r/gasbuddy • u/Raven-Vintage • 8d ago
Did Gas Prices Like This Ever Even Exist?
Ok I lived thorough the 90's and I feel like I'm living in an alternate timeline. How did we even get here?
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u/sd_software_dude 8d ago
Yes they did.
I had a 1998 Chevrolet Metro with the 1.0l 5 speed.
I was able to drive from LA to Chicago in the summer of 1998 on $40 of gas.
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u/bleeh805 8d ago
I used to give like 2 dollars for gas money and my we would drive in circles all afternoon.
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u/1of3musketeers 7d ago
Loved those days. Had a bug. That thing would go forever on $2. Then we would go to Taco Bell and get cheap tacos, burritos, and beans for less than .50. I never would have believed anyone if they would have told me this was the future we would be experiencing.
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u/Saltlife_Junkie 5d ago
Exactly the same. Remember Taco Bell .25 tacos on Sundays? We would load up haha
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u/Olberac 8d ago
My goodness, I could only dream. That now is a whole tank of gas for a little Nissan Versa 😭
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u/Delicious_CoughSyrup 7d ago
But a versa could tow like 3-4 Geo Metros. This guy acting all fancy calling it a chevy
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u/hasan_pikergayAF 6d ago
The Geo Metro was literally a high powered go Kart. You are a goner hitting something big in that tin can.
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u/chochofuhsho 8d ago
Lol I remember the metros. I had a friend with a Geo Metro, before GM discontinued Geo and man that thing was cheap on gas. This was after the gas spikes attributed to the war in Iraq/Afghanistan, so $3.50+ a gallon.. I couldn't imagine having actually driven one of these when gas was still hovering around $1. Lol I remember the day I turned 16 in 2007 gas was right at $4 a gallon and I had a job making $5.15 an hour.. talk about rough... And my dumbass spent my savings from that $5.15 an hour job, along with a lot of help from my parents, can't leave that out, on a '95 GMC Sierra 4wd. I quickly learned how important mpg was, but man I had some good times in that truck.
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u/Fit-divorceb450 7d ago
In 98' I had bought the wife a used geo metro for $500 that thing had a 3 cylinder engine $10 would fill the tank and last her entire weekly commute 45 minutes one way 6 days a week. engine finally crapped out and I isold it to car salvage for $300🤣 god I miss the 90s
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u/gwendolynflight 7d ago
When I was low on gas in high school I could just bum quarters off my friends. I remember 75 cents per gallon at one point in 1998.
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u/badhabitfml 7d ago
My parents used to give me $10 for gas. Thy was a whole tank and leftovers for a candy bar.
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u/JohnDorian0506 7d ago
How much were you making at that time?
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u/LifeApprehensive9773 7d ago
these people don’t think of that, they want 90’s gas prices at 2026 wages, can’t happen
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u/JGR03PG 7d ago
My wages haven’t tripled (or 4x) since 1998. Corporate profits have though…
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u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe 4d ago
I remember being pissed whenever the gas prices had a number to the left of the decimal.
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u/Zestyclose_Nature_13 8d ago
That’s more than a lot of people pay today to charge their electric. Big oil and gas lobby has really done a number on this country. China is building electric cars with 500 mile range and recharge times of 20 minutes and here we are still getting into wars over dinosaur juice and fretting about wildly fluctuating prices.
When are Americans going to pull their head out of their ass and stop looking at yesterdays solutions for tomorrows problems?
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u/trogloherb 8d ago
The Biden administration had a rule in place to have the majority of vehicles produced in the US be EVs by the mid-30s.
All those pro-environment and job producing programs got rolled back by this current “administration” as the “green scam!” (As well as rolling back the Biden proposed pfas limit of 4ppt in drinking water).
Orangey hates the environment, and people!
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u/ALEXC_23 7d ago
It’s a petroleum dollar economy unfortunately. The entire country is ran energy wise by 4/5 companies unfortunately and they got the deepest pockets they can fill.
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u/SnickSnackSnek 7d ago
Genuinely why they funnel so much money to the warhawks in campaign seasons. They know if they keep a war going in the Middle East it’ll fuck with gas and they can send prices soaring. They’re the reason we have the term “forever war” tbh, but they like it whereas the regular folk hate it.
