The first time I visited the US was in July 1999. I remember the month and year clearly because I was laying on the bed with my future wife in a Best Western near Atlanta airport watching television when news of JFK Jr’s plane crash broke. That evening a bartender looked at me like I had two heads when I asked him to explain something about the baseball game that was on. There was another thing I remember about that trip though. Petrol prices. A few days later when we were in North Carolina, I saw petrol priced at 89c a gallon. Eighty nine cents. Not even a round dollar. Welcome to America.
Like my marriage those days are long gone, but in general America still enjoys cheaper petrol prices than the rest of the world. One of the great pervading myths in the UK is that everything is cheaper in America. My completely unscientific research based on multiple visits is that really only ever held true for petrol and housing (and the latter is catching up) but almost everything else is comparatively more expensive stateside. A few different factors contribute to the discrepancy in petrol prices, but the overriding reason is the amount of tax paid.
In the UK petrol is sold in liters (but we measure distance and speed in miles. Liquids are sold in metric measurements except milk and pub sold beer. Welcome to the UK). At the moment, the average price near me is £1.36.9 per liter of regular unleaded. This works out to roughly £6.23 per imperial gallon (1 imperial gallon = 4.55 liters). But the US uses its own gallon which is smaller than an imperial gallon. This isn’t because when colonial settlers landed in America they damaged their weights throwing them at Native Americans but because America adopted the wine gallon as opposed to the gallon used for measuring ale like everyone else. You’d have thought it would have been the other way round, but this was probably the fault of the Germans because they have beer with breakfast. I’ve always considered them very civilized. Consequently an imperial gallon is 20% larger than a US one, so for you tea microwavers, taking into account the differing volumes and currency conversions that per liter price works out to about $6.58 per US gallon. Pictured below is a screenshot of prices local to me, filtered to show the cheapest first taken from PetrolPrices.com.
A Tale Of Two Tanks
What does all this mean in the real world? The tank capacity for my 2010 Cooper Clubman is quoted at 40 liters. I put about fifty quids worth of unleaded in about every three weeks, which the trip computer tells me should be good for some 350 miles or so; in reality I get about 320 and maybe a little more if I go right into the reserve, which I don’t because I’m not an idiot who likes introducing random elements of high jeopardy into my daily life. That works out to about 8 (imperial) gallons and just under 40 mpg, which is roughly what the car tells me I get. My driving mostly consists of short journeys running errands around town, and my regular RC racing on a Friday night. Depending on what motorways Highways England has randomly decided to shut down for roadworks to bugger up my journey, that can range from a sixty to an eighty mile round trip.
In the US you get three grades of unleaded – regular 87 Octane, which I’m pretty sure I can piss stronger than that after a couple of cups of decent coffee. Mid-grade 89 Octane, so middle of the road big oil couldn’t even come up with a decent name. And she needs premium dude! PREMIUM!’ that could be anywhere from 91 to 94 Octane. Something similar exists in the land of maple syrup, but in the UK, our regular unleaded that most normal cars run happily on is 95 Octane. Our super unleaded is 98. As regular readers know by now I have another, slightly more highly strung car. Take a wild guess which grade that one drinks. Accordingly, super unleaded which usually has a fancy name like Shell V Power, runs about 20p per liter more expensive than normal unleaded. With its continental touring sized tank, empty to brim the Ferrari swallows 103 liters (27 US gallons) of the stuff. My last receipt for the Mondial was £130.75 ($165.85) and because the fuel gauge is at best approximate, that was for a mere 81 liters. For those keeping score at home, 103 times 20 pence equals twenty quid ($25) extra per tank over regular unleaded. Bloody hell.
