OK, I agree, there are more sexy things than a gas/petrol pump photo, even if it's a Parisian one! But the reason why I wanted to post about this today is that I found out on my way back to France that since the beginning of the year, the Government has put in place a very clever gas station search engine on which you can not only check the nearest gas pump, but also compare prices. Today, for instance, you can see that the cheapest litre of gas in Paris can be purchased for €1.16 and that the most expensive sells for €1.34.
Seems like a great idea!! Thanks for the tip :)
ReplyDeleteThis is quite cheap compared to Australia - at the moment (in Queensland) petrol is the equivalent of E1.65 / litre The petrol companies are getting a lot of flack over it as consumer organisations are claiming they are getting profits by not dropping prices even after the price of oil has dropped. It is holiday time in Aust so petrol prices are also higher which really annoys everyone. Same on weekends - petrol is always dearer towards the end of the week - the petrol companies won't hear to the complaints of price fixing!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI did some checking (because I'm pretty stupid about things like this) and 1 liter = 0.264172051 gallon [US, liquid].
ReplyDeleteSo, if I fill my car (which I would if I had one!) with 10 gallons of gas (because I would want to use an easy number)...it would equal about 37.854118 liters.
Therefore, it would cost me about €43.91 (57.68325 USD) at the cheapest station and €50.72 (66.62934 USD) at the most expensive one for 10 gallons of gas.
Now I know why I don't drive and I hate that "new math" stuff!
Jumpin' Jack Flash
ReplyDeleteIt's a gas gas gas.
If yer gonna drive, yer gonna pay. Most Americans still haven't figured this out. (I love my Honda Civic.)
Have a good weekend, all. Glad you made it home safe, Eric, mon ami. A bientot.
ooppps I made a mistake on my calculating I am so used to working euro back to Aussi dollars I divided instead of multiplied!!! Our petrol (gas) is actually a lot cheaper here - 0.80 euro/litre!!! Not sure why but I guess we shouldn't be complaining.
ReplyDeleteJeff, you got a Honda civic? I got a Honda civic! :) The only thing I regret I have with that car is not having a real trunk and an extra seat in the back. I can only seat one person next to me, and sometimes it's awkward telling people you can't give them a ride unless they are willing to go curl up in the back where the dog used to go. Drives great, though! Love it! It's my second Honda civic, but the one before, although smaller, was a Sedan and could seat 3 people in addition to me. I just love these cars.
ReplyDeleteMichael: Thanks for the metrics v. US conversion but you forgot to account for the exchange rate. ;)
A few years ago, when I was "between cars", my brother lent me an obviously unroadworthy Ford Escort station wagon. The price of petrol had just started escalating and I really begrudged topping up the tank of this rickety rust bucket - which had a rear hatch held shut (but only just) by a length of orange nylon string and a family of spiders living in one of the door mirrors.
ReplyDeleteLater, when I picked up a '68 Mercedes sedan (not a collectable, but still a modestly stylish car) on the cheap, I felt a lot more generous at the pump. Metaphorically speaking, I had gone from "trailer trash" to "the top end of town", and the overpriced moonshine I had been pouring into the derelict Ford had miraculously been transubstantiated into a natural spring of Moët & Chandon upon the appearance of my stately Mercedes.
Needless to say, I wasn't getting from A to B and faster, or any cheaper, than before.
loving my honda civic too, it's the 2nd one - and i just hit the 100,000 mile mark! (my other car is a lamborghini, :@D yeah right).
ReplyDeleteafter a string of ford lemons, where i never knew if i would actually get from point a to point b, i love, love the reliability...
think the next one's gonna be a hybrid..
barbara
Ooopsss... I'm back with my glasses, now ... I see the exchange rate now, never mind.
ReplyDeleteThis seems super! Although I must say when the photo loaded I was across the room and thought I was seeing a slot machine. . .perhaps you won! Oooops. So prices here on the west coast of the US have crept up again since the November elections were over, but not back to the over $3 amount we saw last year.
ReplyDeleteOoooooooooo Eric...just love it when you talk about sexy pumps! ;) Is there such a thing as GMA? Gutter-Mind-Anonymous? I better sign up before I hurt myself!!! Glad you're back safe & sound!!! =)
ReplyDeleteThat is a great idea. I am glad to hear that our gas prices have not quite caught up to the prices in France.
ReplyDeleteYIKES!
ReplyDeleteI'm Finally Making The City Blog Tour to wish everyone a Happy Blessed New Year! Gas Prices on Maui are very high too..over $3.19 a gallon for the cheapest gas! Brightest Blessings for a fabulous 2007!
ReplyDeletewhat a brilliant idea
ReplyDeleteI ve an average car ( renault). It costs at least 60 Euro to fill up. Even with 6.5 liters for 100 km it is very expensive.
ReplyDeleteYou had me scared Tomate. I used all the online converters I know to come up with that one. ;-)
ReplyDeleteNow, hybrids, how popular are they becoming in the rest of the world? I haven't seen many in Paris.
Eric,
ReplyDeleteHave a look on the Net, I don't remember the name, but i know there's a site gathering twice as many info as the government's one :)
It makes quite a fuss by the way, that the "national" tool isn't half as efficient as the one built by a student...
