Average gas price $6.20/gal by end of Summer

[Turbo29]

For those who don't have "Kroger," you may have one of these other Kroger brands. For instance in Arizona we have "Fry's," which gives out fuel points.

Kroger Family of Companies

 

[Koolau]

I wonder why, they’d rather tie up two pumps? Attendants here don’t have time to watch the pumps anyway, they’re busy with the “store.” Fuel points are restricted to no more than 35 gallons, but we can’t get anywhere near that - less than 25 gallons fills our cars.

Several folks here have also mentioned a $100 limit on the pump. Even if you have a 35 gallon tank, you'd crap out at around 20 gallons anyway. YMMV

 

[Ian S]

At least for the Kroger corp system, the points work at any Kroger corp affiliate: any grocery store under the Kroger umbrella. Any Kroger company customer loyalty card works at any Kroger affiliated grocery store; along with the points and fuel discounts. You don't have to live in Ohio. It does not have to be "Kroger" branded card, it can be any Kroger affiliated store card.

We also make great use of our Fry's (which is Kroger in Arizona) fuel points. Here, Fry's frequently will run a promotion that will give you 4X the fuel points on gift cards. They run it before just about every holiday on the calendar (right now it's for Father's day, last month it was Mother's day.) Separately, they will often offer a digital coupon that gives 200 bonus points for a few individual gift cards. This week, I picked up an Applebee's gift card for $25. So with the 4X promotion, I get 100 fuel points and added to that another 200 fuel points to make 300 total. That amounts to a discount of $0.30 per gallon which for a fill-up of say 25 gallons amounts to $7.50 total. But wait, I get 2% cash back on the purchase of the gift card using my Fidelity Visa which is another $0.50. That makes a total savings of $8.00 on the purchase of a $25 gift card! Hard to beat. And I can redeem my gas points not only at the Fry's gas station but also at the Circle K just down the street. And, FYI, Fry's gasoline and our nearby Circle K have as good prices as any.

We make so much use of this benefit, we rarely have to buy gas without a discount of $1.00 a gallon (the most discount allowed.) We leave for San Diego on Saturday to visit relatives. We will fill up at the Fry's ($1.00/gallon discount) in Yuma before crossing into Cali. There will have to be one fill-up in San Diego at either a Navy Exchange or Costco, then we will be able to get back to an Arizona Fry's to fill up with another $1.00 per discount.

 

[Midpack]

Several folks here have also mentioned a $100 limit on the pump. Even if you have a 35 gallon tank, you'd crap out at around 20 gallons anyway. YMMV

I’ll have to see what pre-authorization limits I run into. I’d think CC companies will have to raise them with gas prices this high.

 

[NW-Bound]

Several folks here have also mentioned a $100 limit on the pump. Even if you have a 35 gallon tank, you'd crap out at around 20 gallons anyway. YMMV

With a 55-gal tank in my motorhome and the $100 limit, I usually had to hang up the nozzle and repeat the credit card payment process in order to fill up the beast. And that was back when gasoline was still cheap (hah!), and of course you don't want to be anywhere close to empty in a cross-country drive on the backroads.

I usually get antsy when I am down to 1/3 tank full, and usually filled up when I got below 1/2 tank.

I got used to triple-digit fill ups, but have not gone over $200. If I take my 8-mpg motorhome out now for a trip, $200+ per fill-up will be the norm.

The way it's going, soon it will be $1 per mile. And I have made two 10,000-mile RV trips, one to Nova Scotia, and the other one to Alaska.

 

[audreyh1]

Advantage of a diesel motorhome - I used the big truck diesel pumps. No problem buying several $100s of fuel at once but I had to take my credit card inside most of the time because we didn’t have a commercial account. We had a 110 gallon tank. I think the most I ever bought at one fill was 90 gallons.

 

[Koolau]

Advantage of a diesel motorhome - I used the big truck diesel pumps. No problem buying several $100s of fuel at once but I had to take my credit card inside most of the time because we didn’t have a commercial account. We had a 110 gallon tank. I think the most I ever bought at one fill was 90 gallons.

Whoa! I can't imagine a $600 fill up. I think I'd just park the thing. YMMV

 

[REWahoo]

Advantage of a diesel motorhome - I used the big truck diesel pumps. No problem buying several $100s of fuel at once but I had to take my credit card inside most of the time because we didn’t have a commercial account. We had a 110 gallon tank. I think the most I ever bought at one fill was 90 gallons.

I never considered the 150 gallon tank on our diesel motorhome to be an advantage. We never allowed it to get below 75 gallons as I could not stomach the cost to fill the tank if it was any lower.

 

[audreyh1]

We were full-timing, so traveling slowly cross country meant fill ups were infrequent. Without house owning expenses we didn’t mind.

I remember a $400+ fill up in OR somewhere I think during 2008 summer - that was the highest by far.

Mostly in the $200s, sometimes $300s per fill up. This was 2005-2010. Diesel jumped up after Katrina in 2005 and never came back down below gasoline prices, but it was still way lower than today.

I probably was paying $2.75 a gallon or less when I filled up that 90 gallons. That’s under $250. We were usually filling up between 60 and 80 gallons.

We got around 11 mpg pulling the Jeep. We thought that was pretty good since we were bringing our home with us.

 

[googily]

I bought a hybrid Escape late last year. I do mostly highway driving, long distance trips, so I wasn't really expecting to get stellar mileage, given that hybrids do better in city driving. Even so, and even with a bit of a lead foot, I've been averaging 35-37 mpg with highway driving. In my ICE Escape, I was getting about 24 mpg for the same trips.

