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Gas prices jump, but increases could level off

NEW YORK -- Gasoline prices shot up to yet another record at the pump Thursday, while some analysts said the sharp price increases of recent days could soon level off even though gas will continue to rise, according to the Associated Press.

Crude oil prices, meanwhile, stalled in their march toward $120 a barrel, dropping sharply as the dollar gained strength against the euro.

At the pump, the average national price of a gallon of regular gas jumped 2.3 cents overnight to $3.556 a gallon, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Prices have risen nearly 14 cents in one week.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 1:04 PM to Gas prices | Permalink | Comments 0

Backseat Driver: Ford on a roll

Ford is stepping out of the gloom that has recently overshadowed Detroit's Big Three.

While Chrysler fumbles into a new era of high gas prices without a B-car to its name and General Motors slips to Number 2 behind Toyota, Ford comes in with a profit of $100 million in the first quarter on sales of $43.5 billion.

Sales include those of Jaguar and Land Rover which it recently sold to Tata Motors of India; if those sales are not included, revenues were $39.4 billion.

These numbers compare with a loss of $282 million on sales of $43.0 billion in the first quarter of last year.

That's impressive and real good news for a change.

I recently profiled Rhode Island's two Ford dealerships - Mike Flood's Flood Auto Group in East Greenwich, Narragansett and Wakefield, and the Tasca Auto Group in Cranston and Seekonk. (And I apologize to the Tasca family, whose association with Ford goes back 65 years. Their profile, which appeared in yesterday's paper included a group photo which did not identify them by name. That was a mistake that slipped through the editorial process.)

But in both profiles, I said that Ford seemed to be on a roll in a difficult economic climate, noting that sales of such vehicles as its Edge, Focus, Fusion were holding their own. Indeed, the company recently upped the production of its Focus by 30 percent.

As it happens, The Wall Street Journal profiled Ford yesterday, and made the same point but in much greater detail. Indeed, the headline says it all: "Ford Motor Turnaround Takes Hold."

(It also said the company is mulling the sale of its Volvo unit, having recently sold its Jaguar and Land Rover units to Tata Motors of India, and is possibly dropping the Mercury brand.)

Certainly, Ford's earnings were mixed in certain areas - it posted a loss in North America on lower sales, for example, and Volvo's numbers were down. And it said that the rest of the year will be challenging.

But it reaffirmed its plan to have the turnaround substantially behind it by next year when it expects to return the whole company to profitability.

Good news indeed.

For more information on Ford's earnings, go to the story by the Associated Press.

- Peter C.T. Elsworth

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:40 AM to Ford , commentary | Permalink | Comments 0

Backseat Driver: U.S. gulps oil while others sip

I’m coming a bit late to this, but cannot let it go by without commenting.

The New York Times’ energy correspondent, Jad Mouwad, wrote a fascinating piece about the global oil market in the Week in Review section last Sunday. It included the startling fact that the U.S. has dramatically increased its consumption of oil since 1980 while most of the developed world has actually cut back.

Much of it has been covered before, although he certainly laid out the issues in a compelling way. And he made no bones about the fact that underlying the staggering rise in oil prices over the last year is a very basic one of limited supply and soaring demand.

Yes, the weak dollar has attracted speculators. But the bottom line seems to be that the days of cheap oil are gone.

And that means a massive shift in the way we live.

To be sure, we are adapting. Those Apocalyptic twins – higher fuel prices and the threat of global warming – are already forcing us to look at smaller, more fuel efficient cars.

But when it comes to adapting, it seems we are way behind the rest of the world. Indeed, while most developed nations have cut their consumption of oil since 1980 – Denmark by 33 percent, Germany by 20 percent, France by 14 percent, Italy by 13 percent – we have increased our consumption by 21 percent. Only Britain (+2 percent) and Japan (+0.2 percent) join is on the plus side of the equation.

As Mouwad writes: “This can partly be explained by the fact that the United States has some of the lowest gasoline prices in the world, the least fuel-efficient cars on the roads, the lowest energy taxes, and the longest daily commutes of any industrialized nation. The result: about a quarter of the world’s oil goes to the United States every day, and of that, more than half goes to its cars and trucks.”

What to do? He cites cites Vaclav Smil of the University of Manitoba who suggests the following measures to cut U.S. gasoline consumption.

Smil argues that getting rid of on one in four light trucks, switching one in four vehicles to diesel and reducing distances driven 25 percent would cut consumption by about 30 percent.

Fine, except this is a free society so we cannot force anyone to sell their truck, switch to diesel or drive shorter distances.

But maybe we won’t have to. High gas prices and a growing concern for the environment are already driving Americans out of big SUVs and into small, fuel efficient vehicles.

And the trend is just beginning.

- Peter C.T. Elsworth

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:31 AM to commentary | Permalink | Comments 0

Bob Tasca III racing in Atlanta this weekend

COMMERCE, Ga. –This weekend’s NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event at Atlanta Dragway will mark, to the day on Saturday, five months since Bob Tasca III and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Shelby Mustang team began putting together a program for the 2008 racing season, according to Tasca's publicist Alexis Kinch.

“It’s been five months of hard work and long hours for everyone on my team, but we’re really excited about the progress that we’re making with the program and the car out on the track,” said Tasca.

After the series’ most recent stop in Vegas, the rookie driver carries the momentum he gained there, along with a 12th place position in the standings, into the sixth race of the season this weekend.

“Las Vegas was another stepping stone for us and for building this program from scratch,” said Tasca. “We’re thrilled with how the car ran and in just about every session, we were in the top three or four every time down the race track.”

While this weekend will be the first for Tasca in a nitro Funny Car at Atlanta Dragway, it’s a familiar stop on the schedule for crew chief, Chris Cunningham.

“For Chris, Atlanta was his best showing last season. His team ran a 4.71/330 mph, which was the best for the car he tuned all last year. Atlanta can give you some great conditions, but obviously it’s weather permitting. Chris knows Atlanta and has a lot of data on that race track from the years he’s been racing, and that will hopefully play into our tune-up.”

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:27 AM to Racing | Permalink | Comments 0