I had a ‘63 Austin-Healey Sprite roadster ($1800 new) with an 1100cc motor that would get 40+ miles/gallon if driven carefully (which I didn’t). My gas expenses would be $3 a month and I could put it on my Texaco credit card.

I was teaching junior high math and making $4800 dollars a year. My rent was $65/month. My beautiful 500cc Triumph bike cost $1200 and my Rolex Submariner (which I still have) cost $185 new.

JFK was murdered during my first semester as a teacher.

That table is an eye-opener, and though it is not comprehensive, it does give the equivalent cost per gallon in $US, ranging from 0.19c in Venzuela to $7.69 in Norway! Now that is an obscenely large range in anybody’s books.

WE recently drove to Adelaide from Sydney, and starting with a tankfull, costing around A$1.30 liter,(about US$5.20 per gal.), needed to refill - 50 liters - halfway across (700km of the total distance of just over 1400km), and, so as not to runout within spitting distance of our daughter’s home, and on a freeway, went for a splash and dash, at what we (rightly) assumed was the last servo before the end of the freeway. A bit over two tankfulls.

It was a near new Nissan Tiida, 1.8 liter motor, auto everything, and it went faultlessly. I consider it to be a “big” small car. And the wife chose it all on her own! For herself. It is the latest version of the Pulsar, and as usual, comes with various extra appointments as you go up the range.

The return trip, covering a different route from halfway, ended up using not much more fuel at all, maybe two and a quarter fills. The maximum cost per liter was the splash before the refill on the return trip, (our favored brand not being available in the small town), was $1.50liter, about $6.00 US/gallon.

It was a just run-in car, two on board and not a great deal of luggage, an efficient new design engine, (I suspect to be made to Renault specs, as they have a controlling interest in Nissan Motors now), though I personally would have preferred a larger engine, this one seemed to fill the bill anyway, and I was pleasantly surprised. We both drove at, or under the legal speeds (most of the time!) - the max on Australian roads is 110km/hr - about 70mph.

Ivan

The profit margin made by the oil companies, if what I read was correct, is (substantially) less than the amount made by several other industries, including pharmaceutical companies.

I wish we paid that little for petrol, but even 5 years ago it cost more than that

Especially when you consider that that’s right in the same ballpark as the original Model T Ford….