I Am Not Moaning About Owning A Ferrari, Honestly
I usually get the Ferrari out every couple of weeks or so, because they need to be driven and they don’t like sitting around. The first year I had it, because I was feeling my way in gently reliability wise, I didn’t stray too far from home, totaling only about 1500 miles or so. Last year I was determined to take it further. It repaid my trust on its first long distance trip by spectacularly shitting itself on the way to Brands Hatch. But once repaired, that June I took it to Le Mans Classic in France and last September I took it all the way across Europe for a once in a lifetime trip to the Italian Grand Prix. At the end of that pan-European sojourn I drove home, unpacked and repacked, had a cup of coffee and headed straight back down the motorway to meet up with a used car salesman and a blackjack dealer for an Autopian invasion of the Goodwood Revival. All told, the Mondial did over 2500 miles in nine days. I didn’t work out the total fuel bill on purpose. Sometimes you’ve just got flex the plastic and say fuck it.
It seems incongruous to own an old Ferrari and talk about running costs, but I’m not of means. If I was, would I be working here? I did a lot of research before buying the thing to make sure I wouldn’t be underwater as soon as the first annual service came due and I’ve been a bit clever with a couple of small issues. But seeing as I love driving it, and enjoy other people enjoying it, I’ll take any advantage in minimizing the operating expenses I can get. And when it comes to putting petrol in it, good old fashioned American capitalism as always has an answer.
If you were paying close attention to the price comparison screenshots earlier, you might have noticed an outlier significantly cheaper than the others: Costco. We’ve had Costco in the UK since 1993, although they’ve flown a bit under the radar a bit as that type of big-box membership retail fitted into our twee little island about as well as a full size pick-up. There are 29 locations up and down the country (for comparison at 93,000 square miles the UK is 5000 square miles smaller than Oregon, but a hell of a lot more crowded). Best of all there’s one up the road from me in Coventry. And their super unleaded is priced at £1.39.9, or the same price as normal unleaded at a local forecourt. Perfect. Brim the thing up to the neck and enjoy winding it out past 7000 rpm without a care in the wallet. Just one small snag.
I Don’t Want To Be A Member Of Any Club That Would Have Me
In the US to become a Costco member you have to be over 16 and able to fog a mirror. In the UK it’s more bureaucratic because in an apparent twist of irony it looks like they’re trying to exclude the type of person who would be shopping there; the riffraff. Maybe Costco membership is some sort of badge of honor amongst the great unwashed. Who knows? What I do know is that despite not being a current or retired member of local government, the emergency services, the armed forces (I have few regrets in life; not serving is one), a former airline pilot or a practicing lawyer, doctor or architect, I am in fact a tutor in higher education and a director of my own company. So I qualify for either an individual membership as an education employee or a trade membership as a director, although trust me neither of these are as prestigious as they sound.
Yesterday I filled in the joining form online and paid the annual fee – the princely sum of £33.60. And today I drove to the Costco in Coventry. As usually happens, as soon as I stopped the Ferrari was swarmed by onlookers (well three or four) wanting pictures and could I please rev it up? Membership has its privileges indeed. I took the opportunity to have a look around the aircraft hanger and if I ever want a set of off-brand golf clubs, a pallet of black hair dye or laundry appliances whose price is only revealed online well now I know where to come. Judging by the queues at the self service pumps Costco is a popular location for fill ups, but at £1.31.9 for regular unleaded is only 5p per liter cheaper than the supermarket down the road. At that little difference it would take 660 liters to break even on the cost of membership, or about 16 tanks for my Mini which hardly seems worth the effort. But as promised the super unleaded was £1.39.9, some 20p per liter cheaper than other places.
Unfortunately for me I only filled the Ferrari up last Sunday, so this time it only took 18 liters, saving me the grand total of £1.60. Which would have been enough to buy the famous Costco hot dog and soda for lunch, at £1.50. Except they didn’t fucking have any. So I went to McDonalds in a huff.
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Up next, Adrian takes the Mondial to Ikea, because flat pack fits in almost anything?
I’m a Costco member, but haven’t once used the gas stations – at about 30L filled up, it’s barely worth the time to wait, nevermind that I pretty much need to go sit in a quite, dark room after every visit.
The green pump handle made me wince, here in the States that’s diesel.
Or how I almost put diesel in a petrol Tundra my last visit.
