Will you keep your 4runner if gas hits $8 a gallon?

My commute to work would go from $800 a year to $2400 a year, so for me it wouldn't be a huge issue. I do think about finding a KLR 650 for commuting a day or two a week though. I would ride my bicycle to work if it were safe, but I always go to work when it is dark, and over half the ride is on 50-55 MPH two lane roads- not safe at all.
 
It's paid for...why wouldnt i...?

plus, i own a motorcycle that gets 50mpg...and i ride that daily from April to Oct...to offset any gas costs...
 
Where I live electricity prices have been declining - in real dollars, pre-inflation. We also run on 100% renewable energy nearly all the time. That story is increasing accurate for most of the US, at least nearly everywhere that is politically red or purple. The only significant outlier in the US is Nebraska, which has a government-owned statewide grid - they are paying more and are very late to the wind/solar investment.

That is not meant as a political statement as much as an observation - Texas, Midwest, Rockies have all had flat or declining electricity costs while seeing an increasingly greened grid. California and the Northeast see increasing costs but really no greener electricity sourcing.

Noting the Rhode Island location, the villain is mostly New York State. Gov. Cuomo has been holding his New England neighbors hostage. No new electric lines and no gas pipelines (necessary as a backup power source to renewables).

As noted, the ability to integrate a large number of home-based vehicle chargers is not good either. Without market forces that incentivize re-engineering the grid to support new loads in new places, there will be pinch points and some places at the end of the line, such as Rhode Island, that will be big losers.

This is true. Right now there's a lot of money going into solar/wind/hydrogen and a lot of money flowing out of more traditional methods (just look at Exxon). I think that long term people will force-legislate "green" energy to happen, and while there will probably be price fluctuations, energy supply issues etc, eventually the market will figure out how to deal with it.
I love my internal combustion engine, and will always have one in the garage, but I think the younger generation of voters will literally push out oil/coal over time through politics. We'll all have fun being "green" while huge areas are strip-mined for lithium lol.
 
Will never happen because of our (USA) HUGE natural/oil resources.

Inflationary pressure is undefeated. International development, the adaptation and use of differing fuel technologies for cars in developed and developing countries, and future trends in air travel will play a huge role in determining future price (as well as taxes!), but given natural trends, and assuming the "normal" gallon of gas is near $3.00 (some of you in CA might disagree), we'll hit a "normal" gallon of gas at $8.00 by 2040*.

See you then, suckers!

*math mistake, actually near 2033.
 
Last edited:
A $50/ton carbon tax would only result in $0.50 per gallon tax. I can't see us going so far as to make carbon cost $500/ton and that's what a $5/gal tax would equate to. So I don't foresee $8/gal anytime soon. I suspect we'll see a nation wide ban on new ICE vehicles starting around 2035-2040. By then I'll probably be driving an EV already. So maybe it doesn't matter.

If I continue to work from home after covid ends - and that's looking pretty likely at the moment as my primary client is moving to permanent WFH - then it won't matter. It's been more than a month since the last time I bought gas. I think my average weekly driving distance right now is about 5 miles to run to the store once or twice. If I drive 10 miles per week - I'd only need to buy gas once every 6 months. So in that case - maybe I can justify driving an LC200 instead.
 
Last edited:
I think it would be easier to make it illegal to commute more than 5 miles per day (or tax heavily), than to swap power sources that may or may not have any overall benefit for our planet.
 
I would be a bit annoyed if gas was that expensive! Luckily, i haven't had the need to fill up my v8 4runner in 3 months because I live 3 blocks from both my jobs and most of the trails in Colorado are closed for the season. It'll be another couple months to fill up.

I just want to have fun with my 4runner for the next 10-20 years or so without having to worry about rising gas prices.
 
If all else fails, I'll keep the 4R for fun times and trips and drive this bad boy all other times. 3 cylindars of fury, 5 speeds of fun and 48mpg
 

Attachments

  • IMAG0880.jpg
    IMAG0880.jpg
    136.7 KB · Views: 1,064
I haven't seen a Metro hatchback for at least 20 years! lol

My 4R is paid off, so let's see... I can spend $24,000 on gas for the next 6 years (past yearly mileage x $8/gal @ 18mpg avg), or roughly $40k PLUS fuel (gas or electric). Also, if gas were to hit $8 / gal, the 4R would be worth about $5 on trade in. Hmmm... think I'll keep the 4R and enjoy the open roads with no traffic!
 
If gas hit 2$/L in Canada I would likely have to ditch the V8 4runner. However, due to people jumping ship to EVs/Hybrids I wonder if gas prices might go down a bit to remain competitive so people don't start buying EVs as fast.

Oil companies should realize that if gas prices go up people will starting moving to Electric Vehicles faster.

My 4Runner is paid off, paying for a new vehicle payment easily cancels out the fuel economy savings.
 
Nope, I'll keep the F250 (diesel) due to it's entertainment and workhorse abilities. Replace the 4Runner with an EV for local errand use. I have no commute since my retirement.
 
There are over supply of the crude vs demand (due to pandemic) driving our gasoline pricing lower than before--but most of us know there is floor threshold price of $/gal at the pump. For North America - we have the Gulf, Alaska, Canada, and many fracking/shale operations. I saw crude hitting >$50/barrel for the first time last week in a year or so due to mainly OPEC+ folks decide to withold additional supply. Interestingly enough we had a brief week when US no longer imported oil from abroad (middle east). With new drilling techs, we have drilled deeper and further and finding mega deposits around S America, S Africa, Asia etc and this will continue. WHat is intersting is that lowered demand forces the oil producers invest more heavily and pump more vol to recoupe their investment. This is one factor that balances pricing from the supplier perspective. From our consumer perspective taxes make up 10-50% of the pump pricing and this will get worse esp if state gov't continues to provide subsidies to adopt EVs. In some senese we are actually paying for the subsidy on EV sales. Unfortunately as much as I love my 4runner, in 10 year time or maybe even earlier, Metal Lithium batteries will basically obsolete gasoline vehicles. Saw significant excitement from both Toyota, Panasonic, QuantumScape etc that this tech is about 2-3 years away and knowing much of the know how i do believe it is feasible to achieve what is promised ie 10-15 min charge for 400+ miles range w/ life capacity to support 400K miles. Exciting yet hate to see my 4runner go. So it is not necessarily $8/gal but how competing tech will attract migration to EVs eventually. who knows, my 2020 4runner will be a collectable someday or future generation will think how crazy we are to drive gasoline cars...For now, i will enjoy my 4runner as much as i can. Cheers.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
278,316
Messages
3,554,120
Members
248,016
Latest member
Advally Service

Trending content

Back
Top