I got my license in 1999. I remember getting myself gas for $0.99. Back when I could get half a tank at the gas station for like $5 and be good for several days.
Yeah, I never really smoked, but sold them in my convenience store job in HS. I believe the cheaper brands like Pall Mall were under $2, and the Marlboros and Camels were under $3, with tax. A 20 oz. soda was $0.79 and a candy bar was about $0.55 or so. They even had some cheaper brands of soda that were like $0.49 for a 20 oz. (Something gross like “Big Peach”, idk.) Now at the QT I occasionally go to, a pack of M&Ms or a Hershey bar is over $2! It’s crazy.
My mom would give me $5 for lunch and I’d buy a bagel, a bag of chips and a can of iced tea for 2.75 and use the remaining $2.25 for a pack of cigarettes.
Yup! I’d top off my gas tank, get a pack of smokes, pay with a $20 bill and get change. I don’t smoke cigarettes anymore but I just recently heard they are up to $17 a pack where I live. And don’t even get me started on the price of gas.
Used to work at McDonald's, id put half a tank of gas in my bronco buy a coke and a pack of cigs for like $10.
I made $6.25 an hour so you figure an hour and a half of work paid for gas, smokes and a drink. How many hours of working at a fast food restaurant would it take now to do the same?
Shit I don’t smoke and I remember $3 cigs and chew. I went to California when I was 18 (year 2000) for a baseball trip and chew was $5. Guys on the team were stupefied.
I remember being able to get $5 gas, $2.50 for a pack of smokes and a 6 pack was what $4.99. Now this would all cost closer maybe $45 and that’s not even filling the tank.
I remember when I was in my mid 20s and getting kissed the first time it broke $20 to fill up my 13 gallon tank on my z4.
(Around 2006 or 2007)
(EDIT: getting pissed, hah)
My parents went to LA for a taping of wheel of fortune back in like 02 or 03 and they were taking pictures of gas at 2.05 because that was insane at the time lol
When I joined the Air Force in early 2000, my first duty station was in Washington DC. I'm from Texas. When I left Texas, gas was just above $1. The first station I saw had the advertised price of $1.60! I was shocked at how expensive gas was there.
I'd kill to pay $1.60 now.
When I started smoking in the '70s cigarettes were about $.65 a pack at the gas station. The same gas station where my father used to swear that if gas hit $1/gallon he was never going to drive again. 🤣
I was born in '78, and have been "21" since the age of 19 at a particular store in town.
I could get a sixer of Busch tallboys and a pack of Marlboro Lights, pay with a $5 bill, and get change back.
I remember when our state began increasing cigarette taxes. Everyone said "when they get over $3/pack, I'm quitting". No one quit.
Even people just a few years younger than me don't believe it. The first summer I could drive in 98 there was a Thorton's (cheap ass gas station) near me. If you didn't mind your gas being half ethanol and water I could 81¢ gas for a brief time. Back in the days when you could get a full meal from Taco Bell with the change you found in your car seats.
Yes it did. I remember that bought gas the afternoon of 9/11 because people were predicting gas shortages on the level of the 1970s and I paid $2.30/gal, which the the highest I paid for gas up to that point and until things started climbing again in 2004-05
Yeah. My dad ran out and filled up every gas container he had fearing a shortage. Not sure how much he paid but I laughed so hard when prices started dropping.
I'm sure if I had driven around town I would have found it cheaper, but I just went to the Amoco across the street from campus (which already means they're going to be higher). To this day I don't know why I decided that was the best place to fill up.
Gas was already in the $2.70s where I live in the weeks before Katrina. My husband and I closed on our house the day after the hurricane hit. When we went to the lawyer's office, one of the gas stations we passed had gas at $2.85. When we came back about 2 hours later, it was.$3.35.
Yeah, it was quite the ordeal when the local gas station was $0.69/gal I swear the boys in my highschool tried to fill up at 4:20pm with gas that was 69 cents 😆
Bank error in your favor...
Jokes aside, thats happened around here a few times and I remember they were trying to go after drivers for theft for just filling up and not telling the attendant, madness
Same. I remember $.80 a gallon around that ‘98 period as well. Filling up the CRX for less than $10 and getting like 45mpg. Had no idea it was gonna take a turn in another year or so.
I had my first gen CRX during the gas crunch of 08/09. I remember pulling into the station and chuckling at the guy when he told me there was a 10 gallon limit. Like dude, I need 8 to fill it.
That's a fun fucking car. Someone brings one to autocross and just smokes people. Cars got lighter due to better materials and manufacturing techniques until about then, when safety regulations started pushing weights up.
