Why is Gas so expensive?

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Originally Posted by AkivaSmith

The reason that the auto manufacture did not want to sell those cars, is that they would have to deal with all sorts of maintenance problems that would cost them far more than what the car was worth.

I do not want to patronize anyone, but lets look at what goes into building a car:

design and testing.
prototyping.
manufacturing and assembly
sales
maintenance
liability insurance and recall insurance

I believe that the electric cars were prototypes.

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Do you honestly believe they would put all that work into those cars to destroy them for no reason? Why not sell them instead of destroy them?

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Originally Posted by Wild Bill

So if they bought a patent for an engine that got 100 mpg and released it the demand for their product (gasoline) would go down. Prices of the product would go down. But by not releasing the patent to be produced, they control the demand on their product and can make billions in profits by doing NOTHING extra. I would call that CAPITALIZING on a patent wihtout the need of investing anything but the cost to purchase the patent. Spend millions to make billions, sounds like corporate America to me.

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If there was a design for an engine that could be economically built that got 100 mpg, IT WOULD BE BUILT IMMEDIATELY. Any company that could boast that they had a car that got 100 mpg would sell tens of thousands of them. The oil industry could never squash that. Period.

I am not meaning to offend, however I think that people need to stop thinking that there is a conspiracy.

Gas prices are still cheaper than they were in the 1980's. Please read about what inflation means.

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Originally Posted by Wild Bill

Do you honestly believe they would put all that work into those cars to destroy them for no reason? Why not sell them instead of destroy them?

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Because if they were full of problems, the company would not want to be responsible for fixing all the problems.

As a product manager (software), I would never let my customers get a hold of a prototype, unless they signed an "as-is" agreement. NO CAR OWNER is going to sign an "AS-IS" agreement, if they have an accident they will not be able to hold the manufacturer liable!!!

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Originally Posted by AkivaSmith

If there was a design for an engine that could be economically built that got 100 mpg, IT WOULD BE BUILT IMMEDIATELY. Any company that could boast that they had a car that got 100 mpg would sell tens of thousands of them. The oil industry could never squash that. Period.

I am not meaning to offend, however I think that people need to stop thinking that there is a conspiracy.

Gas prices are still cheaper than they were in the 1980's. Please read about what inflation means.

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You are giving your opinions and I'm giving mine. You have as many facts to back up your arguement as anyone else does. You have no way of proving that there is no conspiracy( as I don't to prove it). If you think things like this can't and don't happen, you're are going to get a rude awakening some day.

Who knew a oil-rancher from Texas would become president and we would have the biggest profit margins from large oil companies while he was in office. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by AkivaSmith

If there was a design for an engine that could be economically built that got 100 mpg, IT WOULD BE BUILT IMMEDIATELY. Any company that could boast that they had a car that got 100 mpg would sell tens of thousands of them. The oil industry could never squash that. Period.

I am not meaning to offend, however I think that people need to stop thinking that there is a conspiracy.

Gas prices are still cheaper than they were in the 1980's. Please read about what inflation means.

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To think there is no conspiracy, if that's what you want to call it, is naive. All the conspiracy is, consists of a few companies who make billions of dollars annually, making relatively small moves (for such huge companies) to keep our dependance on oil and gasoline from lessening. If they can spend a few billion dollars every year to buy patents and keep automakers from making a lot of reasonably priced cars that are fuel efficiant or run on alternative fuels, they absolutely do it. They do it because they make billions and billions and billion of dollars, and as long as doing so keeps the trend alive, they are guaranteed to make billions and billions more in profits because of these investments.

I am not saying there is or isn't a conspiracy here, but if you think that oil companys buying patents and paying off the car companys is recouping there profits from lost car sells, your just silly. The fact is that car companys are having a hard time selling cars. So take these three for example; Ford, Dodge, and Chevy. Say Chevy gets a paten for 100 mpg car that could be produced in a manner that can be sold at a reasonable price for the market. There is no way they would sell it to the oil company, nor take a payoff not to produce it. Because they know that the market they are in and that it would be the hottest selling car on the market. It would leave their biggest competitors (Dodge, and Ford) in the dust. They would make billions.

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Originally Posted by BiG~PUN

I am not saying there is or isn't a conspiracy here, but if you think that oil companys buying patents and paying off the car companys is recouping there profits from lost car sells, your just silly. The fact is that car companys are having a hard time selling cars. So take these three for example; Ford, Dodge, and Chevy. Say Chevy gets a paten for 100 mpg car that could be produced in a manner that can be sold at a reasonable price for the market. There is no way they would sell it to the oil company, nor take a payoff not to produce it. Because they know that the market they are in and that it would be the hottest selling car on the market. It would leave their biggest competitors (Dodge, and Ford) in the dust. They would make billions.

