Two that made me smile, and one that didn't.

First, we still have a gas station or two around here that sells 100% gasoline. The price is quite competitive, too, at $3.09 per gallon for regular today. I took the liberty of filling the tank on my '67 Delta today, which I'm sure is not only happier to not have to contend with ethanol, but takes premium as well. At $3.39 per gallon for that, I've seen worse.





Second, prices at a few stations around here have dropped below $3.00 per gallon, although the ethanol-free station isn't (yet) one of them. This is at a Murphy station next to a WalMart not far from us. I'd love to see gas get down into the $2.50 range.





Third, I must have stepped on this manhole cover 1,000,000 times over the years while walking the dog, but I never noticed the "Made In" stamped on it. India? I have nothing against India as I've known many fine people from there over the years. But, still, can't the U.S. even make its own manhole covers anymore?




And, yes, before anyone asks, I did get a few odd stares from the neighbors wondering why I pulled out my phone to take a picture of the street.

 

Shoot gas w ethanol is $3.45 for the cheap stuff around here...about $3.65 for premium....

 

Where is "around here," if you don't mind saying?

We were up in southwest Colorado (Durango area) last weekend, and gas was around $3.50 per gallon there as well.

 

We have ethanol free at 92 octane, but the last time I filled up it was $4.99 a gallon, the normal garbage stuff is around $3.50.

Several years ago I parted out a 1973 Olds 98. The drums and rotors looked new so I kept them as trade stock. The rotors were made in Venezuela.

A sad day when we can import stuff like that from around the world cheaper than making it here.

 

This is what I don't get. It's not like a manhole cover is some sophisticated, highly-engineered item. It's just a flat piece of metal with a stamping in it. I find it hard to believe it's cheaper to import it from the other side of the world than it is to make it here at home. But what do I know? I sometimes don't get the nuances of world economics.

 

Either that or someone is greasing the palm of someone else.

 

I can see a black market/graft-and-corruption/whatever in the import of high-value, high-demand items like Iphones or Ipods or whatever, but manhole covers? Seems a bit of a stretch.

 

I wish we had non-ethanol gas here in Mayberry.

 

It is a local government... remember the report of $600 hammers with the Feds?
Your right, it would have to be more than manhole covers to really be worth bribing some government official. But as heavy as these things are it does seem expensive to ship all that way. Maybe more costly to transport than the purchase price.

 

It actually surprises me that we have it at all. I wonder what motivates the company selling it to do so. While we're certainly in the dry and sunny southwest, I don't notice a higher-than-normal proportion of pre-ethanol era cars around here, and I bet half the population who owns such a car wouldn't even realize that they'd be better off using it and would bother to go out of their way to buy it at a station that has it. But as long as it's available, I'll certainly use it, especially since there is no price premium in doing so.

 

If you want to know why US manhole covers are made in India, these pictures should tell you all you need to know:





It's from a New York Times article on the subject from 2007. There's a narrated slideshow here.

- Eric

 

It's low-tech, and cheap, uneducated labor is all that's needed.

 

Very true.

But in the US and Europe, and even Russia, they'd make the workers wear protective clothing (or at least shoes) while pouring molten metals.
From a competitive perspective, the lowest common denominator will get the contract every time, but from a "Keep US jobs at home" perspective, there's no way we can keep our guys employed in the steel mills when they're competing with that.

The end product is the same, but, as Captain Renault said, "Life is cheap in Casablanca."

- Eric

 

Here is a good website when traveling the US.The only problem with it is anyone can revise it. A competitor down the street might even delete some sites for spite.


http://pure-gas.org

 

Well lets take Mexico, it was a good financial idea to move there from a manufacturers perspective 40 years ago. However, since most Mexican workers have unionized, guess what, it's not so cheap there anymore. So the manufacturers are either slowly moving to other 3rd world countries or moving manufacturing back here.

 

We have no ethanol 91 octane in Upstate NY but it's $3.99 a gallon! Still happy to pay it for the cars and my snowmobiles. The sleds really hate the ethanol!

 

Check out Gas Buddy and see how your prices compare to ours in Canada. You wish for a 2.50/gallon? We'd love to see even 3.75!!! Right now we pay 4.15/US gal and that's about the cheapest in all of Canada. Most other provinces are selling regular for around 4.72/US gal. No wonder us Canucks like driving through the US, it's way cheaper, even with what you call high prices.

 

Jaunty,
Maybe they forgot to add the "na" to the end of India. There is a steel mill about 15 miles west of Indianapolis. One of my Cutlass customers told me a couple cool stories about that place.