Gas Prices in the 1970s

A fill up was under $7.00 on the 20 gallon gas tank!

and a new Porsche cost $4,000.  

I remember those days. My Honda CT 70 had a 3/4 gallon gas tank and I could fill it up for a quarter!

average income 6000 - 9000 per year house 11000 - 20000 in 1975

Yep. I remember a halcyon Houston moment in the late 80's when a Jet station was charging 46 cts/gal.

atom14 wrote:

In Sydney in the mid-1970s it was 15c/litre.

On a trip to the Red Centre in 1978 it was an eye-watering 29c/litre. (18c/litre in Sydney.)

June 2022: you can now pay up to $2.20/litre.

There's not enough space on the DPR servers to write what I think about this, and much would be unprintable!

Yesterday paid USD 5.299 per US gallon of diesel. Grump.

2.03 AUD per liter.

Praise God  that you are not in California average for diesel $6.969...

xpatUSA wrote:

atom14 wrote:

In Sydney in the mid-1970s it was 15c/litre.

On a trip to the Red Centre in 1978 it was an eye-watering 29c/litre. (18c/litre in Sydney.)

June 2022: you can now pay up to $2.20/litre.

There's not enough space on the DPR servers to write what I think about this, and much would be unprintable!

Yesterday paid USD 5.299 per US gallon of diesel. Grump.

2.03 AUD per liter.

€2.14 per litre here today and even more in in some places.

S

Ceistinne wrote:

xpatUSA wrote:

atom14 wrote:

In Sydney in the mid-1970s it was 15c/litre.

On a trip to the Red Centre in 1978 it was an eye-watering 29c/litre. (18c/litre in Sydney.)

June 2022: you can now pay up to $2.20/litre.

There's not enough space on the DPR servers to write what I think about this, and much would be unprintable!

Yesterday paid USD 5.299 per US gallon of diesel. Grump.

2.03 AUD per liter.

€2.14 per litre here today and even more in in some places.

S

Yep, I just finished up a road trip in Britanny, France and I was paying €2.20 or so per litre.  That converted out to around $8.75/US per gallon.  No matter, it was a great trip.

DMillier wrote:

UK gallon (4.546 litres) of unleaded 95 octane is £9 ($11) today in UK (at the cheap filling stations).

€9.72 per gallon this side of the pond. Hard to imagine the days when 10 shillings would keep my Fiat 600 going for the week and around €100.00 to fill my VW Golf SV today. Crazy world.

S

larryj wrote:

A fill up was under $7.00 on the 20 gallon gas tank!

and a new Porsche cost $4,000.

. . . and I remember my mom telling me back then that a good income was $20,000 per year, which was what an airline pilot or an engineer might make at that time. Today a new Porsche costs around $100,000, but an airline pilot or engineer doesn't make $500,000 (more like half that or less). We can see how society has "progresse" by affordability of vehicles, homes, food . . . and, of course, gas. It seems to me that society hasn't progressed, but regressed, since just about all things have become more expensive.

Scottelly wrote:

larryj wrote:

A fill up was under $7.00 on the 20 gallon gas tank!

and a new Porsche cost $4,000.

. . . and I remember my mom telling me back then that a good income was $20,000 per year, which was what an airline pilot or an engineer might make at that time. Today a new Porsche costs around $100,000, but an airline pilot or engineer doesn't make $500,000 (more like half that or less). We can see how society has "progresse" by affordability of vehicles, homes, food . . . and, of course, gas. It seems to me that society hasn't progressed, but regressed, since just about all things have become more expensive.

Agreed!

At one time, back in England, true inflation was measured by the price of a Mars bar.

I also remember when a box of matches contained on average 50 of them ...

Has the price of gasoline in the US gone up more than general inflation, or less ?

It's impossible to make any serious comparisons in Britain as such a big proportion of the price is tax.

Don

Doppler9000 wrote:

xpatUSA wrote:

Scottelly wrote:

larryj wrote:

A fill up was under $7.00 on the 20 gallon gas tank!

and a new Porsche cost $4,000.

. . . and I remember my mom telling me back then that a good income was $20,000 per year, which was what an airline pilot or an engineer might make at that time. Today a new Porsche costs around $100,000, but an airline pilot or engineer doesn't make $500,000 (more like half that or less). We can see how society has "progresse" by affordability of vehicles, homes, food . . . and, of course, gas. It seems to me that society hasn't progressed, but regressed, since just about all things have become more expensive.

Agreed!

At one time, back in England, true inflation was measured by the price of a Mars bar.

I also remember when a box of matches contained on average 50 of them ...

The sports car market has changed significantly in the past 50 years.

In 1975, a Porsche Turbo Carrera was $25,850. It made 234 horsepower and did 0-60 in 5.9 seconds, 20 mpg.

A 2021 Subaru WRX STI was $38,170. 305 hp, 0-60 in 5.3 seconds, 0.93g lateral acceleration, 25 mpg, navigation, airbags, etc., etc.

In 2021, the average pilot at a major US airline made more than $200,000.

It was Scott that was discussing cars and pilot salaries, not me.