By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Check out the latest contest on CarDomain–the Fill Up At Shell Photo Contest.  Pretty much all you have to do is snap a nice photo of your ride in front of a Shell station, then enter it on the contest site with a brief write-up. Every week for the next month we’ll pick a winner, who’ll receive $250 in Shell gas cards. Then, a Grand Prize winner will snag $2000 bucks worth of Shell gasoline. Yep, don’t try to say we never did anything for you. Click here to get your car in the running.

By David Clarke

highspeedhijinks

If you listened to all the jokers who speculated on oil futures last August, you would’ve thought that we would be in the $5.50/gal range for gas by now. Thank goodness they got it wrong. It was partly because of them that gas soared to record highs last summer, adding credence to the old folk wisdom that if you say it enough times, it’ll come true. Well, I’m hoping to bank on that kind of thinking. Right now the national average (according to gasbuddy.com, my source for all things fuel-related) is at $1.93 per gallon. Give us your prediction on what gas will be on July 4th, 2009, and we’ll see who guesses closest to the actual national average. Closest guess gets CarDomain swag! Follow the jump for the rules of the game.

Continue reading "Where Will Gas Prices Be On The 4th Of July?" »

After going down for 86 consecutive days gas prices are starting to go back up again. Got any predictions? Are we gonna see $3 or $4 a gallon any time soon?

I don’t know what you guys are seeing in your neck of the woods, but I couldn’t believe that it only cost me $16 to fill my tank on this holiday weekend. Oh, by the way, those seven gallons will get me 300+ miles in the smart!

Given how much I ask it to do, my trusty little IBM ThinkPad—running Windows XP—is pretty stable.  But obviously, its maddening idiosyncrasies occasionally reduce me to a seething, profanity-spewing toddler who just wants to go kick holes in something. So I found the Matrix Runs on Windows pretty funny. Anyway, here’s the news:

• Talk about irony. Shannon Nicole Adkins’ senior project was a study how dangerous the roads of her rural county were for young drivers. She died Monday after being struck head-on by a drunk driver who crossed the center line. Damn, that’s sad. MSNBC
• Apparently, the recent drop in gas prices is still translating into increased sales of SUVs. And while I know this isn’t the first time I’ve talked about this ridiculous phenomenon, I feel like I have to keep mentioning it. Seriously America, maybe it’s time to start thinking further ahead than lunch? ABC Charlotte
• Looks like the next gen Scion TC is going to be RWD. The car itself will be the product of the long-awaited Toyota/Subaru partnership, and I can’t wait to get a look at one in the flesh. Which company’s do you think will look hotter? My money is on Toyota. CarScoop
• When I walked into the office on this morning, my credentials for the LA Auto Show were sitting on my desk. Now, it’s not clear which member of editorial team is going, but I can tell you that the General won’t be hosting any press conferences. Yikes. Freep

I’m a fan of the econoboxes from the last fuel crisis, so I was stoked to discover that Popular Mechanics is running an article that breaks down in detail the best high-mpg beaters of the last couple of decades. I even think it’s kind of slick that the Honda Insight, clearly a future classic, qualifies as "retro." The rest of the lineup is predominantly 70s and 80s, and my only suggestion is that there should be another vintage diesel or two on the list—the VW pickup is a great choice for token truck, but it doesn’t come close to the 50 mpg combined that diesel hatches of the day could easily get. Read the whole article here.

As you’ve definitely noticed, one of the perks of our crappy economy is that gas prices have taken a nosedive. Just when we needed it most, right? Of course, the killjoys are all saying that we shouldn’t get too used to it, because prices will come back up, which they surely will—eventually. You can’t blame them for wanting to stimulate gas stockpiling, you know, to push demand back up. But for now, the price of a gallon has finally dipped below 3 bucks here in the Northwest—what’s the going rate in your ‘hood?

Despite recent anecdotal evidence to the contrary, traffic deaths are actually going down. So far down, in fact, that they’re on track to hit their lowest levels since 1961. It’s probably the one silver lining associated with sky-high gas prices—as drivers slow down, clock fewer miles, and cut unnecessary trips, the number of deaths declines sharply. The insurance companies have been quietly enjoying the decline in claims resulting from the 12 billion fewer miles American motorists drove in June as compared to the same month of the previous year. But the associated dearth of deaths stems from more complicated factors, including differences in how people drive and when people drive when fuel prices hit the roof. Drivers may forgo aimless nighttime cruising, for example, which is statistically less safe than slower, more well-lit daytime commuting. Statistically riskier driver groups, like teens and the elderly, might also be hit hardest by higher gas prices and staying off the roads at a higher rate than the rest of us. These are just a couple of examples of how fuel prices are influencing driver demographics and behavior—read more at msnbc, and check out the full University of Michigan study here.

This weekend is SeaFair, the Emerald City’s annual celebration of summer. The festivities involve a performance by the Blue Angels, and right now their F-18 Hornets are practicing over the city. While I really, truly, love watching fighter planes, seeing these babies ripping up the skies over Seattle always makes me realize how terrifying it would be if they were hostile. Anyway, here’s the news:

• Ferrari has denied that Michael Schmacher was behind the wheel during the recent wreck of a F430 prototype at the ‘Ring, but there’s no doubt that the van he was driving nailed a pedestrian on Sunday. The man wasn’t seriously hurt, and Schmacher was reportedly pissed at him for getting in the way. Classy. Daily Mail via Jalopnik
• Now, on the surface, letting anyone who can pay take a high-powered sports car out on to the road unsupervised seems like a great idea. But after one of its rental ‘Vettes smashed into a Dallas restaurant, the folks at Hertz might be able to point out some possible snags in that otherwise perfect plan. Winding Road
• High gas prices have caused SUV sales to stall—some dealers are even refusing to take them as trade-ins—but are these road monsters really dead? One writer seems to think so, and he couldn’t be happier. San Francisco Chronicle
• While rubble from a Dallas restaurant is pretty unusual stuff to find in a rental car, this list of weird items forgotten upon return is awesome. A half pint of beer and an instructional CD called the art of Speed Seduction? That combination has success written all over it! CarScoop

So did this weekend’s American Le Mans Series race look like a blast or what? If you thought so, you might be stoked to enter the new photography contest we’re running with BP/Amoco, which is going to send multiple winners to American Le Mans Series races and one grand prize winner to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. Plus they’re giving a way free gas—a lot of it—every week! All you have to do is submit the most beautiful photo of your ride, along with a brief blurb on why it’s worth the high-dollar Amoco Ultimate premium fuel you’re running. And you know how to snap a stunning pic, right? Check out Rich Truesdell’s sage advice on the subject, and don’t forget to get the whole car in the shot. Then head on over to our Amoco Ultimate minisite to check out the full contest details, start rating some of the other pics that have been entered, and enter a photo of your own. Best of luck to all!