How much did gas cost in the late 70s?

[MalibuChloe]

I know there was a shortage (supposedly) and people had to ration it, but did it COST a lot?

[noonwitch]

1. I remember it hitting $1.20 a gallon

That's about when my mom sold the Mercury Montego and bought a Dodge Colt (a Mitsubishi, actually).

[CountAllVotes]

2. no it did not cost a lot

I owned a car at this time (my first car) and it cost maybe $5.00 to fill it up at the most. I can remember it costing about .30 cents a gallon in the early/mid-1970s.

You could drive all over the place for a buck.

:kick:

[MalibuChloe]

5. then why is this happening????

you don't have to answer that. i'll research it. it's just so frustrating. it's already killing me. i'm spending $300 a month as it is on gas. if it goes up to $4.00 a gallon, I don't know what I will do. It's not like I am driving any unnecessary places.

[Squatch]

3. I saw your name and did a doubletake...

My mother's hometown is right next to Buchloe in southern Germany.

[MalibuChloe]

6. oh..haaa

well Guten Tag. :hi:

[no name no slogan]

4. It was actually more in the early 70s

The "big" Oil Crisis was in 1973. That's the one where the lines were a mile long to wait for gas. There were other "shortages" during the Carter years, but the big ones were in the early 70s.

[flamingyouth]

7. I remember it being 1973 as well.

I have a memory of sitting in the back seat of my mom's 1971 Ford Galaxie 500 waiting in a gas line. Alice Cooper was on the radio. :D

[no name no slogan]

10. Oh, I LOVE those cars!

One of my uncles (actually my grandfathers' best friend) drove a '69 Galaxie 500 for decades. I have many fond memories of riding in that car with my grandparents and aunt and uncle, going "up to da lake" during the summer. Classic!

IIRC we had a Cutlass at the time. My mom had to sell that one after the divorce in 1974. She bought a Honda Civic after that.

[johnnie]

8. I remember the lines in the early 70s

But wasn't the odd and evens during the later 70s? I am having a hard time remembering.

[Igel]

9. Yes.

Don't let the absolute dollar amounts fool you.

It's not how much the gas costs then, versus now (or even in 'inflation adjusted dollars', although that's a better indication). It's how much it costs in relation to everything else. Much harder to quantify.

[nytemare]

11. Here is an interesting article about gas prices/inflation adjusted

This was last year, when gas was 1.90.

http://www.aiada.org/article.asp?id=12220

[no name no slogan]

12. Ah, the "good old days"

back when gas was "only" $1.90. :crazy:

[nytemare]

13. Yep, so this means gas prices are the highest ever.

Adjusted for inflation, and by dollar amount.

[tazkcmo]

16. Oh for sure!

And ya know? They'll never go appreciably lower. If this doesn't force conservation then I don't know what will.

[Left_Winger]

14. Compared to today's value of the Dollar prices from the '70s appear less

But when the first oil crisis occurred the price nearly doubled where I lived: 30-35 cents per gallon to 50-60 cents per gallon. So, comparatively speaking, yes it did cost a lot. Luckily I had a VW Beetle.

By 1979 the prices in my town were about $1.35.

Rationing took place, but I do not recall restricting the amount one could buy; the rationing took place in the form of when one could buy gas: if the last number of your license plate ended with an even number, you could only buy gas on an even numbered day. The same for odd numbered plates.

Lastly, the "shortage" was caused by an embargo by OPEC against the industrialized countries in order to increase the price of oil and to force our recognition of our dependence on their oil.

[tazkcmo]

17. Exactly!

And the price wasn't felt just in dollars but in life style changes over the course of the remainder of the 70's. We had a big ol' Pontiac and a huge wood paneled station wagon (6 kids). Then we had bikes and a Datsun.

[Left_Winger]

20. Same here

I kept my VW, but my mother traded in her Plymouth Sport Fury (9 mpg) for a '74 Mustang (about 15 mpg) and my father traded in his '70 Impala for a Honda Accord (circa '78).

On edit: Welcome to the DU. :toast:

[tigereye]

18. 50 cents per gallon during the Carter years, 76-7

was a really big deal. I remember the lines.

[Left_Winger]

21. With my VW Beetle, I usually by-passed most of the lines

but I did spend my fair share of time in those lines.

[tigereye]

22. yeah my dad had a Beetle, too

I used to drive it back to college. But his other cars were cheapo station wagons, and I doubt their mileage was that good.

[Left_Winger]

23. I loved my Beetle (a '71 model)

As a teenager I beat the heck out of that car and it kept going. Once someone played a joke on me and unplugged one of the spark plug wires, but it kept on going. How I miss that car.

[tigereye]

24. 72 was ours I think

alas my brother totalled it. Rumor has it he was looking at some young woman on the other side of the road!

[tazkcmo]

15. Then, yes.

In terms of 1970's dollars, it was a lot. 75 bucks a week wasn't even poverty level then. But that crisis is much different than this one in many ways. Even our responses to it. This didn't happen over night. Yet as we watched prices and consumption continue to rise, we bought more and more SUV's, mini-vans, etc. In the 70's you saw the birth of the high mileage small car makers. (Honda, Toyota, Datsun now Nissan) President Carter instituted national energy conservation guidelines. That's 72 degrees to cool and 68 to heat. A lot of things are different about these two crisis. And yes, it cost a lot.

[tigereye]

19. but prior to the mid 70s, people had giant boato-cars, remember?

and those all disappeared as the compacts came in. And of course, everyone forgot when prices stabilized and the auto makers started making larger and less fuel efficient cars again. They never learn.

[swag]

25. $.89 California 1979

A rather highly priced market.

[BiggJawn]

26. 45 cents a gallon for Ethyl in 75-76.

I had a CB350 Honda bike that took 2.1 at a fillup. I got change back from my DOLLAR. When I worked in a gas staion, I used to get 50-cent, dollar purchases.

In 1977, it cost 2 bucks to fill my 4-gallon Harley.

And in 1980, it cost over a dollar a gallon. Of course, "Adjusted for Inflation", I made about $20,000 a year MORE then than I do now....

50 cents. Would that even wet the whole filler neck today?

[Bobby_Miller]

27. About a buck.

About a buck, where I lived in Ohio at the time. Was about 50-60 cents before. Was a serious bitch for my parents at the time.