Will fuel prices hold you back this summer?

I have no intention on changing my travels.

"the only thing I know is that life is short and the only time you've got left is luck"

The prices wont effect the amount I travel to parks, but they will effect the vehicles I use.

The wife-to-be's car gets 36mpg highway, and mine gets 30mpg highway (though it is 16 years old). So generally, we will take hers to the parks. Plus, she has A/C, where mine has gone out.

I also try planning trips with mulitiple people, so we can split the costs. (Right, Dave?)

I bought one less season pass ths year, so many trips down south will be eliminated, but that decision was made last fall to not buy that certain pass.

What will effect my travels this year is two very expensive items I have to pay for: a house, and a wedding....

So I may limit the amount of park trips overall to help ease the budget.

Won't change my plans - in fact this year willl be the first since 2002 that I will get to CP, PKI and Holiday World (2003). *** Edited 4/18/2005 1:22:57 PM UTC by redman822***

--George H

Nice math kpjb.

Won't change my plans... in fact, this year is the first time since 2002 I'm taking a significant road trip - two of them, actually.

On AAA's Web site, you can enter your trip and it will tell you how much gas will cost you. I'm driving from Columbus, Ohio, to Gulfport, Mississippi in June, and even with the cost of gas AND two extra nights at random hotels (NICE random hotels), it STILL was more expensive to fly. $200 more expensive.

[url="http://www.livejournal.com/users/denl42"]My blog[/url] You said, "I'm gonna run you down." I heard, "I'm an orangutan."

I have 2 words.

Honda Civic.

Rated at 38 MPG highway, I have gotten between 42-46 if I'm the only one in the car. I have been cruising around in my car like I always do, though I used to be able to fill my tank up for $17, and it now costs me around $30, I still usually only fill up once every week or week and a half.

Opening the sunroof and/or the windows greatly reduces gas mileage, however.

-Josh

*** Edited 4/18/2005 3:34:38 PM UTC by Raven-Phile***

I love living less than two miles from work. So does my wife. We put maybe 10,000 miles on our cars a year, if that.

[url="http://www.livejournal.com/users/denl42"]My blog[/url] You said, "I'm gonna run you down." I heard, "I'm an orangutan."

Brad G said:
I think gas prices are partly a huge issue because the media keeps telling us that it is.

Most valuable sentence in this entire thread.

My commute is about 80 miles round-trip per day, and I drive an Explorer. The only time the price increase ever enters my mind is when I pull up to the pump. It's not that big a deal.

See, I feel differently...not that the gas ITSELF is so much of a problem, but that it is a *key indicator* of price levels overall. Once the price of gas jumps, so does the price of nearly everything else you buy (me, I notice the price of Diet Coke and Corona, the essentials...and both have noticeably surged recently). What this means is that inflation eats into the buying power of your money overall....leaving less money for "disposing"...;)

Not going to affect me PERSONALLY that much, but I wouldn't be surprised if the local/regionals didn't do a little better this year vs. the "destination parks"...just because people are going to have less disposable to spend.
*** Edited 4/18/2005 5:11:19 PM UTC by rollergator***

Raven-Phile said:
I have 2 words.
Honda Civic.
I have two more - timing belt. Isn't the Civic unique in that if the timing belt goes you're almost for certain looking at a replacing the engine? What I've heard is that the TB on Civics needs to be replaced every 60,000 miles to the tune of $700+ in labor.
Mark

Vater said:
My commute is about 80 miles round-trip per day, and I drive an Explorer. The only time the price increase ever enters my mind is when I pull up to the pump. It's not that big a deal.

Maybe it's not an issue for you. You seemingly don't even care if you pay the highest gas price in your "area" because you don't look at the prices of gas at the other local stations...you only look at the one that you pull up to.

To say that it is only a big issue because the media makes it one sounds a little naive to me. If someone makes enough money then it may not be much of an issue to them. But not everyone is in that position.

rollergator said:
Once the price of gas jumps, so does the price of nearly everything else you buy.

Actually, I think this is the most valuable sentence in this thread.

All that being said...I don't have any "trips" planned this year, so it won't affect my plans.

Why would I plan any coaster trips?! That would be irresponsible...polluting the air so I could do something frivolous like going to amusement parks. ;-)

No further explanation needed. I'm hopelessly lost.

'Gator makes a valid point, but to stress over inflation of any kind is pointless, in my opinion. It sucks, but it's not going to prevent me from enjoying the things I do for recreation.

In the older Honda Civics and Accords, it's manditory that you change your timing belt and water pump every 70-75k miles.

Both cars use whats known as an "Interfering engine" If the belt goes, the pistons will smash into the heads of your engine thus having you to replace it.

I think everything in the Honda Line uses an "interfering engine" though redesigind the tension allow you to go 100k miles with the newer ones.

Every car has a timing belt or chain.
All belts should be replaced to the specifications of your manual.

Best gas savers:
Toyota Prius
Toyota Corrolla
Honda Insight
Honda Civic & Civic Hybrid
VW Jetta Diesel

Best larger, faster cars with great gas milage:
Honda Accord 4 cyl. (34 mpg highway)
Toyota Camry/Solara 4 cyl.

Not at all. I'll be heading up to NoCal as well as Chicago as planned. Since those will likely be my only two non-local coaster trips for the year, it's not really that much in the way of gas (we're flying to Chicago and got the tickets before fuel prices shot even further up).

If anything, we'd just cut back on hotel and food expenses to compensate. I don't see it making a huge difference, though.

Tempted to rant about driving an suv to work...

Marko said:What I've heard is that the TB on Civics needs to be replaced every 60,000 miles to the tune of $700+ in labor.
Mark

The good news is, I turn my car in in '07 with, theoretically, 45,000 miles on it.

My warranty is good for almost the whole time, save for the last few months, too.

-Josh

Tempted to buy an SUV just to piss people off. ;)

coasterimage - lordgonchar

you do that even without having an SUV, Gonch...why add fuel to the fire? ;) (and, yes, the pun was intentional)

--George H

It would take less personal effort if I drove around in the SUV.

I could pull a Denis Leary and make it hot pink with whale skin hubcaps, an all leather cow interior and big brown baby seal eyes for headlights.

...

I'm kidding, people! I just quoted the song...

...

...but it is funny. :)

coasterimage - lordgonchar

I swear I can smell the stale cigarette smoke just thinking of him onstage, Gonch. ;)

--George H