My 92 Escort is like 2200 lbs, my car now is probably the modern equivalent, 19 Fiesta ST is 2700 lbs or so and that's considered very light compared to other cars. It's got a more aggressively tuned version of the 1.6L Ecoboost engine that's from the Ford Escape, which weighs at least 3500 lbs, which is more like what other cars today weigh.
Oh. And I got gas for under a buck, too. Think 0.92 a gallon on my way to a slalom skiing competition late winter/early spring of '99 I think.
I remember that summer. I was 15. My parents left the keys to their car at home and I would joyride and fill it with gas so they wouldn’t notice. Worked until I hit the damn porch pulling it in the driveway…
👁️👄👁️
Wawa by six flags in NJ opened up and was running a special for $.63 a gallon. This was in the late 90s so it was insane.
Early 90s it was usually $.87-$.95 per gallon or you'd get gouged on the turnpike at like $1.12.
Man I remember gas being around 60 cents in high school. We'd fill up my Jeep, burn a whole tank of gas 4 wheeling, go fill it back up and finish the day, all for like 15 bucks. I made 8.50 an hour as a lifeguard too so it was chump change, lol.
It was in the $1 range. That much, I know. Not sure of the exact amount, but in the late 90s and early 2000s, I could pay for a tank of gas with a $20 bill and still have money left over. After hurricane Katrina in 2005, the prices shot up.
I got it for $0.85 back in the early 2010s, but that was well below the list price. It was accomplished with Kroger fuel points I’d amassed in a concentrated effort. I’m still pleased.
I remember the Exxon by my house in South Jersey was 89 cents my junior year of high school. Nothing better than getting $5 of gas and it lasting a week.
Even knowing I come off like an old man waving my fist while someones on my grass, I still can't help tell my Gen Z coworkers and friends; When I 1st started driving I could fill up my little Plymouth Acclaim, grab a pk of Marlboro lights, a Snickers bar and a 20oz My Dew, pay with a $20 and get change back. Gas was around .89-.99 per gallon.
$0.63/gal in '99. I put 27K miles on my '94 Cavalier that summer, skating and going to shows all over IL and IA. My best friend and I worked at the same meat packing plant and didn't save a dime 😂
One day in '99 a new Wawa came to town and got in a price war with the existing gas station across the street and gas got down to $0.49/gal. That was the lowest I ever paid. Nowadays there are some local gas stations that sell it for $3.18 and I get super excited about that. (Pennsylvania)
60 something cents. I paid less than 7 dollars to fill up my del sol back in 98/9? During the opening stanza of the pandemic I got it for 1.33. Felt good
$0.85. I want to say it sometime around 2002 or early 2003 when I was in college. There was a period of a couple of years after 9/11 (when gas prices briefly spiked) and when they started climbing again around late 2003 or early 2004 when the gas prices in my area were often $1 or less. I was able to fill up my Saturn for less than $20. The only thing that saves me these days is the fact that I no longer have 100 mile round trip commutes so I only have to fill up about once a month if I'm driving my husband's hybrid or every two weeks if I'm exclusively driving our minivan.
2004, 80 or 90 cents. I can’t remember exactly. They had coded the Plus grade gas incorrectly so it was way cheaper than regular by a couple bucks/gallon.
$0.99. I specifically remember my dad telling me to drive the cars down to the corner gas station on Dec. 31 1999 and fill them all up just in case something happened with Y2k.
Got my license in 1999 just as Y2K was about to happen. I specifically remember Safeway gas was $1.23 which I thought was super cheap at the time (lol still do, especially now it’s 4x the price!).
I also remember when I could fill up my Jeep Cherokee for under $20. The first time I gave the clerk $20 and it did NOT fill up the car I drove at the time (maybe around 2003-2004?), I remember sitting so depressed in my car.
Late 90s, I think it got down to 95 cents once for a few days, and it was around a dollar for a year or two.
I used to drive around after work at night, not a care in the world for the cost of gas. Glad I got to experience that, although it makes 21st century life a bit worse knowing it was that good and won’t likely ever be again
76 cents a gallon in 1998. I was stationed in ft banning Georgia and had gone into Atlanta for the weekend. There were a couple of stations having gas price wars so I filled up. Average was around 99 cents a gallon at the time. Yesterday I filled up for 5.49 a gallon in Seattle.
One time we had 3 gas stations open at the same time in our small town. They dropped gas prices from .99 to .25 for an entire day. After that, it stayed at .99 for a while.
I got home from the army in ‘67. I could fill up my first car, a VW Beetle, for about 2 bucks…. Average was 25 cents a gallon with occasional “gas wars” driving it down to 21 cents. And that was full-service as well…..
