When I write The Morning Dump I never shy away from politics, because cars are inherently political. I do, however, try not to be partisan. Car enthusiasm is one of the last, best ways we have to get people of various beliefs and backgrounds together, and The Autopian is for everyone.
It can be hard sometimes, and I usually have David or Jason around to do a read of what I write to see if I’ve done a good job of not making it seem like my beliefs are, in some way, being presented as everyone’s belief. They’re both out and the news is extremely political. I’ll do my best. I also hope you’ll do your best in the comments to keep it all productive.
Gas prices are elevated and, likely, will stay elevated for the near future. Americans will continue to pay more and more for healthcare and never do anything about it, but gas prices are somehow sacrosanct. One proposal is to reduce the federal gas tax which, on its own, isn’t likely to do much.
You know what’s great timing? The Secretary of Transportation went on a seven-month road trip with his family ostensibly paid by the same companies he regulates, and the message is basically: Gas up the car and go for a drive. Great timing, dude!
Maybe it’s the right time for an electric Volkswagen Golf? Nope! The electric Golf has been pushed out until at least 2028. That’s better than Mazda, which is putting out its first dedicated, non-Chinese-built EV until at least 2029.
Lowering The Federal Gas Tax Doesn’t Solve Many Problems, But It Sure Creates Some New Ones
My theory on the psychology of gas prices, which applies to eggs and milk, is that the numbers are small enough and seen frequently enough that human beings can’t avoid being upset about it. If the price of a hip surgery goes up by $30,000 you’re probably not getting hip surgeries frequently enough to know that’s happening. Unless you drink a truly frightening amount of milk, an extra $1 a gallon is probably not as damaging to your finances as $100 monthly increase in rent, but the milk feels worse. It feels like a betrayal.
One day you go to the gas station and it costs you $82 to fill up your car, compared to the $51 you spent last time. That’s what happened to me this weekend and it felt bad.
I remember going to a gas station in California a few years ago during the height of gas prices out there and I saw one of those stickers with the president on it and it said “I did that.” It irked me, mostly because I didn’t think President Biden was responsible for invading Ukraine. Those stickers have returned, this time with a different president, and under very different circumstances.
Clearly, President Trump is bothered by the higher gas prices, and both he and a bipartisan group of lawmakers have come out in support of lowering the gas tax for a bit, as CBS News reports:
“I think it’s a great idea,” the president said. “Yup, we’re going to take off the gas tax for a period of time, and when gas goes down, we’ll let it phase back in.”
To clarify, since the early 1990s, the gas tax has been $0.184 per gallon of gasoline and $0.244 per gallon of diesel. State and local governments, though, tend to add a lot more than that. In Illinois, for instance, the combined gasoline tax is nearly $0.85 when all taxes are added up. If you managed to lower all of the gas taxes, it would, in theory, help lower some costs. Current estimates are anywhere from $0.10 to $0.15 a gallon, which isn’t a ton, but isn’t nothing.
In practice, it’s a little harder to say what the outcome will be. Energy economist Phillip Verleger calls it the “Gasoline Tax Hoax” because of how supply and demand actually works.
One can also offer an extreme example in which, say, the state of Rhode Island decides to subsidize gasoline to bring prices there down to $1 per gallon in a world of $4.50-per-gallon gasoline. Gasoline sales in Rhode Island would surge, while gasoline purchases in neighboring Connecticut and Massachusetts would drop. Assuming suppliers could adjust the supply distribution to keep the tanks in Rhode Island full, there would be a minimal impact on national consumption, and consumers who could get to Rhode Island would see the price cut benefit.
The situation would be different, though, if the cut that brought prices to $1 per gallon were extended to all consumers. The resulting 75-percent decline in nationwide prices would boost national consumption by perhaps as much as six percent, based on the very low short-run price elasticity of demand.
However, a problem would quickly arise unless suppliers could boost supplies by six percent. If not, prices would quickly jump back to $4 per gallon. Refiners and marketers would pocket the government subsidy.
