- Gas prices have risen from $2.98 to $4.49 since February 2026.
- Covering 1,000 miles in a 30 mpg Mazda 3 sedan now costs $150.
- That same money would run a 19 mpg Mustang seven months ago.
We’ve all laughed at decades-old pictures and movies showing how cheap gas was when our parents were our age, conveniently forgetting the effects of inflation. But looking at pictures from February now gives us the same sensation, and inflation hardly comes in to it.
Gas prices vary wildly across the US, but as I write this a gallon of regular averages out at $4.49, according to AAA. That compares with $2.98 in late February, just before the skirmish in the Middle East really sent prices rocketing. To save you the mental math, that is an increase of $1.51 per gallon, or a barely believable 50.6 percent rise. Diesel folks have got it even worse.
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Related: Diesel Tops $6 A Gallon As Fuel Prices Smash A New Record
That got us thinking about running costs and how the Iran situation has warped America’s perception of what constitutes an affordable car. Because someone who is managing, perhaps with some difficulty, to pay for a month’s gas in a fairly ordinary car today, would have been able to afford to run a really thirsty car with the same budget seven months ago. One they probably would have dismissed at the time for being a gas guzzler.
Take the Mazda 3, for instance. The front-wheel drive 2.5 S puts out 186 hp (189 PS), and the EPA rates it at 30 mpg combined. So it’s not what anyone would normally accuse of being fast or thirsty, even if slightly less powerful rivals like the Toyota Corolla can eke a few more miles from every gallon. It’s just an ordinary car.
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$150 Just To Get To Work
Someone driving a 3 2.5 S for 1,000 miles (621 km) every month and achieving the EPA’s 30 mpg figure would get through 33.3 gallons (125 liters) of regular. At today’s $4.49-per-gallon gas prices, they’d spend $149.67 on fuel. But that same $150 was enough to run a tire-shredding V8 muscle car at the start of the year.
Ford’s Mustang GT comes with a 5.0-liter V8. It makes 480 hp (487 PS) and rips to 60 mph (97 kmh) in less than 4.5 seconds – more than 2.5 seconds faster than the Mazda. The downside, and one of the reasons Mazda 3 buyers weren’t cross-shopping the Mustang back in February, is the GT’s 19 mpg thirst.
Would You Miss $7
Fuelling the Mustang this month for 1,000 miles at a 19 mpg (optimistic, we know) average would cost you $236. But in February, when gas was $2.98, that same four weeks and 1,000 miles of Mustang seat time only incurred a $156.84 bill. That’s a $7 premium, as good as no difference at all, for a whole lot more fun.
Maybe, when the gas situation finally settles down, a few American drivers who’ve got used to the inflated prices might be tempted to upgrade their cars for something with a bit more of a kick, and put up with the fact that it likes a drink. And everyone else, who sticks with their Mazda 3 or whatever ordinary car they drive, will feel like gas is virtually free.
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Mazda, Ford, AAA
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