Interesting. Now instead of simply looking at the sign at the gas station to see if the price changed, you can pay $20.00 and someone will e-mail you their "prediction".

Funny just how easy an idea like this is, and they will make a lot of money before people figure out just whether there is a benefit to this service or not...

Just how much do you think you can save by going to the gas station late or early?

What happens when your fuelblast co says the price is going down, and the station does not move it's price?

What happens when the stations price goes up, and fuel blast didn't warn you in adavance?

How long does your $20.00 last? A week? A month? Several months? A year?

What does a phone call cost you, not just what they charge, but cell minutes etc.

Will they compile a list of phone numbers to sell to telemarketers?

Are they going to call everytime gasoline moves one cent? Two cents? Five cents?

If you use 100 gallons of gas a month, and it costs $20.00 a month for this card, you realize that you have to see gasoline prices change a total of 20cents, be in a position to buy gasoline when the alert comes, and the price moves, and NOT have to drive a single mile out of your way to break even!

Lots of questions, no real answers from me about this.. :)

John: I believe you've found a difficulty for every solution. :-)

I'll save you money. Everyone who reads this thread send me $10. Now, go by gas next Tuesday, not Monday, not Wednesday. There, I saved you $10 over that other service. If you don't send me the $10, I'll sue you for theft of service.

You can forecast fuel prices quite accurately yourself by going to a website like CNN Money and checking wholesale gasoline and crude oil prices. That's probably all that the "Fuelblast card" people are doing, if that.

Of course, how much can you really save by doing all this? Your tank only holds 15 or 20 gallons. Ultimately you're going to wind up paying the prevailing price, because you've got to fill it up when it's close to empty. Maybe there'd be some potential for savings if someone drove very little and used a tank of gas a month and had a several day "window" where they were starting to run low and could wait until the best day to buy it. Even then it'd be a lot of work to save maybe a dollar or two.

Here is a link that might be useful: CNN Money

You Americans are funny. Cheapest gas in the world and you'll spend $20 to save $1.50

You wanna spend less on gas? Get a 3 or 4 cylinder car. Worked well for me.

Someone is trying to sell Americans such a card for $20, but I don't think too many people are spending $20 to get it.

Posted by: Timbulb (dojadoja@hotmail.com) on Sun, Oct 23, 05 at 9:55

You Americans are funny. Cheapest gas in the world and you'll spend $20 to save $1.50
You wanna spend less on gas? Get a 3 or 4 cylinder car. Worked well for me.

Maybe 1% of 1% of Americans are stupid enough to fall for this.
Maybe in Europe this scam would not even be allowed ?? But here we have so-called Americans working against us - for instance, the state of California,( and some of their lackeys), through its unrealistic environmental controls has all but banned the Diesel engine.
Yet in Europe, despite its higher cost, the Diesel accounts for at least 40% of new car sales..

"unrealistic environmental controls" ???

Did you ever see breath eat real pea soup California smog? Its vastly reduced; still there but not like it was; nearly a thing of the past. Don't even need lights on in LA during daylight anymore.

=============================================

"for instance, the state of California,( and some of their lackeys), through its ........has all but banned the Diesel engine."

Naw. There's lots of em running around free here in Never-Never-Land. Pickups, Big trucks, Utility trucks, Construction equipment.....

Does anyone know exactly what causes all this smog in the LA basin ?

And would modern Diesel powered cars, such as those sold in Europe ,contribute to it, or not make any difference ?

In the last quoted sentence I am talking of the automobile Diesel, not the trucks..
I have never been in LA, nor Mexico City(another smog-pot)..

Smog has always been a problem in the Los Angeles Basin, even before there were automobiles. Temperature inversions do occur over the basin, and may render a pocket of air relatively stationary over the valley.

At times in the past, all it took was a goodly number of camp/cooking fires going with the right weather conditions to 'choke' up the atmosphere over the valley. The difference between long ago and now is quantity. Today, human activity, combustion of carbon bearing fuels, plus evaporation of volatiles is 100s of times greater than long ago, greatly increasing smog and particles held in the air.

The problem has always been there, its just much greater today.

Naw. There's lots of em running around free here in Never-Never-Land. Pickups, Big trucks, Utility trucks, Construction equipment.....
**************
Those vehicles are of course allowed. But in CA, NY, MA, VT, and ME the diesel auto that routinely gets 50 MPG is banned. In Brazil you can buy a Dakota with a 4 cyl diesel, but not here. The rest of the world uses Mercedes diesels for taxicabs. And they go a half a million miles. But here they are evil.
If we drove diesels as much as the Europeans do the demand for foreign oil would drop significantly.

I've read a lot about diesels due to the opinions expressed on this forum. I've considered getting a VW so I could have a diesel. Since most of my driving is highway, the hybrids don't look as attractive to me. However, has anyone noticed how much diesel shot up recently? I'm not a math whiz, but the higher price of diesel, is clearly counteracting the financial benefits of the increased fuel economy. Personally, I think that effiency has an inherent value even if it costs more, but I wonder if any of you diesel fans have figured out the math on this.

