It finally happened. Over the last few months there have been days (weeks?) where premium fuel here in Los Angeles has cost me $3.99 a gallon. Keeping in mind that gas stations are dirty cheats, I actually paid $3.99 9/10 per gallon. But those days are long gone. This very morning, I filled up my beloved WRX to the frankly shocking tune of $4.06. Or $4.06 9/10 in dirty cheatin' gas station speak. Now, I don't live in what you would call a "nice" part of town, so I'm assuming other parts of LA are getting dinged a bit more (or, much more). There are those who will of course argue that I shouldn't be griping. Our gas is still cheap compared to the rest of the planet, adjusted for real income, today's prices aren't much worse than they were in the 1970s, I'm lucky I can afford to buy gas, etc. But, $48.84 for 12 gallons of fuel, well, that's $400 a month the way I drive. Which is a lot. Other news: oil hit $112 a barrel. Happy days. Anyhow, you?
Find Reviews by Make:
Read all comments
I did about $3.70/gallon for premium go-juice a few days ago in Manhattan. Same price in the burbs. Diesel is still about $4.50 here. I figure the cost of fuel won't impact how much I drive until it's $8/gallon. Not that I'm so loaded. I just prefer to drive than spend money on other stuff. I also don't have a lot of options, living in the suburbs. Trains ain't cheap anymore.
Paid $3.37 for premium here yesterday. I think it’s about the same today.
According to mapquest, the cheapest is St. Cloud, MN @2.76, and the highest in Groveland (?)CA, @$4.50. (Both for regular). Quite a spread.
About $3.42-$3.49 for premium
Diesel is running about $3.80-$3.85
Hmm…well not today, but I paid $3.41 9/10 for regular and it costed me $48 for near 14 gallons. Then again I drive a humble econobox (not the performance dripping MazdaSpeed3 I’ll be getting later this year) and it forces me to drive like my granny does. No ounce of excitement watsover (hint: it’s from Hyundai).
$3.69 for premium – Morgantown, WV.
In northwest Orange County, 3.959 for premium. Even though our car uses regular, my mom won’t let me practice driving barely for my driver’s liscence test.
Filled up for $3.19 on regular this morning in North West Houston. Diesel was $3.99.
Filled the Jeep Sunday for $3.22 per gallon of 85 octane in Ft Lupton, CO. In Denver, it’s about 3.30.
Also, yesterday I put about 7 gallons of 100 Octane low-lead in my Champ for $3.85 per gallon, some of the very cheapest avgas in the country.
As I was filling up my s10 yesterday for $3.19 I saw the attendant was upping it to $3.25. Everywhere else here in Northeast Ohio is +$3.34. I can’t complain too much, though, only spending $40 to drive to work and class for a week.
In Tampa, $3.57 today, for premium Shell.
1.51€ per liter… that’s $2.38.
Converted to gallons… $9.01.
So stop whining with your $4 fuel. If I could get $4 fuel, I’d probably drive a WRX too.
@Jonny
Ratzeburg, Germany
Hey fellas (and that one lady) — please state where you are paying what you are paying.
I haven’t got any gas for my car in over a week, but on the way to work yesterday morning I saw $3.699 for regular at one of the cheaper stations here in far northern California. I know some of the pricier stations have certainly broken $4 per gallon for premium.
Maybe I shouldn’t say anything cause I just paid $3.11 for the cheap stuff this morning in Virginia Beach. I haven’t really been paying too close attention to the prices all around Hampton Roads lately (normally I keep my eyes peeled for a couple days as I see my needle dropping but I was lazy this week) so I can’t really give an estimate for our average price.
$3.15 for 89 octane, after a 10-cent discount courtesy of Giant Eagle.
Paid $3.39 the other day in CT. Most places are charging $3.44-3.49 for regular, with premium going for up to $3.75. Diesel is in the $4.29 range.
