Hydrogen technology is the only practical way to get the crude oil whores
off our backs.  Anything else just costs more than paying $3 for a gallon of
gas.  Look at hybrid cars.  Who wants to pay $30,000 for a 4 passenger
compact car with two drive trains to maintain.  You save about $1500 in gas
over 5 years but you cannot get your family of 5 in the thing, let alone
your luggage for a weekend trip to grandma's house!  At least with a Jetta
diesel, you get 50 MPG and have room for 5 and a large trunk at 2/3rds the
cost and no performance penalty.  I have owned Jetta Diesels since 1985 and
a Rabbit diesel before that with 300,000 miles on the odometer when I sold
it to my friend.  It is still in service.  My 91 Jetta ECOdiesel needs some
work and I am thinking of installing an 86 TD I have waiting for a car to
put it in.  I'll take 45-50 MPG with that car any day over what is available
new today from any dealer, including VW.  The new Jetta's since 93-on are
smaller cars.  I guess they did that to make the Passat look bigger?  The
price tag certainly is.  At least I can make biodiesel if prices get real
crazy.
My 2 cents.
TEMiller

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stan Wilder" <wilden1-1@SBCGLOBAL.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2004 1:46 PM
Subject: Re: gas prices.. and what they'll be this summer

> Lets at least use some judgement here.
> We'll all boycott Shell Oil, a Dutch Company so fewer Americans are put
out
> of work.
>
> Stan Wilder
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
> Of JordanVw@AOL.COM
> Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2004 12:04 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: gas prices.. and what they'll be this summer
>
>
> i usually dont fwd stuff i get in mass mailings to the list, but i thought
> this one was interesting..    as for vanagon content -  my vanagon runs on
> gas :<
> )
>
> anyway, here it be..
>
> ------------------------fwd--------------------------
>
>
> Subject: Gasoline prices
> this may work!
> I hear we are going to hit close to $3.00 a gallon by the summer. Want
> gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united
> action. Phillip Hollsworth, offered this good idea:
>         This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain
> day" campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies
>
> just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt"
> ourselves by refusing to buy gas.  It was more of an inconvenience to us
>
> than it was a problem for them.
> BUT,whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can
> really
> work.
> Please read it and join with us .By now you're probably thinking
> gasoline
> priced at about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $1.97 for
> regular unleaded in my town   Now that the oil companies and the OPEC
> nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is
>
> CHEAP at $1.50- $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them
> that BUYERS control the marketplace....not sellers. With the price of
> gasoline
> going up more each day, we consumers need to take action.  The only way
> we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in
> the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas!  And we can do that WITHOUT
> hurting ourselves. How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just
> stop
> buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act
> together to force a price war. Here's the idea: For the rest of this
> year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which
> now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they
> will
> be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the
> other
> companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact, we need to
> reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers.
>