California no longer the highest price fuel in the nation (gasoline)

[user 37446]

The lines remind me of the 1973 gas/oil crisis. Lived in San Rafael Ca at the time, gas lines and odd/even license plate days. Price was about the same as well.

 

[eDJ_]

I was finishing up school in Columbus, Ohio back then and I had my old Van and a little subcompact car. Fortunately the Van had an even number as the last digit on the license plate and the car had an odd number. Every other day you could buy gas depending on whether you had an odd or even last number. So I had that covered. Then they started this crazy 10am till 2pm service which really made it hard for a lot of people to get gas. In some places the stations were only open MWF at those times. I had locking gas caps on my cars that I bought in my home town as I could get them here....where in Columbus they were hard to come by.

There was this industrial surplus liquidation sales place where I found a 5 gallon metal can cheap that was suitable for gasoline. The combination of these things made it possible for me to have gas to get back and forth to school and home to see my folks on the weekends when needed.

 

[Happy Camper]

Thankfully the majority of those vehicles in the Sheetz picture have decent sized gas tanks to make it more than worth their while. That's a great price.

Otherwise waiting for an hour in an idling car to save $ with your 8 gallon tank doesn't really make sense.

I often wonder why people think they are saving money buying gas that's 10 cents cheaper, but driving 5 extra miles (one way) to do so.

 

[user 37446]

I tell my spouse the same. Driving 25-30 miles to save .20 a gallon for 12 -14 gallons just doesn't compute. There‘s a cost per mile for other things as well.

 

[Scout80]

Thankfully the majority of those vehicles in the Sheetz picture have decent sized gas tanks to make it more than worth their while. That's a great price.

Otherwise waiting for an hour in an idling car to save $ with your 8 gallon tank doesn't really make sense.

I often wonder why people think they are saving money buying gas that's 10 cents cheaper, but driving 5 extra miles (one way) to do so.

I frequently see this in the Sam's Club/Costco stations around me - 6-8 lines across, all backed up 10+ cars deep...all to save a couple dollars on a fill up. I did it...once..and waited over an hour to get fuel. I don't know what the idling fuel consumption rate of my truck is, but I suspect most of my "savings" was eaten up just sitting there idling with the AC on...

The regional thing is also very real. I live in a rural area in Arizona, with one single Shell station in town. Their prices are always obscenely high, due to being the only game in town for fuel. Regular unleaded was $5.25/gallon when I went up there yesterday. But I can go to the next town over, 20 minutes away, where regular is $3.65-$4/gallon across half a dozen stations. Diesel is also routinely $1.50-$2/gallon more expensive at that Shell compared to others nearby as well.

Arizona's average fuel cost is around $3.80/gallon, with Phoenix at $4.19/gallon, though that's largely due to the "clean burn" gas mix required in Maricopa county that's basically the same as what makes California gas more expensive. I wonder if that's largely what's driving Seattle's higher costs now too...