The New York Times Sunday magazine offers a profile of conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. In the main, Zev Chofet's article is about as predictable (and informative) as dittoheads' view on "Club Gitmo's" detainees' habeas corpus rights. Call me an unreconstructed Robin Leach fan, but I found Limbaugh's lifestyle more interesting than his politics. On page two of the online version (you're welcome) we learn that El Rushbo drives a "fully-loaded" $450k Maybach 57S (he paid retail?). In fact, the $400m man garages a "half a dozen similar rides on his estate." Quick name six Maybach equivalents. And while you're at it, how many of them have 25-gallon plus gas tanks? 'Cause that would put the cost of a fill-up Rush's rides over the "magic" $100 mark. And that, according to the same august publication, is a significant "financial milestone" (millstone?). Scribe Christopher Maag uses the C-note-plus fill-up to explore its impact on single-make clubs dedicated to gas hogs. Needless to say, they're having to throttle back. Yes, "for people who love their big vehicles, the pain is acute." More for some than for others. You?
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only have a 14.5 gallon tank…
i broke 50 bucks yesterday…
think that was the first time i did that living in the states…
Not yet – will have to wait until gas hits nearly $6/gallon before the minivan gets there, assuming I don’t drive until empty.
I usually fill my cars up before they’re down to 1/2 a tank… it makes it seem less painful somehow.
I’m perfectly serious.
As they say, pull the wool over your own eyes.
I’m in about the same place as Richard. Might have my first $70 fill-up this week.
Long ago I’ve broken the $100 a tank cherry. Though a 34 gallon tank on a 2500HD it’s very easy to do so.
Like most people who live and drive in the UK, I broke that a while ago!
Earlier in the year I filled 8 five gallon cans full of diesel for tractors. I forget what I paid per gallon, but roughly the same time last year I did the same thing, it was just at or above $100; was much more this time.
That pump doesn’t have pay-at-the-pump, but I noticed the other day getting gasoline it was prepay/pre authorized credit card only. They must’ve had some drive-offs.
I have noticed more and more gas stations are prepay only, even the close pumps. That’s fine by me, except the credit card reader outside only works about half the time for me, even on a brand new card I just got.
I have a small parts washer in my home shop in which I used mineral spirits as the solvent. Not having cleaning it out in over five years I recently decided to do so. Imagine my shock when it cost me just under $100 for replacement mineral spirits. The last time I filled the thing it was under $20.
This batch is going to be in there for a very, very long time!
Gasoline wise I hit the $100 mark filling up my dual tank ’89 F150 a few weeks ago. Fortunately I only use it when I really need a truck and thus it gets fueled about three times a year. Even so, I might be better off pulling a utility trailer behind the Honda for those times when I need to make a dump or HomeBorg run.
My Tank on the RAV4 is 60 litres! I like most people I know like to fill up before it hits half full, so at Ca.$1.36 per litre its usually around $35.00 every time I fill up, living in a rural area, most Gasoline stations are a good 12 kms away
Just recently broke $50 for the first time in my Mazda3. $100 wouldn’t be that bad, as I only fill up twice a month.
But really, what does the fillup cost matter? It wouldn’t make a difference to me if I had a gas tank double the size and had to fill up half as often. TTAC, don’t feed the media hype about filling up. What matters is how much it costs for you to do all your driving.
05 colorado 4×4 crew – $73 last tank at 17.5 gallons in a 19.5 gallon tank. I average 35,000 miles a year for my business. Fortunately It is a 4 cylinder which they dont offer in a 4×4 crew anymore. They can keep the 5 cylinder, thank you!
Haven’t gotten to $50 yet, but it’s coming closer and closer every week.
I believe the 300 has a 17 gallon tank. I’ve hit $75, but gas would have to hit $5.89 for me to whip out a C-note.
I’m with seoultrain . . . a few months ago i put 12.5 gallons in my protege at $4.19 = about $52. i was actually pretty pissed. i’ve never spent that much on gas and it was kind of a negative milestone for me.
I told my wife later that day, but added that i didn’t feel that bad about it since i regularly get 30 mpg. she informed me that she broke the $100 barrier filling her explorer the previous week. i asked her average milage and she said that it was about 14 mpg!!! what the hell?!?
given that we have only one child and rarely haul anything I feel this is a huge waste of money and space. but, she likes big cars. i don’t know why she just does. me, on the other hand, i’m still wondering why i can’t find anything other than a mini weighing in around 2600lbs anymore.
i don’t care how much she likes that f-ing truck, we’re getting rid of it even if i need to do some sabotage . . .
