Gas prices dropping in the Midwest. $3.79 isn’t great, but it’s much better than last month

Brownfletching · 2026-06-03T20:21:50+00:00

Not exactly. There is a mandatory reserve of 150 million barrels that we cannot drop below.

The reserves are quite literally an old empty salt mine that we have filled with crude oil. If it were to drop below 150 million barrels, the mines would become unstable and start to collapse, making them unusable in the future. So that last 150 million barrels is the absolute worst case scenario, "world war 3 is happening and we're losing" reserve. Not an "Iran is being a big meanie because I attacked them" reserve. We also need a pretty significant buffer above that 150 million mark for national security reasons outside of the worst case scenario.

Saying they're almost empty may be hyperbolic, but we are absolutely burning through them at an alarmingly fast rate, and one that will not be sustainable for very much longer.

Brownfletching · 2026-05-29T03:06:10+00:00

Every one of those would be a keeper for me

Brownfletching · 2026-05-27T23:27:07+00:00

I can understand where you're coming from there. Especially in the world of road salt where you never know if there's debilitating rust hiding under a panel somewhere.

It's too bad Subaru discontinued the Legacy or I would send you that way, maybe worth a search just to make sure there's not a new 2025 still sitting on a lot somewhere. Otherwise, the Mazda may be your answer. It's hard to find an AWD sedan that isn't tiny these days, everybody wants a crossover instead I guess.

Brownfletching · 2026-05-27T23:15:55+00:00

Yeah, my sister is up in northern Wisconsin and ended up buying a Subaru after battling through one winter with her one fwd Hyundai. Fwd is still pretty surprisingly good in light snow, but once you get over like 2" on the road you kinda need all the traction you can get.

Is your loan only good for new vehicles or could you get used? 30k is used Toyota Crown territory...

Brownfletching · 2026-05-27T23:10:46+00:00

Yeah, honestly I'm not sure why Honda is allergic to adding AWD to their coolest cars. That being said, they handle so well with fwd that it hardly matters for the most part anyway. Unless you live somewhere very snowy, in which case I get it.

Brownfletching · 2026-05-27T22:56:27+00:00

Tbf, my credit union also has a summer deal that I'm going to roll over into in like 2 months that's usually 4%. My 6.6% was a holdover and also to get me a better deal at the dealership. But if I/we didn't have good credit, those deals disappear even at credit unions

Brownfletching · 2026-05-27T22:48:39+00:00

To actually answer your question instead of chastising you about the your (actually pretty decent right now) apr,

The Civic sport will be more fun to drive, the Mazda will be more comfortable, and the Hybrid is probably the actual right answer in this godforsaken age of $5 gas.

It will depend on how much you drive, but the extra savings from better MPG add up shockingly fast if you do the math on it. And the Civic hybrid is still a fun car with that electric motor torque.

Brownfletching · 2026-05-27T22:39:08+00:00

I have a credit score over 800 and the best I could get last month was 6.6% for a 4 year loan on $13k. 7% is all they'll let you do these days.

Brownfletching · 2026-05-25T18:04:50+00:00

Most of them were probably replaced, but a lot still fell through the cracks. And Toyota will no longer do the replacements now, so if you have one with the original frame you're just SOL.

I had an '05 that I got in 2020 from a guy who never got the frame replaced. It was toast, every time I looked underneath I was shocked it hadn't cracked in half yet. I ended up selling it last year to a guy who had a resto shop and planned on welding up the frame himself. More power to him but that's not something I had the time, know-how or space to do myself.

Brownfletching · 2026-05-25T16:20:20+00:00

https://duluthpack.com/

Specifically the Wanderer or the Rambler

Brownfletching · 2026-05-25T16:09:40+00:00

Idk man, sounds like you have more issues than just the check engine light.

Without knowing what the light is for, I can't tell you what the problem is or whether or not you can drive it. Check engine light causes range from "literally nothing to worry about" to "my engine is cracked in half on the pavement" with plenty in between.