$3.04 for regular in Northern NJ. NJ has it pretty good. At least we get cheap fuel along with refineries’ pollution…
I drive about 250 miles per week, at 20-25 mpg, so that’s about 11gl, i.e. $34, or $144/month. Not negligible, but certainly not a budget buster. My wife pays a lot more for her train pass, and my calculation includes our current non-commute miles.
It’ll go up soon, as we’ll start going camping in the mountains or going to the beach, adding 120 miles/week or so, i.e. another $75/month.
In the area of Los Angeles where I live, there is nearly a 20 cents spread in the price of premium fuel in branded gas stations less than a mile apart. So much for denials that gasoline is market priced rather than cost-plus.
However, this morning I had to slip into a fuel station in Santa Monica and for the first time paid over $4.00/gallon. Yup, the very same $4.069 for premium.
It’s still the cheapest liquid I buy retail for any purpose, and European friends remain envious. Moreover, this is only a bit above the real-dollars (i.e. inflation-adjusted) peak I paid in 1981, when my real dollars income was much lower. Moreover still, while $4.07 is only 4X that unadjusted 1981 price, my income is over 10X what it was then in unadjusted dollars. We’ve been here before and our ability to pay is much improved compared to then, no matter what economic stratum you’re in. Pain of adjustment, sure. But sometimes people talk themselves into a crisis. No doubt gas seems expensive to anyone who recalls $1.00 gasoline in 2000. But that wasn’t normal either.
Phil
$3.45 for 87 in Newark, DE 3 miles from where I live. On the way to work a BP had the Champagne 92 (I pronounce it like Zapf Branigan) for $3.49. So I said what the heck.
Regular unleaded is $3.55.9 in the Traverse City Michigan area, it went up 20 cents 2 days ago. Diesel is running at least 65 cents more per gallon.
Wait until tourist season starts. Car rental prices double, room rates triple and gas prices go uppity up up up (especially for weekends).
“Welcome to Traverse City! Where’s yer money?”
This may be obvious and certainly will not help the discussion, but the price of gas/oil has not gone up. The dollar has fallen in value relative to oil and gold. The value of oil has remained relatively constant in terms of ounces of gold. The real question is how far the dollar has fallen in value today. We can thank our our elected officials, the federal reserve, the comptroller of currency, deficit spending, government waste, and morons who could not figure out how much house they could afford.
The dollar fell to $113.90 per barrel of oil today.
$1.229/litre regular self-serve
Gas prices here in Saskatchewan, Canada are 123.9 cents/L for regular. That works out to $4.69 per US gallon.
$3.80 at a BP in DuPage County (Suburban Chicagoland) for 93 octane.
I consider droping to 87 ($3.60), but on a full tank of gas (20 gal) the cost difference is only $4.
I’m willing to give up a grande mochachinolattewtf every 2 weeks so my ECU won’t pull timing.
I take the Metra train to work anyway, so I’m in no hurry to sell my car for something more efficient.
Los Angeles / Highland Park – $3.99/gallon for the high end stuff for the Ducati. We haven’t filled up the 240 in a few weeks (first owner put a second tank in the trunk), but I wanna say we filled up for $4.35/gallon (diesel). I saw a 76 station (at the end of the 110 in Pasadena) advertising $4.70 on Sunday. F.
Too bad I don’t believe in burning food for fuel.
I paid $3.609 on base in Germany today, but on Friday in The Hague I paid the equivalent of about $8.90. Das hat wehgetan.
Well, on Sunday I paid $3.34/gal. for regular. Also bought some kerosene from the same place for $4.37/gal. Vermont.
Gasoline for Regular in or near Guelph, SW Ontario is $1.12.9 or one litre! Diesel is $1.24 All Canadian Dollars! Premium Gas runs about 10cents a litre more
Lincolnwood Illinois (North side Chicago)
Regular: $3.65
Midgrade: $3.80
I don’t want to even know what premium is.
Regular has been running $3.39-$3.49 where I live in Northeastern Connecticut and anywhere from $0.10-$0.20 cheaper near where I work in Worcester, Mass.
