Who remembers gas wars?

[Raymond Fries]

I remember taking my wife to Detroit to visit her grandmother and filling up for 19.9 cents per gallon. Hard to believe it costs so much now.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Raymond, what was you income like then versus now?

When I first started driving gasoline was about $0.40 per litre which meant I could purchase 4 litres of gasoline per hour of my wages.

Gasoline now is about $1.35 a litre which means I can buy more than 40 litres per hour of my present wage.

For me gasoline has never been less expensive in relative terms.

Regards, Rod.

[Jamie Buxton]

Hi Raymond, what was you income like then versus now?

When I first started driving gasoline was about $0.40 per litre which meant I could purchase 4 litres of gasoline per hour of my wages.

Gasoline now is about $1.35 a litre which means I can buy more than 40 litres per hour of my present wage.

For me gasoline has never been less expensive in relative terms.

Regards, Rod.

That's not quite an apples-to-apples comparison. When you started driving you were a kid, and you made considerably less than the average wage. Now you're an experienced guy who makes a lot more compared to the average wage.

[Raymond Fries]

I think I made $1.60 per hour back then. my point was that the businesses competed for the lowest prices to get you to buy there. These days it seems that they are all fixed to be almost the same price.

[Rod Sheridan]

That's not quite an apples-to-apples comparison. When you started driving you were a kid, and you made considerably less than the average wage. Now you're an experienced guy who makes a lot more compared to the average wage.

I agree, and I'm sure that it"s typical of most adults..............Rod

[David Weaver]

In 1996, I paid 71.9 cents per gallon somewhere near fredericksburg virginia.

[Fred Perreault]

In 1971, when I went more heavily into the heavy equipment business with several more trucks, bulldozers, wheel loaders and excavators, I abandoned my temporary looking 275 gallon diesel fuel tank and installed a 3000 gallon tank in the ground with a used pump etc. from a local gas station. I bought the first 2500 gallons of fuel for 12.5 cents per gallon. At the time I also had a 2000 gallon tank in the ground for gasoline, and I was buying Gulf Regular gasoline for 26.5 cents per gallon. I was working the Caterpillar machines I owned for rates between $18 and $30 per hour. The most common hourly rates today for machines of the same size is from $125 to $175. In 1969 I had a new Chevy Camaro Z-28 and was buying 103 octane Sunoco for well under a buck.

My, how times change... :-)

[Don Huffer]

I can only remember gas prices at 19 cents a gallon. Gas wars used to be great.

Don

[Don Huffer]

I'd like to know how pour people buy gas. Must be a major burden on their lives.

Don

[Paul McGaha]

I can only remember gas prices at 19 cents a gallon. Gas wars used to be great.

Don

I remember those prices too. I think during the 60's. I was born in 1957 so i was just a kid but I remember my mom and dad gassing up their vehicles.

I think I've seen it as low as $.12 per gallon back then. And the gas station gave you some free drinking glasses if you filled up.

PHM

[David Weaver]

http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/far...oney_2301.html

I watched a lot of videos on this site a while ago, and was able to track it down. Not gas wars related, but depression era where the guy describes buying two gallons of gas once a week to get to and from town, and basically trading their farm output for the rest of the stuff they need.

So, it might've been cheap, but as my grandparents described, stuff was cheap because nobody had money to spend. Nobody bought anything and nobody sold. (this guy says almost the exact same words somewhere in the video).

http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/far...l_life_10.html

This is another video where he describes the rural electric becoming available and not being able to take it because it was $4 a month. In another set of videos on the site, there's a woman whose dad was going door to door trying to get people to hook up to the new rural electric and she complains that a lot of the people refused to spend $4 a month on electricity (she was implying that they were stingy)

Always have to remember how much liquid disposable cash people have when comparing prices, and how much of that is allocated by law to different things (I'll bet property taxes, health care costs out of pocket, etc, are all MUCH higher now than they were back then, even normalized for inflation and productivity).

[Tom Stenzel]

Probably because it's too dangerous to have a price war.

In 2007 I was driving to work and passed two gas stations at Springwells and Fort streets (southwest Detroit). The prices were really low so I stopped and filled up.

At lunch time my coworkers that went out for lunch found Springwells blocked by the police-the owner of one gas station had shot and killed the owner of the other gas station.

I'm glad the shootin' didn't start while I was there.

-Tom

[Jerome Stanek]

I remember going to fill up my 70 cougar and giving the attentent a five and getting $3 and change back. Filling up a Triumph motorcycle for .50 cents. Then going to North Carolina and only able to get 5 gallons at a time. Coming home we had a loaded extended van with my SIL and new baby stopped to get gas and the town was without power just made it to the next town and was told only 5 gallons but when I asked how far the next station was because of the baby they let me fill it.

[Sean Troy]

My first car back in 77 was a 1966 Triumph Spitfire. It cost me 3.00 or so to fill it up.

[Bill Edwards(2)]

This was my father's station in the early 60's.

I helped him change those signs to the low teens a lot.

I remember a couple time falling below 10 cents

station.jpg