Yes there is a similar thing in UK for searching the best prices, though not government led. It is surprisingly, www.petrolprices.com and although i would have guessed that supermarkets have the cheapest price, it's not, it is Shell. At the moment. I'm sure it changes all the time.
ReplyDeleteOy! Glad I'm not driving in Paris! Last time I looked at gas price around my area they were about $2.15/gallon, which makes it about $25 for my tank. Luckily with my car ad how often I drive a tank'll last me a couple weeks!
ReplyDeleteNext time I can afford a new car I'm going hybrid. I'd definately like to pay less!
Anywho, I'm sure the talk about gas prices is going to go on for hour, so I'll check back in later, if I decide for some reason to not take Owen out on a Mommy & Owen date!
Well I don't know about these other tools but really makes the difference here is that it is compulsary by law to report the petrol price.
ReplyDeleteThus the database is always up to date - I doubt that without a law anybody can provide the same service because the updating of the DB costs a fortune.
I'd be interested to know who runs petrolprices.com and how they can afford to update 8000 daily prices as they claim to. Lynn, do you know?
That website could be useful also in Italy!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year ERIC
Ciao JOE
Stu "El Inglés" Harris - that's very interesting. Not sure I followed the logic of your comment, but I'm presuming that the Prius you have IS a hybrid? If so, the fact that you've had it for 3 years already is amazing! Bravo!
ReplyDeleteEric or somebody, what does the "S/Plomb" stand for? "Sans lead" or Unleaded? Isn't diesel the big thing here in Europe?
And Lynn, by "diesel" I mean in the petrol sense, not the fashion sense! LOL
ReplyDeleteDiesel as a fashion statement? OK, I'm lost now...
ReplyDeleteYeah, Michael, hybrids are gaining popularity here, but they're still a minority on the road. I was going mention the Prius, but it's not the only one. Honda makes them, too. They have one that looks like a fat CRX on the market for the past couple of years, at least.
http://www.toyota.com/prius/
Er, by the way, driving in Paris is definitely NOT for everybody. Consider it a sport (with a little bit of a learning curve) more than a utility. And parking in Paris ... pffff... don't even start me there ;-) However, people can spend a lifetime living in Paris and not even owning a car. Not really a big need.
By the way S/ Plomb: Sans Plomb (Unleaded)
ReplyDeleteMichael: You had me scared Tomate...
ReplyDeleteI scare myself, too, sometimes, Michael. ;-)
LOL Tomate...
ReplyDeleteDiesel = DIESEL
(their website ain't half bad either!)
We have websites like that as well in ATL. But it is not the government that puts them up, it's usually a TV station/radio station etc. You guys really depend on the government I notice. An observation.
ReplyDeleteAnd...gas prices like that would kill us in America. As you know, we are very car dependent...necessary in 99% of the country.
Costs me about $38 to fill up...$2.20/gallon right now.
ReplyDeleteDIESEL... Damn!!! I can see what REALLY causes global warming! These guys are totally hot!!!
ReplyDeleteDefinately not a bad guy..erm, website to look at! Very...erm, technically cool. Yeah, that's it. Technically cool.
ReplyDeleteWhew! So overwhelmed by the--java (uh-huh...) that I forgot to thank you for sharing the Diesel site, Michael!
ReplyDeleteTomate & Soosha....And they think global warming comes from pollution. They haven't hung around you two obviously!
ReplyDeletestu "el ingles" -
ReplyDeletethanks for that comment about the popularity of hybrids....and while it might be a monetary thing which appeals first to most minds and pockets, it's refreshing to hear that there really does exist a bunch of folk that actually care enough to DO SOMETHING in their quotidien lives about the environment.
but then again, i think y'all southern californians are pretty much ahead of the curve ... thank god for small mercies.
barbara
now let me go check out that diesel website :D
ReplyDeletebarbara
Hey Barbara, it's not just the southern californiens doing something about it...check out Tomate Farcie's blog to see what the folks in SanFrancisco are doing as well!
ReplyDeleteWe're spoiled here - petrol is btw $ 1.20 and $ 1.30 approx per litre - about 60% of your price!
ReplyDeletewow, tomato (may i call you by your first name ;) it's a beautiful thing ... only drawback is that you'd be stuck with the 'evil genius'..it's got to a double ceremony as far as i'm concerned...
ReplyDeleteand yes, michael, perhaps i was unfair to not include the entire west coast ... i know that seattle, portland and certainly san francisco are all very actively aware. it's such a hard sell here in the northeast, and a bit tiresome to have always been on the fringes for the last 50 years!
and tomato you are quite fortunate to be living in the city of dreams (besides paris of course).
rock on ...
barbara
I read this today and thought some of you may be interested. Does anyone remember the Electric Car? Not a hybrid.
ReplyDeleteOh, my goodness, people are talking about me in here! ;)
ReplyDeleteMichael, thanks for the plug!
Barbara: "and tomato you are quite fortunate to be living in the city of dreams (besides paris of course) I know what you mean, Barbara. It was in my dreams, too. I actually dreamt of New York, first (and still do, a little) but had to settle for nice California weather instead ;)
I don't see prices coming down anytime soon...
ReplyDelete