Barrister Reed chastising the old guy: Sorry, didn’t mean to sound nasty. Must have been slurring my words with my tongue stuck in my cheek… Hey 10 bucks is 10 bucks, according to my kids who are your vintage, that double sawbuck amounts to; next to nothing…
Oops there you go again.
Higher octane still cost the same 10 cents per step. You must have fun as a defense attorney sliding that stuff out across the table!

For your reading pleasure I have just chopped out an additional 100 words, too mind numbing for even for the author to read, from these miscellaneous ramblings.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

A double sawbuck is a 20.

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During all the gas price fluctuations, I have never seen the price difference between grades of gasoline vary from the standard ten cent difference. For example, when regular was $2 per gallon, mid was $2.10, and supreme was $2.20. So at $2 per gallon base regular, ten gallons of regular was $20, ten gallons of supreme was $22. $2 is 10% of $20, so it would cost you 10% more to fill up with Supreme instead of regular.

Now, assume regular is $4 per gallon. The pricing scheme stays the same and mid is $4.10 and supreme is $4.20. That's how it was where I lived. Ten gallons of regular was $40, and ten gallons of supreme was $42. $2 is 5% of $40. So, comparatively speaking, so long as the $.10 pricing structure remains constant, the more expensive gasoline gets, the cheaper it is to buy premium. Overall you do pay more, but the price difference in grades actually shrinks. In effect, the cost to upgrade to premium gas decreases as gas gets more expensive, so long as the ten cent price difference is maintained. That isn't any kind of lawyer trick (and I resent the implication) that is just basic math.

I don't resort to any kind of fact or law twisting in my practice. I can't. I do appeals. I have to back every assertion I make up with citations to established authority. I don't play word games an I don't try and lie or sneak falsehoods into my arguments. Unlike cops and prosecutors, I try and do everything by the book and above board. Sorry if standing up for the rights of my clients offends you.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Read:
Reed, take a cleansing breath, that’s right slowly inhale through the nose, now exhale via your mouth… I said slowly! There now, do you feel better, a little more relaxed?

Misconception mania as taken over my life today, gezzemrice.

Nothing offends me in your daily duties standing up for the rights of your clients. Nor did I ever assert that you make up stuff out of whole cloth. However relativeisom has crept into your thinking, and that is what I was alluding to. My apologies are offered.

I get that as the base price of the fuel increases while the grade 10 cent difference remains constant, that the perception is one is getting a better deal for higher octane fuel. ,

My point is: relativeisom is irreletivant. When gas was a buck a gallon that 10 cents per grade jump looked to be an expensive up grade, at your 4 bucks a gallon relatively speaking the delta 10 begins to look pidally in comparison. However there is always that constant 10 cent step increase per gallon that as you have noticed that never appears to change. So if 91 was a buck a gallon a year ago, and is now four bucks a gallon, that 20 cents is still packed into the pricing, and is still 20 cents of purchasing power, and over the course of a year’s driving figuring a weekly fill-up of say 36 gallons, the difference between the rot gut & 91 is 380 bucks for a year regardless of the base price of the fuel. If an engine can run efficiently on a lower grade of fuel, than keep the 10 or 20 cents per gallon in your pocket, and out of Exxon-Mobil’s.

Folks fall for this pricing relativeisom all the time with all kinds of purchases. $380 here & $380 there, pretty soon we are talking real money.

Now, I’m headed up stairs to the kitchen for a nicely chilled Sam Adams Boston Larger. I invite you to join me as I hoist a few.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

Where the cost difference makes sense is if you get better mileage with the premium..........

Lets say you get 10% better mileage. If the cost difference is less than 10%, get the premium.


Now if you're smart, check out the mid-grade. You may get 9% better mileage with the midgrade..............

What you're looking for is $/mile.......

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

So I shouldn't be offended when you make baseless snarky comments about my profession or me personally? Not going to happen. I don't know what you mean by relativism, other than it costs relatively less to upgrade to premium when gas costs more relative to when gas costs less.

