Gas Prices

[nissangirl74]

Gas here in the Valley has risen 19 cents in the past month. In the Frontier, that amounts to a difference of $3.55 per tank. Not exactly breaking the bank. How bad is the spike where you live? How high will prices have to go before it starts making a difference in your driving habits? How much are you willing to spend per gallon before you say, "Forget it! I'm taking the bus!"

These f*** are cutting holes in people's tanks to steal gas.
http://www.thecarconnection.com/marty-b ... d+Blogs%29

[downedzephyr]

i think in the CA Bay Area we hit about a 40 cent raise per gallon in gas prices in around a month. total bs. that's an extra 6 bucks a fill for me

[dre1507]

i was seriously considering to sell my gas guzzler car, but meh, life's too short to drive a prius.

the highest i've seen within a 5 mile vicinity of me is $3.9x/gallon. i'm guessing some places have already broken the 4 barrier or are getting ready to over the next couple of days.

[nissangirl74]

I can't help but wonder how much of that 40 cents makes its way back to a middle eastern oil company, or if it all stays here to pad the locals' pockets

[downedzephyr]

I can't help but wonder how much of that 40 cents makes its way back to a middle eastern oil company, or if it all stays here to pad the locals' pockets

i'm willing to bet a fair chunk of it goes back to a middle eastern oil company; if i'm not mistaken the price of a barrel of oil has gone up a fair amount

[S13_love]

How bad is the spike where you live?

It's actually not that bad...gas was hovering around $2.75 (give or take a few cents) for god knows how long and then in the past few weeks, it's just been sloooowwwwllllyyyy increasing. Once it reached $2.98 (a couple of days ago), it jumped 11 cents...and yeah, that's about it.

How high will prices have to go before it starts making a difference in your driving habits?

For me, if (probably should say when) prices reach over $5 per gallon...then I might consider changing my driving habits.

[dre1507]

making me think more and more about that road bike i still haven't bought yet.

[downedzephyr]

It's actually not that bad...gas was hovering around $2.75 (give or take a few cents) for god knows how long and then in the past few weeks, it's just been sloooowwwwllllyyyy increasing. Once it reached $2.98 (a couple of days ago), it jumped 11 cents...and yeah, that's about it.

i would kill for those prices. add an extra dollar and you're at what i'm paying

[nissangirl74]

It's actually not that bad...gas was hovering around $2.75 (give or take a few cents) for god knows how long and then in the past few weeks, it's just been sloooowwwwllllyyyy increasing. Once it reached $2.98 (a couple of days ago), it jumped 11 cents...and yeah, that's about it.

i would kill for those prices. add an extra dollar and you're at what i'm paying

Are you running reg, mid-grade, or prem?

[dre1507]

oh yea i forgot to mention i'm running prem. but i must say the regular guys are still looking at ~$3.5x/gal. at most places. Chevron is the highest in my neighborhood. In my case i honestly don't see the difference in longevity amongst any of the different brands. so i try to look around for the cheapest.

[Razi]

I miss $1 gas prices.

[asoomal]

I pay around $1.50/L here in the Lower Mainland.

Which is around $6ish a gallon.

Filled it up with V Power 92 down in Blaine for less than $1.15ish a litre.

[downedzephyr]

Are you running reg, mid-grade, or prem?

i run 91 octane, and it's getting pretty close to $4/gal

[Ace2cool]

For 91 octane here on base is $3.85, up from $3.45 at the beginning of February. Out in town, I haven't checked in the past few days, but I'm sure it's broken $4.00 for premium. Subtract $.20 and you have regular price.

[nissangirl74]

I miss $1 gas prices.

When I was your age..... .....I was driving a '79 Datsun 210. For $5, I could buy two gallons of gas (about 75-80 miles), a pack of Marlboro Lights, and a 20 oz. Mountain Dew. My how times have changed

[downedzephyr]

I miss $1 gas prices.

When I was your age..... .....I was driving a '79 Datsun 210. For $5, I could buy two gallons of gas (about 75-80 miles), a pack of Marlboro Lights, and a 20 oz. Mountain Dew. My how times have changed

i blame it on the treasury printing more money to pay for their debts, without realizing the severe impact of the inflation it causes.

[s0m3th1ngAZ]

Yeah this spike is worse than a couple years ago yet people seem to have glossed it over...

[Ace2cool]

Yeah, cause we're used to it, and realize how useless complaining about it is. All we're doing is wasting our breath.

