Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Gas on the increase

Gas prices near me have been creeping up little by little since the start of the year. With summer months off I wonder what prices will be like this time around. This is one of the reasons I would like to replace one of our cars with a more fuel efficient models. Currently our Subaru and Honda get about 27mpg and 36 mpg on the hightway, respectively. I can't see getting rid of our wagon, so that leaves us with the task of finding a car that gets MPG in the 40s. Another option I see is getting an old fuel wizard and parking the Subaru most of the time. Options that come to mind are the early Geo Metro and Subaru Justy. Both cars use tiny, three cylinder engines to get their mpg results. Neither are easy to find in decent shape. Another option is the Honda CRX. But these are even harder to find in stock condition since they are such popular tuner cars.

In any case, something's got to give since gas prices are likely to hit $3 a gallon or more soon enough. Part of this is because the phase out of MTBE into gas. This will reduce the amount of gas available. One of the stocks we own is Valero Energy, an oil refiner. Valero will discontinue making MTBE this spring and has stated that this will reduce its gasoline output by 6 percent.

Here's a Reuters story that talks about the issue:
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/35263/story.htm

Our strategy is as follows:
I'll ride my bike to work three days a week - 6 miles each way.
My wife will ride the commuter bus during day light savings time.
A new, used 40+ mpg car for weekend driving.

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