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Are us middle class Jeepers going to be (fuel) forcefully priced out of enjoying our Jeeps? [CLOSED DUE TO POLITICS]

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rcadden

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Jumping in before this thread derails from a civil conversation between Jeep lovers and into a different sort of thread, lol.

IMO, gas prices (particularly in the U.S.) have been artificially kept low for years, for a number of reasons. Now that the dam has broken, I doubt we'll ever see gas less than $3-3.50/gallon ever again. The oil industry has realized that they can charge basically whatever they want, and no one's really going to do anything about it. Why would they go back now?

Likewise, I think we're about to see a boom in the "electric" industry like nothing we've seen before. EVs are going to get better, and more affordable. Conversion kits and shops are already popping up here and there - I was reading about a shop in southern California who can convert damn near any vehicle you have (including old classics) to EV for $30-50K - that's MUCH cheaper than I'd have imagined.

Solar panels are going to get cheaper and more efficient - I see more and more houses around me having them installed. If we were planning to be in this house longer, I'd be doing the same, but we're planning to move in a few years. I will 100% put solar panels on the next house, cause ERCOT blows chunks.

As others have mentioned, in the short-term (~12-18 months) Jeepers will adjust. You'll tighten the belt in other areas to keep your Jeep running. I also think you're going to see the current used vehicle market (particularly ICE) pop very, very soon.

We've seen that Jeep is experimenting with full EVs, and personally, I can't wait. I have two friends who went full solar about 5-7 years ago. Panels on the house and full EV in the garage. Can you imagine the $$$ savings you'd see if you eliminated your power bill *AND* your gas bill?! They have - they've shown me their dashboards. They actually *receive* checks from the power companies most months.

I tend to keep my vehicles till they hit at least 200K miles, so I'll likely keep this Jeep for a while, but I fully believe it'll be the last ICE vehicle I own.

I'm pretty blessed - we were a single-income family for about 5 years while my wife got her Nurse Practitioner license. I've been fully WFH for 8 years now, and will never accept a commute ever again. Now she makes about what I make. We're definitely upper middle class, but we budget hard. Ruthlessly eliminate any necessary bills as quickly as we can, avoid monthly installment options like the plague, and operate on a "try to fix it before you replace it" model. I see others who eat out every meal, are on a first-name basis with their Starbucks barista, etc. We shop at Old Navy during sales and eat out with coupons or share a meal.
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I don't think the free market cares much about how you vote. There is a lot of disinformation floating about.
You don't think so? There's one party that is restricting the production of oil and gas. There's one party that is openly advocating for the elimination of fossil fuels.
So I respectfully disagree that the free market isn't effected by how people vote. I totally agree that there is a lot of disinformation floating around.
 

AcesandEights

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I'm starting a 500+ mile trip in a couple weeks. I get 17.5 mpg on the freeway, probably closer to 12 mpg off road while in 4WD. My trip is 95% off road. So, I"ll be buying $215 in fuel. That's about 60% more for for fuel than I would have prior to the gas hike. Won't cancel the trip, but it puts a dent in what other bullsh*t things I buy over the same period of time.
 

Jim1964

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Will this impact the great majority of drivers who are just driving to work etc, in a stock Jeep? Absolutely, but not overnight. Wrangler will just become less desirable as a daily.

As for the enthusiast who spends $$$ on lifts, tires, and every accessory in the known universe? Not so much.

The second group is of course more highly represented on sites like this than in the real population. Do I really care if the price of Wranglers stops inflating so much? Not really.
 

Rubi SoHo

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I make a very good living, north of $300k annually. At $5.00+ per gallon, my bicycle looks increasingly tempting for my commute to work. I am a cyclist, so sometimes I do it anyway. But it’s still painful to spend $100 for a tank of fuel.
 

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azwjowner

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Gas prices are not too high. How do I know? Everyone speeds on the highways here, most people doing 80 or 85 in the 75 zones outside the cities. Fuel economy drops like a rock over 60. You'll save $1 per gallon or more by slowing down. People whine about the prices, but their actions don't follow. When people start driving slowly I'll believe that they care about the cost of gas.
 

BigGreen

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With everything factored in, we just reached $6.25US a gallon up here in Canada. If my Jeep and mods weren't all paid for, not sure how I'd react to that, cause it's suppose to keep going up.
With the internet fear farm talking $10 in the US, I'm expecting 8-9 before it starts going back to normal.
Normally I'd blame our administration for the absolute worst planning, but this is clearly world wide. So I blame the WEF and the other NGOs that are controlling our politicians. This is not a supply/demand issue, this is controlled pain to push their agenda.
 

FreedomFur

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Not only are these fun toys and daily drivers, they are great tools for shit hits the fan. Let’s not forget that. Trucks and anything similar have never gotten great gas. I want something that has the ability to get me places a Camry just isn’t going to easily go in that scenario and would take the fuel trade off in a heart beat. Can’t imagine charging stations are going to be much use in that kind of scenario. Plus, I won’t be traveling cross country either and wasting all of my gas.
 

SH556JL

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I presently don’t commute with my Jeep and haven’t had a commute in years (100% travel job). However, I did just accept an offer for my dream job (and hope the grass isn’t greener due to BS or some other crap). I will have a commute, but I am looking to have no more then a 10-15 minute commute with all the shops being something I will drive by on my way home. This greatly reduces the cost of commuting by not having an unnecessarily long commute. I also intend to ride my road bicycle a few times a week.

