In the last two weeks or so there’s been a lot of talk about how gas prices are spiking back up. But they seem pretty normal to me at least on the East Coast (although I’d obviously prefer them to be lower). Meanwhile, it definitely felt like a lot when it went to the high $4s and low $5s last year.

So what price do you guys consider to be high or low?

46 comments

  3. I’m in Orange County, California and a few days ago it was above $6/gallon for regular gas. Right now it’s about $5.60/gallon. Seeing over $6 was a shock, I used to live in Texas and people would freak about gas being over $3

  4. Anything below 3 per gallon, above 3.50 it’s expensive, 3 per gallon is about average recently, but more recently it’s been going up

  5. I remember when gas was really cheap. A dollar or so a gallon. Now it’s five or six where I am now. I don’t really care. I’ve always thought it was weird when people drove out of their way to get gas at a station where it was cheaper than just go to the station right there. Gas is so fucking cheap when you think about it. Hysteria over “gas is rising!” seems comical when you look at the cost of everything else.

  6. Around AL/MS, $3 is pretty close to the tipping point of “high”. That being said, I drive a lot, so sudden spikes are noticeable at the pump. The $4/gallon price point is the border of “insane” here.

    Ignoring a sudden collapse on demand due to a health crisis, the $2 gallon mark sailed off in the 2000s and isn’t coming back

  7. Under 3 dollars: Low
    Between 3 and 4: Normal/high

    But I come from a state with some of the lowest gas taxes. Even moving to Indiana this year gas jumped in price almost half a dollar a gallon and that’s still less than Illinois gas tax.

    If we were having this conversation 20 years ago, above 2.50 a gallon was high.

  10. Well “normal” is kind of a relative thing. They spent a long, long time below $2/gal. In my lifetime, “low” meant less than a dollar. Anything over $2.50 is pretty high, and anything over $3.50 is bloody high.

  11. Paid $5.69 for regular in the Sacramento area of California this week. It was one of the higher priced ones that I go to but it’s convenient and right by work. It’s crazy again. I remember the first time I paid $1 a gallon and it was like holy crap! Haha! Under $4 seems cool now.

  13. I’ve lived in NYC my whole life so I don’t drive. I got my driver’s license in my late 20s and only drive if I’m borrowing someone else’s car for a road trip. When people talk about gas prices, I just nod enthusiastically. I have no idea what they’re talking about.

  17. For a gallon of the cheap stuff (87) $4 is low, over $5 is high. It would be nice if it less than a buck like it was when I started driving, but that’s not going to happen.

  20. Low/old normal: Under $3.00
    Current Normal: $3.00-3.60
    High: $3.60-$4.00
    Really high $4.00+

    Right now gas is holding steady around $3.79 or $3.89

  21. 2.50 is normal, so less than 2 is low, more than 3 is high.

    Add 25 cents for each state you go away from Oklahoma

    And apparently in 2023, add a dollar because fuck you thats why

    (Note: this is 86/87 octane basic bitch gas; 100% gas or diesel will be .50-.75 more

  24. $2 range is low, low $3 range is “normal”, and $4+ is high for my area.

    I started driving when gas was low $1 range

  27. I sold my first car and bought a VW Bug when it hit $.50. It had been $.32 for most of my childhood, year in, year out. When I got the Bug minimum wage was $1.90/hr, so $.50 was steep in the Ford, which got 11 miles/ gallon.

  28. Normal is $1 to $1.50. That was how it was from when i was a kid until i was almost 30.

    Anything over $2.50 feels completely absurd.

  29. Normal is about $3.50 that’s what it was 40 years ago accounting for inflation.

    $2.50 is low and $5 is high

  30. I still feel am in the mindset of less than $2 is low, 2-3 is normal and everything over 3 is high. I know that’s not the reality anymore but I really wish it was and remember the before times.

  31. These day in St Louis, low is like sub-$3.50, normal is like $3.50-$3.70, high is above $3.70. TBF we did also pass a law a few years ago raising the tax on gas, but that’s just like $.05/gal at this point. Eventually $.10/gal

  32. It’s bad here in LA right now. $4-$5 seems pretty normal. Currently, there are only $6s in my neighborhood, and I’ve seen my first $7s as well.

  34. From Northern California. Anything under $5 would be cheap for me, anything over $6 would be pretty pricey. Sub $4 would be unheard of around here.

  35. Just in the last 2 weeks? Gas prices got high here at least a month ago. I left in May then returned at the end of August and gas was super expensive (or at least more than it was in May).

    I would consider under $3 to be low. $3-3.99 is normal, although $3.75-$3.99 is “getting up there”. $4-$4.99 is high and $5+ is insane. The gas near me is $5.49 and has been around that much for over a month.

  36. I think they are all low because we do not practice full cost accounting and effectively subsidize the shit out of cars

  38. I started buying gas in 1976. It was $0.50 a gallon. Today I filled up the truck for $5.99 and was happy I found the cheapest stuff in my 7 square mile neighborhood. So, anything under $6.00 a gallon.

  39. Anything lower than 4.50 seems low, around 5 seems normal and above 6.50 seems high. I am in California and I can’t remember the last time I saw it below $4 or even around $4. I just filled up for $5.29, and that seems normal to me.

  42. I can feel baseline is going up year after year. That being said:

    $2.50 or lower is cheap.
    Low $3 is normal
    Above $3.50 is high.

  43. I got gas for $1.14/gal during the pandemic in the middle of Missouri somewhere, so that’s low [and awesome]. Mid is around $2.50-$3, and high is anything over that. It’s been high for years to me. I hate it.

  45. Low, <$2, normal $2-$3.30, high $3.30<

    I’m from California but now reside in Michigan. I still refuse to say that $4 is normal or low

  46. $4 is average where I’m from so anything less than 3.50 and I’m like ooooh.

    5 is pretty uncommon so I’d consider that high.

    I saw it get as high as 6.50 during that one spike in ‘21

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