Much of the cost is in state taxes - in Cali, as of Jan 1, you guys are paying 67¢ per gallon in state and federal taxes. For comparison, Texas charges 38¢/gallon, but your best deal is in Alaska, where state and federal tax comes to 26¢, but thanks to rather high transportation costs, that savings gets lost in production costs.

A couple of interesting links showing taxes and total cost by state:

http://www.api.org/statistics/fuelta...el-summary.pdf

http://gasbuddy.com/GB_Price_List.aspx

 

now how is gas 2.83 in Denver but 3.49 in Houston!?!??!?!?!?

 

I think here in Montreal we are paying C$5 a gallon for regular.

 

I was paying $3.90s for premium last week and now I am paying $4.25

 

With prices going up and our cars needing premium, how do you choose your gas?
Do you just go drive by and try to look for the gas station with the lowest fuel price, or do you stick to a brand?

I try to stick to major brands, but occasionally stop by those shady looking gas stations if the price is right, or if I'm in a town I'm not familiar with and don't see another station near by.
Do you have bad experiences, or feel better performance with a certain brand?

 

I think most station even sketchy get their fuel from the same people in the area so I just go by lowest price. Like say there's a FastStop or whatever and *so and so petroleum supplies them, they mark their fuel up to x amount. Then *so and so petroleum* supplies fuel to your local Sketchmart stop, they mark their fuel 5 cents less. Same fuel same supplier more markup at one. I hope that made sense, if not just disregard my post

 

It's either shell or chevron for me. I've tried others like arco, thrifty, etc. and I can feel a difference and it also feels like it burns up a lot quicker. Could be just me though.

 

Well I personally don't put premium in my car. 90% of the time i use shell gasoline. I have never had a bad experience with gas. Honestly I don't see the point in putting premium in my SC. I have a few times but i don't feel a great enough difference. I always put premium in my civic because it was tuned for it. If I'm driving it i really don't pay attention to the price. I just pull in and fill up. I really feel the difference in that car. I know the SC was tuned for premium but the na2jz makes so little power and i drive my car like a grandpaw so I don't put it in there to get a few extra horsepower.

 

^ you know higher octane gas is not really about making more power, it's about providing a higher resistance to detonation right?

 

Yeah i know,ill take my chances.Ive owned a few cars that were (premium fuel only) never have a single problem running a lower grade fuel.

 

I just drive until I'm on E. Probably not the best strategy, but it works.... well not for my wallet

 

Chevron and Shell in Canada(Both have ones with no ethanol) but when I go to the US, I go to Costco. Sometimes Shell and Chevron if I don't wanna wait.

 

i just buy it whenever i need a fill up. driving around looking for the cheapest place to save maybe $.03 max isnt worth my time.

 

i just go to my usual Shell station (no Chevron here, or else that'd be another choice)

 

Same here. I frequent the same Chevron station since my driving patterns are fairly predictable, but I'm not going to waste 10-15 minutes to go out of my way to save $2/tank