At the Costco near me, it’s usually 20 – 30 cents cheaper per gallon for regular. I just make sure to go early in the morning, otherwise the lines are stupid.
Sounds like you really saved £3.60. Get yourself something nice.
i’m going to buy that GT6 guy an E-Type diecast.
One of the secret benefits of Costco gas is they go through quite a lot, so the fuel is always fresh. If you have a swanky car that takes fancy gas, it’s always best to look for a station in a neighborhood that has a lot of higher end or turbo cars so you know they’re selling more premium fuel than most. Costco just goes through a lot of fuel in general, so it will be fresh across all types.
Also, I suspect the bartender thought you were weird because goths are not traditionally sports fans in America. We were usually the ones picked last in gym class.
That pic of you filling the Ferrari is perfect rebellion. You managed to sneak your way into the club with out becoming one of the normies. Well done.
The decription of Jason and Beau as a blackjack dealer and used car salesman…I real that, went “huh?” but then burst out laughing when I saw the pic. Perfect!
Also, with respect to appliances, at Costco here in Canada they double the manufacturer’s warranty across the board, so it’s worth it to buy there because all appliances are crap these days.
We have the Executive membership. It costs more up front, but with two kids, it lierally pays for itself. Plus, they have the cheapest (and best warrantied) car batteries, wiper blades, and floor jacks you can ger. Even their.mechanics tool chest is a great deal. They have thoroughpy competitive prices on tires, nitrogen filled for free. And their microfibre towels are good quality for cheap. Lots of good car stuff there.
The perpetual lines of cars waiting to fill up at Costco always make me laugh, but I’ll be damned if they aren’t quite a bit cheaper.
The lines usually move pretty quickly.
Unless some douchenozzle stops their wide body-kitted Challenger at the first pump and then stretches the hose all the way to the other side of the car because OF COURSE they forgot what side the fuel door is on. For extra fun he stopped 3 feet away from the pump because he couldn’t trust himself not to bang the stupid long door on something.
Fuck that guy.
More likely, because Costco gas stations are one-way, and about 80% of vehicles in the US are left-side fill, the lanes with the pump on the left side were full and the lanes with the pump on the right side were empty.
That being said, of course park closer to the pump and stop when your fill is in line with the noozle.
THIS IS WHY COSTCO USES LONG HOSES.
Goth Uncle needs to get the Kirkland Signature full kit wanker sweat suit I desperately hope is available in the UK for relaxation and lounging.
Yes it comes in black and at least where I am it sold unnervingly quickly.
Is that their house brand? They were the aforementioned golf clubs.
Kirkland Signature is indeed the house brand.
Truly the finest house brand in all the land.
Kirkland Signature is so named for Costco’s former headquarters which were located in Kirkland, Washington
Huh. So it’s not entirely made up marketing bullshit then.
FWIW, despite house brands being a weirdly shady business and often terrible quality, Kirkland is legit and often just a way to sell the same products at price points they want to hit, rather than making a shittier product to drop to a price point.
https://www.mashed.com/738166/the-untold-truth-of-costcos-kirkland-brand/
https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/personal-finance/articles/here-are-the-real-brands-behind-costcos-kirkland-label/
Brilliant. I love reading about stuff like this.
Holy Crap Adrian! I realize Jason is hobbitized, and the mondial is only 1260mm high, but you gotta tell Jeeves to knock it off with the cranking when you hit the rack!
Add an extra inch for the hair and another for the boots.
Punker Petulantly Pours Pricey Petrol into Posh Pretend Porsche
Thanks for P-ing on Adrian’s Ferrari!
Apparently calling his Ferrari a pretend Porsche didn’t twist his knickers.
Give it some time. It’s getting toward late evening across the pond.
Yes but he spent all his gin money on petrol.
I rise above your petty torments while I plot how to mercilessly skewer you in my next article.
Strange – I would have gone in the Mondial.
Matron! Matron! Quick, bring the ribcage repair kit.
