In Southern Cal now $4.15 and up!
Reminds me of the 80's, when I lived in San Diego. Folks ran out and bought diesels (Trucks, VW's Rabbit's, MBZ's, etc.) added spare tanks in truck beds or spare tanks in car trunks. Ran to Mexico for $.50 a gallon diesel to avoid paying what I recall as $2.50-3.00 a gallon state side. Also a bonus was they all improved their MPG over their gassers. (More bang for the buck.) Folks ran them for a month and went down again to refill. Back then it was easy and quick to cross the border. But not so easy now as its 1-3 hours to get back over, diesel is now 81 peso's a gallon in Mexico ($4.00 US) , and last I heard Mexico still has high sulfur in their diesel so new vehicles running DEF cannot participate in cheaper fuel.
Then back in what seemed like 2014, gas spiked over $4.00 a gallon here in Orange County. So, a lot of folks around here ran out and bought hybrids or if feeling rich electric cars. (Ironically most kept at least one or both of their gas guzzlers. Hard to pull a boat or travel trailer with a Chevy Volt or Tesla!!!!) Just seemed odd to me you would spend $35,000 (Chevy Volt)-70,000 (On a Tesla.) to avoid paying the extra $.80-1.00 a gallon or $80 (Or less) a month.
Let’s say you filled up your gasser pickup truck or full size SUV 1 time a week. That would look like an additional perhaps $80.00 a month.
Then to somehow think you are saving more than $80 a month by taking on a new car payment of $350-700 a month. (Or pay cash, but that is not where the madness would end.)
Fast forward 9-14 months later gas drops back down to around $3 or less. But now these folks are stuck in a 3rd car, probably saw 20-25% depreciation, still have a car payment for 4-5 years, still bought gas at $4.00 a gallon for that hybrid, then additional insurance of say $700 here in Socal on a new car, $400-600 for registration on a new car, maintenance, and another $400-1,000 for a way to fast charge their hybrid or electric car at night.
So for the life of me I cannot understand the logic of how that is cheaper to spend say $500+ (All in and with depreciation.) a month for a new car just to avoid paying $80 more a month for gas for 14 months or less??????? Lets say I was very happy to just keep my vehicles pay the surcharge for 12 months, and was glad I was not paying for a 3rd car I no longer really needed.
On the bright side reminising about the 80's Mexico gas tactic makes me think I should put my 80 gallon transfer tank for my boat in my truck and see if I can find $3.00 a gallon diesel in NV between Pahrump and Las Vegas! Maybe get in some casino fun with the savings and come back with a months worth of fuel cheap fuel!!!