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Yesterday I took a drive in the car and decided to fill up the tank before storing it. The needle was oscillating between 1/4 tank and 1/2 tank (God knows how much it really had with the inaccuracy of these gauges) but I put in Shell Premium 93 octane and ended up paying around $22.00. I don't recall paying that amount to fill up the tank ever. Is this ridiculous or what? What are your experiences on this?

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Not to be rude, but why even worry about this?

If you can afford to own, insure and run an "extra" car, you are hardly in a position for this to matter. You'll put less fuel in it than your daily driver due to less time/miles.

Inflation and gas prices are currently up.

It's $5.79 a U.S. gallon in London currently for regular gas.

If you put in 6-7 gallons, you paid about half that per gallon.

Last edited by DannyP
@Impala posted:

Yesterday I took a drive in the car and decided to fill up the tank before storing it. The needle was oscillating between 1/4 tank and 1/2 tank (God knows how much it really had with the inaccuracy of these gauges) but I put in Shell Premium 93 octane and ended up paying around $22.00. I don't recall paying that amount to fill up the tank ever. Is this ridiculous or what? What are your experiences on this?

I would love to fill up my speedster for $22.00.  You have no need to complain at that price.  Everything is pricey these days, and gas in the U.S. is probably still cheaper than all almost other countries.

Danny is right on in terms of this issue.

It's pricey here, too.  Although we are forced to using metric measurements (which I abhor - Whitworth would be my preference @edsnova ), and buy gasoline by the litre.  For hitest, we are paying anywhere around $1.50-60.   As there are approximately 3.8 litres in an U.S. gallon, that would mean your gallon price for gas is somewhere around $5.90.  (using $1.55 per litre as the conversion).

Life is tough everywhere...

I was always shocked when I had to fill up a rental car in Ireland or Europe as it was always way more then we paid in Massachusetts, so I just checked Euro Gas prices and this is as of today:

NationCityPrice in USD Regular/Gallon
IrelandDublin$4.78
SwitzerlandGeneva$4.74
SpainMadrid$4.55
JapanTokyo$4.24

And here at home in Massachusetts this week:

Regular                  Mid-Grade
Current Avg.$3.411$3.691
Yesterday Avg.$3.413$3.695
Week Ago Avg.$3.425$3.692
Month Ago Avg.$3.391$3.660
Last edited by Gordon Nichols

Gas prices are almost at a record high here and as high as the gas shortage days of Katrina. When COVID first started and no one was driving, gas prices slowly lowered to the point of near sanity but they rebounded much more quickly of course.

I can easily pump $100+ dollars in my wife's BMW X3 and it doesn't go any further than it did on less expensive gas

Did the price of gas go up? I never even look at the gas gauge. 100 miles City and 150 miles Hwy. Then I stop usually at Costco and I never even look at the pump other than to make sure I am using Premium. I have Dodge Ram 5,7 liter. In a similar manner I usually earn a $1. per gallon discount, max 25 Gallons, after spending $1000 at my local Safeway. When I have my discount the truck is nearing empty. So I fill it once a month. My BMW X5 diesel get 28 mpg at 95mph so who cares. Just did round trip to Seattle and bought fuel once each way. During the 1981 recession my business was doing terrible. I sold my 911 and bought a VW Diesel. Biggest mistake ever. The VW in could not be driven in 5th gear in a stong head win. The other side of this story is my son bought a Tesla Model S. I says he saves $500 per month on gas.

Here they want to be like Europe and replace cars with bikes in city centres so they keep shrinking car lanes and increase the petrol cost so you won’t drive as much and use people as human shields to slow traffic down… no guff… they even have the nerve to call the lane signs traffic calming rather than what they are traffic frustrating as every year I see a bunch knocked off.   Imagine the poor fire truck driver can’t negotiate and sometimes has to force the oncoming driver into the signs damaging his car as he barrels along using both lanes … saw this with my own eyes and the city continues to grow the program.

Last edited by IaM-Ray
@edsnova posted:

The Europeans pay taxes and get services in return. In the case of fuel taxes, one benefit is viable mass transit. Crazy system they got over there, I know!

Exactly!

One other thing. The cars Europeans drive (generally) get great fuel mileage. I rented an Opel station wagon in Paris (2017) and drove over 2,000 miles at 75 miles per gallon. The price of fuel was about 1.45 Euro per liter ($7.80/gallon).

I guess they would import those cars here if anyone wanted them.

When your country is 500 miles border to border you don't have far to go. The once good 'ol US of A that distance is 3,000 miles East to West.

We rely on cars and trucks for our basic needs. Not much rail service over the entire country. Europe is spider webbed with rail.

