Gasoline prices have been cheap for a LONNNNNNG time

Not that I'm complaining. But I passed a local station today and regular unleaded was $1.91 per gallon.

A few years ago it was over $3 a gallon. What the hell's going on?

US domestic production increased significantl, so OPEC lost their stranglehold on the market.

$2.34 here. 

2.89 for 92 octane here

Here in Vancouver it hovers around $1.34 per litre, some days when they really want to hurt you it goes over $1.44/L.  It went up when oil prices went up, but when the price of oil came back down, gas prices stayed up.  

I want to know why the price difference between regular and premium has changed. used to be 10c increments, even when gas was 3-4/gal. Now regular is like 2.50 and premium is like 3.50. Come on, man!

$3.39 for 91 here in Los Angeles

What is this about cheap gas?

2.75 for regular here.

Not nearly as bad as it had been, but still not "cheap" like it used to be. Seems to hover around this price year round though, which is nice I guess. 

spandak said:

$3.39 for 91 here in Los Angeles

What is this about cheap gas?

You can thank our state government environmental regulations for it.  We have boutique gas, there's only a couple refineries who make it, so it's more expensive.  Oh, that and the bumped up gas tax.

RoddyMac17 said:

Here in Vancouver it hovers around $1.34 per litre, some days when they really want to hurt you it goes over $1.44/L.  It went up when oil prices went up, but when the price of oil came back down, gas prices stayed up.  

That's $5+ per gallon, to put it into 'murican perspective.

I'm old enough to remember cheap gas.  $2 a gallon ain't cheap.  I know we'll never see 29 cents a gallon again, but I'd say cheap gas is anything under a buck.  Pretty sure it was around that number not more than 15 years ago.

Well, not to date myself too much, but I can remember Southern California 'gas wars' and $.19 per gallon on all four corners of a major intersection... 1988RedT2 is right

89 octane is about $2.09 here. 93 octane is around $2.29. 90 octane non-ethanol gas is around $2.49.

$3.20 for 91 when I filled up a couple days ago.  Enjoy your cheap gas.

Cheapest gas I remember buying was about $1.10 for 87 in the mid 90's.

Gasoline was well under $0.50/gal. when I started driving.

$1.00 gas in the early nineties is equivalent to about $1.80 now based on inflation.  .25 gas in 1965 is equivalent to 1.95 today.  We are not far off the good ole days when you take inflation into account.

87 was $2.12 today in jacksonville.  I agree with Robbie the difference between the grades is the biggest difference.

Ovid_and_Flem said:

Not that I'm complaining. But I passed a local station today and regular unleaded was $1.91 per gallon.

A few years ago it was over $3 a gallon. What the hell's going on?

I just paid under $3/gallon for the first time in maybe six months, maybe.

The new rocketship has been averaging 16mpg.  Or about half what I was getting with my S40.  Ugh.  I just tell myself that it's not $8-12/gallon like in first world countries.

codrus said:

spandak said:

$3.39 for 91 here in Los Angeles

What is this about cheap gas?

 

You can thank our state government environmental regulations for it.  We have boutique gas, there's only a couple refineries who make it, so it's more expensive.  Oh, that and the bumped up gas tax.

 

But it’s the same price hike in Oregon, which doesn’t have those commie-fornia laws. Regular here is 2.39, creamium is 3.49. 

Trackmouse said:

But it’s the same price hike in Oregon, which doesn’t have those commie-fornia laws. Regular here is 2.39, creamium is 3.49. 

Yeah, expensive gas in Oregon is a minimum wage jobs program.

Prices seem to bounce around much more radically than they used to. When prices were $1 or so a gallon they only moved around by 20 cents or so. Now they move a buck or more over the course of a year.  Sure its not $5 a gallon currently, but I always fear that it could be again, very rapidly.  Anything over a buck a gallon isn't "cheap" to me.

Compare gas prices to minimum wage and what a person on minimum wage might be driving.

Currently gas on average in the US is $2.50, minimum wage is $7.25.

1 hour of work buys you 3 gallons of gas

when i was in high school, (1992) gas was  $1.13 average and minimum wage was $4.25

1 hour = about 4 gallons of gas

in 2012 gas averaged $3.64  min wage $7.25 

1 hour = 2 gallons of gas.

While you might be driving something better on gas as time goes on, you can't keep up with gas prices that double and wages that don't.

look at the volatility: (prices from  energy.gov)

in 1963 average was 31 cents, 1973 39 cents. 10 years to increase 30% but still affordable compared to wages etc.

1974 gas leaps to .59 and is $1.19 by 1980.  Doubling in 5 years!  Now we're into real money.

1980-1999- gas stays stable for 20 years, wavering around $1.10 with a few dips and bumps around 15%

prices bump to $1.59 in 2000 then rapidly rise in 2003, doubling by 2008 to $3.27.

2010-2012 saw a dollar a gallon increase in just 2 years, again about 30% like in the 60'.

it's a bit different when 30% is a buck, not 9 cents.....

I know a lot of us were paying $4-$6 dollars for a couple of years in there, lets hope that doesn't happen again!

Wages, inflation, politics, etc all have a effect.

Paid $3.31 in Fairbanks, AK for 87. There’s a pair of gas stations roughly 100 miles south of us that had gas for $2.79 for 87 on Friday, I’m just a little salty about it but other than visually seeing how much I’m getting screwed there’s not much I can do about it.  

The Highway Trust Fund has been falling short and required $115 Billion to the Highway Account in transfers to stay solvent over the past decade. And that is with our current system that is crumbling in many areas. Per gallon federal gas tax hasn't been raised in 25 years.  For current highway trust fund costs to be covered by gas taxes, as intended, gas taxes would need to go up, and people would be paying more at the pump. If we expect improvements and a highway system that meets global standards, it would need to go up even more. (unless we expect income tax and debt to pay for it)

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/olsp/fundingfederalaid/07.cfm



 

SkinnyG said:

RoddyMac17 said:

Here in Vancouver it hovers around $1.34 per litre, some days when they really want to hurt you it goes over $1.44/L.  It went up when oil prices went up, but when the price of oil came back down, gas prices stayed up.  

That's $5+ per gallon, to put it into 'murican perspective.

Actually about $3.80, roughly double.

What it was in the 80's (US price being double that of where we are in Ontario)

A little more than a buck a liter here. Last time we were in western NY, a few months ago, it was a wash.

as long as premium stays under $3  a gallon i dont complain. i remember paying $4+ for it when i was driving a car that got 14mpg mixed 180 miles a weekend to visit my kids in the nicu.