Rising fuel prices...

[Hambone]

Our unleaded still $1.649 at the pump here, not much difference between the cut rates and big names.
Most stations don't make much on the gas. They make it on the $1.25 drinks you buy when you go inside to pay.

 

[fivestring]

"Most stations don't make much on the gas. They make it on the $1.25 drinks you buy when you go inside to pay. "

Ain't that the truth!!!

I just filled up with regular for $1.55 gal.

Now for you folks older than I.... I can only remember .25 a gallon gas.

Was regular Ethyl or was Ethyl premium?

 

[Bird]

Ethyl was the premium and when we were selling gas for a quarter a gallon, our "profit" was 3 cents a gallon. In those days, we hoped to sell enough gas to pay the rent and utilities, while the real profit that we made a living from was wash jobs, oil & filter changes, flat repairs, belts and radiator hoses, etc.

And I still wonder why "unleaded" gas is more expensive than the old regular because when we were selling regular gasoline for a quarter, we were selling "white gas" and kerosene (mostly used in lanterns) for a dime a gallon (can't remember what we paid for it).

Of course we also sold Cokes, and other soft drinks, for a nickel; a case of 24 cost us $.80 and sold for $1.20. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif And most candy bars were also a nickel.

Premium brand motor oils were $.40 and $.45 a quart (11 cents profit); re-refined motor oil a quarter (12.5 cents profit); wash job (hand washed and dried) $1.50, grease job $1.25, flats fixed $1.00.

 

[pruntyc]

Yes Bird, a man that was just a very few years older than I as telling me one time. They told him in his station that the price was as high as it was for regular, was that they had to add lead to the gas. At the time we were talking, they had just started selling unleaded as such, instead of still calling it white gas. And he said now it cost more because they are saying they have to take the lead of it for the new cars. Seems they always have an answer, right or wrong. And to the other poster, I remember we had a quarter a gallon gas for a number of years. Then if you were going through MO. it was a lot less, like 16 or 17 cents most of the time. I think I saw it at 12 cents one time. They had a lot gas wars in those days. Would I like to see that again. I don't believe much in the good old days, its better now, but that price for gas would be good now.

 

[rockinmywaypa]

Guys you're making me jealous. Just paid 79.9 cents a litre this morning for unleaded regular gas. That's canadian. There's about 4.5 litres in a can. gallon and about 4 in an american gal. Works out to about 3.20 a gal in my guessing. There has been days when it has been higher and there is rumours of it going to a buck a litre so has anybody got a horse for sale?

 

[Bird]

Yep, Ron, I can sympathize with you. On my last trip to Alaska (March '91), there was one place on the Alcan on that trip that, converting litres to gallons and the U.S./Canadian money exchange, I paid $3.40 a gallon for gas. And on that trip, my truck averaged 5.5 mpg. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[Bird]

Yep, Dick, I heard the same stories; regular cost more than white gas 'cause they had to add the lead, then unleaded cost more than regular 'cause they had to take the lead out. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? And yes, during the periodic "gas wars", we sometimes sold gas, I know as low as $.18 a gallon, can't remember whether we went below that or not. Actually the gas wars could help (or hurt) the station owner; depending on his practices. The oil companies dictated the prices, but we usually had a little advance notice of when the gas war was going to start and stop, so the trick was to run your tanks down low just before a gas war started, then keep them full during the gas war, so you had them full of the cheaper gas when the gas war ended and you raised the price back to the normal. We always made several cents a gallon extra at the end of a gas war. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[pruntyc]

Yeah Bird, you said my snow tires were cheating. I can see you know all about cheating. Selling cheap gas at a high price, shame on you. With the margin of profit, one just about had to do that, my deceased brother in law had a station. It had its ups and downs, I worked for him some times. Open up or close up, long hours.

 

[Macroman]

This took a little work but I would like to debunk another myth if I might. The average price of gasoline has been tied to US inflation for the last 50 years despite the peaks and valleys.
It is a bit hard to determine which is the chicken or the egg, but there seems to be a correlation and obviously if we look at the high inflation years of the 70 and 80's they seem to be somewhat in a response to the inflationary pressure of oil prices (Not Carter).
I guess this shows the need for stable energy suppliers and that we are not really paying more for gas than we did. Maybe less.
The inflation is published number and the averge gas cost in 55 is from the US energy commision numbers.
There was a scam pulled in the 80's where the octane level of regular was lowered, therefore the old regular is now mid grade, therefore the later numbers may better correlate to the midgrade numbers.

Year Inflation Cost
Rate Regular Gas
1955 -0.31 $0.30
1956 1.56 $0.30
1957 3.38 $0.30
1958 2.98 $0.31
1959 0.58 $0.32
1960 1.72 $0.33
1961 1.13 $0.33
1962 1.12 $0.33
1963 1.1 $0.34
1964 1.37 $0.34
1965 1.62 $0.35
1966 2.92 $0.35
1967 2.84 $0.36
1968 4.26 $0.37
1969 5.29 $0.39
1970 5.94 $0.41
1971 4.31 $0.43
1972 3.31 $0.45
1973 6.2 $0.47
1974 11.11 $0.50
1975 8.98 $0.55
1976 5.75 $0.60
1977 6.62 $0.64
1978 7.59 $0.68
1979 11.28 $0.73
1980 13.48 $0.81
1981 10.36 $0.92
1982 6.16 $1.02
1983 3.21 $1.08
1984 4.37 $1.11
1985 3.54 $1.16
1986 1.86 $1.20
1987 3.66 $1.23
1988 4.12 $1.27
1989 4.81 $1.32
1990 5.39 $1.39
1991 4.22 $1.46
1992 3.01 $1.52
1993 2.98 $1.57
1994 2.6 $1.62
1995 2.76 $1.66
1996 2.96 $1.70
1997 2.35 $1.75
1998 1.51 $1.79
1999 2.21 $1.82
2000 3.38 $1.86
2001 2.86 $1.92

 

[pruntyc]

Well, I can remember that when I was paying 25 cents a gal. I was only making $1.25 an hour. And that was contruction work and suppose to be good money for the time. Of course now I'm retired, but if you compare it to what people are making now at a good wage for the time. I guess we were paying way too much for gas. Say Bird, maybe we weren't as good off as we thought, and if I got 14 miles to a gal on that old Ford, that was doing pretty good. I get more than that on my Town Car, and so much better car.