Exxon makes $10 billion profit in a quarter (again)
- Thread starter caudio51
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pdonlin
aka Tumbleweed
I agree with Jason, I've read that about Hybrids, that over time because of battery replacement and the high tech gadgets required end up costing the same or possibly more. However, I've never heard that about the flex-fuel cars.
Actually Patrick, most end up costing more before you even get close to battery replacement. Vs the same non-hybrid car, most people will not make up the premium over the cost of the non-hybrid over the typical life of the car with the savings the realize in fuel costs.
cvm4
BoM - July '05 & Dec. '10
Gotta disagree here. For my whole life, most of the oil wells I've seen have been laid to waste and not operating. But over the past couple years, it's more profitable to run these smaller oil wells and the owners are raking in the big bucks.mitchthephoneman said:
Your absolutely right. A buddyof mine has a small rig and three wells on his property that have sat for years. He put them into production last year as the price per barrel climbed and now draws over $15,000 a month in revenue. Wish I had that sort of insight!cvm4 said:
the greedy asshole politians even screw the public when it comes to ethanol. brazil has a huge abundance of ethanol that could be sold to the end consumer dirt cheap, but since ethanol can be made from corn, and the midwest has far too much corn and not enough profit, and the conventions/caucasses in the midwest weigh so heavily in determining the presidential candidates, the politians have placed a HUGH tarriff on ethanol.Jwrussell said:
end result: midwest sells slightly more corn but farmers are still broke, american public gets $3+/ gallon gas with no feasible and ecconomic alternative, and the oil companies (whose former executives are leading our country) keep making outragous profits every quarter while all other sectors of the economy are down. i get sick just thinking about it.
phew. now im better.
These must go back into research, development, and exploration.joshua said:
AZsteelman
April 2006 BoM
I really don't hold it against them for making a lot of money, it's what they are in business for...my problem is with the huge amount of taxes per gallon we pay in taxes. At least the oil company does SOMETHING for their money, the govt gets more than that per quarter and no one reports that amount! It's like $0.65 per gallon or something like that...Where is the outrage against the excess taxes on gas?????
This maybe true now, but I bought my Toyota Prius hybrid more than 2.5 years ago ... before gas prices started spiking ... so I did not pay inflated dealer prices caused by the huge demand for these vehicles over the past two years. Also, my batteries are under warrantee for 150K miles, so by the time they need replacement, the cost should have dropped significantly. (When I bought the car, the dealer estimate was about $3k for replacement).Jwrussell said:
And as my Prius is getting at least twice the mpg of the car it replaced (a VW Jetta which averaged 25 mpg), I will save way more than the cost of the batteries.
Tedski, very cool. However, you'd need to know the following for the comparison I was talking about: What's the NON-hybrid version of the Prius (Is ther one) or the closest car to it. What was the price difference between the two? Difference in MPG/car?
It obviously works best when you have two like cars. One hybrid and one not:Ford Escape/Escape hybrid for example, or the Honda Civic and Accord.
Some examples, using the highest EPA estimate for each car and using $3/gallon as a gas price.
Honda Hybrid vs Civic. Over the first 5 years given the same miles driven (12K/year) you save $1000 in gas driving the Hybrid. Given the highest price Civic Sedan (before options) you would have to drive the car for 20 years just to make up the difference in price between the hybrid and the standard sedan.
The Honda Accord? More than 30 years to make up the difference.
How about the Ford Escape? Best of all at right around 15 and a half years.
All of those time periods exceed the average car's life/owner.
Of course the Prius beats most hybrids in EPA Estimates hands down, so that's a slightly different animal. :thumbsup: That being said, the difference between the Prius and your 25mpg car is significant, no doubt. HOWEVER, you still would have to be looking at a 25mpg car that cost more than $4,200 less than what you payed for your Prius to actually be saving money on gas over that period of time. In otherwords, you could buy a car out there that only got 25mpg for $17,525 vs the current prius and both owners would come out even until you went over the 5 year mark.
It obviously works best when you have two like cars. One hybrid and one not:Ford Escape/Escape hybrid for example, or the Honda Civic and Accord.