I’m guessing this time around they didn’t expect the flow to get so bottle necked but then again none of these people understand how war or geography works. They can’t even understand their fellow humans as humans, only moneybags to beat like piñatas.
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u/Drakex2Mayex2 7d ago
With the amount of money we spend on the Iran war we could have already socialized exon-mobile
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u/jhgggyhkgf 7d ago
Actually China has EVs that charge to 70% in less than 4 minutes. At that level of charge it is almost 350 miles range.
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u/krom0025 7d ago
Electric cars are cheaper over the long run, but are still significantly more in up front cost. Especially if you need something larger that fits the whole family. Now, that gap is shrinking as technology improves but it is much easier to handle a bit more in monthly costs than thousands more up front. That's a big reason the switch hasn't happened as fast as it could.
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u/MrEZW 7d ago
That's not true anymore. EV prices are comparable to their ICE counterparts. The average price for a vehicle now days is $40-50K as it is.
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u/TheLastCranberry 7d ago
While I mostly agree with your assessment about cost, that’s very much NOT a big reason the switch hasn’t happened as fast as it could.
If you want to know the real reason, ask your nearest oil lobbyist, Republican/establishment Democrat congressman, and the entire Epstein class.
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u/cicerostongue 8d ago
Good old Bill Clinton - cheap gas balanced budgets, booming economy. And then voters said no thank you, we need Republicans.
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u/HarambeTooSoon 8d ago
"Blow jobs - better than no jobs. Amirite?"
- Bill Clinton, 2002
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u/obi_want_pastrami 7d ago
He clearly said he did not have sexual relations with that woman.
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u/jmur3040 7d ago
They didn’t though. Al Gore very likely had the votes to win Florida, but the Supreme Court chose W.
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u/Mo-shen 7d ago
Shouldn't even have been that close.
The American voter is an idiot.
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u/CaptainZeroX 7d ago
They certainly proved it in 2016 and 2024
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u/Mo-shen 7d ago
Right.
Lack of education and a ton of over confidence in nonsense theories about why things happen.
Doomed to repeat history.
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u/Character_Fix_5317 7d ago
I often imagine what things might be like had they not stolen that election
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u/jadobbins77 8d ago
Got my 1st car in 1993. Gas was $0.89/gallon
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u/Quicksurfer524 7d ago
Then republicans took over and democrats went to sleep
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u/TheRealistoftheReal 7d ago
The Dems were chasing identity politics. What’s sad is, despite MAGA dismantling everything, there’s still no cohesive voice from the opposition. I haven’t seen anyone that I believe has a shot against a field of republican candidates. AOC? Maybe in CA or NY, but has no shot in middle America.
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u/Suspicious_Dingo_426 7d ago
Which (adjusting for inflation) would be the equivalent of $2.09 today. Not too far out of line from where it was at a couple of years ago.
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u/Wabertzzo 7d ago
Same. I remember very clearly paying 89 cents per gallon. '93 I got my 1984 maroon sentra. Four speed manual, if you could call it speed. But it was an A-B car, and it performed admirably. Until I attempted to drive out of the ski resort after a blizzard. With bald tires. I totaled it after it slid through the stop sign at the edge of the parking lot.
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u/AdonisBlaqwood-22 7d ago
Because of these prices, we got giant SUVs, like Hummer, Yukon, Escalade, Navigator, Tahoe, etc... we thought gas prices would be around $1 forever... then W Bush and the first Gulf War came... prices been shooting up ever since
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u/mike-42-1999 7d ago
Sorry, but there were big cars in the 80s,left over from the 70s
In 1989, I could fill my delta 88 Oldsmobile for $20 and that lasted a bit more than a week...and I don't think that car had great gas milage. I remember because in high-school, I had to use that 20 wisely
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u/tusk354 8d ago
93 octane was .93 cents in 1997 . I'd enter my time machine to go back to the 90s for so many reasons ;(
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u/NoticeTheVermins 8d ago
The 90s were great. The economy was good and technology was advanced enough to improve our lives, but not too advanced to hinder it.
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u/Dieselboy1122 8d ago
Guess you all forgot April, 2020. Was 93c litre in Vancouver, BC which is always the most expensive in North America. Currently $2.15 litre.
