I wanted to make a poll out of this but the forum says I am not allowed. Save me from myself I guess! I still think it should be turned in to a poll. Anyhow, out of curiosity, and relating the Gasoline Prices discussion back to Azeras...

With your normal amount of driving and budget, how much would a gallon of regular gasoline have to cost to force you to reconsider owning the Azera, and look for something more fuel-efficient as a DD?

In our case, our budget is pretty tight with a baby on the way and dropping down to 1 income, but my commute is pretty short. Because we drive so few miles we could pay up to $6 or $7 without a huge impact on our budget. However, I imagine most Americans drive 2X to 3X as far each way on their daily commute.

I imagine for folks who have a 20+ mile commute, $4/gal might be really pushing the feasibility threshold.

$3+ is pushing it. I fill up every 4 days. If it hits $4 I might have to start hitchiking to work.

I'm already looking. I just sold my $4 a gallon premium gas sports car that got 12mpg. Once my azzie lease is up I think I'm buying a civic hybrid or a diesel v-dub. I can't bring myself to drive a prius cause they are just too ghey looking. The chevy volt is interesting too if it ever comes out. My daily commute is 2.1 miles each way, I'd essentially never have to put gas in the thing during the normal course of driving sans a few road trips.

This post has been edited by boostedfc3s: May 7 2008, 05:29 PM

It is now costing my wife & I over $600 a Month to JUST get back and forth to work.
That is $200 more than my house payment.
I'd trade for the Civic right now........................ If I could.

$4.50 per gallon for me.

We absolutely love our Azera but if I could replace it for an Accent right now, I would do so.

In 1988 we bought a brand new Hyunai Excel, 2 door hatchback 4 speed. Many years and approximately 114,000 miles later, we donated it to our church. The congregation repaired the driver's seat where it had separated at a seam and fixed the leaking valve cover gasket. It is still running.

Would I like to have the Excel back? No. But it sure was reliable. Definitely not comfortable and definitely noisy but extremely reliable and economical.

Hyundai produces great vehicles and has done so for many years. My current Azera has a 3.3 engine, the same as my Santa Fe, and consistently gets an average of over 25 mpg, city and highway. Not so bad when gasoline was only 3 bucks a gallon.

With the current price of oil over $123 per barrel, even a Moped is begining to look better and better. Problem is, it's hard to AC those darn things in southern AZ. Oh yah, one other thing, Susan refuses to ride in the back seat. :P

David <><

This post has been edited by david-paul-1: May 8 2008, 02:35 PM

Ouch man... that sure does hurt. I drive just under 7 miles each way but it's the worst possible 7 miles for fuel economy, lots of idling, lots of stop & go, lights every 100 to 400 feet for the entire distance, with few exceptions. I do see more and more motorcycles and "scooters" (though you could hardly consider some of these bigger things scooters) on the road every day. Hmm...

Polls can be misleading. A friend who drives a Mercury Marquis and I are both retired. The price of gas does not have a tremendous influence on our car selections on whether or not we take car trips.
The Azera is known as not being fuel efficient. Other cars I looked at got about the same mileage and most used premium fuel.
I bought the Azera because of all the luxury and other features it offered. Also, you save enough on the purchase price to make up for a lot of gas, as well as the depreciation.
Look at the speeds people drive on country roads and interstates - still mostly 10-20 miles over the limit.
I sympathize with those who have to spend a lot on gas, but the real answer is for everyone to drive the speed limit. Studies have shown that this will decrease the price of gas by 10% or more as demand will drop dramatically.

I would love to drive the speed limit...it would cut my commute time in half. Unfortunately I am at the mercy of Phoenix highways that are 30 years behind the current traffic demands.

$400 mortgage?! I wish mine was that low. I'm paying about $1800 a month for my home. Gas for me and the wife is about $90 a week ($390 a month).

NovaResource -

I had a similar reaction when I read Brazzel's post. My whole focus changed to "Who cares what the price of gas is, how do I get a $400 mortgage?"

That was pretty slick the way he slipped the mortgage comment in.

