... Gas prices are getting higher and higher, but more and more people are buying gas-guzzling SUV’s that get as low as 12 MPG. As someone who will hopefully take part in the design of cars in the future, the types of vehicles and ways that Americans use them make a difference to me. ... In this essay, I am going explore how the changes in fuel prices affect what types of cars people buy.
I started out by looking into how the fuel prices have changed. Fuel prices have been increasing steadily. Just one year ago, the national average for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $1. ...
During the 1980’s, gasoline companies had about a weeks worth of fuel stored, now they are down to two days worth. ... In addition to this, cars and trucks have not become much more fuel efficient in the past 10 years. ... 5 percent in the 80’s, this did not affect the demand very much (Nauman 1). This decrease in supply and increase in demand holds true to one of the fundamental principles of economics, they both cause prices to increase. ... With neither of these holding true over the past twenty years, it looks like gasoline prices are going to continue to rise. ... 7% reflects operation costs (refining the oil into gasoline and transporting it to gas stations) and 35.2% is from taxes (“Gasoline-Service Station Industry Yearbook 2000-2001” 2)! From this, you can conclude that government taxes play a larger role in gas prices than the actual price of oil does. ... There are two things that produce a noticeable increase in our gasoline usage; Americans driving more, and/or our vehicles using more fuel to go the same distance.
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