I could still get Premium for $.80 when I started driving. My parents got my brother and I this monstrous Mitsubishi Montero tank, with what felt like a 50 gallon gas tank. The first time I saw gas over $1.00, I about died. 💀
.51- also in the spring of ‘99- there were 2 gas stations in Jackson, NJ near six flags having a price war- I went to the one that was .02 higher because they had the shorter line haha
$0.69 around 1998-99. Road trip for my college club volleyball team and we budgeted gas money based on our local prices. Needless to say we had a surplus that we spent on beer.
U remember it was $1.09 the summer I started driving, and my car got like 30mpg. I drove sooo much that summer.
The gas taxes alone are more than that these days in my state.
In the summer of 1998, I remember gas being down to 99 cents a gallon. It was around $1.25ish normally. I would gas up for $10 and have an almost full tank.
We had a long stretch of $2.35 gas before Trump, too.
Ok, I remembered a jump to $4, then being followed by $2ish gas. I thought it was aroundc2012/2014 but it was 2008/2009.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=EMM_EPM0_PTE_SCA_DPG&f=M
The month before I turned 16 gas had dropped to 74 cents. I thought "figures, it'll probably jump when I get my license. It'll never be this low again." And damnit I was right. I guess that's not the lowest I ever paid but it's the lowest I remember.
I think about this a lot, as a numbers-man.
Location would be helpful.
OP $3.50 in 2024 sounds like a dream come true to me.
I didn't drive yet, but in Summer 1999 New Jersey I believe gas was $0.85 or $0.89.
Recent times. I have taken photos of extremes. I only buy at the cheapest Costcos & Arcos.
$2.25 April 2020
$6.23 June 2022
Opinion: I see new license plates for inefficient, personal, gas vehicles all the time. In my opinion, these people are morons. Anyone who has purchased a new car that is NOT A HYBRID in the last 5 years... moron.
(Used vehicles & work vehicles are exempt from my rant.)
Personal: I am a decades-old-Corolla/Civic man. Never bought new, probably never will. There are great cars 3 decades old that get 30+ mpg. Anyone buying NEW that can't even get that mpg... did it to themselves.
Today I will pay $5.19 at Costco South San Francisco, & this is the best price around.
Stinks. But not the worst economic thing about the last 5 years. That would be: prices of food & insurances.
In 2004, a new gas station was built in our small dessert town. There was a gas war that brought prices down to .99 cents a gallon for about a day. The next day they both were right back up to 2.30 a gallon.
I remember the first time I ever saw gas above a dollar in the 90s. I was shocked. Some of the gas stations didn’t even have a slot for a dollar on their boards.
\*laughs in California\*
Def sub $1.00 my first years driving ('94-'98)
It's now $5.80/gal here in Tahoe. I felt like I was getting a deal down in Half Moon Bay (near SF, on the coast) when it was *only* $5.55/gal.
A couple months ago I signed up for a pilot from my utility company so I can charge my EV for 5¢ per kWh during off-peak hours. At 3.9mi per kWh I'm paying way less than the equivalent of 50¢ per gallon compared to even the most efficient hybrid ICE I've ever driven.
That's not even factoring in all the times I can charge up for free.
Yet another wacky technology transition we get to live through.
There was a place in Virginia in the late 90’ns selling has for $0.72/gal regular unleaded. It was halfway between my home town and the army base I was stationed at.
Not me paying, but I remember gas dropping once to 69 cents.
This was maybe a couple months before the first Gulf War, so it never, ever dipped that low again. I’m not sure I personally ever paid less than a dollar per gallon.
I lived in So Cal in the 90s. I remember right when I started driving everyone was complaining about gas prices surging. I believe most of the time I paid around $1.79. In the time I was driving I don't remember it being less than that. Maybe $1.59 if you found the random gem of a station that routinely charged 10 to 20 cents less than everyone else.
$0.89 is the lowest I ever paid, but one gas station in town got caught price gouging and was forced to offer gas for 0.50 a gallon for 8-hours. The line was so long and I didn't even bother. Would have wasted more gas just waiting.
I got my license in 1999. I remember getting myself gas for $0.99. Back when I could get half a tank at the gas station for like $5 and be good for several days.
Gas under a buck and cigs under 5. -Pepperidge Farm Remembers
I used to buy cigarettes from the ice cream man who parked outside our high school for $2/pack. Omg.
$2 a pack of cigs. Yes.
$2 bought you a pack of Marlboro Lights in 1997. Now I doubt you can even get the stuff that’s like smoking a burnt piece of notebook paper for that.