How ever gas prices impact my leisurely flying around. $100 hamburgers is now $300… Because of this, I am looking to sell my airplane to most likely fund a down payment for a house. When I buy a house, I want to get a electric Mini Cooper for commuting and keep the Jeep for weekend fun.
 

Cajun21

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You all know it. Gas price averages are growing almost everyday, faster than an adolescent kid.

I would like to get the opinions of other Jeepers that may be in the same boat as myself. I work hard, I work honest, I save up so I can enjoy some of the fruits of my labor and enjoy my dream vehicle.
Well, enjoy within feasible means is what I follow and what we grew up on.

$2.xx a gallon? Yeah, enjoy my Jeep without a worry
$3.xx a gallon? Hmm.... yeah ok. I guess I can drive around
$4.xx a gallon? Need to think about a few things.
$5.xx a gallon, as expected in another month or two? oops.

This is 2 years on from being at a position where I could comfortably have afforded a JLU diesel, which is still the dream Jeep in an ideal world scenario. Not anymore.

Is this situation ever going to resolve itself or are we forcefully being shoehorned into commuting less and/or going full EV? The latter is coming for sure, but I can't believe it will be a slimy tactic by those in power to force us into it.

Full electric Jeeps? Cool technology and probably high efficiency but no thanks, for me at least.

The rich, super rich and uber rich will probably use their fully loaded and modded Jeeps as their 3rd/4th vehicles or weekend toys, but that's far from reality for a good portion of us.

What can a simple honest random Joe Noname like me expect in the coming months and the next couple of years?

Your thoughts?
Well IMHO the 1973-oil crisis was terrible, and this was the time of the muscle cars and speed-there was a shortage and prices were high. people got through that by tightening their belts and not driving as much. We all wish for some things that we will never ascertain. So that being said if you have not purchased your Jeep nothing to worry about. Change will come and we all do what we can to make do. Because of the war in Iraq we went through 4.50-6.50 gallons of fuel and it eventually came down as this will. Keep the Jeep wave going.
 

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Kllrbee

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My Jeep is my DD. Ive decided to stick with the stock 33's instead of going 35's cuz of the gas prices. Of course here in the midwest, these 33's are more than sufficient for any off roading I do (logging roads and mudding mostly). 35's would have been mostly aesthetic in my case.
Other than that, I ride my full bagger motorcycle more often. Has plenty of storage for running errands, etc. I ride my bicycle to work twice a week which is only a 20 mile round trip, but Ive been doing that for years so not really cuz of the gas prices. More so cuz I dont drink lite beer.... :rock:
I installed a smallish, 12 panel solar array back in 2016. It cuts my annual electric cost by about half so it definitely helps. But it will still be a few years until I see the break even point even though I did the install myself.
I personally think that the biggest difference will be that those of us who use these as DDs will reconsider some mods. For those who use their rig as a toy, it doesnt matter. Just my 2 cents.
 

mnjeeper

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Gas was over $2 when I bought. So for me, it's now about double. I'm fortunate on my commute, I work from home. One of the trips I plan to take will be Minneapolis to Denver. Today's price made the drive to/from $480ish instead of $240ish. That won't stop me. I will likely stay an extra week to make up for it.

I don't worry about the people on this board, no offense. I worry about people who will run late on a bill if they hit a $300 surprise. People who were already check to check before everything shot up in price. I have to assume a lot of people are falling behind by the month.

I'm no expert in energy and predicting the future. But part of me thinks that this summer, the price of electricity is going to skyrocket. I also think that there's more demand than supply so there could be outages from it. A lot of people are being forced into EV's due to the price of gas, but if the price of electricity goes up, then we're back at square one. I also don't think our infrastructure is ready for it. If they're talking about rolling blackouts and outages due to demand and not everybody has an EV, what's going to happen when everybody is forced to get one? Sure, you can get a solar farm on your property, but realistically, how many people are going to do that. And not many people have that kind of money laying around for it.
You got REALLY close to the conspiracy theory I made up in a drunken conversation. Picture this. 75% of Americans move to EV. The grid can't hold up in some places already. People are lazy or in a hurry and don't think to charge overnight, they charge when they park. Electric companies now have them under their thumb. Triple the KW cost and tack on "infrastructure fees". Don't forget, the electric cost is across the board, not just your car increased. Then, states realize without gas tax, they don't have road repair funding. All EVs now are required to report miles driven so they can be taxed. Might make $5/gal not look so bad.
 

aldo98229

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I went to fill up my Fiat 124 Spider yesterday: to my horror I found premium gas is now $5.25. This is the first time, ever, I paid over $5 for a gallon. Just only last Friday I paid one full dollar less.

The higher fuel prices go, the more the Jeep stays parked.
 

The Last Cowboy

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I don't think the free market cares much about how you vote. There is a lot of disinformation floating about.
There is a lot of misinformation. Wouldn’t it be nice of politicians allowed the market to be free? Both parties are guilty of this. Policies, executive orders, tax credits etc all affect the less and less free market.

As far as our Jeeps go, just try to ride this storm out. We saw this in 2008-2013. This too shall pass. Back then I drove a V10 Super Duty and that really hurt. But I kept it through those $4 a gallon days. If I would have sold it back then, it would have been at such a huge loss that replacing it with something more economical would have not made any financial sense. I sold it in in 2014 for twice what I was offered in 2008 and used the cash for a steel building/workshop. But, yeah, I think we’re a few weeks away from seeing a lot of panic trading/selling. The problem is that there are now new cars out there to buy. Even Kia Rios are going over sticker right now, if you can find one.
 
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