How much did you pay for gas today?

It's $1.65 here.

 

$2.19. As is almost always the case, the West Coast pays more than anyplace else.

 

What kind of car do you drive?

Just curious. A friend's dad was an engineer for BP, maybe it was Exxon, said premium was a waste of money and that for most cars it didn't make any noticeable difference.

Also, it was $1.81 at the gas station on the corner here.

 

$1.53.

Thanks Obama!

 

We're at $2.13 here in my Boston suburb. We're usually a little higher too, though not as bad as California. Gosh, I remember when I took my daughter on college tours in 2007 (she's BU 2011) and it was well over $4 in Connecticut.

 

$1.82 in Radford, VA last weekend, minus my mom's Kroger discount of fifty cents = $1.32 a gallon. I don't know about the rest of you, but this felt unbelievable. A bit like rape, but after how gas companies rape us, I am okay with a little return rape.

There's a 35 gallon limit, and it feels a little redneck to bring three cars down to the pump to max out the 35 gallons, but that's exactly what we did. Fuck them. Fuck em right in the gas tank.

 

a 2015 Mercedes-Benz with a 3.5 liter V6 and 302hp. The sales brochure, owners manual and the sticker on the inside of the fuel filler door all read 'this vehicle requires unleaded premium'. Not recommended but requires premium. The owners manual does read if premium is not available, a lesser grade can be substituted for a short time but expect a noticeable reduction in both performance and fuel economy and return to the use of premium unleaded ASAP. I only drive my own vehicles about 5,000 miles a year so the cost of the upgrade isn't really that significant in my overall expenses. I only bring it up because the price difference for premium is a ripoff for drivers in the Chicago area. My brother lives in LA and when I was there a few months ago, premium was only 20¢ more than regular unleaded. I was in Cambridge, MA two weeks and noticed that premium was 40¢ more than unleaded. Noticed the same 40¢ a gallon difference both in Scottsdale, AZ and Fort Myers, FL when I was there last week. I just looked up the price of gas in Juneau, AK and regular is $3.19 and the additional bump to premium is only 15¢ more.

 

You won't notice a difference if you use regular instead of premium. My grandfather and father were both in the car business. Dad used to drive a Viper (I got to drive a Hellcat, it's awesome) before he went to diesel trucks. They laughed when folks were putting premium in their cars.

Anyway ...

Premium vs. Regular

 

$1.56

 

Gas dropped last week under $1.70, but it spiked up 30 cents lastweek in some places and held steady in others. QuikTrip, as I've said before, is always the first to change prices and it takes about 24 hours for the others to follow. But already most prices are back down to close to where they were.

I expect prices to go even lower. West Texas Intermediate closed yesterday at a 7-year low ($37.65).

 

Re: premium gas

Years ago, I had a three-cylinder Geo Metro, and it wouldn't run worth a shit on anything but premium. So I know for a fact there is a difference. This ain't the Duff factory with Duff, Duff Light and Duff Dry all coming from the same vat.

Anyway, regular sits at $1.79.9 around here.

 

$1.40.9

no points.