So not only might fuel prices not drop, we may also end up using roads more at time when the suspension of the gas tax means billions and billions of dollars are no longer there to fund road or transit projects. It’s good for oil companies, sure, but we’re just giving them a temporary handout while requiring either more debt or more taxes in the future to pay for roads, which just creates more problems down the line.
I think the appeal for both Congress and the White House is that it at least gives the appearance of doing something. Oh, hey, speaking of doing something. I wonder what the Secretary of Transportation has been up to lately?
The Secretary Of Transportation Launches Road Trip Reality Show At Basically Worst Time
Full disclosure: I always seem to have a trouble with the current Secretary of Transportation, no matter who that is, and it generally has nothing to do with their politics. If you asked me to tell you the last time we had a good, Senate-appointed Secretary of Transportation (I’m excusing acting directors), I’d maybe have to say Rodney Slater, way back when I was 14. If you’re gonna argue for Norman Mineta… I’ll maybe also accept that argument.
I think we need to fundamentally fix and improve our national transportation system, which would require a kind of strong vision that helped create the interstate system we associate with President Eisenhower. In this way, I’m usually disappointed, because most of them accomplish very little.
Our current Secretary Transportation, the former reality TV star Sean Duffy, has at least found a way to make many, many people mad.
As you can see in the trailer above, the Secretary of Transportation and his TV host wife, as well as their kids, have been making a reality TV show around going on a lot of road trips for, as the Department of Transportation calls it, “an unforgettable civic experience as they rediscover the people and places defining our national identity for America’s 250th birthday.”
I’m not entirely sure that the initial instinct here is entirely bad. Road trips are awesome, and for the 250th, taking a road trip or two in order to promote American tourism seems fine. I’m dragging my own kid, via car and rail, out to various historic places and national parks.
It’s the extreme, reality TV version of it that seems to be making people mad. There is no Secretary of Transportation in history that I’d want to watch spend seven months going on road trips. Well, maybe William Thaddeus Coleman Jr., but even then it’s a stretch.
Clearly, the timing is not great, and you can see it in the comments of the YouTube trailer, which include gems such as:
I’m Retired Navy. I’m lucky I have enough gas to get groceries.
And:
While planes were crashing, air traffic controllers and TSA not getting paid, airport lines in chaos, airlines going bankrupt, and gas prices exploding, our Transportation Secretary was on a SEVEN MONTH LONG road trip with his family filming a reality show?
To Secretary Duffy’s credit, this thing has been filming so long that gas prices were probably way lower when he, say, drove out to hang out with Kid Rock, which is something every Cabinet member has to do for some reason. Also, the government did not foot the bill for this, according to the Department of Transportation. Who did? NPR has some details:
Those involved say production costs were covered by a nonprofit by the same name, The Great American Road Trip Inc. Its public list of sponsors is stacked with travel-related companies — like Toyota, Boeing and United Airlines — with ties to the Department of Transportation, raising more questions.
On Monday, the nonprofit government watchdog group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with Transportation’s Office of Inspector General, accusing Duffy of violating federal gift and travel rules, and calling on the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General to investigate.
“You have everyday Americans who are struggling with the price of gas, struggling with the costs of everyday items, and you have the cabinet secretary announcing that he is going on a trip with his entire family, which appears to have been funded by the industries that his department is overseeing,” CREW president Donald Sherman tells NPR.
The interesting conundrum here is: Is it worse to have taxpayers pay for the vacation, or worse to have companies regulated by the Secretary of Transportation pay for the vacation?
Volkswagen Confirms The Electric Golf Isn’t Coming Soon
It’s been a wild ride for the electric Volkswagen Golf. Early last year, the conversation was whether or not the electric Golf GTI should have fake shifts, and by the end of the year the discussion was whether or not Volkswagen could even afford to build it.
According to CEO Thomas Schäfer in this Autocar article, it’s gonna be a hot minute before we get the electric Golf:
Schäfer told the FT’s Future of the Car event in London this morning: “We have a fantastic line-up now that we do not need an electric Golf in 2028. We are well set with what we have in our portfolio with our vehicles.”
