.jpeg
 
Because of my refinery knowledge, I'm one of the people that's complaining about the high gas prices. :mad:
We're being told the high prices is due to the war effort, which is total BS. Shell Oil just posted their first quarter profits of 7 Billion dollars. o_O
There is NO shortage, just millionaires that want to be billionaires, at our expense. :rolleyes:
 
I was logging in WY one summer. The boss would pull into a tank farm and fill the trucks, I don't even know if he paid for the stuff, said he would report how much he took.and pay when we sold a load. The stuff was so bad we had water injectors on the engines to keep the engines from knocking themselves apart. Always had to remember to shut the water off before shutting the engine down. Water injector was a vodka bottle with a plastic hose to a vacuum port on the intake manifold and an IV controller to adjust the flow.
 
Imagine being an owner operator, semis get 5-6 mpg. I drive a 93' shitbox festiva, 40+mpg. A buddies kids years ago always razzled me, why do you drive that thing. I explained economics to them. They understand it after fueling a cummins the last few months, they both have a festivas now :ROFLMAO:. Always calling me asking questions.
 
Widow maker 223 said:
Imagine being an owner operator, semis get 5-6 mpg. I drive a 93' shitbox festiva, 40+mpg. A buddies kids years ago always razzled me, why do you drive that thing. I explained economics to them. They understand it after fueling a cummins the last few months, they both have a festivas now :ROFLMAO:. Always calling me asking questions.
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I had a 90 festiva. I loved that thing, 4 spd and once you got him up to speed, it was a demon. I'm 6'4" and would crawl out of that car and people would laugh. 45mpg it got.
 
Rhett Steele said:
I had a 90 festiva. I loved that thing, 4 spd and once you got him up to speed, it was a demon. I'm 6'4" and would crawl out of that car and people would laugh. 45mpg it got.
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Nice!! They have good headroom LOL. Way more than my wifes 85' CRX. They have a few quirks like the front wheel bearings. But they run forever. Last long 250mi. trip I did 70-80mph got 45 ish. Average town/highway I get 40. I have hauled a few coyotes in it and my wifes first deer on top. Drug it up the wind shield, blood all over the car, then she is like I need to stop at wal mart. :rolleyes: . That got some looks and pics, its probably somewhere on the internets.
 
Before I was old enough to get my Driver's License, me and one of my buddies would wait for my older sister to go to sleep and take her 1979 Honda Civic out joyriding. If I remember correctly, the engine in that thing was called out in CC's instead of Cubic Inches. It had a 4 speed manual transmission and a top speed of around 60 mph. I guess we were good thieves and decent drivers because we never got busted by my sister or the cops! Lol... I remember being able to grab the rear bumper of that car and lift the rear wheels off the ground. As for gas mileage... IDK? but I bet my sister thought it sucked! :ROFLMAO:
 
I thought I was getting ripped off when I moved to Dallas, 35 cents/gal regular. Then I got her a Mazda so she could drive to Baylor downtown. Then I got a VW van, then a rabbit so I could afford the drive to Greenville. Funny, the Rabbit got 10 mpg until I fixed the carb. Main jet was cross threaded so I epoxied it in. After 90k mi I sold it to a friend.
 
We are also in the summer blend period. Refineries have to by (EPA regulations) produce special blends to reduce smog/air pollution. Because of the many blends, supply(actual production) is reduced. We all can see what reducing production does to anything consumers need/want. It certainly doesn't help that there have been NO NEW REFINERIES built, mainly because it takes 15+ years due to permits/environmental studies and lawsuits. No financial institution will fund(loan) money for that. Plus 20 million illegals need gas/diesel (and housing).
 
hunt0168 said:
Before I was old enough to get my Driver's License, me and one of my buddies would wait for my older sister to go to sleep and take her 1979 Honda Civic out joyriding. If I remember correctly, the engine in that thing was called out in CC's instead of Cubic Inches. It had a 4 speed manual transmission and a top speed of around 60 mph. I guess we were good thieves and decent drivers because we never got busted by my sister or the cops! Lol... I remember being able to grab the rear bumper of that car and lift the rear wheels off the ground. As for gas mileage... IDK? but I bet my sister thought it sucked! :ROFLMAO:
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Thats good shit!! I took my driving test in a 82’ 5spd civic hatchback wagon. They dont allow manuals here for the test bit that was a long time ago.
 
I've been hauling sxs, 4 wheelers, 5th wheel up and back. Hoping im done with that this weekend. But with the cost of gas being what it is, the 4runner won't be much cheaper. I've cut trips back to every other weekend instead of every weekend like I've done in the past.
 
hunt0168 said:
Before I was old enough to get my Driver's License, me and one of my buddies would wait for my older sister to go to sleep and take her 1979 Honda Civic out joyriding. If I remember correctly, the engine in that thing was called out in CC's instead of Cubic Inches. It had a 4 speed manual transmission and a top speed of around 60 mph. I guess we were good thieves and decent drivers because we never got busted by my sister or the cops! Lol... I remember being able to grab the rear bumper of that car and lift the rear wheels off the ground. As for gas mileage... IDK? but I bet my sister thought it sucked! :ROFLMAO:
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That's funny.

Here in SC we could get our "restricted" DL whenever we were 15 and it automatically turned into a regular DL at 16. Well, that wasn't good enough for my best friend and I. As soon as we turned 15 we both got our "restricted" DL and were gifted trucks. He got a 80 something model Toyota and I got a 96' Dodge Dakota. His house sat on the side of a really steep hill and their driveway was about 300 yards long and all up a STEEP hill. We would sneak out in the middle of the night and take turns pushing our trucks up the hill and jumping in them and taking off once we reached the end of the driveway. We did this for months.

Well, one morning we were sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast with his parents. We were so tired we could hardly keep our eyes open. Heck his parents didn't know it (or at least that's what we thought), but we had just gotten home right before day light. So his dad looks at us and says "why are y'all so tired this morning"? We really didn't say anything. His dad then looked at his mom and said "I guess we'd be tired too if we were pushing those trucks up that long ass driveway and staying out all night". My friend and I just looked at each other like "oh shiiiiii". After a few minutes of silence I finally spoke up and said "since y'all know about it, can we just start driving the trucks out the yard now"? His dad replied "After I check with your dad and if he okay's it......... the first time y'all get into any kind of trouble neither one of you will have motors in those trucks for a while". We both got up, patted his dad on the back and went to bed. Come to find out, they already knew what we were doing the entire time.

Man...things are so different now.
 
My buddies dad had a 36 Chevrolet with the back seat out out of it and a 55 gallon drum back there that was piped to the exhaust system. They would fill it with diesel and DDT to fog resorts in northern WI for mosquitoes, 1960s. It did lay a fog, it would fog like destroyer laying a smoke screen. Every once in awhile we'd put a couple gallons of straight diesel in it and fog main street in Hayward WI.
 
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