139 replies to this topic

[RTH]

I took this photo this afternoon from the public road . This is in Hertfordshire just 30 miles from the centre of London.



£1.18 per litre is £5.43p per gallon of Petrol ( gasoline) that is $10.85c


£1.29 per litre for Diesel is £5.94p per gallon that is $11.87c

So if your car has a 12 gallon tank filling it now will cost you £65

I can remember my father having his tank filled in the mid 1950s by an attendent and the windscreen cleaned as automatic part of the service, they would also check your oil level and pump up your tyres for nothing.

The petrol then was 3s/ 6p per gallon that is £0.18p per GALLON that is 1/30th of the current price

[Paul Parker]

Approximately 4s 11d for a gallon of 104 octane Cleveland Discol in 1957/58ish that made the old man's XK140 go significantly quicker and run cooler, one of the advantages of leaded high octane fuel.

It never overheated in traffic unlike latter day rebuilt ones that require additional electric cooling fans.

I cannot recall fuel at under 4 shillings a gallon during the late 1950s but then again I might be quoting the price as in 1964 when we ran the original HWM 1 as a road car. Tempus fugit sadly.

[hipperson]

Four gallons for a pound.....my Triumph Spitfire 1964

In our village at the moment £1.12 petrol and £1.19 a litre for derv.

I fear a summer of discontent.

And of course inflation is 3%

[Allan Lupton]

Originally posted by Paul Parker
Approximately 4s 11d for a gallon of 104 octane Cleveland Discol in 1957/58ish that made the old man's XK140 go significantly quicker and run cooler, one of the advantages of leaded high octane fuel.

I don't think Discol, good though it was, was ever 104 RON and certainly not in 57/58.
The day of the 100 octane was not until 1960ish.

Discol's secret was added ethanol, now part of the trendy "bio-fuel" thing, which made it burn more evenly and cheered up the running of all sorts of cars.

Back to the question, I recall rationed fuel being put up to 5/- for 1957, and then back down to around 3/6 when the Suez effect had gone.

Inflation (RPI-based) is about 20× since 1957
Fuel about 29× (3/6 per gallon plays £1.099 per litre locally)
Beer about 52× (1/- per pint plays £2.60)

[MPea3]

In 1969 my father bought a Fiat 850 Spyder. On the way home we stopped at a gas station and he asked the attendant for $2. It wouldn't take it. At the time it was 29.9 cents per gallon.

[RTH]

......Is that the cash register there out in the open ?

That white handle device on the side of the oil dispensing cabinet was to punch 2 triangular shaped holes in the top of a 1 pint tin of oil.
Later they had a foil pull off strip that revealed 2 holes.

Prior to all this oil was sold on forecourts in screw top glass bottles

This was probably a brand new state of the art forecourt in 1959.
I can remember in far flung parts of the UK in the early '60s Cornwall , Scotland etc one man petrol pumps that were still hand wound with glass sight glasses to put the fuel in.

Petrol was in Regular, Super and Supreme.

[RTH]

Originally posted by hipperson


And of course inflation is 3%

Only in government fairyland...not in the real world !



Still higher prices to come yet then apparently !!

http://www.pistonhea...p?storyId=17981

[tomkatf]

I remember gas...I mean petrol...at $0.17/gallon during a "gas war" between two stations in Kansas c. 1960. I'm pretty sure is was still around $0.35/gallon in California c.1970. Incredible...

Best,
Tom

[David Birchall]

In 1964 I worked at a petrol station on weekends and recall it was 4shillings and eleven pence a gallon. People would come in and ask for "Four and four". That would be four gallons and four shots of "Redex" upper cylinder lubricant and came to exactly one pound. When we added oil to a customer's engine we took the empty can and put it in a rack at the back of the shop so all of the oil would drain into a container-that oil was sold at lower cost!

When I moved to Vancouver in 1973 I recall gasoline was about 60cents a gallon but in the States it was 35 cents.

[Sharman]

Mid 50s I remember that I could get 6 gallons of petrol and 2 pints of best bitter for under a quid

[RTH]

Interesting in that 5 year period from 1959 to 1964 the price of Petrol did not go up at all !



..........Time for the Four Yorkshiremen Sketch ?

[MPea3]

Originally posted by David Birchall
When I moved to Vancouver in 1973 I recall gasoline was about 60cents a gallon but in the States it was 35 cents.

Oh how that changed the following year...

[Barry Boor]

My memory tells me that when I first went to college in 1966 I got 3 gallons of petrol for £1 - 6s 8d (about 33p) a gallon; but I'm not sure about that one.

I certainly remember trying to sell insurance in Abergele in 1979 when the £1 gallon first appeared.

[Jones Foyer]

Well, I was about three during the 1975 oil embargo in the US, though I don't remember it. My dad had a 1967 Camaro which my mom drove around during the day while he was at work and a Chevy truck. So we had an all V8 family and quickly added a Renault R8 to conserve gas. I remember Ethyl gas at the station. I remember people washing your windows (they still do that in Oregon in some places for free).

In high school, when I was buying my own gas, I was spending about 99 cents per gallon. It stayed there for quite a while. By the time I started college, it was about 1.27 per gallon.

Now I'm paying around $4 for premium with my little high compression Honda.

[john ruston]

Three and nine in 63 in the middle of nowhere(the Fens)

[antonvrs]

I bought my first new car in 1960- a Morris 850 Mini. I was working in a gas station in Santa Monica, CA at the time and it cost me exactly $2.00 to fill the 6.7 gallon tank. The car cost me $1510.00 including tax, license, radio, heater and snap-in carpets on the floor.
Gas here in Los Angeles today is just a squeak under $4.00 a gallon so it would be about $25.00 to fill the Mini today.
My daily driver is a 1990 Mazda pickup that gets about 20 mpg and my "fun" car is a '34 Ford tudor sedan with a 265 c.i. Chevy. The Ford gets 15-18 mpg but I don't drive it much.
It's the first time in my memory that Americans are actually worried about the cost of fuel.
Anton

[RogerFrench]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by RTH
[B]

£1.18 per litre is £5.43p per gallon of Petrol ( gasoline) that is $10.85c


£1.29 per litre for Diesel is £5.94p per gallon that is $11.87c

QUOTE]

To get a realistic comparative for American readers, the prices are $9.04 and 9.89, roughly, per US Gallon.

[David Birchall]

Originally posted by antonvrs
I bought my first new car in 1960- a Morris 850 Mini. I was working in a gas station in Santa Monica, CA at the time and it cost me exactly $2.00 to fill the 6.7 gallon tank. The car cost me $1510.00 including tax, license, radio, heater and snap-in carpets on the floor.

YOU WERE LOOKY!!

[Bob Riebe]

I remember when leaded premium was no longer available here in Minnesota, I would go to the local airport and fill up with leaded aviation fuel.
The Airplane mechanic would come out and actually do it for me till the airport officials said that was not his job.

First time, this was the very early eighties, was a $1.42 and the last $1.62 which at the time I thought was high but not bad.

About five years ago, we still had a regular gas station here that sold aviatian gasoline, you had to sign for it, and the last price was 2.79.
They could no longer do that and replaced it with leaded racing fuel, which at the time was an extremely hgh, $3.12.

Sadly that station is no longer there; the highway dept. destroyed it and four beautifiul old homes (new build prices for these houses would be a million each at least) because they could.
Bob

[kayemod]

Originally posted by Sharman
Mid 50s I remember that I could get 6 gallons of petrol and 2 pints of best bitter for under a quid

"...and still 'ave change!"

[thomaskomm]

Hello!
I´m a german from Niederrhein Dinslaken my first memory of petrol prices are in late sixties. A free Gas station with 49 Pf./ltr. That is about 13 ct /ltr. in US $ (4 DM was 1 $ late sixties). My first car was a VW Polo 1981 with 1,08 DM per ltr. Today i pay 1,48 Euro for one ltr.
Best wishes
Thomas

[Rob Ryder]

Originally posted by Barry Boor
My memory tells me that when I first went to college in 1966 I got 3 gallons of petrol for £1 - 6s 8d (about 33p) a gallon; but I'm not sure about that one.

I certainly remember trying to sell insurance in Abergele in 1979 when the £1 gallon first appeared.

That seems about right Barry. I started driving (Moggie Minor) in 1968 and got 3 for a pound ... plus a free shot of ReDeX
Rob

[Lotus23]

circa '59, I can recall pulling into a "service station" in Massachusetts during a downpour. Asked the bow-tied and slicker-clad attendant to give me $0.50 worth of regular and would he please check the oil?

He smilingly did so. It was not an unusual request then, but I'd certainly hate to try it today!

[Frank S]

Early 1940s, maybe just pre-WWII, my father driving halfway across Los Angeles to take advantage of a "price war" or "gas war": 12 gallons US for a dollar, as opposed to the ordinary price of 8 for a buck.

Those were simpler days, but even a tyke like me got impatient waiting for a hand pump to charge the giant graduated glass bottle on top, and then decant the amount ordered into the car's tank.

My early driving years were typified by scraping up a dollar and buying between four and five gallons of gas, depending on the distance to the nearest "nickeloff" (self-service) station. The other typical activity was going from gas station to gas station, draining the hoses, to get home.

--
Frank S
Becoming more drive-averse by the dollar
(and it's only four-a-gallon here)

[Alan Cox]

Originally posted by RTH
The petrol then was 3s/ 6p per gallon that is £0.18p per GALLON that is 1/30th of the current price

The relative value of £1 in 1955 is as shown here - it all depends basis you care to select to make your case:
http://www.measuring...ear_result=2008

Originally posted by Barry Boor
My memory tells me that when I first went to college in 1966 I got 3 gallons of petrol for £1 - 6s 8d (about 33p) a gallon;

By coincidence, that was the same price as a 45 r.p.m. single record back then, Barry.

[Barry Boor]

Absolutely correct, Alan. I did consider mentioning that myself.

[fines]

It's always been the same to me - I used to take on fuel for ten Deutschmarks, now it's 5 €uros...

[Ray Bell]

Hmmm... I recall that a 45 was 10/- when I was a kid, and remained that way for many years... LPs were generally about £1/10/-...

I actually thought I'd have the earliest memory of petrol prices until I got to Frank S's post... but in the early fifties, probably 1952 or 1953, when we only had one grade of petrol ('Super' and 'Standard' were still a year or two away), my dad filled his Prefect or Holden at about 2/11½ per gallon. We use Imperial gallons. Or we used to officially, still do unofficially.

By the time I was driving, 1963, city prices for Super were around 3/7 from memory. I do recall that if your Morris Minor's tank hadn't actually been run dry you could fill it for ten bob.

In 1972 I drove a Datsun 180B from Sydney to Adelaide and back, getting about 19mpg. Total mileage for the trip would have been (with my running around Lobethal and Victor Harbor, of course) about 2300 miles, so it would have been close to 120 gallons for the weekend. I remember that I figured the trip had paid for itself because I got $60 from the Daily Telegraph for filing reports on the Gold Star race.

That's still in the region of 50c a gallon for Super, including the higher prices experienced across the less populous areas... though that might not be right. There was a period where we had standardised pricing, prices in the city were a tad higher to subsidise transport of fuel to remote areas and this might have been during that period.

Perhaps 1978 or so I recall 14.9c per litre being the going rate in Sydney. Prior to the lead-up to the first Gulf War, 1990, I was buying my BP for 65.3c per litre. That was Sydney price, we moved during that time to Moonbi and it got as high as the high eighties before settling to the high seventies there.

1991 in Brisbane it was from 59.9 to 63.9 in Brisbane for Super. Three years ago it was around 79c per litre for unleaded, but the upward climb was about to begin. Today it's running around $1.30 per litre for regular unleaded.

We have 10% ethanol fuels selling for about 3c a litre less, diesel I've seen around the city in the last few days for $162 per litre. Petrol prices in Brisbane are generally 6c a litre lower than Sydney due to an 8c per litre concession from the Federal Government (because of the size/population) being passed on rather than used elsewhere by the Queensland Government. I don't know what happens to the other 2c!

LPG is the way out here if you do the mileage to justify the conversion costs (mine recently cost $2600)... in 1986 I was paying 20c to 25c per litre for LPG against a Super petrol price of about 47c in Sydney. Today the gas prices vary enormously, showing a huge amount of profiteering in different areas.

Brisbane sees a variance of 59.9 to 71.9 per litre at the moment, some country areas have it for as much as 99c per litre (their petrol is about $1.50 per litre), but on one trip I saw gas (just before the last jump in price) at 61.9c in Dubbo. 75kms up the road at Gilgandra it was 75.9c, a further 80kms on at Coonabarrabran it was 59.9c, then 120kms north of there, the next town on the same road mind you, it was 87.9c.

By the way, a new Holden in the early fifties cost £990 or so, today you'd be looking at $40,000 or so, I guess. But there's a lot of difference in the inclusions. Some things that would be in the new one and not the old would be a radio, bucket seats, safety belts, fuel injection, heater, radial tyres, side intrusion protection and a bunch of designed-in safety items, laminated screen (instead of toughened glass), turn indicators, reversing lights, tail lights each side in place of one in the middle, padded dash, a bunch of instrumentation, centre console, carpets, glove box light, boot (trunk) light and external rear vision mirrors. There is, of course, a lot more in the average new one that wasn't in the old ones, but often they are model-dependent or extra-cost options.

[vivafroilan!]

I worked at a Texaco station in Albuquerque in the early '70s, and I still remember Fire Chief (regular) was 37.9 cents/gallon, and Super Chief (premium) 41.9...
But my favorite gas price story was one a neighbor told me just after it had gone up to over a dollar a gallon. In the late '60s he was driving to Los Angeles and stopped in Needles, California to get gas before heading into what was then a 150-mile stretch of nothing but desert between there and Barstow. Prices were always higher in Needles because you had to have gas for that desert stretch, but when he saw 37.9/gallon for regular he said "Ill be DAMNED if I'm gonna pay THIRTY-SEVEN NINE for a gallon of gas!", and just drove on... into what he said was the hottest, longest day of his life after he ran bone dry in the middle of the desert. (He had a Volkswagen bus, so probably would've made it across for two bucks...)

[bobbo]

Back in the early 1950's, I remember my Dad pulling in to the station & getting a Dollar's worth for our black 1951 Ford coupe, & getting change back . .

And later, @ 1968 or so, Sunoco 260 Ultra High Test was @ $.37.9 per gallon for my Renault R8 Gordini. That's the only thing it could run on & not foul plugs.

Bobbo

[Carles Bosch]

I remember vividly when my father was paying around 10 pesetas/litre, back in the early '70ies. The rate change shows us that 10 pesetas are worth 0,06 €... now we are paying around 1,50 €/litre...


Carles.

[Doug Nye]

Either 3 shillings and 8 pence or 3s 10d in the Merrow filling station, Guildford, c.March 1964. My school chum Pete Hodgkiss had lent me the 1954(ish) Hillman Minx convertible which his dad had given him but which he couldn't drive yet because he didn't have a licence.

I was living in Guildford but working at Brands Hatch on 'Motor Racing' and 'Airfix Magazine'. I used the Minx to commute the 50 miles each way, night and morning. I amused myself by learning how to broadside it through the ess-bend under the railway bridge in Gomshall village, flick it right, then intentionally over-correct the yaw and it would pendulum into the exit left-hander spot on...until the day there was a puddle there. I just kept the car out of the hedge, but inadvertently flicked the switch for the semaphore indicator, which deployed - to suffer instant amputation by privet.

I remember the torn ends of the wiring were still sparking together and smoking when I stopped to investigate possible damage, a quarter-mile further on...well clear of the lone pedestrian witness I had just missed. (And I mean JUST ... )

DCN

[Ray Bell]

Umm... I don't know if I should throw this in...

A few weeks ago I interviewed a young Venezuelan who's taken up residence in Australia. During the interview we ask about card usage, and at what kind of establishments he used cards to make purchases.

"Service stations?" I asked. "No, never!" came the reply. Bear in mind here he's only been in Australia a few weeks and at this stage didn't have a car.

His wife explained further, however. "In Venezuela the gas is so cheap, it is only 20c to fill the tank!"

That, folks, is today. Or a couple of months ago, anyway.


Doug... I always believed your fuel costs were much higher than ours... are you sure about that 3/10 a gallon price?

[kayemod]

I wonder how many here remember the classic Allman Brothers elpee 'Wipe the Windows, Check the Oil, Dollar Gas' ?

I remember at the time I bought it that it sounded rather cheap for a fill-up.

[Lotus23]

Frank S (Post #24) mentioned draining hoses. En route to the Southern 500, I resorted to that practice one Sunday morning in the wilds of rural South Carolina. Motorcycle coughed dry, and I managed to coast into a closed petrol station. Drained enough from about 6 hoses to get 'er going again and just made it to the next station, which happily was open.

vivafroilan!, your post spooked me: in the latter 60s, I too piloted a VW bus thru Albuquerque to Barstow (Ft Irwin) via Needles. But unlike your neighbor, I filled up at every opportunity, regardless of price. That trip gave "heat wave" new meaning, and I made sure my next vehicle had air conditioning!

[beighes]

Greetings................Here is a sad statement of reality. In the former racing life, I remember fueling our 3mpg Camaro A-Sedan from the pumps in the paddock at Laguna Seca. The 1976 price of Union 76 101/102 octane race gas: $1.01/gallon. cheers!

[sterling49]

As a petrol pump attendant in the local Esso Station down the road from Brands........4/-10d seems to ring a bell, full tank in a Mini for about a just over a quid...... that was during the "put a tiger in your tank" campaign, circa 1968 .......gee, time flies

[Doug Nye]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
Doug... I always believed your fuel costs were much higher than ours... are you sure about that 3/10 a gallon price?

Pretty much - see Sterling above, 4s 10d per gallon four years later. In our area Merrow did offer by far the cheapest petrol though. At the next budget I believe even their price shot up to 4s 2d - which was devastating.

Approx 21 New pence per Imperial Gallon....

DCN

[sterling49]

Originally posted by Doug Nye


In our area Merrow did offer by far the cheapest petrol though.
DCN

I used to visit Merrow often, no garages now though Doug.......only Joe Sainsburys, used to visit a certain manufacturer of blue racing cars, with my stationery dealer who just happened to be based in Merrow, surprised that Merrow had the cheapest fuel though.I filled up today in 1066 country at £1.169 for derv.......... :

[Frank S]

Originally posted by beighes
Greetings................Here is a sad statement of reality. In the former racing life, I remember fueling our 3mpg Camaro A-Sedan from the pumps in the paddock at Laguna Seca. The 1976 price of Union 76 101/102 octane race gas: $1.01/gallon. cheers!

I was close to mentioning the 99-cent-per-gallon racing fuel at the station in Riverside's paddock, April 1975. Seemed very expensive, but not out of sight, with ordinary pump gas around 50 cents or a bit more, I think I remember.

I know for certain that when I got my VEGA home with more than five gallons of racing gas remaining in the tank, I siphoned it into a GI can where within two weeks it had eaten the sealing at the seams and was seeping into the ground in a corner of the garden.

--
Frank S
Looking at a fifty-dollar fill-up next week

[ShiftyDriver]

Why is Petrol so cheap in the US compared to the UK and most of europe?
I in Europe, we have generally have efficient "small" engines and pay a high price for fuel. As far as I know, its the opposite in the US.

[David M. Kane]

1957 in Washington, D.C on Connecticut Avenue in Northwest part of town at a gas station run by the nephew of Marshall Teague the Stock Car driver. The station was next to the Hot Shoope Drive-In restaurant where all the Hot Rodders hung out on the weekends.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by ShiftyDriver
Why is Petrol so cheap in the US compared to the UK and most of europe?
In Europe, we have generally have efficient "small" engines and pay a high price for fuel. As far as I know, its the opposite in the US.

Mostly it's taxation, I would think...

Remember that the US had huge domestic supplies from early times, still produce a lot of their own.

In Australia, our current pricing is affected by excise tax (42c a litre?) and GST or VAT at 10% of the pump price. For many years we had no domestic supplies, the Bass Strait oil wells only starting to make a significant change to that about the late sixties. From the mid to late seventies we've had, however, a 'world parity' pricing that affects the excise tax, putting our price up based on world prices.

Of interest, since the jumps that began almost three years ago, the 'refining cost' component of the at-the-bowser price has gone from something like 7c a litre to 17c a litre. So there's an extra 10c a litre being pocketed by the oil companies at the refinery.

[David M. Kane]

Tax is high in USA too, they "claim" the cost of the barrel is currently high too.

[seldo]

Originally posted by Lotus23
circa '59, I can recall pulling into a "service station" in Massachusetts during a downpour. Asked the bow-tied and slicker-clad attendant to give me $0.50 worth of regular and would he please check the oil?

He smilingly did so. It was not an unusual request then, but I'd certainly hate to try it today!

I can recall as a broke student, spluttering into a petrol station in about '64, out of petrol and out of money. I rifled through my pockets, the glove-box, down the back of the seat etc and finally came up with 2/- (20c) and meekly asked the attendant for 2/- worth.... Without so much as a smile, he asked me if I was trying to wean it....
But I also recall that 10/- (1$) worth was a common purchase and gave almost 3 galls at 3/7 (37c) per gall......

[dretceterini]

I remember the lowest grade of Sunoco @23.9 cents a US gallon and the higest grade (Sunoco 260, which was something like 105 octane) at 32.9 cents a US gallon, circa 1965 and that was full sevice. I don't remember there being such a thing as self serve back then...

[plannerpower]

As many young Australians did (and do), I travelled overseas in 1970/71.

My transport through the UK and Europe was an ex-London Ambulance Morris LD diesel; lovely ash-frame & sheet-alloy coachwork with every one of the hundreds of slot-headed screws "headed", ie aligned fore-&-aft.

I can't remember the precise amount but I seem to remember that diesel ("derv") could be had for as low as a shilling per gallon in the eastern European countries (Yugoslavia, Bulgaria etc).

I remember filling every possible container in the "cheap" countries before crossing into the "expensive" ones.

[RTH]

In Britain today the lowest Petrol price is typically £1.10 per litre

This price is made up by 0.80p tax which goes direct to central government

( that is excise duty + VAT on the whole amount including the excise duty tax )


......and £0.30p which is the cost of the petrol including everyones profits

So for every £40 you put in your tank......... £30 of that goes to the state the petrol is just the £10

I believe in the USA there is little or no tax levied on gasoline at the retail level

There is no tax at all here on jet airliner fuel kerosene, also airlines and airliner manufacturers are exempt from paying any value added tax. So when you buy a new car typically you will pay an extra charge of £2000 in VAT . If you spend £38M on a new airliner you will pay no vat at all !

[thunder427]

AVGAS..what about the time you could buy it for your 'Big Block/427 cubic inch' 1967 Corvette,100 plus 'Octain or for your 'Souped up'/'Hot Rodded' engine equipped ride,now you need a 'pilots' liscence or the FBI is asking Questions,Ahhhh !! the sound of a 'Big Block' with 'Side-Pipes ,Music to these aging ears !!!

[Gary Davies]

Originally posted by Barry Boor
I certainly remember trying to sell insurance in Abergele in 1979 when the £1 gallon first appeared.

Now there's a picture...

"Bore da, Twm, I see you've had a visit from that Barry ... fellow, what's his name now... Barry Island is it? Trying to sell insooorance is it. Anyway, he's from Lundun isn't he. Can't make out a damn word he's saying. Take it from me, mun, never buy anything from the bluddy English. That's what my Da always said and he was right you know, rest his soul. Bluddy English, coming to Abergele as if they own the place. Plenty of them in Prestatyn and Rhyl... now they're taking over Abergele. Whatever next?

Another pint, boyo?"