Volkswagen’s existing EV line-up will be joined this year by a new range of electric models that include the new ID Polo, updated ID 3 Neo and incoming ID Cross. Schäfer’s comments suggest the Golf EV’s later-than-expected launch is partly tactical to give these new arrivals some market exposure before the first electric version of its most popular and well-known model is launched.
However, another reason, he hinted, was a further delay to the SSP platform that will underpin the Golf EV. The new architecture will form the basis of the next-generation of Volkswagen Group vehicles and Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume previously claimed it would bring price parity between ICE and EV models.
The first SSP cars will probably be Porsche and Audi, but until Volkswagen gets the scale it needs, the math just doesn’t work.
Mazda Doesn’t Have To Take An EV Write-Down Because It Didn’t Spend That Much
Mazda, smartly, did not put too many eggs in the EV egg basket, and is now delaying its global EV plans to 2029 while it focuses on hybrids. It’ll still sell Chinese-built EVs like the Mazda 6e, but it’s seeing more growth in hybrids, so that’s where the money is going.
Also, as Mazda CEO Masahiro Moro points out (via Automotive News), by being late Mazda didn’t have to take a multibillion dollar hit to its bottom line:
“Did we have to impair or write off any facilities? We have not,” Moro said May 12, while announcing the Japanese carmaker’s financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31.
“We made the decision before we started. For battery EVs we were always careful.”
Mazda Motor Corp., a self-described “intentional follower” on EVs, trailed global rivals in developing the technology, partly because of its limited R&D budget and partly out of prudence. But being late allows Mazda to sidestep the billions of dollars in wasted investment claimed by such rivals as Honda Motor Co., General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis.
Decade of the Hybrid, et cetera.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
There are a lot of incredible MTV Unplugged performances, and it’s hard to pick out a favorite, but “Down in a Hole” by Alice in Chains is surely up there.
The Big Question
Do you have any big road trips planned?
Top photo: Deposit Photos
Regarding the gas tax… given the deficit, lowering the gas tax would be fiscally irresponsible, reckless and unconservative.
So I fully expect Crooked Trump and his gang of idiots to do it.
And to all those crying about fuel prices… unlike in the past, there ARE more fuel efficient options than 6 or 8 cylinder cars, trucks and vans. There are EVs, hybrids and plug-in hybrids.
Consider getting one of those the next time the next time you buy a vehicle as an insurance policy against fuel prices… just like I did when I bought my C-Max Energi.
“Volkswagen Confirms The Electric Golf Isn’t Coming Soon”
And you can blame Crooked Trump and his stupid tariffs for that.
“Do you have any big road trips planned?”
Yes… I’m thinking of doing a camping trip this summer. And the kind of camping I do involves using a tent and maybe a box trailer to help carry stuff.
The words you might be saying are “more fuel efficient options than 6 or 8 cylinder cars, trucks and vans. There are EVs, hybrids and plug-in hybrids.” but what they hear is “gender affirming surgery”, “medical castration”, “shame” and “communism”.
Those things are for *lesser* people to suffer to leave more gas available for the red blooded, blessed in every way REAL ‘Muricans to squander.
“Those things are for *lesser* people to suffer”
Well my response to that is those “superior people” or “REEL ‘Muricans” can keep doing what they’re doing and take it up the ass… “like a real man”
LOL
I’d rather be “lesser and smart” than “superior and dumb”.
LOL indeed.
I’m going from Detroit to Minot, ND and back, towing our Airstream in August. It’s about 2500 miles round trip. We are caravaning with other Airstreamers for the trip out (the Airstream International rally is in Minot this year). At about 11 mpg when towing, it will hurt, but we’ve been planning it for almost a year, and even at $3 a gallon, it was going to be a lot of fuel cost. I figure it will be around 230 gallons for the trip.