Some examples, using the highest EPA estimate for each car and using $3/gallon as a gas price.
Honda Hybrid vs Civic. Over the first 5 years given the same miles driven (12K/year) you save $1000 in gas driving the Hybrid. Given the highest price Civic Sedan (before options) you would have to drive the car for 20 years just to make up the difference in price between the hybrid and the standard sedan.
The Honda Accord? More than 30 years to make up the difference.
How about the Ford Escape? Best of all at right around 15 and a half years.
All of those time periods exceed the average car's life/owner.
Of course the Prius beats most hybrids in EPA Estimates hands down, so that's a slightly different animal. :thumbsup: That being said, the difference between the Prius and your 25mpg car is significant, no doubt. HOWEVER, you still would have to be looking at a 25mpg car that cost more than $4,200 less than what you payed for your Prius to actually be saving money on gas over that period of time. In otherwords, you could buy a car out there that only got 25mpg for $17,525 vs the current prius and both owners would come out even until you went over the 5 year mark.
The few places that I have seen that sell 85% Ethanol it costs about the same as regular and you do not get the same mpg.
If you drive 15,000 miles a year, your car normally gets 20 miles to the gallon. We'll assume a 10% efficiency drip so that's 18 miles per gallon. For a year, you would pay $165 more for E85. From http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4874934
So it looks like it's just who you want to give your $ to.
If you drive 15,000 miles a year, your car normally gets 20 miles to the gallon. We'll assume a 10% efficiency drip so that's 18 miles per gallon. For a year, you would pay $165 more for E85. From http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4874934
So it looks like it's just who you want to give your $ to.
True, but to get the masses to switch there needs to be an incentive to for the buyer. Unfortunately most people would not use the reduction in pollutants as their incentive to spend about the same money for lower fuel efficiency. This may change as E85 becomes more used and not a sales gimmick. To me, currently it seems to be just something that a gas station sells to get free advertising from the news coverage.Wasch_24 said:
Being an Indy Car fan (I'm from Indianapolis after all) I was glad to see that the IRL announced that is going 100% ethanol starting next year.
Joson ... There is no non-hybrid version of the Prius. I guess the closest would have been the Toyota Corolla. Comparably equipped models were running about $4K less than the Prius back in 2004 and they get about 30 mpg.
Seeing as we drive about 15000 miles per year, the fuel costs at $3/gas are:
Prius ... 15000 / 50 mpg = 300 gal x $3.00 = $900/ yr
Corolla ... 15000 / 30 = 500 gal x $3.00 = $1500 / yr
So my break-even point is about 6.6 years. Then for the next 3.4 years, my savings will be going to offset the battery replacements.
But I feel good about using less fuel and as more and more people purchase hybrid / alternative fuel cars, the technology will improve and hopefully this will lower the cost.
Seeing as we drive about 15000 miles per year, the fuel costs at $3/gas are:
Prius ... 15000 / 50 mpg = 300 gal x $3.00 = $900/ yr
Corolla ... 15000 / 30 = 500 gal x $3.00 = $1500 / yr
So my break-even point is about 6.6 years. Then for the next 3.4 years, my savings will be going to offset the battery replacements.
But I feel good about using less fuel and as more and more people purchase hybrid / alternative fuel cars, the technology will improve and hopefully this will lower the cost.
Good deal. Honestly, in all the looking around I've done on this topic, the Prius stands out among hybrids. It's MPG is the highest I've seen, and the price seems reasonable (until you start looking at true resales right now!).
And if the circumstances are correct, and/or you can afford the difference in prices, then it's an absolutely wonderful thing to be able to contribute in the way you and others driving hybrids, etc. are. Not to mention it's got to be fun driving 500+ miles on a 10 gallon tank! :rofl:
And if the circumstances are correct, and/or you can afford the difference in prices, then it's an absolutely wonderful thing to be able to contribute in the way you and others driving hybrids, etc. are. Not to mention it's got to be fun driving 500+ miles on a 10 gallon tank! :rofl:
rev.b
Master of Mayhem * BoM 1/14
I hope he's had enough fun with kicking me around. lolIs there really enough when it comes to kicking you around