Gas price when you first drove

[obbop]

Some of you ancient relics crawling across the garage floor in your poor pathethetic worn-out husks that were once recognizable as a human body may have been spry and mobile when gas was a few mere pennies per gallon.

But, some of us are merely old.

1972..... the old man let me borrow the 1965 VW Bug to go cruise in Modesto California. The cruisin' was fine and not too crowded since this was the pre-American Grafitti movie era.

Most gas stations were full-serve and, if I remember correctly, gas was 32 cents for regular... leaded regular... ethyl lead reguler and premium and some stations had special high octane gas for the hot rodded engines cruisin' the streets.

Ahhhhh.... the rumble of the Hemis, the 440s, watching those Mopars whip pert' near everything but that pesky little Chevy II with the hot 327 revved so quick and its power-to-weight ratio and gearing made it the king of the stop-light-tostop-light drags though in the 1/4-mile those BIG blocks woulda' smashed it.

Anyway......

Being the frugal (cheap) chap I was I stopped for gas at one of the very few selve-serve places around.... in the bad part of town. Real bad!!! I think that was why it was self-serve, the owner didn't want to go near his customers!!!

26-cents per gallon. Two bucks was enough to cruise the entire week end in that Bug. Left plenty of money for beer and inhalants akin to tobacco but not quite tobacco but close enough that we'll just call it roll-thine-own pleasure sticks.

Hey!!!! It WAS California, a different era, buckaroos!!!!

Sniff.....

I can still see that Plymouth Superbird for sale... $1,800.

Sigh...... Drooled at the 1970 'Cuda 440 6-pack 4-speed convertible in prime shape, sitting for weeks with a $2,600 price on it.

'Scuse me while I go flagellate myself for not buying those cars.


Sniff.

Oh, I did mention 26-cents per gallon, didn't I??? It's been a loooong time. May have been 28-cents. I do recall it WAS less than 30-cents.

Sniff.

 

[Dewlanna]

Giving away my age here.
When I first started driving, at the ripe old age of 21, gas "down home" (southern Michigan) was 29.9. "Up North" where I went to college it was 39.9
Oddly enough, some (mumble, mumble) years later, the price difference between the Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula is still about 10 cents a gallon most days.

 

[Steve S]

20 cents per gallon for regular as the gas station wars.

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

33 cents

 

[wander2039]

90 something cents in 1996. Filled my festiva for $8 - alot of cruising back then, now cost $18.

 

[labman]

High 20's. Stayed at 36.9 on the Ohio Turnpike through th elate 60's maybe into the 70's. As recently as when my truck was new, I could drive it for 2 weeks on $5.

 

[MarkC]

And today in Seattle, it's $2.65.

 

[Gary Allan]

When I started driving ..about $0.35+/-. The first embargo took care of that. I do remember about a decade of $0.2x gas as a younster. Hanging my head out the window (actually too short to get my head out the window) to get a whiff of the vapors spewing out of the tank. "Three bucks of hi-test!" ...little balls floating around in the gas pump little globe thingy.

 

[Schmoe]

Being that it was my birthday yesterday, I don't feel so old now. I started driving right smack in the middle of the "gas crunch" in the late 70's, it was about buck a gallon. Then, we moved to Guam, it was 1.55 per gallon, now over there, my son told me it was 2.95 gallon, which, really isn't that far off from some places around here. But, it will change soon enough. I guess ol' Bush's energy bill did nothing but raise prices. It's like the oil industry said, "OK, I see your ante and now I'm raising it again."
What get's me so much, oil companies are reporting record profits, but prices keep going up. Wasn't there some law passed many moons ago called the Windfall Profit law or something like that that was suppose to limit the amount of net profits whereas they had to give some back to the government?????

 

[Evil Ron]

In 1972, I owned a Plymouth Superbird. I could fill the tank from almost bone dry to full for $5. And at the Wareco station, I'd get a free drinking glass with every fill!

 

[k1xv]

When I first started driving in 1964, branded stations in NJ charged 29.9 for regular, and 33.9 for premium. Amoco unleaded premium was 34.9 cents. If you were a cheapskate or poor (like me) you could find unbranded regular for 26.9

As late as 1972, I bought unbranded regular for 24.9 and was able to fill a 20 gallon tank for slightly under $5.

These days, it takes about a $50 bill.

 

[Pablo]

Anyone remember GAS WARS in California?

Sometimes BELOW 0.19$US/Gallon!!

Of course mid seventies made us start thinking about oil wars.

 

[cousincletus]

In 1978 it was .55 a gallon. A pack of smokes and a gal of gas were about the same price. I looked at a brand new 1978 Pontiac Trans-Am and the sticker price was 5,800. But I think my annual income back then was only about $6,000.

 

[Ugly3]

Well, let's see now, it was 1957, gas was $0.20 a gallon (full serve). There was a station "across the tracks" that sold gas for $0.249 well into the 60's.

 

[kenw]

I remember 0.199 "gas wars" around San Antonio in the early 60s. Even saw one at 9.9 (0.099) at the peak of one of the bigger gas wars. Cars were lined up like lemmings. It was probably mid 60s.

Got a bit of a chewing-out when my friend an I used up and entire tank (25g) crusing around San Antonio one summer evening. (mid-70s). After all that was about $6!

But that 71 Buick (455cid Centurion) was the cruisin' machine..... no b-pillar, power everything, real stereo FM....we were cool....

 

[Jimbo]

$0.23.9 is the cheapest I remember paying around 1970. You could go a long way for cheap in a VW bug. Dad's Impala with a Corvette 327 liked 104 octane Chevron and it normally sold for about 40 cents a gallon (full service) back then.

 

[motorguy222]

Its been so long ago but I think gas was in the 80-90 cent range.

 

[InvalidUserID]

I still remember when I was a little kid and my dad drove past an Arco station when it first hit $1 and he jokingly said "Oh no, $1 a gallon. How am I going to feed my son his Happy Meals?".

 

[JHZR2]

got my license when I turned 17, summer of 97. By early '98 gas was at $0.809, a minimum in price froom a few yrs prior and definitely less then ever since. Man that was nice... senior in HS, got my wheels, driving on the cheap...

JMH

 

[pa04prius]

$.199 in 1967. Of course we had a 500 gallon tank on the farm and I got to fill up for 'free' for doing the chores and stuff.