Yea, "cheap gas"

Used to be the gas stations would compete with each other... .27 -.34 a gallon...now you are lucky to see .02 difference in price on 2.50 a gallon gas!...seems they just agree on a price and dont compete.

DutchmenSport wrote:
I started driving and paying for my own gas in 1971 when I was 16 years old. I vividly remember the first time I got gas at the pump myself, for my own car, that I paid for myself from working, making my money ... not sponging off my parents..... it was 17 cents a gallon. I thought that was a horrible price! Well, when I was making $1.60 an hour, it probably was!

That's a lot better than making $3.50 an hour when gas was near $1. You got off cheap!

I started driving and paying for my own gas in 1971 when I was 16 years old. I vividly remember the first time I got gas at the pump myself, for my own car, that I paid for myself from working, making my money ... not sponging off my parents..... it was 17 cents a gallon. I thought that was a horrible price! Well, when I was making $1.60 an hour, it probably was!

Instead of getting a better MPG car, I moved closer to work. :) I put on around 15 miles/week commuting, doesn't really matter what I drive.

That said, I've always owned at least 2 cars, one of which is an econobox. Because of this, my 1998 van (the weekend fun-mobile) only has 120k miles and will last forever.

Older econoboxes are cheap and disposable, cheap to insure (with two teenagers in the house, that's a BIG expense), cheap to register and cheap to drive. When it's fried, throw it away and buy another used one. No attachment, just a tool.

Jayco-noslide wrote:
People are increasingly driving larger lower MPG vehicles and not cars I guess partly because they perceive gas to be cheap. Really. I don't think it's ever been cheap to keep fuel in a motor vehicle do you? Even as low as $2 something per gallon it can easily cost $50/week and much more. Not cheap to me. I think we've been tricked to be happy now because for awhile it was around $4. Also, who knows what it will cost in 1 year, 8 years? No one. I do have a motor home but my car will continue to be a compact that gets over 30 MPG.

well, that’s your choice and i applaud it. our first priority is picking a vehicle that fulfills our needs, second is reliability, third would be comfort and amenities. frankly, fuel efficiency is not really a consideration. that’s our choice. it’s good to have choices.

It's interesting to look back at old newspapers and see some of the prices of items from 30 or 40 years ago. Everything was so cheap!
Then take a look at an old pay stub. I was working for this?
It's all relative.

Adjusted for inflation, it hasn't gone up.

Same thing as when they keep having record movie ticket sales but most of it is higher ticket prices compared to 20 yrs ago.

Increased fuel taxes by fedreral, state and provincial governments over the last 40 years have far exceeded any increases passed through by the oil companies.
Yet we still get less services from our governments. And now carbon taxes! What a scam.

I remember when gas was in the 20-30 cents per gallon range, but at the same time I remember being thrilled when my weekly pay check topped $100. $0.25/gallon in 1962 adjusted for inflation works out to about $2.10 today, but that doesn't include the increased fuel tax rates over the years.

It's weird getting excited about $0.92/L gas after it's been $1.30/L. Social conditioning.