Cost of fuel then and now

[Brian Diehl]

I was recently looking at the long term fuel mileage I'm getting on my re-power and on a whim graphed the fuel cost.  The beginning of this chart is August 2007 and ends November 2013.  This charts the actual cost per gallon I paid for diesel.

On a side note I also averaged out my fuel usage for the past 50000+ miles and now have a cumulative fuel mileage on the new power train combination of 8.61 mpg.  I have burned 5,862 gallons of diesel to drive 50,472 miles.  In my prior update here: http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/index.php?topic=17929 I noted my cumulative mileage was 8.44.  So - a little better now,  but not the 9.0+ I was hoping for when I started.

Note: The mileage numbers on the x axis of the chart show the odometer miles since I purchased the bus in 2002.  The re-power was done at 26,422.

[oltrunt]

I recall buying gasoline for fifteen cents a gallon back in 1961 in Long Beach Ca. Same price as a Micky D burger and then the local Richfield refinery blew up and after Richfield paid to repaint and replant several thousand homes in LB their gas prices shot to the unheard of price of twenty three cents a gallon.  And as they say--the rest is history

[Ed Hackenbruch]

Back when i first started working i could buy 4 gallons of gas for every hour that i worked. (before taxes  )  When i finished working i could buy 10 gallons of gas for every hour that i worked....even though gas had gone up by a multiple of 13. 

[luvrbus]

I look for fuel to bottom out at around 3 bucks a gal then the powers will add more taxes so when it goes up which it will  we will be paying 6 bucks a gal for diesel

 LOL I just got a 1.5 increase in the SS check guess what after they raised the medicare payment I netted $1.78 the games they play in DC

[Runcutter]

I remember writing a paper for one of my college classes (Business major - transportation), on the impact of the 1972 energy crisis on the bus company I worked for at the time.  I recall that before the oil crisis, we paid 12.7 cents per gallon for diesel.  I know that drivers in 1969 were being paid $2.00/hour, all straight time -- no overtime because of some interstate commerce loophole that (supposedly) exempted all from O/T premium pay.

A normal day for city drivers was 13 hours, 5 days/week.  Some had lunchbreaks, I don't think everyone did.  Saturday was the short day, only 10 hours.

Kind of wish I hadn't thrown out all my old college stuff when I ran out of storage room.  I'd like to go back and re-read that paper now.

Arthur

[HB of CJ]

Only I had forgotten what year it was.  We were just kids.  Our home in Lakewood was downwind.  I do remember scrubbing our Chevy to get all the tar off it.  We were too far away to have the house repainted.  I can remember regular gas at $24.9 cents per gallon at the Beacon gas station.  HB of CJ (old coot)

[luvrbus]

HB you are not as old as you think I remember when in school it cost me a $2.25 for 15 gals for the school week and the Gulf Pride Motor oil I used cost $.25 a quart and at those prices I had tough time paying for it I was always borrowing from granddad lol 3 bucks was 40 post holes with him 

[oltrunt]

HB of CJ, I'll have to check Google but your post reminded me that there were two Signal Hill refineries that blew up.  The one I remember now that I think about it was the Hancock refinery in 1958 or perhaps 1957.  By 1961 I was able to drive and was pretty much out on my own so while I said Richfield I really meant Hancock.  During the Hancock explosion I was living near the Los Coyotes Diagnal and Bellflower Blvd in LB.  Funny how paths cross.  Jack

[akroyaleagle]

I recall those days too, Clifford. I lived in Odessa.
Seems there was always a price war going on somewhere.
The stations then set their own price. In our town now, they are all exactly the same.
I also recall .09gal diesel in Wy in '72. But we then had to pay road tax.
Like most, I will take todays income and prices over those days.
IMO the good old days weren't quite as good as we remember them!

[belfert]

I'm 20 to 30 years younger than a lot of you.  I remember gas hovered around $1.25 a gallon in the late 80s and early 90s.  By the mid 90s or so gas was selling for 79 to 99 cents a gallon.  I remember people complaining like crazy when gas got up to about to $1.20 or so in 2000.  I didn't start driving until 1990 when I was 18.  Nobody said too much about gas prices then because it was relatively cheap.  My father could have certainly bought a lot more gas for his hourly wage in the 90s then he could today.

I didn't pay attention to diesel prices much before 2003.  I bought a diesel pickup then and I remember paying $1.21 a gallon for diesel in Cheyenne, WY in September 2003.  That was the least I have ever personally paid for diesel.

[HB of CJ]

The big Long Beach--Signal Hill area refinery fire.  We were just kids.  Very young.  Do remember easily climbing up on the roof of the house, (Carson & Woodruff) and seeing red flames.  Also remember much fun soaping and scrubbing the tar off of Dad's nearly new 1956 Chevy 2 door 265 V8 "three on the tree".

I worked at a gas dock for pleasure boats at South Wind Marina just underneath the Commodore Heins, (SP?) vertical lift bridge between LA and Terminal Island.  Also just East of the old Henry Ford draw bridge.  If you bought 1000 gallons of #2 diesel, you paid $.0159 a gallon.  I remember the rich marina owner complaining.  This about 1965.  HB of CJ (old coot)

The Marina is long gone.  The shipping channel was widened and deepened and now is a big container sea going ship terminal.  How time flies. 

[oltrunt]

HB of CJ,  at risk of further leading this thread astray,  as kids we used to bike ride in (on?) Signal hill.  I have two very distinct memories of those days.  First, we thought it was fun to ride shopping carts down "Shell Hill"--and it was until I dumped and broke my arm.  Ha Ha.  The second was being attacked by ferral dogs--my buddy and I got pretty chewed up.  I've never been quite the same about puches since.  Oh well, that wasn't to be the last of the dog bites.  Some Lester low crotch sicked his pit on me at work one day--left some interesting lumps on my right hand but the girls seem to love the story--go figger!

Where did you end up?  I landed in Oxnard and doubt I could leave even if I wanted to.  Ha Ha.  Jack

[Len Silva]

All I can add is that in 1986, when we first bought the 4104, the cost of fuel was just not a consideration.  If we wanted to go somewhere, we just filled it up and went.  That is not the case today.

[uemjg]

So why have gasoline price fallen and diesel is the same or goes up?

[luvrbus]

We export more diesel than we can refine and there is not that many American owned refinery's here any longer JMO