Cheapest You Ever Paid For Gas

Everybody knows how much a gallon of gas costs today and that it continues to rise almost it seems daily. Go back in time and dream of the good old days and tell us how much you paid. If its regular or premium I want to know. Then I will shock you how much gas was when I was a kid and what I paid during the famous "oil embargo" of 1973.

Lets get it on

I remember getting regular gas in southern California during 'gas wars' of the 1960s at 25.9 cents/gallon.

I'm a younger guy, turning 36 in July. I'm pretty sure in the mid to maybe late 90s, regular gas could be had in my area (1 mile outside of Philadelphia) for around $.95/gallon.

I started driving in 1990 and I can remember paying around $0.75/gallon in the early to mid-1990's

I paid 19.9 cents/gallon in the spring of 1970 in North Texas...

25 cents for regular. I also lived within a mile and saw the glow in the sky of the 5 points gas riot in Levittown, PA in 1979

The least expensive gas I can remember was 0.299/gallon. When I borrowed the family car, I would stop and add 5 gallons to the tank at a cost of $1.50. That way, nobody ever denied me use of the car when I wanted it.

When I first started driving in Toledo, Ohio, gas was 25¢ a gallon.  That was in 1969.  With gas stations on every major corner back then there were often gas wars and the price could drop to 20¢ a gallon.  However, to put that in perspective, my annual salary as a teacher was about $5,700 and $30 could buy me a few weeks worth of groceries.

I don’t know for sure but I do remember back in 1967 or 68 that Esso gas stations were doing a promotion with Power Players stamps of NHL hockey players. The goal was to collect all the players on all the teams and fill an album but you could only get a pack of 3 stamps with a minimum $3 purchase of gas. My dad’s car could hold that much gas but he wasn’t engaged and my mom’s car, a 1958 VW Bug,* only had an 8 gallon tank and it didn’t hold $3 worth of gas so me and my brother were SOL as far as getting Power Players. Gas had to be under $0.25 at the time. I also remember $0.20 glasses of draft beer a few years later. 1976. Don’t ask. 

*the 58 bug didn’t have a gas gauge. You drove it till you ran out of gas then reached under the dash near the floor and turned the reserve lever which gave you an extra quart or so of gas so you could get to a gas station. The tank was up front under the hood and you had a wooden dipstick so you could dip the tank to check the level if you didn’t feel like waiting to run out of gas. Pretty bare bones.

I don’t know for sure but I do remember back in 1967 or 68 that Esso gas stations were doing a promotion with Power Players stamps of NHL hockey players. The goal was to collect all the players on all the teams and fill an album but you could only get a pack of 3 stamps with a minimum $3 purchase of gas. My dad’s car could hold that much gas but he wasn’t engaged and my mom’s car, a 1958 VW Bug,* only had an 8 gallon tank and it didn’t hold $3 worth of gas so me and my brother were SOL as far as getting Power Players. Gas had to be under $0.25 at the time. I also remember $0.20 glasses of draft beer a few years later. 1976. Don’t ask. 

*the 58 bug didn’t have a gas gauge. You drove it till you ran out of gas then reached under the dash near the floor and turned the reserve lever which gave you an extra quart or so of gas so you could get to a gas station. The tank was up front under the hood and you had a wooden dipstick so you could dip the tank to check the level if you didn’t feel like waiting to run out of gas. Pretty bare bones.

I had a '59 VW bug with that same lever under the dash. Back in the days before seat belts, riding along and the car began sputtering, running out of gas ... one hand on the wheel, the other reaching toward the firewall to turn that lever. Miracle we're still kicking.

Cheapest I paid was on Bird Rd in Miami, west of the Palmetto Expressway ... two stations across from each other having a gas war. $0.18 per gallon when the average was maybe $0.25 - $0.30. That was around 1970 when a pack of Camel regular was $0.30, and a brand new Colt 1911 45ACP was retail $135.00