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Old 07-05-2018, 08:02 AM
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What was the impact of the 1973 and 1979 oil crises upon your life?

What was the impact of the 1973 and 1979 oil crises upon your life?
In Romania the 1973 dind't had so much nasty impact. There wheren't many automobiles, we had good relations with some of the oil producing countries, and even after 1973 we had in use Gas (Petrol) powered bus and trucks (lorries)! - V8 "Ford" licence. But the 1979 was nasty - no more friends in Iran and Ceauşescu started with stupid iconomies!
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Old 07-05-2018, 09:14 AM
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July 1973, because it had a big engine and used a lot of gas, I got a heck of a deal on a '71 Chevelle SS for $1750. Drove it until 1980 the next "crisis". Man I wish I still had that car.
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Old 07-05-2018, 09:58 AM
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I think it was good for me. It allowed me to buy BIG cars
with BIG engines 455 cid & 500 cid on the cheap. I was
a special cop at the time so could get gas no problem. Also if
you went way out into the country in Me, NH & VT gas was
easier to find & often no line.
Work was a pain setting up deliveries & house calls to save gas.
I remember the boss saying to customers "if you give me a gallon
of gas I will come now".
Sometimes I would use my Toronado to do deliveries & calls for
our best customers. Sometimes he would worry about the impression
our cars gave. I told him its OK, its because we are the best shop
& folks like our work !
I will say one thing though. When I rolled into the barber shop in a
brand new 1976 Coupe de Ville a hair cut went from $4 to $8

73 Zeno
LFOD !
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Old 07-05-2018, 10:24 AM
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I just drove less.
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Old 07-05-2018, 11:28 AM
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Inflation was more important than gas prices. 20% inflation hurt like crazy. Hamburger meat nearly tripled in six months!
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Old 07-05-2018, 10:14 PM
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I picked up a stack of local classified advertising books from that era. In the late 70's the price of gas guzzlers was dropping like a rock. Lots of $800 full-size Mopars or Impalas, but high prices for used VW Rabbits or Datsun's, Honda's, Toyota's. It was in that second crunch that my father traded his El Camino for a Ford Courier (rebadged Mazda pickup) while his best friend traded a clean, garage kept '72 Charger for a Plymouth Champ (tiny Mitsubishi econobox). My father & uncle both installed large woodstoves and planted huge gardens. I was a fairly young kid then so I guess I missed the worst of it. It is rural where I live; the only time I recall gas lines were when we went to Metro DC to visit some relatives. One farmer in our town, who never met a get-rich-quick scheme that he didn't like, built a gasohol plant but it didn't last long.

One thing I remember from that time was the hucksters set up at the state fair. There were a couple guys selling this cone-shaped contraption that attached to the rear wheel of your car and worked as a wood splitter. (sounds safe, eh?) Another guy sold some gizmo that attached to your fuel line and was supposed to magnetize or atomize or some claptrap. He was apparently related to the guy who invented the Fish carburetor as he told a hard luck story of the "big guys" (GM, Ford, Chrysler, Exxon, etc) being out to get him. Dad bought one, I think it cost $45. Never saw a difference, I think his truck got the same 8 mpg it got without it!
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Last edited by bgadow; 07-05-2018 at 10:35 PM.
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Old 07-06-2018, 03:31 PM
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I was the luckiest guy alive back then , as an aircraft mechanic I had unlimited access to "Avgas" , good old fashioned regular leaded gasoline with a 110/120 octane rating , which I regularly bought and used to make up for what I couldn't get at the normal automotive gas stations . Was it more expensive ? Hell yea it sure was , but when faced with hours long lines on the day(s)* when I was allowed to buy normal gas , the Avgas was my "penny wise , pound foolish" solution that saved me a whole bunch of those hours of waiting . Time IS money , and in my opinion the increased price of running aviation fuel was well compensated by the time saved .

* Back then , in the state where I live there were no car license plates that had letters at the end of the license plate number , ALL plates (except so called "specialty plates") ended in a number either odd or even . It was mandated that only cars with plates ending in an even number (2 , 4 , 6 , 8 , or specialty plate) could buy gas on one set of days , and cars with a plate ending in an odd number (1 , 3 , 5 , 7 , 9) could buy gas on the other set of days . This "rationing" was done in an attempt to mitigate the literally miles long lines that would form at most stations that actually had gas to pump .

And yes , several times I saw actual fistfights break out at the pumps , especially when someone had waited in the line only to be told the pumps were empty by the time they actually got to the pump after sitting in those hours long lines only to be turned away empty handed (or more like empty tanked) .