Prior to 1974 the major oil companies capped our wells and bought oil from the Arabs. Fast forward to 2020; US was the largest oil producing country in the world. Gotta ask yourself how gasoline went from $1.50 (here in the Old South) to $3.25 in less than a year?

What I can't figure out is why the people support things that are obviously contrary to their own best interest.

Got to buy gas today. Yesterday it was $2.99.

My Z4 averages 25mpg. Right now the cost to drive 2,000 miles is about equal to the European trip of 2017.

We're a strange bunch us humans; *everything* has gone up over the years due to inflation and other supply/production costs but we want gas to be the same price (more or less) always as if by magic.  I recall being quite small and mom complaining that the local Getty (I think) was more expensive that others and it was maybe $0.20 a gal.

US directly supports fossil industries to the tune of ~500billion a year, imagine what the cost would be otherwise.

Further aging myself, when I was approaching driving age, I was trying to convince my dad to buy me* a car and I think the price average in the PA area we lived was ~3k new.  You can buy an admittedly better car now, but new less than 20k is tough ask.  Gas prices, in that perspective, remain quite 'inexpensive'.

Me personally, I CAN'T WAIT to find out what it costs to fill my new toy!

*Dad was unmoved; no car was purchased for my use regardless of my excellent arguments of persuasion.

@MusbJim you are correct sir!....luckily some of us are able to still afford our 4 wheel therapy...what is sad is the pain being inflicted on those not as fortunate (though inflation of food , gas prices etc... among other things)  is absolutely PREVENTABLE if the powers that be in charge at the moment would reverse course with failed policies and work for "we the people" instead of themselves in their search for ultimate power....just IMHO

If you suffer under the delusion that the cost of a gallon of gas has no further bearing just remember that EVERYTHING we have moves on an internal combustion engine.

Be careful of what you wish for!

Sorry I don't understand what you're saying -  I suffer no delusions around the fact that our world (for the most part) society and economies are  dependent on fossil fuels if that's what you're suggesting.

I maintain that I look forward to my speedster being finished so among other things, I'll be putting fossil fuels into it but mostly hopefully enjoying some retro motoring.

@msjulie posted:

Sorry I don't understand what you're saying -  I suffer no delusions around the fact that our world (for the most part) society and economies are  dependent on fossil fuels if that's what you're suggesting.

I maintain that I look forward to my speedster being finished so among other things, I'll be putting fossil fuels into it but mostly hopefully enjoying some retro motoring.

Knowing everything that you're having done to your speedie, @msjulie, I have NO DOUBTS about your future "retro motoring" enjoyment!

As always, Stan is right on the money.  Anyone paying attention knows that Jerome Powell is full of sh-t. Real inflation is closer to 20-25%.  Look at the prices in the grocery store. Beef up 50%, chicken 30%. Home heating oil last season, about $1.60 a gallon, this year $2.90 and climbing.  At 1200 gallons a season, that’s real money for a lot of people.

@LI-Rick posted:

As always, Stan is right on the money.  Anyone paying attention knows that Jerome Powell is full of sh-t. Real inflation is closer to 20-25%.  Look at the prices in the grocery store. Beef up 50%, chicken 30%. Home heating oil last season, about $1.60 a gallon, this year $2.90 and climbing.  At 1200 gallons a season, that’s real money for a lot of people.

Rick's not going out of his mind, I had (another) "hyper-inflation is here" post I put up after an extremely long day of dealing with... well... runaway inflation. It was too much for a car website so I took it down after Rick responded.

So, in the spirit of this post on this site:

"Yep, fuel sure has gone up, but not as much as some other things".

Last edited by Stan Galat

From the bizarro world of Musbjim, here's another perspective on the angst over gas prices

e.g.- for discussion sake say that price of gasoline is $3.50 in your neck of the woods. Also, figure the mileage your vehicle gets on that gallon of gas. Let's say it gets 20 mpg. I don't know about you, but I'd rather pay that $3.50 for the gallon of gas than walk the 20 miles it would have taken me in the car.

I'm just saying...

Last edited by MusbJim

Lynn and I just got back to our house in Florida after spending over five months at our home in Michigan. Our son in law had a stroke in June, and ended up passing away in October. Our youngest daughter was married to him for two months - he had his 33rd birthday the day before he passed. We spent an additional couple of months up north trying to help our daughter see a path forward - luckily, we're her landlord, and can make rent affordable for her while she make's $18.50/hr at her new job as a postal carrier.

We got back home, only to find out our neighbor and friend of 30 years, was found by his wife dead in the basement of their home - he was 59. I guess my point is try not to worry about money too much - it's a pretty short ride on this planet. Inflation, gas prices, the stock market - they all ebb and flow - always has, always will.