Price Chopper has been running a promotion where for every $50 you spend at the store you get a $0.10 per gallon discount at participating Sunoco stations. If my family needs a lot of stuff, I can get below $3 per gallon for regular.
Diesel’s been running well over $4…most places it’s up around $4.29. You’ve got to do a lot of driving to make that worth it.
-Matt
I paid $3.19 the other day for 87 in central VA. The next day, the price went up by 6 cents, which is the most common around here as I type this.
Last weekend, $3.139, 87 RON, Knoxville…
Just head on over to AAA’s site: http://www.fuelgaugereport.com/
You can get per-state information from the popup menu on that page. For example, you can see that California set gasoline and diesel records in nearly every reporting area today: http://www.fuelgaugereport.com/CAmetro.asp
The real bummer about my area of California is that we get California Reformulated Gasoline version II instead of the federal reformulated stuff you can get elsewhere. It’s not just the marginal octane rating, as both CA and federal RFG have are 91; the car truly hates the CA stuff with respect to fuel economy and power.
Here in California, land of special formulations and wonderful added taxes, I paid 3.77 for regular last night.
Around Boulder (Colorado) today, the prices for regular are mostly 3.299/gal, although I’ve seen as high as 3.359/gal…
-S5
Just paid $3.259 for regular this noon at the HEB supermarket in Buda, TX who normally has the best price around here, along in competition with the WalMart next door. Diesel was $3.95 at HEB.
Diesel, yesterday, was $4.11 in Dripping Springs.
Austin area is usually a few cents higher than San Antonio or Houston.
US$4.60 per U.S. gallon here in Saskatchewan, Canada!
$3.11/gal for WaWa Piss Water, err.. WaWa 87 in South Jersey.
Jonny,
You want to know where we are? Sheesh, that wasn’t specified in the instructions. Collinsville, VA. But now you have to go back to the fist page to see the price.
$4.39/gal for diesel in Eastern PA.
$56 to fill up my goddamned Golf.
Western Michigan (Grand Rapids) $3.59 today.
I filled the Pontiac on Saturday for $3.32.
Boy, am I glad I did that!
$1.15/l in Toronto
$3.25 in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, 24 hours ago. Didn’t look at the price today. The cost of gas doesn’t frighten me nearly as much as the cost of produce, cereal, and other food outside the hotdog-and-frozen-pizza realm.
I make my own fuel thanyouverymuch. You could say I took energy independence into my own (now very dirty) hands.
I do however have to buy raw materials to make my own fuel, and methanol prices are going up right alongside gasoline & Diesel. last time I bought methanol it was around $4 a gallon.
That put my cost for making BioDiesel around $1.03 a gallon.
I just bought another barrel of methanol today and the price is up to $6.75 a gallon(!). My handy spreadsheet says that bumps my cost $1.53 a gallon. That’s 41¢ a liter for you Canucks.
–chuck
http://chuck.goolsbee.org
4.15 9/10 for premium in Sucka Free. Almost $46 to fill up my Focus SVT.
This afternoon 1.272 for litre of Premium in the GTA (Greater Toronto).
This morning – Atlanta – Shell Premium – $3.699 @ 13.452g = $49.76
I just paid $4.15 a gallon for Diesel in Reno for 17.5 gal. Fill ups on my Diesel Liberty are painful but infrequent.I can typically go 2-3 weeks on a tank. Diesel engine + fuel tank sized for gas version = ridiculous range of 400 city ,500 highway
When I can get it bio-diesel is actually cheaper than petro right now. The local bio-refinery is selling B20 for 3.98 gallon with a bigger discount for higher blends.
$3.39 in Poughkeepsie
$1.25/liter for regular in the Vancouver, BC area. Works out to $4.84 per gallon.
I believe premium is about $.15/liter more, so that would be $5.30/gallon.