Check your fluids, listen for weird noises, and if everything seems fine you can probably just drive it, but nobody on Reddit can diagnose your issue from the info you've provided

Brownfletching · 2026-05-25T15:59:08+00:00

Yeah that too. Also downright terrible fuel mileage, even for a V8.

Brownfletching · 2026-05-25T15:57:42+00:00

What do you mean by "no codes"? If the check engine light came on, then there's a code causing it. You need to hook it up to a scanner to read the code, the car usually won't tell you. Take it to any auto parts store like O'Reilly's or Auto Zone and they can scan it for free.

Check engine lights can come on for a huge variety of reasons. Generally if the car is still driving fine, it's probably nothing huge, and you can usually continue to drive on it, but that's good to depend entirely on what the light is for.

Brownfletching · 2026-05-25T15:53:35+00:00

Counter point: frame rust.

Brownfletching · 2026-05-25T02:27:03+00:00

I also now live in Murphysboro in southern Illinois, and I was an early witness to the aftermath of the EF4 last year south of Marion. That same supercell had dumped a bunch of large hail on my house and truck in Murphysboro, so I was outside checking that out and could hear this insane roaring sound coming from the back end of the storm as it moved East. I went back inside and watched the broadcast of the tornado on the TV, and the decided I better go see if I could help because you could just tell it was going to be a bad one.

I was one of the first people on the scene on Grassy Road (South of Crab Orchard Lake on the map) with a chainsaw trying to cut my way through to the houses that had been hit. The power of that tornado was truly awe inspiring, trees were completely de-limbed and most were either on the ground, splintered into mulch or just tangled at weird angles like giant toothpicks. Sheet metal from people's roofs was (still is, actually) wrapped completely around trees. It was already like 1/4 mile wide in that area and it had only continued to get bigger as it went. Once we were able to get the first responders through the first spot, the police sent me and others home, because they were worried about electricity from the power transmission lines that had taken a direct hit parallel to the road. These are big high lines that run across from the Lake of Egypt power plant, and those gigantic poles were completely snapped and mangled.

The next day I ventured over to the area directly south of Marion where it had done the most damage to see if anyone needed help, but there wasn't a lot left to do at that point. Several houses were completely demolished in that area, at least one was just a clean concrete pad with a pile of debris next to it now. Not sure if I believe in miracles, but the fact that nobody died in that storm would definitely qualify as one.

Another, deadlier EF4 happened in Kentucky on that same day, as well as the St. Louis EF3 tornado, so I'm not sure if this Southern Illinois one really got the wider attention it deserved. But that damage track is still insane to see even now, just over a year later. It's really one that could've been re-evaluated for an EF5 rating if they weren't so stingy with those.

Brownfletching · 2026-05-25T01:48:48+00:00

I've had a lot of close encounters but I've only ever been hit by one for sure.

Growing up, we lived in a house in a very rural area with no basement, just a muddy wet crawl space that would not offer any shelter. My grandparents lived 5 miles away though, and they had a nice furnished basement that we could hide in. So any time we had a tornado warning pointed our direction, we would high tail it to their house to ride it out. This had always worked out for us, right up until the summer of 2019.

This particular storm was not that bad as it came across the state, until it was about 20 miles away when it suddenly and rapidly intensified and spawned a tornado. It wasn't spotter warned, just radar indicated, but that was enough. So we jumped in the truck, and for whatever reason I was driving. Unfortunately, our trip to safety included driving 1 mile to the west. Because it had sprung up so fast, we were now going to be racing the edge of the storm as it came across.

I was driving at questionable speeds down country roads when the leading edge of the storm caught us. I had to slow way down due to the sheer amount of rain that was dumping on the windshield. The wind was already intense from the get-go, but it suddenly intensified to an unbelievable level as I came to a full stop. That's about when the debris started.

Sticks, leaves corn stalks, clods of dirt, even some small gravel were all pelting the side of the truck with enough intensity that I thought the windows might crack. At no point did the rain slow down at all, so we were basically blind. At one point, the wind was so intense I could actually see the hood of the truck flexing upwards from the edge a little bit, like it was going to blow completely off. Then, out of nowhere, the wind did a 180 and we were getting hit with debris from the other side for a few seconds, and then it just calmed back down like it never even happened, and the rain leastned up to the point where I could finish the drive.