The Yaris, Fit and previous generation xB and xA weight ~ 2,600lbs (I think the Mini weighs more like 2,800 lbs). The new xB and Versa are quite porkers now. Even the tC weighs > 3,000 lbs and it’s supposed to a small lightweight coupe! It’s b/c they shoved the big Camry 2.4 liter mill in there.
i was under the impression that the 2007 mini cooper s was just under 2600 lbs. i could be wrong, my figs are from Edmonds. unfortunately, since i can get 30 mpg in the mazda protege (2650 lbs) and it’s more fun to drive than the fit, yaris, and xb / xa; i see no reason to switch to one of those. what i really want is a better driving experience with comparable gas milage. on that criteria, i’d love some suggestions other than the mini.
don’t get me wrong the mini’s great, besides the satellite dish speedo, i’m totally down. it’s just a little pricey new and it’s hard to find a used one without the extra crap i don’t want since they’re so “customizable.”
1999 Suburban 2500, 454 engine. 44 gallon fuel tank. You figure it out. :(
It sits a lot now.
I don’t mind the *price* of fuel as much as I mind the rapid rise in price.
In the last 18 months, the cost of filling my tank has risen from $30 to $50.
Fortunately, I only have to fill about once a month.
im in favor of anything that causes lamebaugh pain.
I’ve just now broken my $50 cherry.
An interesting article…
Even on “E”, my Prius rarely needs nine gallons to topp it off. So I’ve never been able to put more than $35-$36 into my Prius at a time.
The highest for me so far is $61.00 for one of my Camrys when I let it run to nearly the “empty” mark on the gauge.
I can do $87 with the Saab, mostly because it wants premium (this is $1.60 a litre, Canadian: in the US, this is about $6.40/gal). That’s starting to hurt.
With the Fit, I can’t quite crack $40 at $1.35/L. Which is awesome, especially the day I pulled up beside my King Ranch-driving coworker who’d been quite liberal with the “Clown Car” commments not too long ago. I do believe I arrived after she did, filled up, and left before she’d finished.
And yes, I enjoyed every minute of being a smug bugger about it, thank you very much. :)
I have never paid more than $43. And that was a fully empty tank in my car (which is rare).
I love my Honda Fit.
But really, it’s not about the cost of a tank. It’s the price of the gallon.
Wait, Rush drives a Maybach?! I thought he was “one of us”? You know, down-home, drives a Chevy, gets his coffee at Dunkin, shops at Walmart, etc.
Are you telling me he’s actually a member of the rich, effette, lah-di-dah elite? That’s not possible! How can he “tell it like it is” if he’s a member of the elite?
That’s unpossible!
BTW: TTAC’s Best and Brightest will remember our coverage of consumer advocate Ralph Nader’s objection to Rush’s embedded plugs for GM (and other advertisers) within his rants. Here’s confirmation from the NYT article: “And lately he has created a new option. At a much higher rate he will weave a product into his monologue (To a caller who said he took two showers after voting for Clinton in Operation Chaos, Limbaugh responded: “If you had followed my advice and gotten a Rinnai tankless water heater, you wouldn’t have needed to take two showers. And I’ll tell you why. . . .”)” While I am a conservative, I find this practice misleading, amoral and despicable.
Robert,
Perhaps Rush is feeling the pinch of higher gas prices, and is scrimping and earning wherever he can? After all, that Maybach has to drink something fierce.
Isn’t this collusion of advertiser and demagogue, truly, the fullest flower of capitalism?
dropped $80 (17.3 gal X $4.599) to fill up my ’91 MB CE300. Also, I get about 12 MPG.
Lucky for me, I walk to work and only need to fill up once a month.
psarhjinian:
Isn’t this collusion of advertiser and demagogue, truly, the fullest flower of capitalism?
As PCH101 points out, the practice is illegal, as Rush uses public airwaves licensed to broadcasters. If it was satellite radio or cable, chocks away!
Nope, I’m only half way there. I drove my Mazda3 until it was showing only 12 miles remaining (Distance-to-empty) before filling up last week. The pump stopped at $51 and change.
Prior to my current Mazda, I’ve driven Hondas and Acuras all of my adult life. Great fuel economy was always an extra perk even though it wasn’t a primary reason for buying them. Even my ’02 Accord EX (5speed/4cyl) could average 31mpg highway with the cruise set at 80mph! The Mazda struggles to top 28mpg at the same speed, buy still better than almost everyone else I know manages.
I never felt the need to own an SUV, but watched all my close friends, my sister and my parents all take the plunge….and most are stuck with those vehicles for a very, very long time!
The tank on my Ranger is 20 gallons. I paid $87 today to fill the tank. I’m getting closer.
My ’79 Lincoln Continental Town Car’s 24.5 gallon tank easily takes over $100 dollars to fill up at $4.15/gallon for regular.
What’s is breathtaking is how quickly it empties, in about 230 miles or so…
and even more quickly with that 10% ethanol crap.
It gets way more attention than $100,000+++ cars running around Palm Beach County, FL where I live so it is well worth it in my opinion.
Most I’ve paid for gas is $4.07/3.87 as I mixed my own batch of regular+premium. I can only fit 11 gallons in a tank so I couldn’t break $45 if I tried.
I usually only burn about 2 or 3 gallons a week so I avoid overfilling as I don’t want the gas to go stale in the tank.