$4.08 for premium (chevron/shell)- Sacramento region. I drive about 2000 miles/mo at about 20miles/gal so 100 gallons @ $4.08 = $408 a month for gas. hard to believe; thank goodness it’s a business expense.
$3.42 to fill up the Mercedes at the station by all the marinas. Funny thing tho – the diesel had a strange red tint…..
Sid: very nice with the off-road diesel…
filled up at 3.30$/gallon in Indiana…
however – only drive 30 miles/week if there’s no extra trips… – so fill up every 6 weeks…
$1.15/l in Toronto right now.
That’s $4.35/ US Gallon
Oshawa Ontario 1.15 Litre within sight of the GM truck plant [in week # 7 of down time]There is a gas station and a Beer Store 60$ to fill a not empty Firebird. 40$ for a case of Coors Light cans.
A hundred bucks on the 8 klm ride home today.
I think I’ll drink the beer and park the car.
Thats got’a make legal,if not economical sense.
I haven’t filled up in well over a week. But last time it was in the low 3’s at the Shell near Alewife in Cambridge Mass.
Titusville Fl $3.74.9 for premium
Western New York- $3.73 for 93 octane
About 8,5$ per US gallon, or 1,43€/liter. And my Focus gets about 25MPG, or slightly under 10l/100km when i drive it pretty carefully. I drive around 20.000km a year, so it’s an average of 1666km a month, and about 230€ or 360$ a month. My Focus is slow and inefficient. Whoo.
edit: I burn my fuel on the boring roads near the capital in Finland.
$1.15 liter … regular grade here in Alberta, Canada.
Equivalent …
€0.71 liter
$4.35 US gallon.
$5.23 Imp. gallon.
Canadian dollar is about par with US dollar.
@Mirko Reinhardt:
So what are you driving, if not a WRX?
@Justin Berkowitz
At the moment, rentals when I need them for business trips. My bicycle or public transport when I don’t.
I’m relatively fresh in my first “real” job since graduating and still in the process of test driving stuff, but I’ll order something with wheels in May or June.
I need to drive a lot for work, as our customers are spread nicely across Europe, so basically I need good fuel economy, good seats and a good stereo.
So far, the BMW 118d 3-door hatchback was the best, if my BMW dealer can make the numbers work.
If not, Alfa 147 Quadrifoglio Verde 1.9 JTD (FWD but LSD!) or Mazda3 2.0 MZR-CD are the most likely choices.
3.63 at the arco in La Quinta, CA. It’s the cheapest I’ve seen anywhere, even compared to Ontario and San Gabriel Valley.
$3.96/gallon for premium in Nor. California yesterday. Ouch. Diesel has spiked much higher. The truckers are hurting for sure, and the price of many things is spiking as well. Replacement car batteries, for example, are up 25% or more since a few months ago. Much of the blame is being put on the very high cost of shipping those heavy suckers around.
Interestingly enough, our family must be being much more fuel efficient now then we were a few years ago. Just for grins I looked up our total fuel cost in 2004 vs 2007 and we are up about 30% while prices have nearly doubled. Part of that is a more efficient family fleet where a TSX has replaced a minivan, but much of the change is from being more thoughtful about our usage. Even so, we do a lot of driving including long distance. We certainly don’t feel mobility deprived.
Regular is $3.45 in Cincinnati…But I get 38/50 out of my car so I can’t complain. Yet.
$3.18 for regular unleaded in Aurora, Colorado (just down the street and over the border from Denver).
$3.84 for regular in West Sacramento, CA.
My Mazda6 broke the $50 fillup barrier last month.
Update for April 16th,2008 Price per litre in S. Ontario is now 1.17.9 cents due to recent increase in Barrel price and also think that Refiners are increasing there profit!
I paid $3.69/gal for regular (company car) and yesterday I filled my Saab 9-5 with premium at $3.89 in Chicago.
Well, others have made the point. Yet with today’s dollar exchange rate, and with the prices we’re paying in Norway (which is self-sufficient with petroleum, mind you) we’re paying $10/gallon.