Thinking pedantically, I was going to suggest that in your opening paragraph you meant to write that you were lying on the bed, not laying. Then I had a second thought: laying still works here, especially given the context of the rest of the sentence. Plus, it’s way more fun.
This may be a mistaken comment, but the overall look of the pump pic kinda says “piss off” to me. Not that I’m arguing.
I think that’s the overall look of Adrian himself in general.
I was outside in the cold, spending money, and I was among the great unwashed. God forbid any of them came near me.
Please tell me that you’ve gone full Zach Galafinakis on someone who tried to chat you up about the Mondial at the pump.
The bigger story here is that your Costco was out of hot dogs. I didn’t even think that was possible, I’d be absolutely devastated if I couldn’t get my usual post-Costco trip dinner.
They had one fucking job.
Is that worse than my local IKEA being out of cinnamon rolls?
No. I hate cinnamon. If they were out of meatballs however there would be a letter written to the Swedish embassy. A very stiff letter.
I consider the cinnamon rolls a reward for successfully navigating the labyrinthine store in a timely fashion regardless of my wife looking at literally everything.
Last time I had the meatballs, they were dry. These New York area employees aren’t completely buying in to the IKEA (IKEAn?) way I suppose.
Anyhoo, lovely car. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I like the simplistic look of it.
Thanks. I’m very, very happy with it. 308s are so cliche, darling.
“Sometimes you’ve just got flex the plastic and say fuck it.”
Very true and sage advice. I took a trip to Japan last autumn and spent the first couple of days worrying about prices and my budget but finally settled into my groove and decided that, fuck it, it’s a vacation and I’m supposed to have fun and bit be reasonable and suddenly enjoyed myself a lot more. Even won a pokemon plushie at the crane game.
Lesson of the day: fun times are not the times to be reasonable and responsible. You only get so many of them after all.
Vacation money is different than day to day *real* money. It spends easier and you can’t get upset, because you are having fun.
I feel the world might be a very different place had one Adrian Clarke served in the military. Would an extended period being denied his beloved black clothing have changed his somewhat bleak, goth outlook to one of sunny optimism? Would our favorite goth uncle instead be our favorite parrothead uncle who favors Hawaiian shirts and colorful cargo shorts?
Alas, the world will never know…
Recruiter: How do you see yourself fitting into the armed forces?
Me: I’m thinking half-drunk, not entirely sane helicopter pilot with a taste for danger, or shadowy operative who only speaks in ambiguous metaphors standing in the corner of the room smoking.
Recruiter: infantry it is.
Me: D’oh!
More or less my conversation with an Army recruiter who I agreed to see after he called almost daily for weeks and he promised me free lunch to go in:
Me: I’d be interested in flying attack helicopters (knowing they’d never let me due to my vision).
Recruiter: Uh, yeah, uh, hand me your glasses . . . [does performative check of lens thickness and hands back] Yeah, we’re thinking you’d be good maybe as a mechanic kind of thing. You could fix helicopters from the relative safety of a base. Your ASVAB results—
Me: Safety? [DGAF face] What about gunner? Could I be the gunner on an Apache? I think I would like chain-gunning people. Or equipment, that’s fine, too.
I never did get my promised free lunch, but they finally stopped calling (I have a similar story for getting out of jury duty after they called on me every year four years in a row only to drop me at the last stage before exclusion from being called for 3 years and I haven’t been called on in over 20 years since. I’m probably on several watch lists, but I was going to be on them, anyway). Air Force was what I wanted, but they never even reached out.
In an alternate universe where I had a normal, functioning family I would have studied properly at the appropriate age and joined up as a pilot. But I suspect my autism/dyspraxia would probably rule me out, and my lack of any athletic capability would keep me out of the infantry.
Similar. I really wanted to fly fighters. Whatever else may have been in my way, eye sight was insurmountable. If someone told me I could be anything in history—emperor, Khan, great inventor of life-saving equipment or medicine, landmark designer, timeless artist, whatever–I’d choose allied fighter pilot in the European theater in WW2 even if I was told I wouldn’t make it through the war. Or Beast Master because animals are awesome and I’d love to be able to communicate with them and organize an uprising where they take the environment back from us, but I’m told that’s not a real thing.