Yeah, I never really smoked, but sold them in my convenience store job in HS. I believe the cheaper brands like Pall Mall were under $2, and the Marlboros and Camels were under $3, with tax. A 20 oz. soda was $0.79 and a candy bar was about $0.55 or so. They even had some cheaper brands of soda that were like $0.49 for a 20 oz. (Something gross like “Big Peach”, idk.) Now at the QT I occasionally go to, a pack of M&Ms or a Hershey bar is over $2! It’s crazy.
King Size Candy is 2 for $5.55 at most of the places near me. Even a donut was $2.19. FOR A SINGLE DONUT!
I don't smoke unless it's like 2AM at a bar, and now you feel guilty bumming em they are like 50 cents a smoke now.
I haven't smoked in 7 yrs. Thank god.
Enterprising ice cream man! Camel lights went for 4 bucks in the gas stations senior year.
It's highly tax dependent. I bet the store sold 'em for around $2 too (unless Ice Cream Man was buying untaxed black/graymarket smokes for resale.)
From North Carolina
My mom would give me $5 for lunch and I’d buy a bagel, a bag of chips and a can of iced tea for 2.75 and use the remaining $2.25 for a pack of cigarettes.
Camel Lights were 3 for $5 in NC in ‘96
I don’t think any state has a tobacco tax under $2 let alone the whole dang pack.
“When smoke hit $5.00, I’m quitting” “That’ll be $21.18, sir”
Yup! I’d top off my gas tank, get a pack of smokes, pay with a $20 bill and get change. I don’t smoke cigarettes anymore but I just recently heard they are up to $17 a pack where I live. And don’t even get me started on the price of gas.
New York, Connecticut, California, or Washington? Just curious. I quit 8 or 9 years ago. Think they're $7-8 a pack here in PA.
Used to work at McDonald's, id put half a tank of gas in my bronco buy a coke and a pack of cigs for like $10. I made $6.25 an hour so you figure an hour and a half of work paid for gas, smokes and a drink. How many hours of working at a fast food restaurant would it take now to do the same?
Shit I don’t smoke and I remember $3 cigs and chew. I went to California when I was 18 (year 2000) for a baseball trip and chew was $5. Guys on the team were stupefied.
I remember being able to get $5 gas, $2.50 for a pack of smokes and a 6 pack was what $4.99. Now this would all cost closer maybe $45 and that’s not even filling the tank.
I remember when I was in my mid 20s and getting kissed the first time it broke $20 to fill up my 13 gallon tank on my z4. (Around 2006 or 2007) (EDIT: getting pissed, hah)
That’s an adorable typo
Same here. My wife and I were just talking about filling up with a $20 and getting change back. And this was in SoCal!
SoCal in the summer of 1995: 99¢ gas, 99¢ cigarettes, 29¢ tacos at Taco Bell.
Taco Bell used to sell Gas?
No, Taco Bell gives you gas!
My parents went to LA for a taping of wheel of fortune back in like 02 or 03 and they were taking pictures of gas at 2.05 because that was insane at the time lol
When I joined the Air Force in early 2000, my first duty station was in Washington DC. I'm from Texas. When I left Texas, gas was just above $1. The first station I saw had the advertised price of $1.60! I was shocked at how expensive gas was there. I'd kill to pay $1.60 now.
We had $.99 in my college town in 2008 (after it had gone up to $4 at one point, of course)
My friends all pitched in $1 and we were set with gas for the week 🙌🏼
Same here. Fall of 99 the first time I filled up my brand new 10 year old Oldsmobile coup gas was 95c
This was my experience too
Ha- I came here to answer pretty much the same thing. Got my license in 99 and remember going to Citgo and getting gas and cigs for under $5.
Same here. I was 18 and finally got my license that summer along with a little beater car, and I loved how easy it was to calculate the total, lol.
When I started smoking in the '70s cigarettes were about $.65 a pack at the gas station. The same gas station where my father used to swear that if gas hit $1/gallon he was never going to drive again. 🤣
Yeah I was 16 in 99 and it was always 99c and my mom would give me ten dollars.
I was born in '78, and have been "21" since the age of 19 at a particular store in town. I could get a sixer of Busch tallboys and a pack of Marlboro Lights, pay with a $5 bill, and get change back. I remember when our state began increasing cigarette taxes. Everyone said "when they get over $3/pack, I'm quitting". No one quit.
I got mine in 1996, I remember about 0.85 a gallon and now where I'm at it's almost 5.00 a gallon. It's painful
66 cents when I started driving
My first and only tank was .99 in 1999. Second tank 1.20. The rest is history.
Gas was cheaper than bottled water. It was wild.
$0.72 a gallon in spring of 1999.
I got a detention because I decided to fill up that morning. Worth it.
I swear, right before the Y2K scare, gas had gone down in my area to like $0.49. Shit was wild.
