Pump gasoline prices are the lowest in almost two years.
Average prices at the pump have been trending upward over the past two years. 2018 began the year with a national average price of 2.19 which hasn't been seen since 2014. Today's average is 2.686. The very end of 2014 is when gas prices dramatically fell, and continued with a downward trend through the end of 2016. In 2017 they began a rising trend. However have the impression most Americans are satisfied if it stays anywhere under three dollars. AAA sourced graphs are below.
Sorry, but your graphs did not show up when I first saw your post.
I paid $2.22 at the pump this afternoon. Not really reflected in your graphs. It has been a while since prices were so agreeable.
The graphs are based on national daily averages. State averages today range from 2.29 to 3.86. The national average today is 2.68. My state average today is 2.55, while the lowest price in my local area today is 2.24. Husband says I shouldn't buy the cheapest gas though.
I typically buy gas at the same BP stop over week after week.
I used to buy Amoco up here in the north, but BP gobbled them up, then Arco later. Way back when I was a Texan it was Texaco all the way! That is now Shell, Chevron and such.
They have all had horrible spills all over the globe. Kind of hard to figure out which one to boycott if oil spills means anything to you.
I have recently (past few years) seen Amoco and Shell labelled trucks (no longer exist, right?) filling all over the place, even at Speedway, Marathon and 7-11 where it is generally the same price as everywhere else.
Not sure I believe that there is a difference anymore. Unless you have special dinosaurs, decaying sea life and plant matter that your favorite gasoline came from, of course. To me, it is the shortcuts they take in distilling like allowing impurities to remain in the mix and the additives they have to offer, after the processing.
I think that you should go to a gas station that does a tremendous amount of business and that way you will usually have the "freshest" gasoline available, keep your tank topped up.
Not much else we can do.
Add an occasional system cleaner to your tank to ensure that water does not build up in the bottom of your tank (a big problem here in the cold-ish, then next day, warmish Indiana area), but be careful, most of those are ethanol based. Make sure your car can tolerate ethanol.
Outside of all that? Not much, except buy the freshest gasoline you can find from the busiest stops you can find.
