We were fortunate enough to be able to vacation in Germany for two weeks in June. I had not been there before - it's a really beautiful country, rich in beauty, history, wonderful architecture, and friendly people.
It was really interesting for me, as a car guy, to see all of the makes and models we don't get here in Canada. I should post some of my photos in another thread.
Anyway, I was interested in the high price of 'benzene' (petrol to our Brit, Kiwi, and Aussie friends, and gasoline to us here in North America) and diesel fuel.
Here are a couple of examples from the Friedrichshafen area:
So there's diesel @ 1.319 Euros, E10 @ 1.479 Euros, 'Super' (I suspect this is ethanol-free regular w/ a NA octane equivalent of 87) @ 1.499 Euros, and Supreme @ 1.619 Euros, all per Litre.
In the 2nd photo, the prices are quite a bit less - perhaps Tinol is not a top tier vendor, or perhaps prices dropped in the half-week between when we saw these two stations.
Anyway, here are my low-budget conversions:
1.479 Euros = C$2.26 (based on the average conversion rate while we were there). That compares to the sky-high C$1.30/litre we're paying here in Winnipeg at present. (Our daily broadsheet paper points out that gas is up 50 cents over a year ago!)
So what's that for our American friends? Right now the Euro = $1.17 USD. So based on that June price in Friedrichshafen, a litre of regular with ethanol would be 1.479 x 1.17 = US$1.73.
US$1.73/l x 3.78 l/US gallon = US$6.54/US gallon.
(And C$2.26/l x 4.55 l/Imp gallon = C$10.28/Imperial gallon.)
Yikes! I will not complain about the prices here. But then again, we found Germany to be so bike-friendly and to have such excellent public transportation that I likely wouldn't be buying a lot of fuel if I lived there. And when I did drive, it could be in an affordable older Mercedes with a manual transmission!
It was really interesting for me, as a car guy, to see all of the makes and models we don't get here in Canada. I should post some of my photos in another thread.
Anyway, I was interested in the high price of 'benzene' (petrol to our Brit, Kiwi, and Aussie friends, and gasoline to us here in North America) and diesel fuel.
Here are a couple of examples from the Friedrichshafen area:
So there's diesel @ 1.319 Euros, E10 @ 1.479 Euros, 'Super' (I suspect this is ethanol-free regular w/ a NA octane equivalent of 87) @ 1.499 Euros, and Supreme @ 1.619 Euros, all per Litre.
In the 2nd photo, the prices are quite a bit less - perhaps Tinol is not a top tier vendor, or perhaps prices dropped in the half-week between when we saw these two stations.
Anyway, here are my low-budget conversions:
1.479 Euros = C$2.26 (based on the average conversion rate while we were there). That compares to the sky-high C$1.30/litre we're paying here in Winnipeg at present. (Our daily broadsheet paper points out that gas is up 50 cents over a year ago!)
So what's that for our American friends? Right now the Euro = $1.17 USD. So based on that June price in Friedrichshafen, a litre of regular with ethanol would be 1.479 x 1.17 = US$1.73.
US$1.73/l x 3.78 l/US gallon = US$6.54/US gallon.
(And C$2.26/l x 4.55 l/Imp gallon = C$10.28/Imperial gallon.)
Yikes! I will not complain about the prices here. But then again, we found Germany to be so bike-friendly and to have such excellent public transportation that I likely wouldn't be buying a lot of fuel if I lived there. And when I did drive, it could be in an affordable older Mercedes with a manual transmission!