Gas Prices... influencing your purchase decision?
 

Gas prices have been getting higher these last several weeks and is expected to keep climbing through summer. Last night a Mobil station in my area was charging $4.99 for premium unleaded!

Has gas prices affected your decision to buy now or postpone? Given that the FR-S requires premium unleaded, i wonder if that will turn off prospective buyers and give us more chances to secure the model we want :)

never!!
gas here in germany cost 1,65€ per litre
who cares :burnrubber:

I think people should have already made their mind up as soon as they found out about the compression ratio and that premium was required. I doubt it'll be a deal breaker and more people will start reducing the amount of driving and find closer destinations instead of taking the scenic route.

With that being said, even my Tacoma 4.0L V6 "requires premium" gas but with the recent increase, I went down to 87 and let the knock sensors do their job. If this prices keep increasing, I'll incorporate the moto for my weekly commute.

Dude, I'm driving a G35 right now, I've hit cruise control on the highway and set it for 60mph for one gas tank full - and the best I can do is 25mpg!

The BRZ would be an improvement!!!:party0030:

Oil is cheap at the moment, very cheap. If it weren't for the US and European financial issues over the past few years, I have no doubt we would be looking at $300 a barrel. On behalf of the rest of the driving world, I'd like to thank the USA, Greece, Spain, etc for being so incompetent.

You should be used to it by now. Gas prices always go up and down. Its kind of expected to me that the price will rise towards summer.

and that's why the UK doesent want to be in the Euro-Zone :thumbsup:

oh i'm used to it.

Don't care what the mpg is or what octane it takes.

I would assume majority of us on this forum know this and wouldnt mind, but for the regular folks who may not know much engines performance but who may be interested to check the car out.

This goes out to anyone who cares about gas prices:
If gas prices are concerning you on a 4cyl then you can't afford to buy one of these cars.

Just filled up @$3.30 or so. It's taxes mostly. And BRZ will get a lot higher MPG than my current turbo-subie.
As for projections - they are mostly made out of thin air. Could turn out either way - higher or lower.

And don't fill-up in Beverly Hills. In Cali there are plenty of places to get it around $4, which sounds about right given taxes and lack of conversion to winter gas.

No influence whatsoever.
I've lived in a bunch of different cities and countries and I've always bent over and smiled and thanked Shell/Chevron/Tesco/Govt for the weekly bum hurt pleasure.

No that $4.99 price was an extreme case last night. The Chevron across the street was actually $4.19 and it just made me wonder why anyone would go to that Mobile station then.

if you are worried about gas why even consider a sports car?

can't buy gas don't drive

The MPG is still good for these cars too, like 30-35 hwy based on that MPG thread. It's a small car, small tank, small engine so I don't see it being much of an issue.

We just need that official price! :popcorn:

This isn't a big engine sports car. Your opinion would make sense on a muscle car forum.:D

true true

but if you are concern about filling your car up with gas you shouldn't consider a sports car with a engine that takes premium gas.

sports car are luxury items if you are trying to get the best out of the pump get a econo box that gets 40+ MPG

while the car should run using premium unleaded fuel, it doesn't necessarily mean you will end up paying more. the efficiency of an engine increases with higher compression. so while you'll pay an extra $0.XX amount more per gallon of fuel, you're actually extracting more energy from every gallon, improving the efficiency.

a car that's lightweight to begin with, combined with a 2L 4-cylinder engine with high CR & direct injection, attracts me towards purchasing it than be swayed away from it especially since i only do city driving anyway.

38mpg on my little eco-hypermiling box Yaris.

Cruise 63-65mph on the highway. Don't need to go fast.. just save some money by going slower.

But I agree with what people are saying. If you can't afford the premium gas/petrol/octane you shouldn't be buying a sports car.

Not making me reconsider at all. They should get decent fuel economy and all of my cars use premium anyways.

+1

if the thought of gas prices even enters your mind this isn't the car for you.

Hope you are joking around. World economy would not work/afford $300 a barrel oil. Just doesn't work that way. Sorry.

one of the main reasons im waiting for the frs. i was considering a camaro and gc but they wont get close to 30mpg

i do my driving in the city so i need at least 25 city, maybe more than 30 highway

New GC will.

I've been using premium for past 2.5 years and for now I live in the northern-central hills of Cali, I now consider it to be the "norm". If I ever get a car that uses less then WHOOHOO, but right now it is what it is. It's a sports car, I'm going to drive it like a sports car, I'm willing to accept the cost of gas for what it may be.

Quick edit: I haven't used it in quite some time because frankly I forgot about it, but gasbuddy.com is really cool and has an app for lowest gas prices around town :thumbsup:

its only 21 in city though and about 25 combined. Plust I was looking at a 2012 model as well because the new one is more expensive.

Nevertheless, i hope the frs can do better than that combined, especially since its not getting more power and theres been so much emphasis on making the car lighter

You wrote: "i was considering a camaro and gc but they wont get close to 30mpg" and I was just saying the new GC will get 30mpg.

GC probably won't do well in the city because of the turbo. 8 speed gearbox can't fix that.

I won't disagree with that. But hwy the 2.0T will hit 31mpg.

A recent radio ad I heard claims one of the smaller BMW's gets 38mpg on the highway with 240HP.

Why can't the Japanese compete in this area? They used to be the mileage champs. By comparison, the BRZ should do 40 with it's smaller displacement/power compared to that BMW.
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As for the OP's question: yes my purchase is influenced by the increased cost of gas, that's why I'm looking AT the BRZ/FR-S as opposed to something like a Mustang. :lol:

BMW - and all the other marques for that matter - are achieving that via turbos, so it is not a like for like comparison.

it is as far as a mpg comparison goes. A turbo does not really improve mpg. The improvement comes in the fact that they just replaced a 3 liter engine with a 2 liter one.

BMW can hit 38 mpg because they spend more money developing their engines and they cost more to build. That is why their turbo engines are silky smooth, produce great power, and have almost no lag. The 335i might be one of the best engines out there. I just wish it was more reliable and then I would probably be looking at one of those instead. As it is, I couldn't afford to own it out of warranty.

edit: a turbo will actually decrease gas mileage in some cases because the engine is usually tuned to run rich to avoid problems.

So you are saying the BRZ/FRS needs a turbo? About time the turbo convo came up again.

Nope, not at all. I wasn't the one complaining about what the FRS/BRZ engine does or doesn't have in relation to the BMW unit.

Sure, but the improvement is maintaining the old power numbers of the 6 cyl while improving upon it's MPG... in which case the turbo is improving the MPG for BMW's lower end 3 series offerings. Think we're saying about the same thing in fairness ;-)

So some cars prefer premium gas in their engines, and some cars require it. Which category does the FR-S fall into? Just curious

i can hyper mile like that in my eco-sport-boxing celica gt-s at a whopping 39 mpgs at 60 :D

i miss my 2005 corolla, i maxed out at 47 mpgs cruising at 55 :D fuck what the EPA says i can always do better somehow, someway :D

nah. lets say the frs/ brz has a 15 gallon tank. and lets say the price difference between 87octane and 91 octane is 40 cents. which most people would agree what we would expect between regular and premium gas.

15gallons X $.40 cents = $6 Dollars. it just not a big enough difference to deter us from buying a car that requires premium gas.

The 86 is easily the most fuel effecient car I am considering. By far.