Gas will be under $1.00 again

[What_Exit]

@Giles

There are at least two different gallons. The US gallon is about 3.8 litres; the old imperial gallon (formerly used in the UK and its colonial outposts like Australia) is about 4.5 litres. Similarly there are different quarts and pints, becauise they are 1/4 and 1/8 of a gallon in both systems. And there are two different fluid ounces: the US fluid ounce is about 29.6 ml and the imperial fluid ounce is about 28.4 ml. In both systems the ounce is the same, at about 28.4 g, so I don’t understand the different fluid ounces, except that in the US system it’s 1/128 of a gallon and in the imperial system it’s 1/160 of a gallon.

All true but we are talking gasoline sales in the US and therefore US Gallons.

[Stentor_2.5]

How do we know that there isn’t any legislation making the Gallon the standard unit of sale for gasoline?

[scr4]

If you priced your gas at $0.98/liter, of course everyone would be suspicios. The smart thing to do would be to say:

SALE! $2.20 /liter, limit $15 worth per customer.

[jjimm]

@Imasquare

Now it is £1 per litre in the UK but has doubled to $1.40 per litre in Australia. It sounds like prices have risen less in the UK than Australia?

Hasn’t this just happened recently? I was in Oz last September, and I remember a massive price hike when I was there. It went up something like 30c or more per litre during the month I drove from Brisbane to Sydney, though that might be partially due to crossing from QLD into NSW.

[Cunctator]

@jjimm

though that might be partially due to crossing from QLD into NSW.

That would certainly be a significant part of the increase since the QLD state government subsidises petrol prices to the tune (I think) of about 8-9 cents per litre.

[Imasquare]

@jjimm

Hasn’t this just happened recently? I was in Oz last September, and I remember a massive price hike when I was there. It went up something like 30c or more per litre during the month I drove from Brisbane to Sydney, though that might be partially due to crossing from QLD into NSW.

I’ve heard its cheaper in Queensland because the government there either subsidises it or has less tax on it.

[ninevah]

@Imasquare

Now it is £1 per litre in the UK but has doubled to $1.40 per litre in Australia. It sounds like prices have risen less in the UK than Australia?

I’ve heard that it’s gone up to $1.70 a litre in New Zealand. That sucks.

[Sunspace]

@ninevah

I’ve heard that it’s gone up to $1.70 a litre in New Zealand. That sucks.

That’s kiwi dollars?

I’m going to compare these prices to the euro, since the US dollar has been dropping lately*.

1 NZD = 0.5056 EUR, so 1.70 NZD/L is 0.859 EUR/L.

1 AUD = 0.6082 EUR, so 1.40 AUD/L is 0.852 EUR/L.

And around here in Toronto, its been determiniedly flirting with the $1/L mark. This morning it was 103.4c/L ($1.043/L) alonmg Dundas Street on the way to work, but when I was coming home, it was 96c/L. Always higher in the morning, and the four or five stations along that road usually vary only in the 0.001-dollar digit. (Does that daily price variation happen in Australia and New Zealand?) Therefore…

1 CAD = 0.7136 EUR, so 1.043 CAD/L = 0.7443 EUR/L

Today (May 3), the US dollar is 0.7916 euros, and the US gallon is 3.8 L, so…

3 USD/USgal x 1/3.8 USgal/L x 0.7916 EUR/USD = 0.6249 EUR/L

For those who want to play, the Bank of Canada has a good online currency converter that gives historical charts for free (unlike www.xe.com, which has a live page displaying the changes in a dozen popular currencies, handles a lot more currencies, and has other interesting information like a listing of world currency symbols.)

[sub]*Making my web hosting fees cheaper, for one. On 18 January 2002, the US dollar was $1.62 Canadian; today, 3 May 2006, it’s $1.07. [/sub]

[Cunctator]

@Sunspace

Does that daily price variation happen in Australia and New Zealand?

Certainly in Australia it does. In fact variations in price can occur almost hourly, depending on what the competition is doing. I don’t recall petrol prices moving quite so often when I lived in New Zealand, but that was a few years ago now and things may well have changed.

[SlickRoenick]

I watched Die Hard last night and they showed a gas station where gas was $0.74 per gallon for the cheap stuff. Damn i miss the '80s.

[ninevah]

@Cunctator

Certainly in Australia it does. In fact variations in price can occur almost hourly, depending on what the competition is doing. I don’t recall petrol prices moving quite so often when I lived in New Zealand, but that was a few years ago now and things may well have changed.

And it varies from petrol station to petrol station. I filled up yesterday on my way home ($1.39 per lt, I accidentally chose the ‘premium unleaded’ instead of regular unleaded, which was $1.35 per lt). When I got home, 3 of the 4 main petrol stations were selling around the $1.30 mark, whereas Mobil were selling for $1.44 per lt. I’ve always found this particular Mobil station always charging more than the other Mobil stations I’ve passed.

[TJdude825]

@davenportavenger

Gas buyers are a captive audience, and are essentially forced to pay whatever it costs. It’s not a market like any other.

Except other things that people “need” to have like water and electricity. Except those are different on the supply side, I guess. So perhaps you’re right.

[TJdude825]

Ah, sorry. I meant to put all three of my replies into one post.

@dolphinboy

First, we Americans don’t believe in the occult, space aliens or the metric system.

Actually, it’s not impossible to convince an American that the occult and space aliens exist. But tell them an alien spacecraft has landed just 30 km away, and they’ll be so confused…

@Diceman

Am I the only one who thinks that this scheme might qualify as retail fraud, or at least as a bait-and-switch scam?

Not if the sign says in reasonably sized letters “per liter” or “/L” - it’s low, sure, but nothing to get too mad about.