Silly Poll: Lowest US Gas Cost/Gal You've Ever Seen

[Midpack]

Triggered by another thread, this one proves nothing except maybe how old you are and where you grew up.

As a youngster growing up in TX, I remember gas being about 25¢/gal but there were (what my parents called) "gas wars" all the time and I remember seeing 19¢/gal once!

What's the lowest price/gal you've ever seen USA only - please exclude artificially low prices like radio station subsidized, etc.

And looking forward to the first person who tells me their answer wasn't available...there's always someone.

 

[Sarah in SC]

You people were there when "fossilized fuels" weren't yet fossils! Dang, I've never seen it anywhere near .30c a gallon!

 

[W2R]

9 cents per gallon in St. Louis in the early or mid 1950's, but only during a "gas war"... at that time, gas stations on the same intersection would try to outdo each other by lowering prices, and the competition was extreme! Usually even during a gas war it didn't get below 10-15 cents per gallon.

 

[scrabbler1]

I answered 27-28 cents per gallon from around 1972 or early 1973, before the Arab oil embargo and subsequent price spike.

 

[ziggy29]

You either remember gas prices before the 1973 oil embargo or you don't. If you don't, it pretty much means you don't remember much below 60 cents.

I don't remember paying attention before then (I was about 8). The lowest I remember was (I think) 56.9 cents.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

I remember in the early 50's (in high school) using dad's car for a date and getting 5 gal of gas for $1. Dad was teaching me a lesson back then about the value of a dollar. I was earning money mowing lawns and dad made me use some of it to buy my gas. When I started college in 1954, the folks bought me a car. They made it sound like they were loaning me the money rather than "giving" me the money. I'm talking $200 for a used green Ford with a huge sun visor and black wall tires and no hub caps. In the middle fifties I was buying gas all the time for 18-19 cents a gallon.

 

[Retire2013]

49 cents a gallon in rural Pennsylvania.

 

[grasshopper]

1969 had $2 to make back to Baltimore from New Jersey. Filled up with fuel from the marina, made it back with a little blue haze out the back. This was my Woodstock not trip, my GF who was banished to spend the summer with Grandparents couldn't sneak away. I spent 3 weeks living on Grandpa's boat without him finding out. Nights on the boardwalk in Point Pleasant, playing Whiter shade of pale over and over and over, and a side trip to Asbury Park to see the Boss.

 

[MichaelB]

USA only? That's no fun, but I do remember my back in the day when it was normal to pull up to the service station and ask for $1.00 worth.

 

[Midpack]

USA only? That's no fun...

I was going for silly poll, not meaningless poll.

 

[MichaelB]

I was going for silly poll, not meaningless poll.

Everything has meaning. It is up to us to find it...

 

[aaronc879]

I was born in '79. I think the lowest I can remember(probably late 80's) is around .80/gal.

 

[harley]

I bought my first car ('65 Mustang) in 1971 when I was 15. I learned to drive on the way home from buying it. My first fill up was $.219/gallon. My first new clutch (a few weeks later) was significantly more.

 

[rescueme]

$.25 gal (and they cleaned your windshild, and checked your oil) in 1965. Hess gas (which was just starting out, in our area).

Of course at the time i was only making about $1/hr, so what does it really mean?

 

[MikeD]

I remember back around '62 or '63, when I was small that my father almost had a heart attack over a four gas station corner in NC that was having a gas war. We filled up with 9 cent per gal gas.

I would routinely buy gas for $.30 gal in 1972. That didn't last long.

We had a gas station that used to advertise "Our gas is five cents a gallon higher than everyone else's" -- Oh, yeah, they forgot to mention that the attendants were topless college girls. They were in Newburg, NY, across the river from my town. I wasn't driving yet but I would've risked a dollar's worth!

Mike D.

 

[eytonxav]

My memory tells me sub .20 when I was a little kid, but looking at this chart may prove my memory wrong:


Vehicle Technologies Program: Fact #364: March 21, 2005 Historical Gas Prices, 1919–2004

 

[ERD50]

And looking forward to the first person who tells me their answer wasn't available...there's always someone.

Would hate to disappoint you, so I won't...

My answer wan't available. Seriously.

I recall buying gas for 24.9 cents per gallon. IME, gas stations always include the $0.009.

Your poll jumps (pole jumps?) from 23-24 ¢/gal to 25-26 ¢/gal, so that excludes 24.9 ¢/gal.

Better luck next time.

-ERD50

 

[73ss454]

I never paid attention when my Dad bought gas. But I can remember paying $.27 a gallon for high test back in the 60's.

 

[jazz4cash]

I answered 27-28 cents per gallon from around 1972 or early 1973, before the Arab oil embargo and subsequent price spike.

My answer also. I started driving in '72 and recall gas spiking up to 36 cents and everyone was going nuts saying it would hit $1.

 

[harley]

My memory tells me sub .20 when I was a little kid, but looking at this chart may prove my memory wrong:


Vehicle Technologies Program: Fact #364: March 21, 2005 Historical Gas Prices, 1919–2004

Your chart shows that in '71 when I bought gas for $.219 the average national price $.36. Pretty significant difference. I now prices can fluctuate pretty widely, but that's like 35%. I swear I remember buying the gas at that price, but...maybe I need to start taking some tumeric.

 

[Ronstar]

I remember paying around 30 cents in 1972. DW pumped gas at her first job when it was 25 cents in 1971.

 

[mickeyd]

I recall paying 17 cents a gallon in 1962 during a "gas war" in Tampa when I was in HS. That price was a reduction from the regular 20 cents/gallon. Hard to believe, I know, but it's all true.

 

[veremchuka]

When I was a kid in the late 50's I remember it was typically 25-28 cents but when there was a gas war I remember 21 or 23 cents! I also remember getting free drinking glasses and especially Sinclair dinosaurs, a green brontosaurs! From '68 (when I started to drive) to October '73 it was 29 to 32 cents, 33 cents was expensive and I'd look elsewhere. There was a station in town that sold it for 38 cents and I never could understand why anyone would go there but some people did.

 

[harley]

I still catch myself avoiding one station and patronising another that has gas a few cents lower. Even a dime lower is only $1.50/fill up, which isn't even half a gallon. I fill up probably ever other week, so 26 fill ups/year is about $40. Less than 1 fill up a year to pull across traffic or go around the block to buy cheaper gas. But the practice is ingrained into my cheap little soul. I don't think I'll ever change.

 

[meierlde]

Actually its an interesting fact that the gas price in 1920 according to a letter written by my grandfather was also about .20/gallon. I recall in 1972 getting to Ca and 22.9 was the price then.