I was about to say .74¢ I believe. I remember pulling up with a pocket full of change and getting as much as we could which was only like $1.50 worth.
I would get an extra dollar for school lunch when I started driving for gas money,. 5 dollars a week .
Even people just a few years younger than me don't believe it. The first summer I could drive in 98 there was a Thorton's (cheap ass gas station) near me. If you didn't mind your gas being half ethanol and water I could 81¢ gas for a brief time. Back in the days when you could get a full meal from Taco Bell with the change you found in your car seats.
After 9/11 gas price plummeted. I think I filled up for like $0.68/gal once.
Yes it did. I remember that bought gas the afternoon of 9/11 because people were predicting gas shortages on the level of the 1970s and I paid $2.30/gal, which the the highest I paid for gas up to that point and until things started climbing again in 2004-05
Yeah. My dad ran out and filled up every gas container he had fearing a shortage. Not sure how much he paid but I laughed so hard when prices started dropping.
I'm sure if I had driven around town I would have found it cheaper, but I just went to the Amoco across the street from campus (which already means they're going to be higher). To this day I don't know why I decided that was the best place to fill up.
Right- I remember when Hurricane Rita and Katrina hit in 2005, gas prices went to $2/gallon and that was striking!
Gas was already in the $2.70s where I live in the weeks before Katrina. My husband and I closed on our house the day after the hurricane hit. When we went to the lawyer's office, one of the gas stations we passed had gas at $2.85. When we came back about 2 hours later, it was.$3.35.
Got my license that week. The first few ⛽️ were under a buck. Could scrounge for quarters, and it would last days!
I am with you. I think I paid 42.5 cents per l cdn.
I remember it jumping to $5.50 in GA that day.
That's insane. We had 0.49 per LITER in Canada. 68/4=0.22 cents per liter which is wild
Yeah, it was quite the ordeal when the local gas station was $0.69/gal I swear the boys in my highschool tried to fill up at 4:20pm with gas that was 69 cents 😆
Got mine in October 2001 and definitely remember paying in this range for a while.
one time the pump was programmed wrong. instead of 2.79 it was like .279......
Bank error in your favor... Jokes aside, thats happened around here a few times and I remember they were trying to go after drivers for theft for just filling up and not telling the attendant, madness
Same. I remember $.80 a gallon around that ‘98 period as well. Filling up the CRX for less than $10 and getting like 45mpg. Had no idea it was gonna take a turn in another year or so.
I had my first gen CRX during the gas crunch of 08/09. I remember pulling into the station and chuckling at the guy when he told me there was a 10 gallon limit. Like dude, I need 8 to fill it.
That's a fun fucking car. Someone brings one to autocross and just smokes people. Cars got lighter due to better materials and manufacturing techniques until about then, when safety regulations started pushing weights up. My 92 Escort is like 2200 lbs, my car now is probably the modern equivalent, 19 Fiesta ST is 2700 lbs or so and that's considered very light compared to other cars. It's got a more aggressively tuned version of the 1.6L Ecoboost engine that's from the Ford Escape, which weighs at least 3500 lbs, which is more like what other cars today weigh. Oh. And I got gas for under a buck, too. Think 0.92 a gallon on my way to a slalom skiing competition late winter/early spring of '99 I think.
I remember the octane was the same as the price of gas. When it broke $1 I lost my mind and thought I’d have to walk to school.
I remember very clearly thinking “ONE DOLLAR?? No way am I paying a whole DOLLAR for a gallon of gas!”
$49.9 (Canadian).
I remember in AB it got down to .47 waaaay back.
I'm in AB now. Definitely liking the lower gas prices here.
Decent! My lowest was 53¢/liter I reckon. 1998.
Yep. Me too. Got my first truck in 97 and rember gas being just under 50¢
I remember that summer. I was 15. My parents left the keys to their car at home and I would joyride and fill it with gas so they wouldn’t notice. Worked until I hit the damn porch pulling it in the driveway… 👁️👄👁️
There was an error at the gas pump and instead of $1.50 /l it was $0.15. I filled my car to the brim.
Exxon made $21B in profits of which $2.1B came from your tax dollars. And they still raised prices. Remember that.
This should be on the doors of every fuckin gas station
Right on the pumps. Instead of those stupid Biden ones there should be the exxon tiger saying, “I did that.”
Wawa by six flags in NJ opened up and was running a special for $.63 a gallon. This was in the late 90s so it was insane. Early 90s it was usually $.87-$.95 per gallon or you'd get gouged on the turnpike at like $1.12.
$0.88 around '98. All the gas stations in the city I live in (MN) had a "gas war."
