Projo Cars Blog

I went to fill up the car at the Cumberland Farm station in Jamestown last night and was shocked to see the price of regular was $3.52 a gallon. Plus was $3.62 a gallon and Premium was $3.72.

I chose regular.

I was mulling this latest case of sticker shock – and why I should be shocked I don’t know, as I track the price of oil daily and as a Brit I am only too well aware of the declining value of the dollar – when up drives my friend Don Wineberg to fill up his Toyota Prius.

(Actually I have a theory about the price of gasoline and its role as an indicator of inflation. It’s not that gasoline accounts for that much of the average family budget - around 7 percent - but week in, week out, we fill the car or truck up, buying the same amount of the same commodity. So we notice when the price goes up.

I’m told food prices are going up too, but I don’t perceive them moving in the same way. What’s a gallon of milk cost this week compared to last? No idea. A gallon of gasoline? Well, I know it was less.)

“Wait till you see the price, you’re in for a shock,” I said to Don as he got out of his Prius and prepared to gas up.

He certainly was surprised and after filling the car said the $36 he spent on about 10 gallons of gasoline was the most he had ever spent.

Meanwhile, I had just spent close to $60 to fill up my Volvo station wagon.

Okay, we’d both spent the same per gallon and yes, we both joined everyone else by experiencing sticker shock.

But here’s the rub:

After saying that was the most he’s spent on filling his Prius with 10 gallons of gas, he added, “But that’ll take me 500 miles.”

My 17 gallons of gas, on the other hand, will take me less than 400 miles.

- Peter C.T. Elsworth

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