I used to put $10 a week in but now I find it easier to do batches of $15-20. I’m not too precise about it. Just so long as I don’t get below an 1/8th of a tank I’m fine…
I have a Suburban with a 40 gallon tank. I broke the $100 mark when gas was $2.85.
I make my own fuel at home, what stuff costs at the pump is irrelevant to me.
It costs me about $1.45 per gallon (in chemicals: MeoH & KoH, not to mention several hours of my time each weekend) to make BioDiesel. Of course methanol has tracked with petroleum price-wise. It used to cost me about $1.50 a gallon, now it is well over $5/g. I can re-use about 20% of the methanol so that takes a bit of th pain away. But when I realize that my car (Jetta TDI) averages 50 MPG I feel better again.
–chuck
No, but I’ve come close a few times.
I paid $4.55/gal for diesel in Reno on my last fillup.
In theory if I were to fill up the 20.5 gal tank on my CRD from bone dry in California (5.07 was the “cheap” price) I could break the C-note barrier.
If I’d let the Expedition (5.4 V8, 32 gallon tank) run down I’d be over the magic mark. Luckily we just tow a livestock trailer to shows every so often and I use grocery store gas credits to fill it.
No where near $100 on my rides.
I think the neon IIRC has 12.5 gallon tank ? @ $4.20-$4.30 regular can barely break $50. The motorcycle has 4 gallons…I doubt it will ever break $100/tank. The sports car has 15g tank and I don’t think I’ve ever put more than 13.5G of premium in it which @ $4.45 premium is $60 and change. Speaking of which, my eyeballs almost flew out of my sockets at the $4.15 premium, $3.93 regular I saw in Wisconsin this last weekend!!
Nope, and unless gas gets above (gasp!) $9/gallon, I never will. I think I’ve finally broken 40, though. That’s MPG, of course. I didn’t think it would be fun to slow down, but MPG chasing can be addictive.
It’s going to be a while before this happens. I don’t think I’ve even broken $60 yet in my Accord. I probably would have yesterday, but I filled the car just a bit sooner than I usually do. (I did get up in the high 50s).
Somehow the supply and demand situation is making me worry more about interruptions, and not being able to get any, so I may stop letting the thing get to less than 1/4 tank, or even 1/3.
No, it’s about $45 or so to fill up my S2000 with premium, but I do have to do it once a week if I have to be in the office, otherwise it sits at home while I telecommute.
I’ve put in about $75 worth of fuel sometimes. That’s for about 15 gallons of diesel in my Jetta. I’d like to make my own Biodiesel like chuck, but so far I haven’t bothered because I only fill up monthly. It’s painful, but it would be a lot worse if I was still commuting 110 miles per day! My current commute is about 4 miles per day.
Not even close. Our thirstiest vehicle is our minivan, 21 gallon tank, but I usually stop to fill long before it’s empty. We don’t drive it much at all, anymore, and it’s possible I haven’t put gas in since early April.
Our daily use vehicles only have 15 gallon tanks and I ordinarily fill at 12-13 gallons, so I usually don’t even hit $50 (gas has not been over $4/gallon here often or for long). My commute is under 3 miles each way, so fuel expense still isn’t a big deal, anyway.
No. I just broke the $40 barrier with my Aveo. I love it.
We rented a Dodge Charger for a long trip down South a couple of weeks ago, that one popped my $65 cherry, but neither of the J-cars or the Maxx can do much more that $55 on refills…
Plus, the Maxx does about 29 MPG on the freeway…
I guess it’s more Maxx than I realized…
I haven’t broke $75 yet, but came really close last week. There were some credit cards that still limited users to $50.00 however.
I popped that cherry back in 2005… Hurricane Katrina. I left my house in Alabama in the AM to do some some work in Tenn. When I got home in the PM the gas shot up a buck a gallon. My Dodge Ram will hold about 27 gallons. Most card readers stop at $75 now, and out of shear laziness so do I.
Since the Goat takes hi-test that number is getting up there too with a much smaller tank.
I came close on the work vehicle, a Durango. It was on empty and took $90 to fill up. I’ve heard tails of $400-$500 for fueling houseboats on the lake due to larger tanks and much larger prices at dockside fuel pumps. If you want to rent a houseboat for a long weekend, the fuel is probably going to cost as much or more than the houseboat rental itself.
When i fill both tanks on my F-150 this weekend for a long road trip, I’ll need to insert the credit card three times (due to the 75 dollar limit) and I’ll try not to look at the final tab on my statement.
Hmmm
I broke $60 a bout a month or so ago. I wont run the tank till Im empty anymore.. I already know I can get 500mi per tank / about 30mpg.
As for $100 Id think I’d lose my mind I’d I started putting $100 in each time.
I got a 00 Accord 4dr SE with coming on 160k..
I cant imagine.. even running around putting that amt of gas in a vehicle any larger tham mine.. and driving it as a commuter vehicle.
Irrisponsible.. and stupid.