A mate of mine was in the Royal Engineers (because he wanted to get his driving license early) and got to re-arm Apaches and was also door gunner in a Chinook.
I love aircraft but only ever wanted to fly them.
I have Walmart+ in the US that gives me 10 cents off per gallon on their gas stations plus Mobil, that benefit put the price per gallon as Costco, that way I don’t have to spend $500 at the store lol
We are a Costco family, with four of us it can be helpful on certain items we are always using and are nice to have around in bulk so you only have to think about buying them every so often. Gas there is the one thing I do not take advantage of very often, as the line is always immense and sort of defeats the purpose of the cheaper gas to begin with. Perhaps I need to try some different times of day to go get the gas.
You look adorable with that hair, wearing all black, plus the shades, fueling that Ferrari. As if you were an Addam’s Family character! I hope you have a vintage Eraserhead T-shirt. It would look great on you.
That particular Ferrari will probably prove to be more reliable than most cars its age. That is not a common trait for a Ferrari.
Adrian’s look has been around for about 40 years. The rest of us got used to it a long time ago.
As an auto journo friend pointed out to me last year, you’ve got to remember by then they were developed by being absolutely pounded round Fiorano for months on end, by serious wheelmen. And the engine and gearbox were well proven and developed as well.
The main problem is, as with any forty year old car, is some of the parts that age out (like plastics and electricals) are no longer available and therefore horrifically expensive. Also bad ones get neglected and butchered to save money.
luckily I’ve got a good one (I’m only the second owner).
For the amount of driving we do (two cars/drivers racking up 40-50k miles/year each), even if we didn’t end up buying a large percentage of groceries and shiny objects there, filling at Costco saves us more than the cost of the fancy-pants membership yearly.
I can’t speak as to Costco in the US, but in the UK if you need to buy in bulk it’s probably useful. Non-grocery items didn’t look especially cheap, and they pull the old ‘mark the prices ex-VAT’ routine which makes things look cheaper than they are (VAT is our sales tax and usually included).
I trust it being Top Tier but have gotten the impression my fuel mileage is a little lower on Costco gas vs. some other big brands. I haven’t crunched the numbers, but a sense I’ve gotten; I’ll accept it for the price difference especially given I run premium.
But then “in a huff” is kind of your brand, no?
Me? Flounce? Whatever gave you that idea.
You should also be aware that we measure our octane differently, whereas the UK uses the Research Octane Number, the United States uses the Anti-Knock Index, which is an average of the Research Octane Number and the Motor Octane Number. 87 octane AKI is roughly the same as 91 MON
91 *RON 😛
However, I heard that 91 RON isn’t widely available in Europe. Supposedly, Russia is the only European country that even sells 91 RON.
Here’s the translation
US RON
87 91 Not sold in most of Europe
89 93
91 95 Lowest available in most of Europe
93 98
Unfortunately here in the US, the price for premium (91-93) is usually about $1 more than regular 87! WTF?
Translating that price differential to the UK Costco prices listed, 91 RON would probably cost 110-115 p/L if they sold it there.
Also, US Costcos don’t carry diesel.
All the Costco’s I’ve been to carry it. It’s annoying when you get stuck being an 18 wheeler trying to fill out all 300 gallons of diesel.
18 wheeler at a Costco pump screams to me a guy that doesn’t know how ifta works. He thinks he is getting cheaper fuel, but since ifta taxes are nor added in at that pump, he is probably not saving money, and definitely wasting time
Wow they really gouge for premium in your area. In my area it is usually ~40 cents per gallon difference. And yes some of the Costcos do carry diesel in my area.
Yes I was aware but I didn’t want to wander down a tedious rabbit hole.
It does fit the general theme of differences for the sake of differences. Too bad they were out of hot dogs – but you should also check out their sheet cakes, limocello or otherwise. I do wish I had a Costco closer than about 45 minutes away. Would settle for a Wegmans
You had to know that someone would bring it up – we read JT’s taillight articles…
Ah yes, the rabbit holes avoided;
You bring up the fact that most everything else in the US is more expensive, but deftly avoid mentioning the cost of health care.