Cheeerist. Sometimes I forget how damn big this country is. Best of luck to you on your trip, and may gas prices ease before then!
TBQ: considering flying out to buy a new (to me) convertible in Albuquerque and road tripping it home to southeast MI
That’s my hometown! Lots of good rust free vehicles in ABQ.
I was about to complain that you forgot about Peña, but then I realized Slater came after Peña. Carry on.
TBQ:
Planning to drive my antique Crosley speedster from Wisconsin to the Speedster Rally along Route 66 in El Paso, IL in June. Prob 900 miles. At least it gets 30mpg-ish.
Family camping trip to Mackinac, MI around July 4, probably 750 miles towing a sailboat. With my Maverick hybrid, I expect 20mpg or so. My kids are signed up to fire the muskets and cannons at the old colonial fort – “take us back, UK!” (Looks at British politics… “Belay that!”)
My wife is feeling pretty good driving her Bolt and plugging it in to charge.
We’re lucky we have fuel-efficient vehicles and can eat the increases. Not everyone is so blessed.
Welp, out here in SoCal the math is mathing again in favour of switching the flex fuel truck over to E85.
E85 at $2.90 is 50% less than 87 at $5.80. I measured a 20% loss in MPG using E85, so I’m still coming out 30% to the good.
Burn that corn juice!
I saw the Mazda picture and the “Egg Basket” building and said to myself “that sure looks familiar”. Indeed, it was Pine Hill Egg Farm outside of Ramona CA (San Diego County) which I drive past on occasion as I head out to the local Scout ranch for volunteer work. Thankfully my Suburban can drink E85, so even with significantly lower fuel mileage (I think I’m down to about 10-12mpg on E85) it’s still a lot cheaper at $2.89 a gallon than $6+ for gasoline (mid-5s if you can get your gas at a tribal station and not pay CA tax). All our other cars drink premium, which is not fun these days.
Not to get too controversial here but Kid Rock should have far less involment in our political system than he currently does.
That is a weeeeeird sentence to have to put out there.
Hey, that’s our 48th president you’re talking about there.
I wish I felt more confident that this was actually a joke.
I fail to see the controversy in that statement.
Why not? He displays no discernable talents other than a poor taste in clothing and self promotion.
And the ability to provide at least 14
million people enjoyment with his music. How many have enjoyed what you do?
Kept trying to fix this, now mostly worried about what to do with all the soon-to-be empty buildings in DC…
Knock ’em down. Put up a nice Colosseum for WFC fights.
Just did a 1200mi RT last weekend and, of course, picked the premium gas-guzzling V8 for the trip. Had a little sticker shock seeing over $6/gal at one point. It did get 26mpg average so at least there’s that. Next time I do that trip I’m taking the EV, lol.
I need to get the wiring back together on the motorhome so I can get some camping trips planned. Probably going to stay within 300mi of home this season as it’s still shakedown time but I’d like to get a few weeks set aside.
Once upon a time, I was OK with the federal gas tax. It was a way to make sure the people who used the roads paid for them through the Highway Trust Fund. However, there really isn’t a good way to get a similar gas tax from those of us that charge EVs at home.
I propose we eliminate the gas tax and just fund the Highway Trust Fund the way we pay for lots of things. Through existing taxes and crippling national debt.
A couple of road trips planned to the parents at “the beach” (aka 20-30 away from the actual ocean), each about 250-275 total. One haul down to the OBX of about 675ish. All in the Outback, it’ll be what it’ll be.
The dual commutes, each of us going a solid 60mi daily is the killer, even with Costco gas, it’s getting noticeable.
I just paid $500 to register my tiny little Fiat 500e for a year in the state of Michigan, because “electric vehicles aren’t contributing gas tax and aren’t paying to maintain the roads.”
One car, which can maybe do 100 miles in a day under perfect conditions, cost me more than my 5 ICE vehicles. And now we’re talking about suspending the gas tax‽ It’s ridiculous. My hams are steamed.
good point. if the gas tax is suspended, then I should get a credit back on the EV registration costs too!
