Ferrari Mailing List: Re: NFC: Any hybrid daily drivers out there?

[JAshburne (JAshburne]

Hi Britt:
 
Thanks for confirming what I expected to hear.  Fuel prices in the  U.S. are 
just now beginning to approach the levels that Brits (one t)  and Europeans 
have been paying for years.  Over there they have in the  past and even today 
still generally pay at least double, often more than  double, what we pay here. 
 
While it hasn't necessarily caused the  economies to go into recession, it 
definitely has affected purchasing behavior  in that very few Escalade-class 
vehicles are used relative to what we have  become accustomed to in the U.S.
 
It's time to ignore the mass media hysteria about the crippling effect of  
$4.00/gallon gas on the U.S. consumer.  First of all, it isn't going to  cause 
many people to sell their houses in order to continue to buy gas so that  they 
can get to work in their Chevy Suburban.  Secondly, whatever marginal  
expenditure it crowds out is not going to have a really big effect on reducing  
the 
amount of money that people spend in the economy unless the price does get  up 
to $10/gallon.  Yes, people may end up trading the Suburban for a RAV4  or a 
BMW when the time comes, but they can absorb the increase in overall cost  
until then by cutting out a few Starbucks grande lattes every week until then 
if  
they are really strapped.
 
While no one likes paying double what they paid for a year ago for their  
fuel, in the real context of most people who drive 12,000 miles/yr and get, say 
 
18 mpg, the increase in annual fuel cost is only $1,332 per year on the 667  
gallons that are used when the price goes from $2.00/gal to $4.00/gal.  Up  
here in New England, I heat my house and hot water with oil heat and use about  
1,500 gallons/year, so that would cost me about another $3,000.  I can tell  
you that I offset my fuel cost increase and more by buying a few oil  stocks 
and 
booking the gains in the equity prices on those stocks.   Net, net, a 
substantial increase in my income even after my higher gasoline  costs plus the 
heating oil costs up here in the New England area.  
 
I can't do much, if anything, about fuel costs other than try to figure out  
a way to minimize the adverse affect on me or maximize the profit I can make 
by  making some intelligent investment decisions.
 
The much more insidious and dangerous fuel price increase effects are the  
increases in food costs (wheat, corn, rice, et al) caused by stupid government  
policies to subsidize ethanol (especially corn based ethanol) to the tune of  
$0.54/gallon when the overall oil savings is less than 20% per gallon of 
ethanol  produced.  The unintended consequences of the higher costs that have 
been  
caused by using food for fuel is costing the U.S. (and world's) consumer much 
 more than the supposed savings of using ethanol as an alternative fuel.
 
John
 
 
In a message dated 4/27/2008 5:09:51 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
Britt2Asa [at] aol.com writes:

Hi  Tom,

Lighten up. Fuel here is now 10.00 dollars per gallon. I filled up  the 400i  
yesterday and it cost me 253.00 dollars (no I am not making  this up!!!) You 
have  cheap fuel. You have cheap fuel. I drove 370  Ferrari miles in the last 
24 
hours  burning fuel happily.
have a  nice day.

Britt in the UK (No seriously, I am not making this  up!)


 



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