OH Happy Day... for now..... only 2 cents apart

After reading this post the other day, I noticed regular and diesel the same price for the first time here in Sebastopol, Ca. $3.99,good ol Ca.

here diesel has been $.05 to $.015 less than regular for several months. And B20 is another $.20-.25 less over that since it is exempt from state fuel tax.

First time of any length for several years that diesel is the same or less than regular.

Both my cars require 93 octane, and it's about $.35 more than 87 octane.

Wow I just paid 2.09 for regular

And keep in mind that a lot of current gas powered engines need 89 or 91 to provide rated power and economy even though they can operate on 87 via audible knock sensors which alert the ECM to use the low octane map.

My Corvette Z06 wants 93 octane which is anything but cheap although I do run a couple of tanks of 91 octane through it just before winter because that is the highest octane available ethanol free in this area.

I use red dye diesel fuel for my tractor and to keep the tank filled in my standby generator since it is significantly cheaper because there is no road tax. In many areas, the greater spread between diesel and gas is from long years of taxing diesel at a higher rate to further tax the road damaging heavy truck industry coupled with the view that it was a "hidden" pass along tax so average citizens wouldn't scream as loudly about it since they don't realize that they are paying it indirectly in the cost of goods. But there is no way I would risk that fuel and the associated fines in my GMC 2500HD. Several years ago there was a brief period when red dye was allowed in this area on the road because of a shortage of road taxed diesel but that was a brief and unusual experience.

add a $1.20 to that in CA

It has been a while since I even looked at gas prices, but here it is $2.15 for regular and $2.63 for diesel. Although, with me averaging 17 mpg combined(hand calculated), even at those prices I still come out ahead versus the 12.5 mpg Fuelly average of the gasser version of my truck by about two cents per mile. Diesel would be have to be at $2.92 for them to have the same cost per mile.

That is a good price for diesel but high for the gas. Gas is 2.34 here.

Yeah, your premium is cheaper than 87 here!

I wish it were that cheap! 3.35 to upwards of 3.90 for cheap unleaded vs premium, diesel in the middle!

Marty

Gas and diesel has been see-sawing with each other for many months here in on the West Michigan Lakeshore where we live. Lowest price we've seen for gas was $2.57 and diesel was $2.61. Both were in the $2.80's this morning. Seems the price changes everyday either up or down a few cents.

When the price of each is the same, Diesel has a big advantage in cost/mile of driving as diesel has 12% more energy in it per gallon etc and that alone with the diesel price at $2.80/gal equates to the price of gas needing to be $3.14/galt o drive the same distance (miles) with both comparable vehicles.

Then the fact that a diesel engine runs at a much lower RPM's than a comparable size gas engine, we experience an honest roughly 30% to 35% less fuel consumed in our diesel engine vs our gas engine truck. Especially when towing or hauling heavy. Had the very same heavy Lance truck camper on both our gas truck and our diesel truck and we seen the difference constantly on the many trips driven. Until last year when we finally stopped keeping a log book, The diesel truck consistently got between 1.36 to 1.55 higher MPG than the gas trucks whether towing our 5th wheel or with the Lance on over a total of more than 470,000 miles driven with the trucks.