Much as we love the Azera, since the first of the year, we have mostly used the new Rogue. This is because of the high gas prices. What a dreadful time for Hyundai to introduce its new V8! I read somewhere that Cadillac is dropping the V8 and going with V6s only. Could this be possible? They finally have a competitive product and now this gas price thing comes up. Damned if they do and damned if they don't. Vespas are definitely selling in the Des Moines area.........how could these people possibly have forgotten Iowa winters?

I know you can't aircondition the darn things, but you mean to say they can't have a heater installed either? :P

David <><

Farm house on five acres. $30,000 down and in the sticks of Bama. :grin: Six more years and it's paid for. :thumbsup:


This post has been edited by Brazzel: May 9 2008, 02:28 AM

Holy cow man, I'm right there with Nova. Five acres too! Our payment is the same as Nova's - and it just went down $500/mo because we did a refi in Feb with the benefit of 20% equity! Just another 358 payments and ours will be paid off :-(

According to my database the average American work commute is 44 miles round trip. At an average work commute mpg for an Azera thats 2.5 gallons per day. At $4 per the daily cost per commuter is $10. That's $230 per month. Add a second commuter or soccer mom and the cost doubles to $460 per month for weekday duties and add at least 100 miles together for the weekend or 433 miles for a month or 25 more gallons or another $100. Thats a total of $560. Per month.

Few of the people who worked in my company could afford a budget item such as that as it equals both typical car payments. And that's for an Azera not a Oldsmobile. The problem is upon us and it ain't going away. As Pogo said "we have met the enemy and he is us"

The problem now is only a minority of driver's pay cash at the pump so they won't see the cost for a month! Wait'll June gets here to really hear the reaction to near $4 a gal gasoline. Americans are now lined up to pay the cost of 14 mpg SUV's, trucks, and minivans.

Thanks to India and mostly China building their car fleets at a rate nearly twice our annual sales their increasingly bidding on available crude means gasoline prices aren't going to decrease but steadily increase with spikes and dips. The proposed "holidaying' are mickey mouse efforts and you notice state taxes, usually nearly twice federal taxes, aren't even on the table.You may suffer but not government. Remember our offshore purchasing set China up at the price of many American jobs. (trading $15/hr jobs for more $10/hr jobs is not an improvement).

Now here's the kicker: considering how little Muslims think of women, what do you think will happen if Hilliary is our figurehead against OPEC Muslims?
Gets you squirming, doesn't it. Maybe that's why ol' Rush wants Hilliary to be the Democratic candidate. He knows Republicans are likely to win in that contest. Maybe our closet Muslim is a wiser choice. Maybe not.
Let the fur fly.

This post has been edited by mahout: May 9 2008, 12:34 PM

Maybe not !! When he draps a big AMERICAN flag around himself................ No, nevermind I still won't vote for him. How can you be a member of a church for 20+ years and disagree with everything it thinks and stands for...... YEAH RIGHT !!
Don't get me started :grin: And I hate China..... they are the enemy.

WHEW......what were we talking about ? :whistling:

This post has been edited by Brazzel: May 9 2008, 02:48 PM

Even though Gasoline is almost $4.00 for regular i just catch the bus to work, I save about about $100 per month just catching the bus downtown San Francisco.

Lucky b@st@rd! I could catch the bus here too... North Raleigh... only I'd have to walk a mile to the bus stop, wait half an hour, sit on the bus for 1:15, transfer buses downtown (10-30 min), then ride out to my job 2 mi. west of the bus depot, or just walk the last 2 mi... all in all, a 2+ hours-each-way proposition, to make a 7 mile trip! At a brisk walk I could make it to work on foot in about the same amount of time! Worthless... utterly worthless. It takes me 25 to 50 minutes to cover that distance in the car (pushing an hour is 5pm to 5:30pm trip). If public transportation could get me there in an hour I'd use it 9 days out of 10 without a second thought.

This post has been edited by andyman32: May 9 2008, 03:46 PM

I think I'm buying a motor cycle this summer. Save some serious gas money on the sunny days we get all summer. That and they are fun.

I've been seriously considering a motor cycle also but then I think of all the goofy a$$ drivers I encounter on a daily basis and it scares me. In a rural area I wouldn't hesitate.