Who remembers gas wars?

[Bruce Page]

18¢ is as low as I remember seeing it back in the mid 60’s. I could fill up my ’65 VW bug for less than $2.

[Jim Rimmer]

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.

Here's another way to compare: when I was in high school minimum wage was 55 cents and gas was 35 cents. Now minimum wage is $5.50 (I think, or close to that) and gas here in Houston is $3.50. No change in relative price.

[Brian Elfert]

Here's another way to compare: when I was in high school minimum wage was 55 cents and gas was 35 cents. Now minimum wage is $5.50 (I think, or close to that) and gas here in Houston is $3.50. No change in relative price.

Federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour which overrides state minimum wage if lower. Do the same comparison in 2000, or even 2007, and you'll figure out why people complain about gas prices now. People remember paying well under $2 in 2000 and maybe $2 in 2007.

[Jerome Stanek]

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

My sister had a spitfire was a fun car to drive. She had the rag top hard top and tonneau cover with real knock off spinners.

[Garth Sheane]

A rule of thumb that I use is that price is generally 10 times what it was in 1970 (I'm in Canada). A $3000 car then would $30,000 now, and my first house that cost $35,000 would be $350,000 now. Of course, there are lots of exceptions. A person who made $4800 a year probably makes a little more than 10 times, about $60,000. Gasoline up here in 1970 was about 50 cents a gallon (our gallon being about a fifth larger than a US gallon). So, gas should now be around $5 a gallon here (if we still had gallons, which we don't). There are about 5 litres in the old Canadian (imperial) gallon and we pay right now $1.37 / litre, or $6.85 / gallon. So, we pay about 37% more than what we did back when, with most of that in taxes, I suspect.

I just did a road trip in the US a couple of months ago and gas was about $3.80 / gallon on average, which is probably about 10 times what it was in 1970. If a 1970 $2 /hr job pays $20 per hour now, I guess it is all relative.

[Brian Elfert]

Gas prices compared from the 1970s to now is about the same as what prices would be if they followed inflation. The problem is gas prices didn't follow inflation perfectly. Gas prices shot up dramatically in 2008 and prices now aren't much different than 2008. If gas prices had gone up by the rate of inflation every year nobody would complain about gas prices too much.

[Dok Yager]

I can remember gas wars between the Phillips 66 and the Conoco I worked at dropping to as low as 12.9 a gallon in 69.

[Kev Williams]

The gas wars these days seem to be fought on Wall Street. I'm still waiting for a rational explanation as to how in 2008, gas (nat'l average) could go from $4.11 on July 7th to $1.61 on December 29th. Around our area I remember the spread went from a high of $4.27, and at one point the next January one station sold gas at $.89...

So, back to the days of 25 cent gas, anyone else confess to siphoning gas because ya couldn't afford it?

I graduated high school in '72. I missed the war but got nailed by the "oil embargo". I still remember sitting in Denny's having coffee with some buds sometime in '73, and we all swore that we would walk before we'd accept only 2 gallons of gas for a buck...

What I wouldn't give... these days, you can't even get 2 gallons of WATER for a buck!