High gas prices have so much infiltrated the average person’s daily life it’s not just affecting the small decisions anymore.
Lara Mackenzie and her husband have a three-year-old and an eight-month-old and they’ve decided two kids is enough because with any more, they’d have to buy a bigger vehicle which would require more fuel.
“With three kids we’d have to have a minivan and an SUV or two minivans; that would be ridiculous,” she said.
Now they have a car and a minivan and they’re planning to get rid of the van.
Mackenzie said it costs $75 to fill it rather than the $55 it cost in 2005.
Interestingly though, Patrick O’Regan, president of O’Regan’s New and Used Cars, says vehicle sales in the metro area and Atlantic Canada have spiked more than 25 per cent since the same time last year.
He speculated this is because the province’s “fleet” of cars is older than in other provinces and as carbon footprints and fuel efficiency continue to be on the top of everyone’s minds, drivers are trading in their old wheels for newer versions.
“With increases in energy costs overall, people will spend money to save money,” he said, adding that older cars are less fuel efficient and environmentally friendly than their newer counterparts.