Or EVs should be the only cars allowed on the roads, since they are the only ones contributing to general upkeep and maintenance.
The EV tax is pretty wild. I pay more for the upcharge on my yearly registration on my EV than I paid for gas tax per year on the ICE car I replaced. They also added a tax on public charging, too.
Definitely. in most cases you would need to drive over 25k miles/year to cover the EV registration charge for not paying gas tax.
That’s pretty close for me. I think I penciled out to about 20k/yr for my car. Problem is I only drove that car 5-7k per year so it’s a bit of a screw job. I do have other ICE cars, yet, so they get some coin from those.
I did a 2 year registration in late December for my PHEV and EV just to at least avoid the increase for 2 years. It was still a lot.
Cost me an extra $100 for my electric motorcycle that I only get about 5 months of use because of the weather. I’ve done the math and it is damn near impossible for me to burn enough gas to pay an equivalent $100 in gas taxes if it were a gas bike.
I’m planning on doing a big EV trip this summer. Denver to Las Vegas and back. I have some EA credits so the DCFC costs wont be that bad.
I just crossed North Carolina five hours each direction (plus a couple misc/traffic hours for you weirdos tracking my ride time across comment threads), something like 500, maybe 600 miles.
It cost me $80 on a damn motorcycle. Four x four gallon tanks, $5/gallon.
I hope Sean Duffy suffocates with his head so far up his ass (both as a commentary on my fuel expenses, and in general).
In fairness – as the article mentions directly – he did start the tour last year, well before all this *gestures* occurred.
Oh, I did well read that in the article. He was just an asshole before that, is all.
I try to take a step back on my perception of such things, especially as I’m deliberately not affiliated with any political party or movement. Most politicians, celebrities, and entertainers are sociopathic a-holes anyway – which is why they do what they do, after all – but if they can do the job they’re intended to do well and without negatively affecting most of their constituents/fans (not saying Duffy is, just stating in general) then that’s at least better than many.
No road trips for me this summer, other than the occasional 300 mile round trip to see my family in rural Kentucky. Diesel is ridiculously expensive, but my Sportwagen usually averages 40+ mpg, so it’s a bit of a wash.
I am annoyed I have to put extra work into our beater truck. I was just gonna put off replacing a couple O2 sensors but I get 10mpg when I should be getting ~15mpg. Gas prices have pushed up the repair timeline.
No road trips planned. Fuel is at unaffordable levels for me now.
Living on Social Security and savings now.
Shit has gotten way too costly.
The big giant douche says he does not give a fuck about the American people’s needs…
And 18 cents per gallon is a damn joke as far as mitigating overall cost of gas.
More important to lie and fuck up Iran to save us from impending attack with Nukes.
That is before he starts to “sundown” and fall asleep at noon because he’s blasting hair brained texts to the world all night long…
Time for the 25th amendment to be explored, seriously. It’s a shame we can’t shove the Turd in a box and Fed Ex his idiot ass to hell.
WTF? Really?
BTW had a nice 1 month trip planned for about 4K miles before the shit head decided that Iran was a major threat to our existence.
The Turd is why we can’t have nice things anymore. Fuck him.
And fuck the road tripping weasel and his god damned stupid family road trip too.
Everyday with these assholes is worse than the one before.
I am sorry to hear (read) that. Hope things get better mate. 🙂
Thanks.
Seeing an obituary would help fix things a lot…
We live in frustrating times (to say the least). Hang in there, man.
Iran has never been a direct threat to the US. It’s just the MBA and political Class of ’79 still being butthurt over them kicking out the Shah and putting into place a leader of their own choosing (even if, admittedly, he was no man of the people).
I have a couple of road trips planned. Minnesota to Omaha next month, and flying to Alaska and renting a car to drive from Anchorage to Denali, then to Seward, Homer, and back to Anchorage. I’ll probably sneak in a short road trip to Duluth MN somewhere in there too, along with work trips to Wisconsin.
Fortunately, my mother in law is paying for the gas and rental cars for the trips to Omaha and Alaska, and my employer pays for my mileage.
We did alaska last summer, turro was way cheaper car rental. I love that Duluth is only 150 miles north of the cities. Enjoy your trips.
Suspending the fuel excise tax is idiotic. Based on the current national average, even the full 18 cents would result in a 4% decline, and that’s assuming that even gets passed on to the retail price (it wouldn’t). Meanwhile the already depleted Highway Trust Fund is depleted further. No thanks.
No big road trips planned, but I’ve been wanting to make the jaunt up to Mt. Rushmore, so maybe this is the year. We don’t drive much, so the high gas prices, while annoying, aren’t a major deterrent.
Don’t miss Custer State Park if you go. The buffalo cross the road around noon.
Crazy Horse monument is so much better than Rushmore, much less boring.
There was an explanation I read, quite possibly here, of one reason that when gas wholesale price goes up the retail goes up, but when the wholesale goes down, the retail lags. I had thought it was basically gouging by the retailers. But in fact, if the article was correct, when wholesale goes up, the retailers reduce their margin temporarily due to competitive pressure creating the need not to increase their selling price too much. Then when the wholesale price finally comes down, they increase their margins above their normal for a while, in order to make up the money they weren’t making during the high wholesale. They have to, otherwise they would go out of business.
I would expect then, in a situation where the wholesale was temporarily high and at the same time the federal tax was temporarily eliminated, that the retailers would keep maybe half of that $0.18 reduction by lowering their otherwise-price by $0.09, so that they are doing less of the temporary buffering of small current profit against higher future profit than they would otherwise have to do.
The article you read sounds accurate: retail fuel prices are sticky, so generally when wholesale prices go up the retail price responds quickly, but when wholesale prices drop the retail price takes longer to decline. And yes, any elimination of the excise tax would initially be mostly taken by the retailer unless competitive pressures (which may ramp up given the greater spread between the wholesale and retail price in the absence of the tax) pushed the margins back down to more normal levels.
Most retailers’ margins on fuel are small, a few cents per gallon. Any gouging going on isn’t happening at the pump, it’s happening with the $3 bottle of Coke in the cooler.
The Unplugged version of ‘Nutshell’ might be the most depressing song of all time. 10/10 bleed-out song.
Or float away on all the morphine…
Seriously, think the gas prices, etc. are depressing? Revisit AIC unplugged and witness some serious depression and pain, only it’s presented so beautifully it hurts to simultaneously grimace and grin while watching and listening to. 🙁
Lots to unpack, Matt, but I think the majority of the world looks at America’s complaints over fuel costs and rolls their eyes.
Maybe if taxes were, indeed, higher on fuel that there’d be some money to do other things.
It could pay for things like filling potholes, covering medical expenses, better pay for school teachers (which is atrocious, I might add), cover food expenses for the poor, pay for effective mass-transit… or even cover the ballooning costs of a ballroom.
Would you rather have Sean Duffy, Three time 90 foot lumberjack speed climbing world champion, rekindle the spark in his marriage. By recreating his first date with his lovely wife Rachel, which also happened to be the first season of MTV’s Road Rules: All-Stars. He can use his status as Real World Alumni and long time professional lumberjack, to show the best America has to offer in nightclubs and wood-cutting sports. Would you rather him stay in office and work? He would be launching investigations into “Is the Yield sign Woke?” or trying to figure out the gender of the crosswalk character.
Going to be burning an absolute ton of gasoline this summer, got a trip where I will be pulling my boat about 8 hours away to go on a week long watersports vacation. Then in the fall headed from Michigan to North Carolina for a bachelor party, might go down a couple days early and hit up the Tail of the Dragon and Blue Ridge Parkway. Gas may be expensive but there’s nothing to do about it other than fire up the V8 and lean in to the Mad Max of it all.
I hadn’t even thought of this one, but how bad are the gas prices at the marina these days?