Some may think it's easy for the guy with a couple houses to say not to worry so much about money, and while we do feel blessed, one of our houses has a 30 year mortgage attached. In addition, you could add the square footage of our houses together, and it would still be smaller than what many folks live in nowadays. So, enjoy the ride now - life is short.

Bill

Wow, Bill. Devastating news in all fronts; hope you all recuperate from those blows; especially your daughter. May she find peace and consolation to move forward and may your son in law rest in peace. And yes, without getting too deep into it my faith tells me better things await us after our crossing here. We are not Earth beings but from the spirit and that keeps me hopeful and at ease. Hope you all have a good Christmas/Hannukah.

Here in Mexico propane has gone up a lot. Our 300 qtr tank used to cost 550 pesos to fill. Now it's 3200 pesos !

We have no heater in the house and sometimes it's a little chilly on some mornings until about 10AM.  We have a double sided fireplace  (between two rooms) so I turn on the Propane fake log burner, turn on a fan in the one room and blow the heat out into the living room, then turn on the ceiling fans out there to blow the warm air down on us. Works pretty well !  By 10AM I'm down to shorts and Tee shirt again !  Of course the weather forecast down here is always  "Chile today, Hot Tamale" !

Bill......I am sorry for your losses.  33 years old is tragic !  Two months of Marriage even more !   I sure makes me realize just how temporarily ambulatory we all really are. Susan and I are just thankful for each day we are allowed to live pain free, warm, and happy with a full meal before us...................Bruce

Yeah I just got my electric heating bill for my sail boat. T stat is set for 32 degreesF and I leave her in the Tahoe Keys all year. the Keys is a series of canals and homes developed in the last 40 years. Waterfront homes with boat docks. If keep you boa's interior above freezing and water bubbler to keep the water from freezing around the boat is relatively risk free. No winter storage, and not launch and retrieval fees. She has an electric engine which I simply remove from the water for winter. You have to pump the sewage tank and drain the water tank. I do not allow any #2 on the boat and all pissing has to go in the Lake. Although prohibited I am not to concerned about a pint of piss when dispersed with 36 cubic miles of water. The visualize every drop of water in the Lake comes from snowfall and rain. The 72 flows into the lake are all in a basin that drains to the lake. If it stops raining and snowing tomorrow, may have), it will take 900 years for the water to evaporate.

Bill,

Sorry to hear of the losses you have recently been put through. It does put into perspective how fast life can change for ANYONE. So while we should all live as though our lives will be short, we should live them with honor and integrity, and treat everyone better than we would treat ourselves for today could be our last day. Prayers that your daughter finds the strength she needs to recover and move forward. And the same for your neighbor/friend who lost her husband.

Holy Cow, Bill - That's just awful.

We've been through some rough times over the decades but nothing really as serious as those two, close together.  Sounds like you're being the best parents you can be for your daughter and I'm sure that she appreciates it.  We did something similar for our daughter years ago (early divorce) and helped her all that we could.  That's what you do, right?

I'm hoping you all have as good a Christmas as you can have and know that things will get better.

All the best.  Gordon

Thanks for all of the kind thoughts and reply's fellas   - it's greatly appreciated. The neurosurgeon that operated on Justin said he had an arterial/venous malformation right by his brain stem. He felt it was probably congenital, and could have ruptured at any time. Between him and our neighbor, the world lost two very fine people.

Our daughters have had to endure far more in their short lives than in the entirety of my own. They'll be ok, but they've certainly been tested. Live for today - it's all we've got.

Everyone have a safe holiday season, and thanks again for the kind words of support.

Bill 

@majorkahuna posted:

Yeah I just got my electric heating bill for my sail boat. T stat is set for 32 degreesF and I leave her in the Tahoe Keys all year. the Keys is a series of canals and homes developed in the last 40 years. Waterfront homes with boat docks. If keep you boa's interior above freezing and water bubbler to keep the water from freezing around the boat is relatively risk free. No winter storage, and not launch and retrieval fees. She has an electric engine which I simply remove from the water for winter. You have to pump the sewage tank and drain the water tank. I do not allow any #2 on the boat and all pissing has to go in the Lake. Although prohibited I am not to concerned about a pint of piss when dispersed with 36 cubic miles of water. The visualize every drop of water in the Lake comes from snowfall and rain. The 72 flows into the lake are all in a basin that drains to the lake. If it stops raining and snowing tomorrow, may have), it will take 900 years for the water to evaporate.

Heating oil (for those of us unfortunately? in historic houses without natural gas) is at an ALL TIME high, a full 50% higher than what it was 10 years ago.

Really time to move somewhere warmer.

Auto gas is higher than Katrina days.