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Maybe, except you have it backwards. Do you think the oil companies, who buy the patents directly from the inventor as soon as it gets submitted to the patent office, would sell the patent to an auto maker when holding onto the patent and not letting it be realized makes THEM billions of dollars indefinately? Nope. Do you think an auto company that is having a hard time selling cars and is hurting would turn down a billion dollars from an oil company, when all they have to do is make and sell any cars they want as long as they don't get better than 35 mpg or are hidious little P.O.S? Sure they would. They now have a ton of free money and they don't have to worry about production costs or concept costs to start working with a new line of technology. Call it a win-win.

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Originally Posted by PythonWallace

Maybe, except you have it backwards. Do you think the oil companies, who buy the patents directly from the inventor as soon as it gets submitted to the patent office, would sell the patent to an auto maker when holding onto the patent and not letting it be realized makes THEM billions of dollars indefinately?

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As I said before, I have a close friend who is a patent attorney. The vast majority of patents are worked through with a corporate entity backing the inventor. To get something patented today requires TONS of money. Usually at least several lawers are involved. So an inventor usually goes to a company first and pitches his idea. The company then helps the inventor spec out the idea and hires a lawyer to submit the paperwork. An individual who submits an idea to the patent office usually does not get a patent. There has to be proof that the idea has not been presented, and that the idea does not encroach on other patents. An individual would have to be increadibly wealthy to do such research.

So the idea that the gas companies go to the patent office and wait for patents to be published and then buy them up is truely insane. Also, once a patent is submitted it could take years before it is approved. Most patents require revision, most many revisions. That is why you see "Patent Pending" on many or most items.

here is the information on how to get a patent: http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/howtopat.htm

Enjoy reading.

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Originally Posted by AkivaSmith

As I said before, I have a close friend who is a patent attorney. The vast majority of patents are worked through with a corporate entity backing the inventor. To get something patented today requires TONS of money. Usually at least several lawers are involved. So an inventor usually goes to a company first and pitches his idea. The company then helps the inventor spec out the idea and hires a lawyer to submit the paperwork. An individual who submits an idea to the patent office usually does not get a patent. There has to be proof that the idea has not been presented, and that the idea does not encroach on other patents. An individual would have to be increadibly wealthy to do such research.

So the idea that the gas companies go to the patent office and wait for patents to be published and then buy them up is truely insane. Also, once a patent is submitted it could take years before it is approved. Most patents require revision, most many revisions. That is why you see "Patent Pending" on many or most items.

here is the information on how to get a patent: http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/howtopat.htm

Enjoy reading.

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I have read everything that is involved in getting a patent, as I'm in the process of applying for one. You absolutely DON'T need a lawyer to apply for or get a patent, and you don't need a company to back you. The guy I know did have a patent lawyer, but he didn't have a company backing him. He worked on his idea secretly for a long time until he had a working prototype, then he got a lawyer and filed the paperwork. I have several working prototypes for my invention and all the paperwork filled out and I AM NOT using a patent attorney. It's a little bit of work, but it will save me a ton of money and I will get the same outcome. It may even take me longer, but the people who work at the patent office are REQUIRED to help people out when they are applying for patents. I understand that 99.9% of applications are for crap that doesn't work or is useless junk that wouldn't sell, but that doesn't apply when we are talking about working technology instead of "a better mouse trap" or an anti-gravity machine. We are talking here about working internal combustion engines that either get hella good gas milage or run on alternative fuel. Your arguments simply aren't completely true and wouldn't apply here anyway.

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Originally Posted by AkivaSmith

As I said before, I have a close friend who is a patent attorney. The vast majority of patents are worked through with a corporate entity backing the inventor. To get something patented today requires TONS of money. Usually at least several lawers are involved. So an inventor usually goes to a company first and pitches his idea. The company then helps the inventor spec out the idea and hires a lawyer to submit the paperwork. An individual who submits an idea to the patent office usually does not get a patent. There has to be proof that the idea has not been presented, and that the idea does not encroach on other patents. An individual would have to be increadibly wealthy to do such research.

So the idea that the gas companies go to the patent office and wait for patents to be published and then buy them up is truely insane. Also, once a patent is submitted it could take years before it is approved. Most patents require revision, most many revisions. That is why you see "Patent Pending" on many or most items.

here is the information on how to get a patent: http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/howtopat.htm

Enjoy reading.

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I got news for you, it doesn't take "a ton of money" to get a patent. I'm friends with an attorney that does hundreds of patents a year for clients. As a matter of fact its relatively cheap. Corporations pay for research etc and high dollar attorneys to file them and thats where their "high cost" is at. Joe Blow can draw a picture up of a part he wants patented and go file the documents and not cost much to do it. It does take a long time to get patent approval, but alot of that is making sure it doesn't infringe on any other patents.