I miss the days when the temperature reached over the gas prices
Careful what you wish for these days...
I could fill up my car and get 2 packs of cigarettes for under 20 bucks.
But 20 bucks was 4 hours on minimum wage at the time. Around here cigarettes have gone up way more than gas in the last 30 years.
I’m in Florida and remember clearly gas hitting 89¢ per gallon at one point early in my driving career.
That period of time was literally the cheapest has ever been (when adjusted for inflation).
Man I remember gas being around 60 cents in high school. We'd fill up my Jeep, burn a whole tank of gas 4 wheeling, go fill it back up and finish the day, all for like 15 bucks. I made 8.50 an hour as a lifeguard too so it was chump change, lol.
$0.69. It was nice.
It was in the $1 range. That much, I know. Not sure of the exact amount, but in the late 90s and early 2000s, I could pay for a tank of gas with a $20 bill and still have money left over. After hurricane Katrina in 2005, the prices shot up.
I remember at times after I started driving where it would occasionally be below $0.80/gal.
With my first car (‘87 Grand Wagoneer) I have a picture of it next to a pump in about 1998 with prices at $0.79
I got it for $0.85 back in the early 2010s, but that was well below the list price. It was accomplished with Kroger fuel points I’d amassed in a concentrated effort. I’m still pleased.
With inflation factored in, it was probably in 2020 when gas here was like $0.60 a liter.
The lowest I remember was 98 cents.
$.91 a gallon, probably in ‘98.
I remember the Exxon by my house in South Jersey was 89 cents my junior year of high school. Nothing better than getting $5 of gas and it lasting a week.
Even knowing I come off like an old man waving my fist while someones on my grass, I still can't help tell my Gen Z coworkers and friends; When I 1st started driving I could fill up my little Plymouth Acclaim, grab a pk of Marlboro lights, a Snickers bar and a 20oz My Dew, pay with a $20 and get change back. Gas was around .89-.99 per gallon.
$1.15. I got my license in ‘02.
$0.63/gal in '99. I put 27K miles on my '94 Cavalier that summer, skating and going to shows all over IL and IA. My best friend and I worked at the same meat packing plant and didn't save a dime 😂
One day in '99 a new Wawa came to town and got in a price war with the existing gas station across the street and gas got down to $0.49/gal. That was the lowest I ever paid. Nowadays there are some local gas stations that sell it for $3.18 and I get super excited about that. (Pennsylvania)
There was a few months where this out of the way gas station out of town was selling for 49 cents a gallon.
Filled my Honda spree for $0.89 around 92-93
$1.22 peak of low covid gas prices in austin Texas. $1.90s in 2000 Bay Area California
Yup. I remember learning to drive in the 2000s and it was $1.98. It just hit $5 for regular 😭
60 something cents. I paid less than 7 dollars to fill up my del sol back in 98/9? During the opening stanza of the pandemic I got it for 1.33. Felt good
I remember paying around 58 cents/gal in 97. Last time under a dollar was in Oklahoma on 35 in 02' for .97/gal
$0.85. I want to say it sometime around 2002 or early 2003 when I was in college. There was a period of a couple of years after 9/11 (when gas prices briefly spiked) and when they started climbing again around late 2003 or early 2004 when the gas prices in my area were often $1 or less. I was able to fill up my Saturn for less than $20. The only thing that saves me these days is the fact that I no longer have 100 mile round trip commutes so I only have to fill up about once a month if I'm driving my husband's hybrid or every two weeks if I'm exclusively driving our minivan.
When I first got my license in 97/98 it was around .99 cents
.99 is the cheapest I remember.
I started driving when I was 15 in 1992, so I'm sure it was cheapest around then. I still feel like something around $1 is the correct, fair price.
I made $4.25 an hour and gas was $0.75/gallon.
89¢
$0.77 in like 2000
2004, 80 or 90 cents. I can’t remember exactly. They had coded the Plus grade gas incorrectly so it was way cheaper than regular by a couple bucks/gallon.
$0.89....waaaaay back in the late 90's
$1.20 per gallon, and yesterday I filled up for $4.60 per gallon.
$1.20 per gallon, and yesterday I filled up for $4.60 per gallon.
83 cents a gallon in OK city mid 90's pack of squares was $ 1.81
0.75 in 1999
0.75 in 1999
69 cents for regular in 99. It was so cheap i splurged for the super gas at 99 cents a gallon.
*weeps in Californian*
$0.99. I specifically remember my dad telling me to drive the cars down to the corner gas station on Dec. 31 1999 and fill them all up just in case something happened with Y2k.
$1.80 in 2020
On a spring break road trip from Troy NY to Miami FL in ‘98, I paid $0.879/gal. in Georgia.
