The Very Low Cost of Gasoline

If we are talking about the cost of gasoline the REAL equation is cost per mile in inflation-adjusted dollars.

The picture above, is a shot of average miles per gallon on my Ford C-Max daily driver -- 37 mpg on the highway, and a few more in the city. The car is pictured, below.

This is not my son's Tesla Model 3 (130 mpg-e) or my 2012 4-cylinder Ford Escape All Wheel Drive (27 mpg).  The Escape is pictured below, with kayak and bicycle.

In short, the C-Max is the car right in the middle of the pack as far as MPG is concerned.

The Ford Escape and the Ford C-Max replaced my old daily driver a few years back -- a 2005 6-cyliner Ford Explorer AWD that got 15 mpg. That car is pictured below.

That Ford Explorer, for the record, got the same miles per gallon as my old 1957 Chevrolet Belair straight six, pictured below.

I bring this up because if we are talking about the cost of gasoline the REAL equation is cost per mile in inflation-adjusted dollars. 

Are we spending more or less to get from here to there?

Short answer: LESS

Let's start with the price per gallon of gasoline in inflation-adjusted dollars. 

But before that, guess what I paid for my first house (part of which is pictured, above)? $115,000. 

That same house is listed on Zillow today at $1,160,000 (welcome to Arlington, Virginia). 

Same house, no substantial improvements. That's inflation.

Back when I had that house, in 1985, I was driving the 1957 Chevrolet Belair and gas was $1.12 per gallon. 

In inflation-adjusted dollars, that's $2.96 a gallon. 

But wait, I'm getting 2.46 times more miles per gallon out of  my Ford C-Max as I did from that 1957 Chevrolet, or that 2005 Ford Explorer.

So, if I am paying $4.15 a gallon (current average cost of local gasoline after recent price hikes), am I paying LESS or MORE per mile of transportation that I did in 1985 or 2005? 

And the answer, of course, is LESS.  

In fact at any price less than $7.28 a gallon, I am getting more miles per dollar of gas than I did in 1985, and at any price under $6.78 a gallon, I am getting more miles per dollar of gas than I did in 2005.

Now, to be clear, my Ford C-Max is not a modern car (it's 10 years old) or particularly fuel efficient by current standards.

If I had a 2019 Chevrolet Volt Plug-in Hybrid (I never buy new cars), I would be getting about 50 mpg, assuming I did most of my driving on the highway and did not plug in every night.

So how does the current price of gasoline in the US compare to the price of gasoline in Europe?  

Well, to cut to the chase, the price of gasoline in France is equivalent to $7.80 a gallon (today's price).  

You're whining about $4.15 a gallon gas? 

They PRAY for $4.15 a gallon in France, and that country seems to be doing fine, last I looked and visited.  

Which brings me to be my concluding point: Why all the focus on gasoline, and gasoline ALONE?

Gasoline in the US (local stations) is currently $4.15 a gallon, but the price of insulin at the local pharmacy is $122,850 per gallon.  

Can we talk about that?