I don’t really want to think about it. Going to be a lot. I try to fill up at gas stations ahead of putting the boat in the water and luckily my boat runs good off of standard 87 octane, but on the water you get stuck with whatever they happen to have there, usually 92/93 ethanol free which isn’t cheap, and that is before the up charge of it being fueled on the water. Wouldn’t be shocked if it was around $7/gal.
Ethanol-free fuel on the Delmarva was over 5/gal when I last got it three weeks ago, no idea what is is now.
Why not rent a boat at/near your destination instead of schlepping it for 16 hours plus the decrease in mpgs?
A quick search shows rentals at a marina there as being $365/day for a boat that I could ski/wakeboard from. Even with that it does not seem to be as good of a setup for it as I have in my 94 ski boat. The rentals for theses types of things are expensive and directed towards more casual use.
Gotcha, that seems an insane amount – basically a monthly payment for a short rental – but probably what the local economy bears. And that’s not even including fuel, I’m guessing. Yikes.
Boats are crazy, new ones are stupidly expensive but older ones can be had relatively affordably. It’s become regular for a modern wakeboat to cost for well into the 6 figure range and it isn’t uncommon for these to be financed on 20 year loans. I was able to pick mine up my used boat a few years ago for a little over 10k and it has been great. Mechanically pretty simple too since it is just a GM small block powering it, still burns a lot of gas though.
I have a new to me Seadoo sitting next to the driveway waiting on a new intake grate and a coolant leak fix before hitting the lake. It needs premium because supercharged. The plan is to either fill it on the trailer at Costco on the way to the lake or have 10 gallons of gas in jerrycans in the garage to fill it. I wanted to do some poker runs with it but that may not be happening. It looks like trailering it, cruising to a boat access only beach, anchoring and swimming will be the order of the day. I do have to try to max it out once or twice. For diagnostic purposes. Gotta check that wear ring clearance!
I did 900 miles picking up the Mini last month, and it cost me over $400 in gas.
So no Matt, I no longer have any road trips planned. Just some vacationing close to home.
Actually, that’s a lie. The Mini will hopefully make the annual pilgrimage to Oblivion, where I will somehow once again manage to not talk to Hundal.
The last 2 years was in a dead nuts reliable diesel w126. This year, we’re “trusting” British engineering and Lucas Electrics. At least the mini is good for about 40mpg.
TBQ: Not a big trip, but Naples to St.Augustine (about 300 miles) later this summer to catch The Black Keys at the St. Augustine Ampitheatre. Picking my buddy up in Tampa on the way. Pretty psyched, as I somehow have managed not to see them in concert yet.
I swear the Black Keys go out of their way to only play at Amphitheaters. I love the first two albums recorded in a bathroom so the idea of listening to them in an open environment sounds terrible to me.
I mean, if the choices are between the Amp and a bathroom, I’d probably still go with the Amp. Their bar-to-concertgoer ratio is pretty solid.
I’ve seen the Keys 4x over the years, but only once (KROQ Weenie Roast 2013) was at an amphitheater. It looks like they are playing a bunch of outdoor venues this year though. Remlinger Farms near Seattle (May 29-30) is a fun venue, even if it takes forever to exit the parking lot.
They seem to be outdoor focused every time I’ve checked the last decade or so. At least for venues near me. Saw them at an amphitheater in Florida a LONG time ago and thought the experience was meh.
No road trips planned, a few may happen anyway. I do like good roads so I am OK with taxes to pay for them.
Somethings are inherently political and cannot be avoided. It is amazing how we will “both sides” everything to fear making some people sad. There are some objectively evil things in the world but you would not thing so looking at the American press.
Even if the fuel taxes pay for other services that benefit us all, like clean drinking water, reliable renewable electricity generation (such as those that would be independent from fuel cost fluctuations like solar, wind, hydro), I’m ok with that.
To so many those things are evil. We live in a time that clean dinking water is seen as evil by so many.
Sadly, so is being educated.
Which explains so many other things.
100%! I have worked in science education for 35 years. It is so sad that education is so vilified.