This is getting off the point of this post however, and since I argue with people for my job, I really don't want to do it here where I hope to come to relax.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Reed:

[quote]I don't know what you mean by relativism, other than it costs relatively less to upgrade to premium when gas costs more relative to when gas costs less.[/quote]

I’ll try one more time. The cost to up grade is the same no mater what the base price of the fuel is at any given time; 10 cents per step up in octane. This statement is a fact and remains constant.

When gas is priced high, stepping up for the sake of purchasing the “good stuffâ€￾, although it is most likely is unnecessary, just because it feels like one is purchasing it for next to nothing is relative.

I figured that you would have run across this term along the way to the bar. This gas discussion is perhaps not the scholarly example one needs to understand this term.

Look [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativism] here [/url] , and [url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/relativism/] here [/url] for a better explanation.

I should imagine that in your line of work you encounter a good deal of relativisem, it is all the rage these days.

[quote]This is getting off the point of this post however, and since I argue with people for my job, I really don't want to do it here where I hope to come to relax.[/quote]

I wasn’t arguing with you, just having a discussion. I to come here to relax, and learn. Now I’m ending the discussion in hopes you will have stumbled onto something useful.


Sorry to have ruffled your feathers today, it wasn’t my intent.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

Since this discussion has nothing at all to do with relativism I'm going to steer this back to economics. What matters here is the relative value of a dime (or two dimes) and the percentage of the purchase price of a gallon of gasoline which it represents. Neither these factors remain constant. The real value of the dollar goes down and the absolute value of the price of gasoline goes up. Premium gasoline used to be 20% more per gallon in the days of $1.00/gal regular ($1.20/$1.00= 120%), but now it's only about 7% more (3.09/2.89 locally=106.9%). This is how premium is relatively cheaper relative to regular than in years past.

Inflation says that what cost $.20 in 1989 (when I specifically recall buying regular for $.999/gal.) would be $.33 in 2007 dollars. This means quite simply that to account for inflation alone the price spread in absolute dollars should have increased, but it has not. This is the second reason that premium is relatively less expensive than 2 decades ago.

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Joshua

Yes, I am familiar with the idea of relativism, but I just didn't see how it fit into your discussion of gas prices. And no, relativism rarely comes up in the area of law I practice. . I did discuss it in my undergrad philosophy class and several history classes, but that was years ago in community college.

I practice criminal appellate work. I rarely make a relativistic arguments about the law. In my practice, the application of law is pretty much an absolutist proposition. The only time I would make a relativist argument would be if I were in a situation where an argument regarding public policy would be proper. However, I have only been in that situation once in my entire professional career, and I happened to win that argument (not that that means anything). The law is what the law is; I can't really argue with the language of a statute and the cases which have interpreted it, no matter how much I disagree with it. If I can establish if the language of a staute is ambiguous and no prior case has addressed the ambiguity (which I have also successfully done), then the "rule of lenity" applies and the statute is interpreted most favorably to my client. Now, if I practiced civil litigation, especially contract law, then I would be making relativistic arguments all the time, but they aren't referred to as such in the legal field.


Anyhow, back to my brother's van. It seems that running a hotter thermostat has increased his oil pressure. During the cam swap, we switched his thermostat from a 180 degree stat to a 205 degree stat. He only has the factory oil pressure gauge, not an aftermarket gauge, but after running the hotter t-stat for a week the oil pressure registered one bar higher on the scale. I think running a higher oil temp cleared some sludge out of a oil passage or cleaned up around the pressure relief spring. Yay.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Interesting conversation. Currently the local Arco's are selling regular for .30 less then the local Cevron's. But all things are relative. I remember when .10 would buy a 3 Musketeers bar. My parents would remember when it would buy 3 of them in the same wrapper (once chocolate, one vanilla, one strawberry, hence the name).

All I know is $10 can come in handy right before pay day and it is easier to remove cast iron then add some back later.

The machine shop just called- the head is done.

Stock valves, three angle valve job, new exhaust guides, head milled .100. My brother said he already uses premium anyway, and said he was fine with using it if necessary. Hopefully this will get the torque of the motor up to where it should be. And, hopefully, this increased power of the motor won't break any more drivetrain parts.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.