Everyone's Talking About Gas

[Editor's Note: This article was written before Hurricane Katrina and its effects on gas prices].

I remember vividly when, in 1969, I sold my Falcon Sprint and bought a '67 Thunderbird Landau. In doing so I was looking for comfort and gadgetry and, above all, air conditioning. So, with the Falcon - and its new owner - on its way to Beeville Texas, I took delivery of the T-Bird and went off to fill the gas tank.

The T-Bird was nearly on empty when I drove it off the dealer's lot and I hadn't bothered to study the owner's manual to see the tank capacity. Much to my dismay I found that the tank took nearly 24 gallons of premium fuel to fill it up, which cost me over $9.00! I had never come close to nine bucks when filling the Falcon, of course, because its tank only held 14 gallons (notwithstanding its 10-12 mpg, thanks to the 4 dual-downdraft Webers).

Granted, those were the days of $.37 a gallon gas, but nine dollars was a lot of money for each fill-up. The T-Bird, by the way, got 10 mpg no matter how it was driven. I only kept the car for two years but never got over the pain of filling up the tank.

So much for the past, however, and today nearly everyone is complaining about gas prices. The reasons, I believe, are twofold: first, those driving SUVs seem to have an attitude that cheap gas is a divine right and someone is conspiring to make them spend money. Others are feeling the crunch because they don't budget their money very well. Both are wrong, if not pretty naive.

The real reasons are quite simple. Global demand for oil is skyrocketing while global refining capacity is maxed out. The Asians and South Americans have exponentially increased their oil demands and we've done nothing to limit our appetite for foreign oil, or oil itself. We're screwed, plain and simple.

Nothing, repeat: nothing, will happen in the short run to bring gas prices down to the "old days" levels. We are simply going to have to make cultural and social changes to accommodate to the costs and that will mean major changes in what we drive, where we drive and when we drive. In the meantime we are destined for a major economic slowdown.

This will also, I believe, eventually affect the collector car market. The gas prices won't really matter, since most of us don't drive our classics all that much. Overall economic slumps will, however, because Americans have little or no savings. In bad economic times the vast majority will have limited discretionary income and that will result in a lowering of values for all used vehicles, including classic cars.

If you plan to use your classic as an investment, my advice is to sell it within the next year. If you're looking for a classic car, hang on for a year or two. There will be lots of bargains out there.