@slowshoes so sorry to hear about this.  I am an AVM survivor myself, still get an MRI every few years.  Only knew it existed because it was very loud.  They are quite rare.  There is some debate that Howard Hughes had one that was very loud, hence the reason he liked being in a cockpit where the sound was drowned out.  They can also drive you to madness because of the non-stop noise while for others they are silent.

@slowshoeslowshoes I broke down in tears after reading this and I don’t even know you it Tug at my heart strings! Sorry for your loss I hope your daughter finds her way.There are some tuff times ahead for sure!! We lost our oldest son 14 yrs ago in a car crash and my older brother about 6 - 7 months afterwards it might even been 8 months, I don’t know for sure I just Know we were living in a fog for a couple years. I just Know its the Hardest thing my wife ,kids & I have ever been through!! TIME makes it easier to deal with but the Grief well slip back in out of nowhere and hit you Hard but I think that’s all apart of healing. Holidays, birthdays, death days are usually the worst! My wife is the strong one, she said OK we still got a couple more boys to raise and let’s try to Not let our grief overwhelm us to where we neglect our other children. From then on we decided that we still have a life to live and life goes on and will see them again some day.  I don’t think they would want us to do it any other way! The ones we lost I mean. We will keep you in our prayers!

So like so many others have said before Cherish the Day because you never know when it’s gonna be your last! So be kind to each other and try not to go to bed Mad at each other if can!

Wow, really sorry for your loss. Tto hear 60 years is a long time and then to find yourself without her .. just wow,  thank God he is the God of the still living, but unseen.


@jprpdr

True story,  a friend lost his son at 33y.o. in a tragic accident.  

He had a service eulogy where the older pastor in private told him one of his life events.  He had died on the operating table and went to heaven, there he saw all of time on a single plane with all his relatives that came to greet him, past, present, future and he felt so much love from all that he realized he was in heaven and then he suddenly came back and when he woke up he lost all fear of death as he now knew he was going home for a family reunion when he would pass.

Last edited by IaM-Ray

Regarding the graph, gas prices, and the larger picture:

I agree with Ed regarding the historical downward trend in gasoline prices, especially if we are talking about a 100 year time window.

Most of us are not.

The graph from 1918- 1960 is pretty irrelevant to any discussion. In 1918, the petroleum industry was in its infancy and was essentially a monopoly. Even price data from 1960- 1973 has limited utility in the discussion, because that was all pre-EPA - pre-unleaded fuel, and pre-modern economy in a lot of important ways.

When most people complain about gas prices, they're complaining about the extreme volatility - the "knee jerks" that Bob notes, as well as the general "straight up" increases since 2002. There was a major dip that occurred around 2010 with the advent of fracking, but fracking is the nuclear power of our generation - the environmentalists' sum of all fears. There is still great pressure to stop it.

The graph also has no recent data. I think the point most people are making is that the current average price is at or over the peak of the graph ($3.50/gal), meaning that it's 30%-50% more than it was a couple of years ago.

Obviously, everything has to be viewed through the lens of the general rate of inflation, and that's been my point in trying to sound the alarm regarding real (as opposed to "measured") inflation. In the places that matter most, the cost of goods i accelerating pretty dramatically. Will it slow or stop? Not as long as the Fed is buying bonds and keeping interest rates at near zero. Will the price of gasoline return to earth? Not as long as we make it harder and harder to extract, transport, and burn with policy and treaty.

Whether or not this is a good thing is politics, which I'm trying hard to personally forswear on this site, but it's got to be fair for old men (many of whom are on fixed incomes or money they saved when it was worth a lot more) to complain about the price of gas, which is after all, the great American pastime.

Regardless, as Jim notes - driving a Speedster remains pretty cheap therapy.

Last edited by Stan Galat

I have no heat in the first floor of my house in Norfolk. Currently with 2 space heaters going it’s 59 degrees F. My heater/AC guy tells me the part to fix the system is sitting in a boat in the Pacific Ocean. Said it will be early January until I have heat. Conciliation is at least I’m saving a few bucks.
In regards to the other serious drift. Some folks just have a time bomb in them that can go off at any time. No reason to think about it since there’s nothing you can do about it. Just try to control what you can control. Try to eat right. Try to exercise. Get your yearly check up with your physician. And try to be kind. Being content and happy is probably the best thing you can do for your health.

@550 Phil posted:

I have no heat in the first floor of my house in Norfolk. Currently with 2 space heaters going it’s 59 degrees F. My heater/AC guy tells me the part to fix the system is sitting in a boat in the Pacific Ocean. Said it will be early January until I have heat.

... must not talk about it... must not talk about it... must not talk about it...

Lalalalalalalalalalalala.

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