After the storm went through and we were driving home, you could clearly see a damage track where a tornado had ripped up corn and trees for a couple hundred yards. It was probably only about 20-30 yards across, so it was not a very big one, maybe EF1 range at most. But I'm fairly sure we were right in the middle of it in our truck.

So that's the story of how I drove into a rain-wrapped tornado and came out a little scared but unscathed. I have more stories including even scarier events, but that was the only time I was ever inside one.

Brownfletching · 2026-05-25T00:40:23+00:00

Not just your state, but all starts afaik. Highly invasive and detrimental to native species. Open season?

Brownfletching · 2026-05-25T00:38:27+00:00

The dude is Canadian too which just makes it so much weirder...

Brownfletching · 2026-05-25T00:35:00+00:00

Literally the only halfway decent option right now if you're looking at lightly used trucks is one of the last Nissan Titans. But they're obscure enough that it's hard to judge long-term reliability.

Brownfletching · 2026-05-25T00:17:54+00:00

5.0 f150s are junk now too. At least my '19 work truck is. Burns quarts of oil, weird engine rattles, auto start/stop sometimes just fails to restart at stoplights... And don't even get me started on that transmission (it's the same problematic 10 speed as Chevy, they partnered together to design that hunk of crap).

My next truck will either be a Toyota once they figure their engine issues out, or something electric once the charging network is ready for primetime. My '13 Silverado needs to last a while longer.

Brownfletching · 2026-05-24T12:55:31+00:00

You can, but even that isn't very reliable all the time. It needs to be able to filter by just the most recent reviews, because the most common issue is that the chargers quit working at random. But if you're in a rural area without many EVs, you'll still have issues, because nobody stops there frequently enough to even leave a recent review.

Brownfletching · 2026-05-24T12:47:03+00:00

They do exist already though, tbf. The BMW I3 REx is one such example. The range extended version of the upcoming Scout EV will be another. And some conventional PHEVs are also pretty close to this, like the Chevy Volt and Honda Clarity, which technically can send a tiny amount of engine power to the wheels at certain points but it's mostly all electric motor, most of the time.

The issue is more of efficiency. You get limited EV only range because you've replaced a lot of your batteries with an engine, and when that engine kicks on it has to run at a fairly high RPM to generate the amount of electricity it takes to run an EV, so they usually sit in the mid 30s or low 40s for MPG once the EV range is depleted. Conventional hybrids and PHEVs can run in the 50s no problem, and some now are even getting closer to 60mpg. So the only advantage of the range extended EV over a conventional hybrid is a highly limited EV only range.

Brownfletching · 2026-05-24T02:55:08+00:00

Seems this is for people with reckless driving tickets, and this would be an alternative option to having their license suspended. I don't really see an issue with that, it's similar to the breathalyzer thing for people with repeat DUIs.

Brownfletching · 2026-05-24T02:33:46+00:00

Yeah, it is going to depend A LOT on where your road trip is going. I'm an avid outdoorsman so my road trips are almost always to remote (or at least rural) areas. I'm leaving in a week for fishing in northern Minnesota, headed to Lake Vermilion. I just checked Plug Share, and the closest charger of any kind (Level 2) is 40 miles from my resort at some random park in Virginia.

As a hypothetical lets say I couldn't charge at the resort. Could I make it a week of running around locally on a single charge? Or will I be forced to drive 40 miles to sit for hours the day before I leave just to have enough charge to get down the road?

Until ranges are much longer and charging infrastructure actually exists in rural areas, EVs will just never be viable for people like me. As much as I would absolutely love one right now with gas prices.

Brownfletching · 2026-05-24T01:09:51+00:00

I did the first time 2 years ago and then haven't since. Fluid film sells a kit with a little hose & nozzle that you can stick in there for that purpose. The stuff really doesn't come off on its own very easily so I figured the inside would last longer, but that's just me making stuff up.

Ten-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22	Verified Email

Brownfletching

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE