Way back in the ‘50s, when the dollar was worth something, we bought gas for $.29/gal. and a new Buick was around $2000. Those were the real “good old days.”
I paid 2.19 here in OKC a few days ago. Sounds like it hasn't hit bottom yet.
Don’t forget the doctor drove that Buick to your house if you were sick.
I bought gas for $.29 a gallon or less regularly in the late sixties and bought it for $.19 a gallon in 1972 during a gas war. I had a 1966 German made Opel with a ten gallon tank for use as a second car and you could fill the tank for two dollars and drive three hundred miles. Less than a penny a mile for fuel cost in 1972. My pay was a little over three dollars an hour so I could travel three hundred miles on the fuel I could buy with less than forty minutes pay. I was buying choice T-bone steak for $.78 a pound. I was making about one fifty a week between my regular pay and a little VA training allowance on my new job and my new wife was drawing unemployment. We were eating T-bone whenever we felt like it and living it up. I wish I were doing as well now.
$0.19 in Columbia, MO in 1970 or 1971. Central Missouri somehow seemed to have some of the lowest prices in the country. I remember some people saying it was due to the proximity to pipelines.
$0.19 in 1970 dollars is $0.90 in 2014 dollars. So the price in OKC is about twice what I paid in 1970 (in real terms).
Adjusted for inflation 29 cent gas in 1955 is $2.57 today. We are getting close to fair value for oil and gas.
But how much did you make per hour?
Let's see adjusted for inflation:
The $2,000 Buick would cost $17,718.88 in 2014. The $.29 Gallon Gas would cost $2.57 in 2014. Looks like the price of gas is abut the same!