(Sara Kennedy / NWautos staff)
"Have you seen the price of gas? It's almost five bucks a gallon!"
OK, maybe it's only four bucks. Or $3.92. But whatever. If I had a buck for every time I've heard some version of that petrol price-point exclamation over the past few weeks, I could fill the dual gas tanks on my 1974 Jaguar XJ6L and still have enough left over for a footlong and a Slurpee.
The person ranting about gas prices is invariably holding some varietal of gourmet coffee -- let's say a 12-ounce Americano from Fuel Coffee in Montlake, which runs $2.64 with tax. That's the equivalent of paying more than $28 per gallon at the pump. Hello!
Coming at it from the other direction, if your favorite coffee beverage was based on $4 gasoline rates, it would have cost you just 38 cents. Yeah, yeah, I know, you remember when coffee cost a penny. That's a different article.
Passenger cars average about 22 mpg and SUVs about 18, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. So if you're the practical type driving a Hyundai, a gallon of gas will still get you from Pike Place Market to Bellevue Square and back with fuel to spare. (Of course, if you're one of the unfortunates who thought you'd look sexy in a Hummer, then you'll have to limit your shopping trip to Northgate Mall.)
(Sean O'Connor / Special to NWautos)
It's when you pull up to the pump to actually fill up, though, that you get the real sticker shock. In my Volkswagen Golf, the cost of a fill-up is roughly the equivalent of dinner for two at Azteca, including a couple of margaritas.
But if you're driving that Hummer I mentioned earlier, say a 2009 H2 with a 32-gallon tank, then the cost of your fill-up starts to look like dinner for two at El Gaucho -- as long as you go easy on the wine and dessert.
If a deHavilland Otter floatplane is more your speed -- that's one of Kenmore Air's signature planes -- a fill-up will run you $1,195. (You could probably buy a decent used Hyundai for that.) The Otter burns 42 gallons per hour flying at 140 mph, so a trip from South Lake Union to Orcas Island will cost you about $235 in fuel, based on Kenmore's $5.61-per-gallon rate.
Seattle is near the top of the range for gasoline prices nationally, according to figures tracked by AAA. As of mid-July, a gallon of premium was $4 here, compared to a national average of $3.92. The lowest prices per gallon in the country can be had in South Carolina.
You could load your car into a Boeing 737-700 -- filled up at SeaTac for $7.61 a gallon -- and then fly to Spartanburg, S.C., to take advantage of the lowest prices in that state. Unfortunately, assuming three miles to the gallon, that trip would run you about $6,063 in fuel costs.
Behavioral economists say that gasoline has to be about $5 per gallon before people will seriously consider changing their behavior. If that's true, then a lot of us are about a buck away from getting on a bike or buying our first bus pass.
On the other hand, it would still be cheaper than $6-per-gallon bottled water.
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