Well done!
I’m too classy for such cheap shots.
Came here for this. The UK and their ridiculous units of measurements, right?
I always find these articles troubling when they omit the conversion from mpg to chains/acre-ft
You whippersnappers and your newfangled chains. Rods per hogshead was good enough for your grandpappy, and it’s good enough for you too!
Grandpappy knew that he got four rods to the chain or nothing doin’!
Buying petrol in litres, but measuring efficiency in mpg is a pain if I ever try to work out how much money I’m wasting.
Also, most road signs measure long distances in miles, but shorter distances are in metres, or left unlabelled, which might mean yards or metres.
Watch it, non-international standard paper size boy.
I once had the job of designing fuel labels to put on the fuel flaps warning about which grade of gas to use.
The US spec label caused a whole thing with Marketing and Calibration who both had to sign it off while half of them didn’t know the US uses a different octane value, and the other half had no idea what octane was.
In the end we changed it to “read manual before filling” to both make it someone else’s problem to write the actual warning instructions, and ensure no one would ever read them.
In a massive example of pettiness, one of the first things that my ex-wife did when we separated was cancel the joint Costco membership that we shared. Filling the tank has sucked ever since.
I should join up again, but honestly I don’t have a good reason to outside the fuel
You know that line in True Lies where Tom Arnold talks about his ex taking the ice cube trays out of the freezer? One of mine did that.
Wow, I thought only the Grinch did that.
That’s how you know you’ve pissed someone off.
I took the (metal) chopsticks.
It’s my superpower.
I had an uncle who remarried after divorcing my aunt. Second wife left him while he was at work. She took everything down to the light bulbs. He ended up killed as a toll booth worker years later, hit by a drunk while crossing between closed stations at night to get to his car in the parking lot. He was alive long enough for emergency response to remove him from the windshield, where his head had gone through. Driver was related to police, so she wasn’t even cited for anything, never mind breathalyzed—they blamed it on the state’s lack of sufficient lighting, so they put up more lights. Problem solved.
I cancelled my ex’s health care cover the week before an operation.
I feel bad about it now because it was petty, and all she’d done was rob me of ten years, 40 grand and made me homeless.
Also in the UK it just meant she had to get it done on the NHS for free but with slightly worse food.
I had another ex who made off with our brand new MacBook Pro and left me with the Visa bill. Lesson learnt there.
Is the price difference from regular unleaded to premium unleaded really only 9 pence (11 cents USD)? If so, that is insane. Premium is like a buck more expensive a gallon than regular unleaded here in the States.
The price delta used to be much smaller back in the day, but I think gas station owners have wised up to the fact that turbo 4s are put in everything from hot hatches to minivans to trucks. She needs premium dude, indeed.
The other reason premium has skyrocketed more than regular (or so I’ve heard) is that oil from fracking is less conducive to refining into 91-93 octane than imported crude. That is also why places without as much access to domestic oil (West Coast) still have ~10c spreads between grades.
15-20 years ago, the US imported a lot more oil and refined more premium. Now we are much more energy independent (good) but pay for it with expensive 93 (bad).
At Costco, yes. So premium is 45 pence per imperial gallon more expensive than regular.
Most import-brand 6-cylinders (and V8s but those hadn’t really trickled down) technically recommended premium until some time in the 2000s – even in “regular” brands, so a Maxima or V6 Camry or Sienna and the like, so not that new. Even Chrysler’s OHC engines said midgrade. Honda was the first to really stick to regular on the ’98 Accord.
How often people actually ran premium is another thing. But I expect most are just sticking to the recommended regular on their turbo 4s now.
It’s been a while since I’ve filled up anywhere, but my trusty Costco app (generally crap as apps go. but this bit is nice) lists gas prices of $2.899 per wine gallon for regular and $3.239 per wine gallon for premium.