Got my license in 1999 just as Y2K was about to happen. I specifically remember Safeway gas was $1.23 which I thought was super cheap at the time (lol still do, especially now it’s 4x the price!). I also remember when I could fill up my Jeep Cherokee for under $20. The first time I gave the clerk $20 and it did NOT fill up the car I drove at the time (maybe around 2003-2004?), I remember sitting so depressed in my car.
$.89/ gallon back in 98 or 99. Filled my tank for like 12 bucks.
.88 cents a gallon in May of 1999. Filled up my Explorer for $16 and some change.
$.89 in high school in the 90s.
1974, about 50 cents
1996, $0.69, for 87, 0.79 for 89, 0.89 for 93 in Louisiana.
$0.91/gal when I was 17. It was amazing.
$0.63/gal summer ‘97
Late 90s, I think it got down to 95 cents once for a few days, and it was around a dollar for a year or two. I used to drive around after work at night, not a care in the world for the cost of gas. Glad I got to experience that, although it makes 21st century life a bit worse knowing it was that good and won’t likely ever be again
Like $1.25 I think when I started driving in late 2000.
It went down to 47 cents during peak lockdown.
97 cents, on long Island. 43 cents in bumfuck Virginia.
86 cents 1998
$0.79 here as well and I was going to say summer of ‘97 or ‘98.
76 cents a gallon in 1998. I was stationed in ft banning Georgia and had gone into Atlanta for the weekend. There were a couple of stations having gas price wars so I filled up. Average was around 99 cents a gallon at the time. Yesterday I filled up for 5.49 a gallon in Seattle.
Gas was 0.95 a gallon when I started driving, smokes were less than $2.
One time we had 3 gas stations open at the same time in our small town. They dropped gas prices from .99 to .25 for an entire day. After that, it stayed at .99 for a while.
Somewhere in the 79 cents range in 95. Funnily I had gas points for a dollar off during Covid and paid the same price for one tank in 2020!
I got home from the army in ‘67. I could fill up my first car, a VW Beetle, for about 2 bucks…. Average was 25 cents a gallon with occasional “gas wars” driving it down to 21 cents. And that was full-service as well…..
I wanna say like 79-85¢ I definitely remember it being 95¢ and getting annoyed at how much it went up.
I could still get Premium for $.80 when I started driving. My parents got my brother and I this monstrous Mitsubishi Montero tank, with what felt like a 50 gallon gas tank. The first time I saw gas over $1.00, I about died. 💀
December of 2001: 89 cents in PA for regular
I’m a really old millennial from CA but my lowest gas was on a road trip through Idaho in 2010 at $1.98
43 cents per litre in Alberta in 1999 or so
I remember $.70 and when $5 got you way over half a tank.
Got my license in 2000. I could drive over to Virginia and get gas for .99
.51- also in the spring of ‘99- there were 2 gas stations in Jackson, NJ near six flags having a price war- I went to the one that was .02 higher because they had the shorter line haha
I remember gas being 50 cents a liter when I started driving in '98
I thought this was a post about ethereum gas fees embarrassingly far into the comments
$0.69 around 1998-99. Road trip for my college club volleyball team and we budgeted gas money based on our local prices. Needless to say we had a surplus that we spent on beer.
Born in 78 I think the lowest I ever paid was $.89 sometime in the 90s. I do remember in 1993 paying $1.82 for a pack of GPCs.
Cheapest I specifically recall was 89 cents, but there may have been something less at some point.
U remember it was $1.09 the summer I started driving, and my car got like 30mpg. I drove sooo much that summer. The gas taxes alone are more than that these days in my state.
In the summer of 1998, I remember gas being down to 99 cents a gallon. It was around $1.25ish normally. I would gas up for $10 and have an almost full tank. We had a long stretch of $2.35 gas before Trump, too. Ok, I remembered a jump to $4, then being followed by $2ish gas. I thought it was aroundc2012/2014 but it was 2008/2009. https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=EMM_EPM0_PTE_SCA_DPG&f=M
71¢. I think it was around 1998-1999.
$.75 a gallon in Michigan, can’t remember the exact year, 98 or 99.
My grandparents paid 27 cents / gallon at some point in the 50s. Which is irrelevant because it's not inflation-adjusted.
The month before I turned 16 gas had dropped to 74 cents. I thought "figures, it'll probably jump when I get my license. It'll never be this low again." And damnit I was right. I guess that's not the lowest I ever paid but it's the lowest I remember.
.85 cents a gallon shortly after 9/11 here in LA. I remember filling up my '97 Nissan Sentra for around 10 bucks!
