I’d like to say I can remember the days of gas costing a quarter a gallon, but I don’t.
Best I can recall is a gas war between the local Sinclair and Sunoco stations at 35 cents a gallon back in the late ’60s.
Of course, we are in a gas war now, but of a much different nature. As a kid, it was filling station vs. filling station. My parents, who drove a big old Rambler station wagon and a ’58 Mercury about the size of a tuna boat, reaped the benefits of the cross-street rivalry.
Now it’s consumers vs. Big Oil, and to a degree, gas stations vs. the oil companies. Few are the winners these days, except corporate executives and shareholders.
Gas station franchisees are even finding an increasingly tilted playing field on which to do business. Some are being forced into buying only from their corporation rather than go out on the wholesale market and find the best deal.
Zone pricing also is causing headaches for some franchisees, as they are forced to pay more for gas. It’s entirely possible the franchisee could be charged more for his gas than a company-owned station just around the corner.
Yet, where is the blame for skyrocketing gas prices being placed? You bet, back on the consumers, particularly on the shoulders of those who decided to buy an SUV.
You dummies, didn’t you realize you should have bought a four-cylinder Kia? What were you thinking, actually spending some of your hard-earned paycheck on something so so big and decadent?
Just because you wanted a little more leg room for your teen-age kids , and God forbid, tinted windows, a luggage rack and (gasp) a six-cylinder engine , you’re spoiling it for the rest of us. You gas guzzlers. I bet you even leave the front porch light on all night long! Capitalist pig.
The fact is, SUVs are much more fuel efficient than the vehicles Mom and Pop were driving when our first gas crisis struck in the early 1970s. Because they’re big, and even at 18 miles a gallon, SUV owners have become our energy crisis whipping boys.
Ed Witt, a native of Wisconsin who now owns two Lincoln Mercury dealerships here in the county, firmly believes today’s vehicles not only are more economical, but more versatile than the old family station wagon.
“The Mustang GTs, the Cobras, the Chrysler Hemmys, the Torinos, the muscle cars were not at all fuel efficient,” said Witt as he drove his Navigator from his dealership in Mission Valley to his store in Escondido. “And they weren’t very safe. They just got you from one place to another a lot faster, and consumed a lot of gas in the process.”
Considering the Hemmys had 427 hp engines (listed that way for insurance purposes though; they were really closer to 500 hp and put out about 600 pounds of torque), they were vehicles for show AND go. Heck, Corvettes of the day were getting about six miles a gallon.
Even the supposedly fuel-efficient vehicles that were borne out of the first gas crisis were gas hogs, Witt said.
“The Mavericks were only getting eight to 10 miles a gallon,” said Witt, who cut his teeth in the car business at his dad’s Ford dealership in Crivitz, Wis., near Green Bay. “The technology wasn’t there. They couldn’t manufacture cars that met clean air standards and had fuel efficiency. Most of the vehicles back then were big cars with heavy bumpers and lots of chrome.”
Fuel-efficient cars were virtually nonexistent then. Today, drivers at least have a choice; you can save gas and drive a four-cylinder Corolla or you can suck up all the gas you want in that 10-cylinder Excursion. Or, you can find a classic ’68 GTO and watch your gas gauge drop as you drive.
Whether it’s 1955, 1968 or 2001, Witt noted a common thread among drivers that will likely never go away.
“Cars are personal choices; people choose cars because it fits who they are,” he said. “Back then, you had a conservative driver who drove a Town Car. Or the person who drove a muscle car. It fit their personality.”
Today, despite escalating gas prices, you have the same phenomena.
“Gas prices, like any other commodity, will go up and go down,” Witt said. “But people will still say, ‘I work hard for my money, and I will pay the price for what I want to drive.'”
Bell is the Business Journal’s managing editor and would like to note that he drives a four-cylinder Toyota pickup.