And when I drove across the Everglades on the Tamiami and then down to Key West and back (rarely going above 55 mph, and with some traffic backups), I got about 43 mpg. More than 600 miles on one tank.

I'm going to be spending the summer where I will do a lot more "slow" driving, so I'll be interested to see how the car does.

But I might have to decide soon whether it's reeeeally that important to use Premium on every fill-up.

 

[REWahoo]

.

But I might have to decide soon whether it's reeeeally that important to use Premium on every fill-up.

Unless your car's user manual calls for it, the answer is definitely "no".

 

[Koolau]

Unless your car's user manual calls for it, the answer is definitely "no".

No personal experience but I have read that using a lower grade in a modern engine designed for premium will not damage the engine because the technology is so effective at stopping destructive detonation. The down side is that the timing is automatically retarded which leads to less power and lower fuel mileage.

If I had a vehicle which required premium, I would definitely try NOT using premium and note any changes in fuel mileage and power. My guess is that any fuel mileage losses would be minimal under normal driving conditions. Again, no expert so YMMV.

 

[nobody]

Gonna be only a couple of Offroad trips up in the mountains with the 4x4 this summer. The old 68 might get a bit more use with its better mpg. The 55mpg motorcycle will be getting a lot use, well it always does, fun and cheap.

 

[googily]

Unless your car's user manual calls for it, the answer is definitely "no".

It does call for it, so the calculus is more along the lines of what Koolau said in his reply.

 

[googily]

No personal experience but I have read that using a lower grade in a modern engine designed for premium will not damage the engine because the technology is so effective at stopping destructive detonation. The down side is that the timing is automatically retarded which leads to less power and lower fuel mileage.



If I had a vehicle which required premium, I would definitely try NOT using premium and note any changes in fuel mileage and power. My guess is that any fuel mileage losses would be minimal under normal driving conditions. Again, no expert so YMMV.

I might try it for tanks that will be mostly in-town driving, since the electric system gets used more.

 

[Midpack]

I’ll have to see what pre-authorization limits I run into. I’d think CC companies will have to raise them with gas prices this high.

Filled both cars today with gas at $4.179/gal (using fuel points) and the pump did not shut off at $100. I asked the attendant before filling if I needed to pay inside to avoid a shutoff, but he said it wouldn't and it ran up to $111.70 (new record for us by far)! I think credit card companies are raising the pre-authorization limits due to the much higher prices, and I saw an article that said Visa had raised theirs to $125. We may have just gotten lucky, as from what I've read the $100 pre-authorization limit was pretty much everywhere before this recent gas price spike.

https://www.autoblog.com/2022/04/03/visa-raises-gas-station-pump-limit/

 

[REWahoo]

Planning a 300 mile round trip tomorrow so I topped off the tank today @ $4.36/gal (after 5% Penfed CC discount). No hint of any pre-authorization CC limit on my $20.20 total.

 

[W2R]

Giant vent about gas prices

In order to keep my Venza running, I drive us to lunch at a restaurant about 3 miles away, once every week. That is all the driving that I do any more. We used to go on long daily pleasure drives around our suburb. However, given the recent price of gas we get lots more pleasure from various leisure pursuits at home that don't involve driving anywhere.

It's not that I can't afford to drive! It just doesn't seem worth the money any more at these prices. Perhaps I have a bad attitude? But I just resent paying high prices for gas, whether I can afford it or not.

The last time I bought gas was on March 9th, when I paid $4.19/gallon. According to gasbuddy, it's now $4.59/gallon at the same Exxon station. That's not the cheapest station in town but it's close by, and I don't like driving all over to get cheap gas.

The last thing I'd want to do right now is to go on a long cross country trip in my Venza. That can wait until gas prices seem more reasonable.

 

[gayl]

Just filled up. $6.26. Somehow I think that's not too bad. Probably bc I won't need to fill again until July

 

[Koolau]

Just filled up. $6.26. Somehow I think that's not too bad. Probably bc I won't need to fill again until July

Yeah, even though gas is way up, we just aren't driving the miles we used to. I think we'll get by on a tank per month. We thought about driving to TX to see GKs (and kids) but I'm not sure we could even survive it now. The cost for gas, we could deal with - though I'd hate it - but we're just getting too old for that distance. SO, gas saved! Not ideal, but with a bright spot. YMMV

 

[braumeister]

Several folks here have also mentioned a $100 limit on the pump. Even if you have a 35 gallon tank, you'd crap out at around 20 gallons anyway. YMMV

I've often seen limits posted on gas pumps of $75 or $100 for debit cards, but much higher for credit cards.

 

[ls99]

I'v gotten cut of at $135.- on CC. FIlling Suburban.

 

[madatrub]

WRT to premium, there's pretty significant octane giveaway on blended fuel. You'd be just fine on 91 as an alternative.

 

[travelover]

In order to keep my Venza running, I drive us to lunch at a restaurant about 3 miles away, once every week. That is all the driving that I do any more. .........

I'm surprised your battery isn't dead. In 3 miles, you hardly charge the battery enough to make up for what is used to start the engine and what is lost from parasitic losses just sitting. I'd also change the oil on the severe service schedule so the oil doesn't get milky.

 

[Koolau]

I'm surprised your battery isn't dead. In 3 miles, you hardly charge the battery enough to make up for what is used to start the engine and what is lost from parasitic losses just sitting. I'd also change the oil on the severe service schedule so the oil doesn't get milky.

At least back in the day, it was recommended to occasionally bring the car's temp up to "normal" by driving for 15 minutes or so. That boils away any condensed water in the crank case. Probably worth the fuel to preserve the engine. YMMV