They say it's all relative....

[Motodan]

Just sayin' when I was 16 years old, this $100.01 at the Shell pump, would have purchased 334.48 gallons of leaded regular or 273.74 gallons of ethyl gasoline (if ya don't know what that is ask your grandparents), instead of 20.93 gallons of non leaded gas mixed with 2.333 gallons of squeezed corn.

[Omega Man]

Goes that way with age. I think I sat in gas lines for $00.39.9/gal gas in the early 70’s.
OM

[PGlaves]

Just sayin' when I was 16 years old, this $100.01 at the Shell pump, would have purchased 334.48 gallons of leaded regular or 273.74 gallons of ethyl gasoline (if ya don't know what that is ask your grandparents), instead of 20.93 gallons of non leaded gas mixed with 2.333 gallons of squeezed corn.

True, but $100 in 2022 is equivalent to $9.67 in 1961. So how much gas would $9.67 buy in 1961? It looks like about 32 gallons, or the equivalent of about $3 gas today.

[Omega Man]

Just paid $465.9 for regular. As I mentioned before, owning a motorcycle with the inherent better mileage, makes (some) financial benefit.
OM

[rick601]

NO no no...in the day a pack of cigarettes cost the same as a gallon of gas (about 27cents). Cigs are around 10.00 a pack now...so we are now at gas half the price of cigarettes! We need to cut production, shut pipeline construction, vilify ICE's, send huge amounts of money out of country, open our borders and support everyone...hopefully we can get inflation to a point where, once again, a gallon of gas costs the same as a pack of cigarettes-just as in the good old days.

[88bmwjeff]

I’ve been curious from time to time what historical gas prices would be adjusted to current dollars. I searched for one site for historical gas prices, but I couldn’t find one, so I ended up using two. I found one for 1950-2010 and another from 1980 to 2020. Since the gas rates were different for the overlap years, I averaged the two. I used the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statics for an adjustment factor. The adjustment factor is from January of the specific year to April 2022.

So, here it is

Year / Price Per Gallon / Adjustment Factor / Adj. Price Per Gallon

1950 / $0.27 / 12.30 / $3.32
1955 / $0.29 / 10.83 / $3.14
1960 / $0.31 / 9.87 / $3.06
1965 / $0.30 / 9.27 / $2.78
1970 / $0.35 / 7.65 / $2.68
1975 / $0.53 / 5.55 / $2.94
1980 / $1.04 / 3.72 / $3.87
1985 / $1.17 / 2.74 / $3.19
1990 / $1.11 / 2.27 / $2.51
1995 / $1.18 / 1.92 / $2.27
2000 / $1.54 / 1.71 / $2.62
2005 / $2.32 / 1.52 / $3.52
2010 / $2.55 / 1.33 / $3.39
2015 / $2.30 / 1.24 / $2.85
2020 / $2.24 / 1.12 / $2.51

P.S. I tried to make this a nice table, but no matter what I did for spaces between the columns it was reduced to only a space. I didn't want it to be an image, since images are often lost over time.

Gas Price Sources

https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles...more%20rows%20

https://axlewise.com/cost-of-gas/#:~...more%20rows%20

Adjustment factor from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

[Stebe]

True, but $100 in 2022 is equivalent to $9.67 in 1961. So how much gas would $9.67 buy in 1961? It looks like about 32 gallons, or the equivalent of about $3 gas today.

In 2003 I was making $19 / hr. I got to thinking about it one day, and realized that in 1973, fresh out of High School working on a road construction crew in Texas I had made $1.90 / hr. Which bought about the same stuff per hour as I'd made 30 years prior. So, after 30 years of continuous work, plus a college education, I was the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland. Running as hard and fast as I could just to stay in the same place. Kind of frustrating, isn't it?

[dduelin]

It is relative. When I was 17 years old the Social Security Administration recorded my annual earnings for the year at $787. My paper route and Burger King job had me in high cotton. Buying gas for my first car in 1973 was not a problem and it's really not today.... yet. In adjusted dollars today's oil prices are still just 2/3rd of 1979's oil prices after the second round of OPEC oil shocks.