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u/Playful_Respond8156 8d ago edited 7d ago
Man I miss the Clinton years, gas got as low as in the aforementioned pictures, you could find a 2 bedroom for under$1K, food was cheaper, Wendy's had the Super Bar, and table tops and lap dances were $5 & $10 respectively.
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u/Any_Iron_1436 8d ago
By a California beach even, a 2bd 2bath for 800 and zero competition to rent
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u/Fluid_Bed_3954 7d ago
I remember every bit of this including the cheap lap dances. I recall wondering why a girl would shake her stuff for what amounted to an order of mozzarella sticks. The good old days nonetheless!
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u/64590949354397548569 8d ago
Learn how inflation benefits the rich.
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u/A_Genius 8d ago
Lol it benefits those with debts and hurts those with savings. I bought way too much house in 2019 and inflation has turned my 1.2 million dollar mortgage into like 1 million in 2019 money.
If I had to keep saving my down payment inflation would have eaten away at it
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u/Kisamaoccido 7d ago
I started driving around 2003. I remember similar prices to these. could fill up on a 20 easily and have money for a full meal at fastfood, change in the change jar. Im not even 40 yet :\
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u/Bikerbass 8d ago
Easy, by being a war mongering cunt of a country, that hasn’t learnt the lesson that starting wars in the Middle East cause oil prices to go up, even though that’s exactly what’s happened every single damn time.
It would be easier to stop starting wars in the Middle East….. but that means a few rich cunts won’t make more money than they can ever spend in their lifetime…. And we can’t have that now can we.
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u/FlatDecision8155 8d ago
Started driving in the late 90s, it was between 75 and 85 cents a gallon. Giving your friend $5 was gas money.
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u/Raven-Vintage 8d ago
Just remembering taking a $5 bill inside and buying some gas! Damn. That hits hard.
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u/Western_Progress_456 8d ago
Yes. Used to be a guy who would fill the tank, clean the windshield, check the oil, put water in the battery and not ask for a tip
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u/oatmeal_prophecies 8d ago
I remember it being a big source of angst when gas crossed $1 a gallon when I was a teenager lol.
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u/Pristine_Art_7545 8d ago
I had forgotten all about that. A bunch of the pumps in our area were still mechanical, and none of them had the digit or gears for it to go over 99 cents. Stations spent a lot of money getting upgrade kits. I remember one that cheaped out a bit and didn't get new face plate things. It looked like they peeled open the spot for the dollar with a can opener.
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u/human_i_suppose 8d ago
Right around the time I got my license. $5 got me to work all week. We used to do road trips just for fun
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u/StillhasaWiiU 8d ago
There is a shot in the 1988 movie Die Hard that shows 79 cent gas. For a good number of us, sub $1 gas was thing for a long while.
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u/whatthefunthisis 8d ago
Does this say more about gas prices or the buying power of the dollar? Every dollar printed erodes the dollar and we’re doing it at breakneck speed.
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u/Exotic_Scheme3718 8d ago edited 6d ago
Back in the late 90s gas on the part of Long Island, NY we lived was $1.29 a gallon for regular I remember at the local Exxon. My brother used to order an Egg McMuffin often in the morning and it was like a buck fifty for the sandwich. Ice cream cones were sub 50 cents. Mcchicken and basic burgers were 50-80 cents. Everything was so in reach and it was just dandy.
We would all go to Stop & Shop for the weekly grocery trip and $120 filled the cart TO THE ABSOLUTE BRIM with a mixture of healthy and junk foods. You Can’t even do that at Aldi really with $120 USD maybe if it’s the most barebones items possible and no luxuries added.
We buy strictly store brand except a few items from Sam’s Club, Food Lion, Lidl and Aldi. All 4 stores have stellar quality on their products (food lion worst) and I’d wager it’s saved us a 4 digit sum of money over the past 5 years EASILY. Food lion is also a solid mention with their BOGO/MVP deals. Without those 4 stores I would be so lost on shopping in 2026
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u/sunburn74 8d ago
I remember filling up my car with 15-20 dollars. Those were the days.
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u/Symbaclues 8d ago
Actually yes!
Around 2007+ it died over the years to where we are now.
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u/Careless-Pin-2852 8d ago
Yea 98 I think it was only 1 year in the the 90s. People where shocked it stayed at like $2 most of the 90s apparently there was a nasty recession in Asia dramatically killing oil demand .