And today oil cracked the USD114/barrel barrier …
I paid $3.89/gal premium in Evanston, IL (2 minute drive from the Chicago border). I think since November I’ve only driven 1500 miles.
Popping on the train to work ($1.75 ea way) is cheaper compared to replacement parts/maint/gas/parking ($6-$10) on an STi. The sad part is walking to the train station, waiting, getting on the train for 3 minutes, getting off & walking to work is the same or _SLOWER_ than walking 22 minutes to work.
I’m more concerned about the domino effects of fuel prices instead of fuel prices themselves.
The motorcycle is coming out of storage and it gets in the low to mid 30’s, city and low to high 40’s on highway. All you people who insist on shaving, eating, reading the newspaper, putting on makeup & driving at the same time can thank me for not contributing more to the gas demand by not hitting me.
I also have been looking at 125/250cc bikes which should get significantly better gas mileage. Considering they are sub $5k new with warranty…..It might be worth switching to one instead of driving the neon around when I go out with the wife.
Be happy you’re not in Europe or Canada. With oil hitting almost $1.15 / barrel, prices here in Ottawa are close to $4.90 / gallon for my TL type S (cause it loves the premium gas).
I just went to go write my motorcycle exam and am planning on taking one to work. At 85mpg, it’s a much better alternative than my car.
What motorcycle have you found that hit 85mpg? I can’t find anything and I have been saerching for a while. Most of what I’m seeing is 40-65mpg. I’d love to find something that could do 85+.
Even the bikes that get 70’ish seem to be 200-250cc dual sports that are “not stable” above 60mph. 60mph on our 55mph speed limit road here in chicago will get you killed by someone not paying attention, even if you stay in the right lane. I’d love to find something that can cruise at 70-75 and get 75-85mpg.
On gas prices — It’s all about expectations. People will get used to it (in a few decades), get more fuel efficient vehicles & then not talk about it. I Just got back from Brazil and gas when I was there was about $5.50-$6 a gallon and the income level there is _WAY_ under europe/us standards and I nobody ever really talks about it.
$1.15 per litre earlier this week here in London, Ontario, Canada… on the drive to work this morning its up to $1.17 per/L
$4.10/gallon for premium in Northern California. With a 4 mile commute on a motorcycle, the bite isn’t nearly as bad as it might be for a longer commute in my car. I was still shocked to see that the first number was “4”.
I’m told oil hit $113.66
That said, I fill my tank every two weeks (3 mile commute) and have been paying $3.65 or so (premium)
I’ve seen a few stations around here attempt $3.99 (Mobil) but you’d have to be insane to go there when the place down the street (Hess) is over 30 cents/gallon cheaper.
$3.39 for regular unleaded in Central Ohio this morning – some places were $3.43 for the same stuff.
Diesel was over $4.00 – $4.10 I think was the one I saw advertised.
$1.15/litre London Ontario , is about $4.35/gallon
Of course it went up this morning to 1.17/L
It’s gone up in the last few days here in SW Virgina. $3.49 for premium this AM.
3.49 for 93 octane. The motorbike likes the good stuff. The craptastic car I drive gets 3.21 a gallon 87 octane swill.
$3.639/gal on my way to work today.
$4.26 today for Diesel in Portland, Maine. Luckily I only fillup about once a month, but it’s still not much fun.
Gas is around $3.35 to $3.40 at most places.
Noticed yesterday that a local Chevron has replaced their analog price sign with a more easily updated digital display.
Eastside Los Angeles.
3.19 9/10 for 87 in Meridian, MS this morning
I won’t be buying gas for another week or so but todays price as I drove by was 3.23 in Knoxville, TN.
That’s up about .06 since a couple of days ago.
OK, same gas station its up to 3.35 today up 12 cents in two days (up about 20 cents in a week).
I’m driving around on a quarter of a tank so I’ll have to get gas in a week or two. Not sure what I’ll pay by then.
Kind of wishing I had filled up last week instead of just putting $10 in.