[drneo66]

I’ve been curious from time to time what historical gas prices would be adjusted to current dollars. I searched for one site for historical gas prices, but I couldn’t find one, so I ended up using two. I found one for 1950-2010 and another from 1980 to 2020. Since the gas rates were different for the overlap years, I averaged the two. I used the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statics for an adjustment factor. The adjustment factor is from January of the specific year to April 2022.

So, here it is

Year / Price Per Gallon / Adjustment Factor / Adj. Price Per Gallon

1950 / $0.27 / 12.30 / $3.32
1955 / $0.29 / 10.83 / $3.14
1960 / $0.31 / 9.87 / $3.06
1965 / $0.30 / 9.27 / $2.78
1970 / $0.35 / 7.65 / $2.68
1975 / $0.53 / 5.55 / $2.94
1980 / $1.04 / 3.72 / $3.87
1985 / $1.17 / 2.74 / $3.19
1990 / $1.11 / 2.27 / $2.51
1995 / $1.18 / 1.92 / $2.27
2000 / $1.54 / 1.71 / $2.62
2005 / $2.32 / 1.52 / $3.52
2010 / $2.55 / 1.33 / $3.39
2015 / $2.30 / 1.24 / $2.85
2020 / $2.24 / 1.12 / $2.51

P.S. I tried to make this a nice table, but no matter what I did for spaces between the columns it was reduced to only a space. I didn't want it to be an image, since images are often lost over time.

Gas Price Sources

https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles...more%20rows%20

https://axlewise.com/cost-of-gas/#:~...more%20rows%20

Adjustment factor from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

Nice post!

I haven't been able to find a graph for average mpg for motos (my suspect is that is probably went down a little over the years due to most people shifting to bigger bikes), but we also need to remember that our average mpg's for cars has basically doubled since 1970 too.

Obviously it's still annoying that we are paying so much...



Source: https://www.transportation.gov/mission/sustainability/corporate-average-fuel-economy-cafe-standards

[nickrides]

A very good read is BLOWOUT a non partisan history of gas and oil worldwide since the beginning by PHD Rachel Maddow.
ALL of the major oil producers record billions and billions in profits while they are still highly subsidized by the tax payer.
Its insane the reality today.
The exportation of Gas and Oil produced in the USA makes me so pissed.
I thought that stuff in the ground was for Americans? And for our future,
Not so much really.
It is a very complex international situation, but the Oil Co Executives are the ones calling the shots, not Congress.
Notice how prices on gas go up very quickly on oil and gas that was refined and produced months ago but are very slow to come down when oil drops?
Filling up my F 150 is about $150.00 now
Ouch
Nick

[rick601]

One can parse the relativeness of price over time/inflation but the recent precipitous rise- abrupt, disproportionate to historical fluctuation, coupled with an unwillingness to address domestic supply is causing an inflationary spiral that is damaging to working families and our economy. Wild spending is only exacerbating the situation- killing the value of the dollar. I am neither an economist nor did I stay at a holiday inn but I have been buying gas and other "stuff". Feeling a little third world these days.

[akbeemer]

Rachel Maddow - non partisan……

[DaveSlash5]

The exportation of Gas and Oil produced in the USA makes me so pissed.
I thought that stuff in the ground was for Americans? And for our future,
Not so much really.
Nick[/QUOTE]

Just remember, the stuff in the ground isn't for AMERICANS, it's for CORPORATIONS. In this and most free trade countries that is the way things work!

[mikegalbicka]

Feeling a little third world these days.

No comment. But tempted.

[Motodan]

Well, for one, I’m glad politics hasn’t been injected into this thread. “Things”, they come and they go and come and go again and again…like 17.5% 30 year mortgage rates. The beat goes on. I will have to say, I’m glad the French threw their citizens’ tax money at us in the 1770’s.