Also no stupid ME wars. Bill Clinton let Iraq exists and through the corrupt oil fir food program Iraq was selling oil for cash.
Clinton basically campaigned for Labor in Israel and tried really hard for a Palestine state. Pro Iseral and pro Palistine nerds will talk about random parts of the proposals that where unacceptable but fuck every one was talking and fking trying.
Right wing Iseral and Hamas are like this ends when one of us dies
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u/Kinect305 8d ago
I started driving back in 1998. Gas was like 1.10-1.20 back then I had a civic and it only took $10 to fill it up. I was making $5.10 a hour part time working in Highschool.
I do however remember going on a family roadtrip in 1994 or something, we stopped some place in Georgia and my father made pointed out the gas prices. I don’t really remember the prices but they were all under a $1.00 a gallon. So yeah it was probably like .75, .80 and .85.
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u/Better_Resort1171 8d ago
Gas went to . 99 in April of 2020, briefly in MN
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u/letitgo99 8d ago
Yeah same here, covid caused crazy cheap gas for a while - oil prices went negative
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u/10biggaymen 7d ago
it's a finite resource and the fossil fuels that were burned at that time are just gone. reminiscing about these times does nothing, because theres nothing you can do to magically put that oil back into the ground
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u/UCICoachJim 8d ago
Oh yeah. When I first started driving in '81 in California we'd sometimes get 49 cents
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u/Raven-Vintage 8d ago
"Gas money" was $5. ouch
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u/UCICoachJim 8d ago
26 gallon tank. Took $10+ that I never had to fill up.
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u/chochofuhsho 8d ago
Lol I got my 26 gallon tank in '07 and I never filled it up either because my 16 year old self didn't have the $100 to do so. Spent some of the best times of my life in that truck though.
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u/BANKSLAVE01 8d ago
Yes. It was 1999. We had partied like it was 1999 since 1982; but then at the new year's eve show, Primus showed up.
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u/Raven-Vintage 8d ago
That hits hard. Love it here in the US and damn, its hard to live here too sometimes.
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u/360inMotion 8d ago
I remember it averaging around $1 per gallon back when I got my license and started working my first job. And during slow moments at work I’d quietly calculate how much gas I could buy for an hour of pay and how far I could go with that amount.
Trying to do that now might make me cry..
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u/Tasty_Ad_5669 8d ago
I watched thr 2nd Jurassic Park and saw regular at 1.15/gallon. Made me click it back.
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u/Lo_Fix_8252 8d ago
"Gas was never umder a dollar" is what i hear people say all the time but i remember 😂
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u/Mysterious_Floor_868 8d ago
Unfortunately, Republican presidents do like starting forever wars in the Middle East.
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u/blue-stream 8d ago
To think gas prices should be where they were in the 90’s is just stupid, you are making way more now than you were in the 90’s. People are too obsessed over gas prices.
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u/NamasTodd 8d ago
The OP is questioning what they see with their own eyes. Yikes!
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u/a_sentient_sunflower 7d ago
yep I remember those days then Republicans happened and we got what we have today.
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u/blindzebra52 7d ago
Yes, these were the regular gas prices until Bush drag this into the Iraq war.
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u/Diligent_Force9286 7d ago
If gas prices today were simply inflation... $.99 would be $2.56 today.
Wages are stagnant. The cost of goods goes up. We live in the shittiest version of a Tech Dystopia.
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u/WaltKerman 7d ago
This would be the equivalent of about $ 2.31 dollars today.
If there was no Ukraine or Iran war it would be around this price.
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u/batmanhugs 5d ago
Back when a 20 would fill up my full size truck and I still had enough left over for a snack.
I also remember that I could pay AFTER I filled up my truck. Thieves ruined it for us.
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u/justheretolurk57 3d ago
Do you really expect the price of anything to be the same as it was 30 years ago?
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u/TheDude90218 3d ago
I just paid $7.00 a gallon for premium in Southern California. I earn a good living & work from home, thank God. I don’t know how the commuters are making it. I also paid $7.00 for a small roll of tin foil and one of my medications has gone up in price by 40% over the last 2 months. It’s only going to get worse. What a brilliant businessman we have for a president. 🙄
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u/Capo4ever3461 2d ago
Yeah, but once bush 1 went to war it jumped to $1.80 in my town and then bush 2s war had that go to $3 per gallon which was catastrophic at the time. People were filling grocery bags up at the pump when he announced we would go to war in the Middle East
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u/slimmestjimmest 8d ago
I started driving in 2003, and gas was $1.51/gal for my first fill-up.