The situation we have now in which diesel is far more costly than gasoline is not going to be permanent. It is due to current supply and demand issues caused by increasing production of heating oil due to the coming winter, coupled with loss of refinery capacity due to the hurricanes. Most likely within three to six months the price of diesel will readjust to being roughly the same price as gasoline, give or take 10 percent or so one way or the other.

Diesel cars are not only more efficient than gasoline cars, they're better for the environment. If they use one gallon of fuel in 45 or 50 miles, the total pollution produced is far less than some SUV that supposedly meets U.S. "stringent" emissions rules but get 9 miles per gallon. Maybe the oil industry has had a hand in writing our emissions regulations, because nowhere else in the world does anyone believe that a huge gas guzzler is better for the environment than a car that gets three, four, or five times as many miles per gallon.

Once again, EarthWorm spouts forth and reminds us all why we shouldn't eat paste.

You asked:
"(Does anyone know exactly what causes all this smog in the LA basin ?) "

Yes,it's from people like you, who run thier Yaps all the time, spewing forth garbage.

Here you asked:

" (And would modern Diesel powered cars, such as those sold in Europe ,contribute to it, or not make any difference ?) "

What the heck Do you think we have here in Ca., Pre War era Vehicles ?

And Finally there's this :

" (I have never been in LA) "

THEN SHUT UP ABOUT US !
Do you answer questions here just to have something to do all day ?

Diesel cars are not only more efficient than gasoline cars, they're better for the environment.

And that doesn't even include the facts that diesel's better mileage per gallon means fewer gallons of fuel need to be transported to fuel stations, which also is an ecological benefit -- and that refining diesel is simpler than refining gasoline (though I don't know if that will hold true for ultra-low-sulfur diesel).

I think it is noteworthy that these secondary benefits you all attribute to diesel fuel effiency, apply equally to other efficient cars, namely hybrids. I know the hybrids don't have the same track record as diesels, but they would certainly produce less emissions still. Thanks cowboy, for the explanation on higher diesel costs.

" But in CA, NY, MA, VT, and ME the diesel auto that routinely gets 50 MPG is banned."

This is really intriging to me. I wasn't aware of this but don't really keep up on these things. Where can I find info on which cars are banned (and which are not) and why?

I do know some diesel engines are just smogmakers by virtue of their design or lack thereof. Especially the older ones. A friend of mine once had a 1939 Mercedes Diesel sedan which smoked terribly.

Jeremy, you're right, any vehicle that gets X miles per gallon would have the same benefits to the environment and to owners. But that's one problem with hybrids: To get those benefits with a hybrid, you have to subject yourself to a more complex drivetrain that brings with it scary future costs. (Battery replacement will run $5,000 on a Prius and $7,000 on a Ford Escape.) Then there's the whole control mechanism which switches from gas to electric drive. That's reportedly been causing some problems on the Prius.

So the question you have to ask as a consumer is, if I can get 50 mpg with a diesel or 50 mpg with a hybrid, both of which are going to have the same effect on the environment and my fuel costs, why am I going to pay more for a hybrid now so I can also have the privilege of paying more to keep it on the road later on? In addition, the diesel is going to deliver its rated mileage in the city, on the highway, in the winter, in the summer, with the heat and/or defroster on, and in various other conditions which knock a hybrid's mileage down.

It will be really interesting to see what the resale value is on hybrids, too, as prospective buyers start adding up what they may have to spend to keep it on the road (including trips to the dealer because many independent mechanics won't invest in test gear for one engine).

As the hybrid cars age and their battery performance worsens, their gas engines will have to run a higher and higher percentage of the time. Then, faced with a $5,000 to $7,000 battery replacement cost that could never begin to pay for itself in fuel savings, many owners will probably just forget about the hybrid function and run them as normal gas-powered economy cars.

As far as resale value, a non-hybrid Corolla or Escape could wind up being worth more, given that the hybrid would probably perform worse in a gas-only mode than a car that's designed to run with just a gas engine.

Manufacturers claim that the batteries will last years and over 100,000 miles. However, these are just Nickel-Metal Hydride cells which are big versions of the batteries in cordless phones and other rechargeable electronic devices. Those batteries often do not last as long as they're supposed to last.

The GM hybrid pickups are using lead-acid batteries rather than NiMH, so possibly the replacement cost of those won't be as high.

The city of Birmingham, Alabama sits in a valley or "bowl" just like L.A. We have no emissions tests yet, but everyone wants a new domed sports stadium. The air quality here in the summer is awful. We have ozone alert days where they tell people with breathing problems to stay indoors. How about a domed city with no automobiles!@ Priorities, what are those?