Last edited by init4fun; 07-06-2018 at 03:36 PM.
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Old 07-21-2018, 09:22 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007 View Post
What was the impact of the 1973 and 1979 oil crises upon your life?
In Romania the 1973 dind't had so much nasty impact. There wheren't many automobiles, we had good relations with some of the oil producing countries, and even after 1973 we had in use Gas (Petrol) powered bus and trucks (lorries)! - V8 "Ford" licence. But the 1979 was nasty - no more friends in Iran and Ceauşescu started with stupid iconomies!
Well, 1973 did not hurt us as much, from Pittsburgh, PA, we drove to Beaumont, Texas to see my aunt and uncle and in 1974, we went to see my uncle who worked for NASA at Cape Canaveral at that time. 1979 was a bit different, I missed the first week of junior high (7th Grade) stranded at my paternal grandmother's place when I was 13 because Mom had to save the gas to go to work. Was kind of fun though, I helped her in the garden, read her paranormal books, watched reruns of Love Boat, etc. BTW, in January of 1977, we had a crisis getting natural gas from New Orleans to where it had to go around the country due to the very bitter cold winter at that time. IIRC, President Carter urged non-essential businesses and offices to close, temporary furlough workers, or to a four day week to save energy. It was so bad, school was closed for over 2 weeks. Mom had some time off and my grandmother (her mother) was staying with us at that time so we just enjoyed ourselves together and watched the Blizzard of '77 in the Buffalo, NY area. It was bitter cold in Pittsburgh too like around 10 to 20 below (Fahrenheit). I remember AM DXing and listening to the mess in Buffalo on my radio as well as hours of CBS Radio Mystery Theatre with my grandmother. I love thinking about it, it brings good memories of family to me.
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Old 07-21-2018, 09:27 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by init4fun View Post
I was the luckiest guy alive back then , as an aircraft mechanic I had unlimited access to "Avgas" , good old fashioned regular leaded gasoline with a 110/120 octane rating , which I regularly bought and used to make up for what I couldn't get at the normal automotive gas stations . Was it more expensive ? Hell yea it sure was , but when faced with hours long lines on the day(s)* when I was allowed to buy normal gas , the Avgas was my "penny wise , pound foolish" solution that saved me a whole bunch of those hours of waiting . Time IS money , and in my opinion the increased price of running aviation fuel was well compensated by the time saved .

* Back then , in the state where I live there were no car license plates that had letters at the end of the license plate number , ALL plates (except so called "specialty plates") ended in a number either odd or even . It was mandated that only cars with plates ending in an even number (2 , 4 , 6 , 8 , or specialty plate) could buy gas on one set of days , and cars with a plate ending in an odd number (1 , 3 , 5 , 7 , 9) could buy gas on the other set of days . This "rationing" was done in an attempt to mitigate the literally miles long lines that would form at most stations that actually had gas to pump .

And yes , several times I saw actual fistfights break out at the pumps , especially when someone had waited in the line only to be told the pumps were empty by the time they actually got to the pump after sitting in those hours long lines only to be turned away empty handed (or more like empty tanked) .
I remember that too. As in my last reply, that was why I missed the first week of junior high, was stranded at my grandmother's for a week. It was for the weekend, what started out as a weekend sleepover with my cousin's Sterling and Dave, turned out to be week although they were able to go back home to Columbus, Ohio from Pittsburgh. Mom needed that gas for work. Come to think of it, our license plate ended with a "K" so I wondered if we were even or odd.
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  #10  
Old 07-23-2018, 04:22 AM
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In Romania, during the '80's they introduced a rule that in one Sunday only people with licence plates that had the end number that could be divided by two (for eg 1-B-7272) in the other one only the ones that had licence plate at which the end number can't be divided by 2 (for eg 1-B-7273) could use they cars. And having 2 cars was the privilege of few.
Oh, and in Bucharest you could do a fill per month, in other places only 20 liters per month. The ones with Diesel cars (very few) could fill (ilegally of course) from trucks and buses.
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Last edited by Telecolor 3007; 07-23-2018 at 06:51 AM.
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Old 07-29-2018, 09:07 PM
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Big things were the vinyl pressings going from barely OK in the USA, to often defective due to all that recycled regrind, and seeing roomy big cars fall out of favor. And someone offering my boss insane money for his 1972 Mercedes-Benz 240D (which he was wise to get in 1973, and it's fuel efficiency was a good thing, as he was chief engineer at the AM/FM station I assisted him on, I now have that car). And our station manager buying one himself the week the fuel crisis hit (his neighbor had it for sale when his 1961 Lincoln Continental had to have a transmission rebuild done) for $1900. He got offers for triple what he paid, he kept the Lincoln, the Mercedes, and got a newer Lincoln. Also, this gas crisis also increased inflation (which I saw the effects on the station business)
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Old 07-30-2018, 08:14 AM
Colly0410 Colly0410 is offline
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In 73 here in England you had trouble getting petrol, (gas) some petrol stations would only let you have a gallon or 2, we'd go from station to station but they'd check your
fuel gauge, I disconnected mine & had a full tank... Can't remember a problem in 79 but our North Sea oil was coming on line then & we then became self sufficient in oil... We had a fuel shortage in 2000 as the oil refineries were blockaded by truck drivers unhappy about diesel tax & chaos ensured for a few days. I live near the M1 motorway (high speed highway) & can always hear the background hum of traffic. That week in 2000 I couldn't sleep as it was too quiet as the M1 was empty...
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Old 07-31-2018, 02:40 AM
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In Romania if you had an 2 stroke engine you could put some other types of fuel that behave like gasoline and ride your car; you couldn't do that with 4 stroke egines.
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Old 08-12-2018, 08:42 PM
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In Romania if you had an 2 stroke engine you could put some other types of fuel that behave like gasoline and ride your car; you couldn't do that with 4 stroke egines.
Hmmm, that's interesting, would work as long as you add in the lubricating oil. I know that is also true with the gas turbine engines too, Chrysler had an experimental gas turbine car in 1963 and you can run it on gasoline, diesel, kerosene, JP4 (or any of the aviation fuels), ethanol, methanol, etc.
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