BP *does* lose money – they have a lot less oil to sell.

The ones that profit are competing oil companies that get to face the higher price with their own supplies undiminished.

That’s why cartels are hard to put together – if everyone tightens production, everyone gets to reap higher prices. But if everyone else tightens production, and you don’t, you get to sell more at a higher price.

If OPEC tightens the screws again, the big winners will be non-OPEC oil producing countries like Russia.

“In any ordinary business, you lose product you lose profits, not so in the oil business. You now sell the lesser amount you can deliver for more money.”

Amen brother.

I guess this is all part of the plan to move “beyond petroleum”…

Ooops.

I’m with ya Jerry, I love that BP says that they were “surprised” and “never expected” that kind of damage.

You’d think that there would be some sort of regular testing of a pipeline that is kind of critical. But, that’s just me.

I’m in Grand Rapids. The gas price this morning?

$3.19.

This evening?

Who knows.

I’m betting as this BP issue continues, we’ll see higher prices yet…

I’m guessing this is why gas was $3.13 this morning in my town, about 13 cents or 4.5% higher than the national average. I’ve just checked http://www.hybridcars.com and looked, and at least we are now a penny less than the Californians today – last week, we were about 3 cents a gallon HIGHER than California in my northern Michigan town.

That’s what I get for my parents moving to a beautiful area in 1970, and my moving back 14 years ago – it has become a tourist trap and gas prices are the highest in Michigan. Lucky us.

A lot of what you posted there is speculation. There’s no need to ratchet up the anxiety.

I do have a question for BP however…

WTF?

Don’t they pay someone to assess the pipelines and keep this kind of thing from happening?

The Ka/Fiesta would run rings around the Yaris and Honda Fit. Everyone already knows how good the Euro Focus is… it’s called the Mazda 3. Coming soon is the next Mondeo, which makes the Fusion/Milan look so 20th century. There are a pair of minivans, er, whatever… called the S-Max and Galaxy that make every other minivan on the road look ancient.

Oh, and replace the Crown Victoria with the Australian Falcon.

About the only North American products this new-and-improved Ford need carry is the Mustang, Escape and the F-series. The Econoline can be replaced by the Euro Transit.

The US companies have a very good reason not import small cars like the Focus from Germany. You guys forget that cars are going for a lot more money in Europe than in North America. There is not much of a profit in small cars to start with and it completely disappears when shipping european made cars to the US. They also have to be fitted and certified to comply with the rules over here.

I don’t believe that importing these cars is the intent of posters who have shown preference for these models.

In the case of the Euro Focus, Fiesta, and the Ka, the intent is that they be produced in this country (or Mexico) in the factories that are producing the present Focus. Since the Euro Focus is based on the same platform as the Mazda3 and Volvo S40, US certification, at least for that model, shouldn’t be a big concern.

Other than the styling, I can’t figure out why. The Freestyle is based on the Volvo XC90 platform and that car seems to be a favorite of those who prefer Euro SUVs. But you’re right in that nobody cares what we think.

Mr. F, an interesting excercise may be a poll/futures market concerning odds of Ford and GM bankruptcy, brand axeing (Mercury, Buick, etc.)

Nino,
I actually think the Freestyle is actually a very sensible alternative to a large SUV and the 500 looks OK to me too. But it doesn’t matter what you or I think. Those cars aren’t selling.

Meanwhile few people around here think much of GMs Impala, G6, Malibu and Cobalt. But they ARE selling, apparently (going by July ‘06 sales data).

Also an unscientific observation a la Joe C:
There are many new Impalas, G6s, Cobalts and SAABS on the roads here in the NYC metro area. (And no, they’re not all rentals and police cars =) )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_C1_Platform

GM has Daewoo. Looking outside of North America, Daewoo does a lot of GM’s heavy lifting worldwide.

Daewoo is responsible for the Aveo and most of the Suzuki models we see in the States. They’re responsible for the European and Asian Chevy counterpart to the Equinox (I can’t think of the name), which is getting rave reviews. Many Opels are Daewoo engineered.

I’ve said it before, the Koreans have mastered the inexpensive car game. (Which is smart, because the Chinese are coming…)

I think that Daewoo carries so much of the load it was part of the reason why GM gave up some of it’s cooperation with other Japanese car companies, like Subaru. Why duplicate efforts?

It’s great that Mazda can contribute so much to Fords North American lineup, don’t count out Volvo. I’ve spent some time in a 500, it’s not a bad place to be. On another note, I thought the European Focus was the Volvo V40 (or V30)?

Nasser.

Nasser was the one who got the company so diverted from their core automotive business that they were unable to either deal with the Explorer situation effectively, nor were they able to concentrate on maintaining market share of current models (the late Focus model upgrades is a prime example).

All car companies have major debacles which they either recover from, or they don’t. It will be interesting to see if the Explorer roll-over fiasco, which was then compounded by skyrocketing gas prices which has squelched sales of their main profit generators (big trucks and SUVs), will be what goes down in history as doing Ford in.