This is the year when gas prices WILL affect CP attendance

"They" said gas would be $5/gallon by Christmas 2005. Did I miss it?

Gas prices will not drive the decision for an individual family to drive to Cedar Point. If they live two hours away and 120 miles (Detroit), they'll do 8 gallons of gas round trip in a 30 mpg car. Do you honestly believe that gas even two bucks higher, and extra $16, is going to prevent a family already spending $42 per cap? I think no.

No matter how much the news covers this. People in general will always take vacations. They'll maybe slow spending on other day to day things, but vacations are things people don't want to be taken away from them.

I don't think the real issue here is the extra cost of a trip to CP. Where most people will feel it is in day to day driving, where the extra cost of gas will make people have less disposable income for discretionary spending. That may well have some affect on CP this year.

^ Yes, Pete - that's exactly what I was getting at earlier.

My drive to and from work on a daily basis is more important than driving to CP. I mean, it pays the bills, which allows me to get and do cool stuff.

I live In Akron, Ohio and gas is right now $3.31 a gallon right now. Now if it hits $4.00 a gallon that would probably mean like $60 bucks for me to completely fill my tank and that's on v-6. It won't stop me from going to Cedar Point, but it will limit me on how many trips I go. Last year I didn't make as many trips because I was working 2 jobs of a combined 70 hours between the 2. I only ended up making 4 trips. This year I might get 7 trips but that all depends on the price of gas.

If you look at how cars are rated for MPG now, not that many vehicles hit 30mpg.

The sad thing is "everything" is rough. The cost of living is rising faster than we can get raises. And it gets squeezed out somewhere....and I have to say that when you start adding all these costs up, it comes down to what we spend in the park.

Food really and if we can afford to stay on point.

The sad thing is we look to try and frequent the point more than make long continuous trips to the point. Because the point gets less fun if your there on your third day after you've been to the park for 30 unconsecutive days already.
If I am paying $12 more per way, your looking at basically eating out at a nice restaurant almost now going to gas, or 3-4 trips and I am at a hotel room.

Plenty of vehicles do 30 mpg or better. People just need to be willing to buy them. Diana just bought a Hyundai Elantra, and she's getting 34 mpg on average for her work commute. I get at least that on my 2004 Toyota Corolla. Even the average Camry can do 30+ highway, and it feels like every other car on the road is a Camry!

And you don't have to look at Toyota to get decent mileage. I'll get about 32-33 highway when driving cross-state in my 05 Chevy Cobalt. My to work commute hurts my mpg, but its more because I don't have patience for idiots who feel like they have nowhere to go and all day to get there. Especially during rush-hour.

What might actually end up helping CP this summer is the tax rebate we are supposed to get. That should be hitting mailboxes in June or so. While the most prudent thing to do with that money would be to pay down debt or put it into savings, the average person is probably going to look at it like a bonus check and do something spontaneous with it.

Maybe they will buy a flat screen tv. Maybe they will use it as a downpayment on a new car. And, I think many will likely spend it on their summer vacation. When I prepared my taxes I found out my rebate will be about $1800. That would make for a nice vacation. But, we are likely putting it towards the college fund or into the IRA. Bush would prefer I spend it.

These tax rebates are such a joke. Aside from not being proportional to what you put in, there isn't an economist anywhere that will give you solid predictable numbers showing some impact. Why do you start giving away money when you're already pissing away $4 billion a month on this war nonsense? Like the dollar isn't already taking a kick in the nuts.

I've got a few questions about this rebate though?

Is it:
A) No strings attached.

B) Going to count as earned income (therefore having to pay taxes on it at the end of the year)

C) Going to count as an advance on next years return, thus reducing the amount of the return I get next year by 1200 dollars.

A would be great, B and C would suck, but the best question, where exactly is this money coming from?

From the official IRS website:

Q. Will the payment I receive in 2008 reduce my 2008 refund or increase the amount I owe for 2008?

A. No, the stimulus payment will not reduce your refund or increase the amount you owe when you file your 2008 return.

I'll believe it when I file my 2008 returns (forgive my failing faith in our government).

Anyway, back to the topic at hand....

I'm with you John, I'll believe it when I see it.

There was a similar rebate a couple of years ago I believe. And, at that time it did not count as earned income. (Hmmm...now I'm not sure if it was a Federal rebate or a State rebate here in Florida. Either way, it did not count as earned income and, as such, it wasn't taxable.)

I do understand Jeff's points and I'm certainly not commenting on the merits of the rebate. But, I do think that most people will just spend it on "extras". And, I think some will consider a vacation an "extra". My wife and I talked about spending it that way. But, I think our common sense is going to prevail.

Jeff said:
Plenty of vehicles do 30 mpg or better. People just need to be willing to buy them. Diana just bought a Hyundai Elantra, and she's getting 34 mpg on average for her work commute. I get at least that on my 2004 Toyota Corolla. Even the average Camry can do 30+ highway, and it feels like every other car on the road is a Camry!

Who is the better person - someone who drives a 30 mpg car but doesn't reduce their miles driven, or someone who drives a 23 mpg car but reduces their miles driven? While a higher mpg car is a good start it does not tell the whole story.

Shades said:
Who is the better person - someone who drives a 30 mpg car but doesn't reduce their miles driven, or someone who drives a 23 mpg car but reduces their miles driven? While a higher mpg car is a good start it does not tell the whole story.

I'll take door #3. The person who buys a car that gets better gas mileage and makes an effort to reduce miles driven. True, some people require gas guzzlers for their job or hobby that they participate in every weekend but for the a lot of people they are a want, not a need.

The "whole story" is the average amount people drive and the average fuel economy. The amount has gotten steadily higher while the fuel economy has actually gone done in the last few decades. That's DOT stats. I'm guilty of the longer commute, though if I could sell my house today I'd nip that one quickly. I made up for it during all of the time I was laid-off or "self-employed" and had nowhere to drive to. :)

I've been considering searching for a job that's closer to home, though I don't want to because I love where I'm at right now. Money's good, benefits are great, hours kinda suck for me right now, but that's cause I'm the low man on the totem pole right now.

The only problem is, not very many places are hiring that are any closer, especially not in the kind of stuff I do.

We're actually looking to move at some point to a place closer to work. When we bought our place, it split the distance that each of us had to drive (I'm on the East Side of GR, she was in Holland). Then things changed, and now we both work about 5 minutes away from each other, but 30 minutes from home.

We'd love to cut down the distance we have to drive, just a matter of finding a place that works for us.