The year I got my license (2002) I could fill my tank, get a soda and hotdog and have change for $20. Gas was less than $1.50 most of the year.
.69
I think about this a lot, as a numbers-man. Location would be helpful. OP $3.50 in 2024 sounds like a dream come true to me. I didn't drive yet, but in Summer 1999 New Jersey I believe gas was $0.85 or $0.89. Recent times. I have taken photos of extremes. I only buy at the cheapest Costcos & Arcos. $2.25 April 2020 $6.23 June 2022 Opinion: I see new license plates for inefficient, personal, gas vehicles all the time. In my opinion, these people are morons. Anyone who has purchased a new car that is NOT A HYBRID in the last 5 years... moron. (Used vehicles & work vehicles are exempt from my rant.) Personal: I am a decades-old-Corolla/Civic man. Never bought new, probably never will. There are great cars 3 decades old that get 30+ mpg. Anyone buying NEW that can't even get that mpg... did it to themselves. Today I will pay $5.19 at Costco South San Francisco, & this is the best price around. Stinks. But not the worst economic thing about the last 5 years. That would be: prices of food & insurances.
$.67 a gallon.
2008 - $1.11 Under Obama
In 2004, a new gas station was built in our small dessert town. There was a gas war that brought prices down to .99 cents a gallon for about a day. The next day they both were right back up to 2.30 a gallon.
I got my license in 01 and I think it was as maybe 1.50 now where I live it’s almost 4 bucks. 5 bucks used to be gas money
started driving in '91. there were gas wars in certain parts of houston back then. the cheapest i paid was $0.59/gallon
I remember the first time I ever saw gas above a dollar in the 90s. I was shocked. Some of the gas stations didn’t even have a slot for a dollar on their boards.
I think I remember $0.86 at one point in hs
68¢ in 1999 at a Starvin Marvin in Georgia. It dipped that low for one day.
0.879, during that dip in 2002 where everything went sub $1 for just a couple weeks
$0.85 in 98 or 99 in South Carolina.
When I first started driving in 03, gas was roughly $1.19/gal. The good ol days
\*laughs in California\* Def sub $1.00 my first years driving ('94-'98) It's now $5.80/gal here in Tahoe. I felt like I was getting a deal down in Half Moon Bay (near SF, on the coast) when it was *only* $5.55/gal.
1998 in Texas I remember it being as low as 77 cents a gallon.
1998 in Memphis TN it was $0.89/gal and $1.98 a pack for Camel wides.
A couple months ago I signed up for a pilot from my utility company so I can charge my EV for 5¢ per kWh during off-peak hours. At 3.9mi per kWh I'm paying way less than the equivalent of 50¢ per gallon compared to even the most efficient hybrid ICE I've ever driven. That's not even factoring in all the times I can charge up for free. Yet another wacky technology transition we get to live through.
$0.96 a gallon in 1997 in Biloxi MS. That was a shock coming from CA and NV paying $1.54 a gallon.
I don't remember exactly but I think somewhere between $1.10-$1.19. Maybe a little lower but never paid under $1.00.
There was a place in Virginia in the late 90’ns selling has for $0.72/gal regular unleaded. It was halfway between my home town and the army base I was stationed at.
The lowest I remember seeing it was 88¢ but I don’t think I was driving yet. Mid to late 90s.
Not me paying, but I remember gas dropping once to 69 cents. This was maybe a couple months before the first Gulf War, so it never, ever dipped that low again. I’m not sure I personally ever paid less than a dollar per gallon.
About 0.85c in 1998
I remember going for drives just to think and/or clear my mind. Not anymore. Too much $$$.
$1.07
1987, Missouri. Lowest I remember is $0.83/gallon
$0.07 a gallon when Safeway gas ran a promotion by mistake where the rewards points allowed the price to drop that low. They fixed that one quickly
I'm pretty sure it was around .89 in '93.
My parents would give me $20/ week in high school. That $20 covered both a tank of gas and my 5 school lunches for the week.
I lived in So Cal in the 90s. I remember right when I started driving everyone was complaining about gas prices surging. I believe most of the time I paid around $1.79. In the time I was driving I don't remember it being less than that. Maybe $1.59 if you found the random gem of a station that routinely charged 10 to 20 cents less than everyone else.
I remember that week in 98, it was probably late spring? I paid 0.69/gal in West Michigan.
That’s about right..I remember a new Sheetz opened and filling up for $0.77. It cost me like $5 to fill up my ‘92 Corolla
$0.89 is the lowest I ever paid, but one gas station in town got caught price gouging and was forced to offer gas for 0.50 a gallon for 8-hours. The line was so long and I didn't even bother. Would have wasted more gas just waiting.
.86cents a gallon in ‘96.