[el_blacky06]

Gas prices are insane right now. I'm at 3.99 a gallon on premium grade =( I'm sure it will be at 5 dollars a gallon once summer time comes around.

[nissangirl74]

This is gonna suck for people who were planning on taking road trips this summer.

[flohtingPoint]

My MR2 takes 100 octane, so it's about 10 bucks a gallon.

[hitbychance]

$1.30 a litre here, expensive considering we have one of Canada's largest oil refinery's in our city at 326 hectares of land

[frapjap]

From the posts above, gas here is 3.25-3.50 as of this morning. Like the OP mentioned, its $3-4 extra, not a deal breaker.
When we get to $4+ like we did 2 summers ago, my driving habits still don't change too much, but my rate of filling up does. Anytime I see cheaper gas than usual, I refill. Brings the average cost down. Besides, I don't really have anything better to do for those 3 minutes anyway.

However, if we start seeing $5-6/gallon, I'm going to have to switch my insurance around and make the Miata the full time driver and the Trans Am the pleasure car considering half the cylinders gets substantially better gas mileage.

[mmkeller]

3.39 here in s MN. not bad yet.

$1 gallon, try 40 cents back in my day. They even had gas wars now and then. Gas wars you ask...when stations would lower prices to get your biz before the other station could blink an eye.

[THawks]

Filled up yesterday for $3.49 for 87 octane in Nebraska. Jump of $.25 since Thursday. Of course the 89 Octane (with 10% ethanol) is 10 to 15 cents cheaper but I refuse to buy it because the cent/mile tends to equal out for me while getting less mileage per tank in the 89.

[Encryptshun]

I actually feel bad complaining about gas prices in the presence of those who live outside the U.S. I filled up last night and 93 octane by my house was $3.98/gal. However, let's look at the tax structure where I live for gas:

Tax (per gallon):

State sales tax: 6.25%
Cook county sales tax: 2.50%
IL state gasoline tax: $0.39/gallon
Cook county gasoline tax: $0.05/gallon

So, assuming the base price for a gallon of gas would be $1.00, pump-price would be $1.00 + 0.39 + 0.05 *1.0625*1.025, or

(1.45+0.09)=1.54+(1.45*.025)= $1.58

So that is effectively a 58% tax rate per gallon of gas if gas is $1.00/gallon. Of course the percentage drops the higher the base price of gas gets until the special state and county flat-tax gets absorbed, but you get the idea.

The taxes actually drive some independent gas operators out of business, especially on the county borders where customers can just drive across the street and pay up to a dime less per gallon. The retailers have to make up the tax difference from their margin, which isn't sustainable when margins on selling refined gas are already low.

So (feel free to argue if I'm off base here) basically the federal government subsidizes the cost of refined petrolium (at taxpayer expense) so that we'll buy more gas which is then taxed even more by the states, counties, and municipalities. The only winner is the oil companies who get to pad their margins due to the subsidy (and then still make even more when they sell the product), and the state/county/municipal tax entities who are getting a huge boost in revenue from the taxation. How much is that gallon of gas REALLY costing us?

Anyone know how much of our federal tax dollar is spent on the subsidy?

[Ajax]

$3.50 or so here in Minneapolis, MN for regular. I already bike or walk a fair amount- I hate parking downtown, so a 40 minute walk is worth it. In warmer times (you know, not sub-freezing), I'll ride my bike @10 miles to the day job twice a week. Its not really to save gas, its more for the fun excercise in addition to not adding to the congestion/pollution (that's obviously more of a principle thing, since my mazda is small and fuel-efficient anyway).

[Kompresshun]

It's $3.35 here today, honestly I won't really get upset until it gets well over $4.00 a gallon. We only drive around town mainly, so the only thing we would probably be cutting back on is road trips. I've heard that it'll be $5.00 a gallon by December, it's ridiculous to me that we just get stuck with whatever they tell us we're gonna pay, they know we're not gonna stop driving all together. I hear people say, oh i'll just quit driving if it gets that high! That was during the last spike, they never quit driving and it honestly wouldn't matter. Unless more than half of the US did the same thing, it won't even raise an eyebrow, even then I doubt it would really matter to the government or the oil companies

[Jesda]

$1.30 a litre here, expensive considering we have one of Canada's largest oil refinery's in our city at 326 hectares of land

How metric of you.

[ProudNissanFreak]

$3.50 here. Was $3.29 earlier last Wednesday. Not a fan.