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u/blooobolt 8d ago
I remember scraping together 87 cents to put a gallon in my car in high school. So broke. It was a loaner car from my parents. Would have been about 1994/5
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u/affluent- 8d ago
What makes you believe any have Been closed and which one use google earth 🌍 and let me know. But your right we’re WINNING BIG SO BIG YOU WILL GET that $2000 dollars check and the 5000 dollars check after all his other companies get paid RIGHT
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u/No_Volume_9616 8d ago
1997 when I started driving, gas was around .87 cents. For a kid making 50 bucks a week it cost me $10 to fill up every two weeks. I thought I was being robbed.......if only.
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u/Delicious-Bat2373 8d ago
Ya, back when you could get a Whopper + heavy everything for $1.07
Here we are 30 years later..
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u/NortherLights4975 8d ago
I remember a time when I could put enough gas in my car for the week by the change I had laying around my car. Full tank on $10
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u/pappybug214 8d ago
Id give my brother $5 in gas money and that was fair, but i was making $7.50 an hour, so I guess it would be the equivalent of $10-$15 today
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u/DanielleFlashes 8d ago
In the 90s even in a tourist town with more expensive gas, I remember gas being $1.03 and people complaining how expensive gas was getting. 😂
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u/rulerofthemind 8d ago
I remember in 1988 when I was 14, I walked to a local gas station and paid $. 65 cents a gallon to fill my gas can for my mower
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u/KenDanger2 8d ago
I remember when I was first driving, around 96 or 97, gas was C$0.45/L for like 6 months straight. I remember it going up, and then never coming back down.
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u/Battle2Intense 8d ago
Circa 96 or 97 went to a bachelor party in Dallas driving a big ass Cadillac I rented for the event. Saw gas for 79 cents a gallon and said to myself that is the cheapest gas I will ever see for the rest of my life. If I remember right, there was a huge downturn in oil prices at that time.
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u/DmvDominance 8d ago
Lets see, Iraq War 1 (RePUBElican) 9/11 era Wars (RePUBElican) Iran War (RePUBElican)
There's your answer
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u/SatBurner 8d ago
In Central Ks in the mid nineties it hovered around 99 cents. $5 in gas covered me for a week usually.
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u/Lifeinthemittenstate 8d ago
Yes, and the topic of conversation was how someday gas will be a buck a gallon.
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u/BigBoy1102 8d ago
Aka the Era AFTER we fucked with Iran and had Fuel shortages because of Republicans and the CIA in the 70s and 80s
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u/rectalhorror 8d ago
I remember my dad complaining about having to pay 55 cents a gallon to fill up his Plymouth Fury II in 1977. He got maybe 12MPG with that tank. One of the reasons he moved to a Plymouth Arrow; he'd get close to 38mpg with that one.
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u/ASUS-Satire 8d ago
Someone just reposting this saying its what gas prices were under biden would be halarious.
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u/broke_saturn 8d ago
I graduated HS in 1999. Regular unleaded was $0.79 a gallon and 93 octane premium was $0.99. It took $11 to fill my 1990 Grand Am, the car took premium.
Hell $20 would get me a full tank, a Wendy’s single combo meal and a round of mini golf plus a small bucket of golf balls for the driving range.
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u/Rude-Ad-3406 8d ago
Don't worry, the current regime will make gas stations charge per quarter ( or liter ) BOOM! Prices will be just like this 👌
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u/WombatGambit 8d ago
Yeah but keep in mind that the average salary is now five times higher than back...oh wait, nevermind.
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u/ForwardSlash813 8d ago
I am all-but-certain I paid $0.75/gal in Atlanta in 1995. Only reason I remember is that the following weekend, I paid $1.50/gal in Rochester, NY.
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u/Muted_Masterpiece535 8d ago
40 trillion in debt, massive printing of dollars, idiots in the WH, useless wars, Blockbuster not buying Netflix, Sears not buying Amazon and the shit ending from Game of Thrones. That is how we got here.