this post was submitted on 05 May 2026
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If its any consolation, Germans would be ecstatic about 5$/gal (equivalent to 1.13€/L), because they're currently paying around twice that.
I have no idea why people keep trying to compare gas between countries. It's such a small part of things.
Heck, I'd pay $10/gal happily for no college tuition costs, national healthcare, and kids not having to do school shooter drills. (Yes yes Germany technically has University fees, but they're like $80 and is more a parking pass than anything)
Also Germany is smaller. Most people aren't driving 60km a day for a work commute. That's a fairly reasonable commute in the US.
Hell I used to commute 130km a day for university. No one would consider that in Germany, but I knew several people from high school making the same commute as me
Did you even suggest carpooling with any of those people?
Part of the reason people outside the US would not spend what, 3 hours and 5?, 6? gallons of gas per day is that US petrol is stupid cheap. If it weren't, you and your high school buddies would have rented a place closer to your school. Seriously: 3 guys each paying $8/gallon for 5 gallons/day 4 days/week? $2000/month is rent. At $3/gallon, $250/month to live with your parents makes sense.
I did carpool with a friend often for the first few semesters, however that eventually didn't work out due to different work and school schedules. I often left class and drove straight to work. The days I didn't work I'd stay in the university library till 11pm doing work. I did have some off days of course, but still long days were common.
It also took just under 2 hours as it was mostly a rural stretch of interstate. Which helped a lot with gas efficiency at least. My car was also small and gas efficient so it was about 2.5 gallons per day.
If we round up to 3, that would be about $384 a month at the $8 per gallon price. Which was significantly cheaper than a room in an apartment. Those averaged around $450 to $500, but due to a lack of transit in the city I would still be driving to school. Plus you have to account for semester breaks where I wouldn't be driving at all. Of course gas was ranged from $3 to $3.50 per gallon then.
But then again I knew a guy who did this commute in a pickup truck. He complained about gas daily.
Also many of these people were just people I knew, not friends per se.