I knew I was in for it when I bought a car that runs on premium instead of regular.  I accepted that as part of the joy of owning a Mercedes (The Mercedes Experience…as my friend Dan puts it…).  But still I had visions of all the gas station signs I saw while on the road last July, particularly in Nevada for some reason, advertising premium gasoline for over four dollars a gallon.  We were having a gasoline price peak back then, right as I was taking my annual road trip vacation.  I was driving the Accord, and counting my blessings that I had a car that was doing about 33 miles per gallon.  I’m still in the break-in period on the Mercedes, but it looks like I’ll be getting at best around 25 mpg in it.

What I didn’t expect was how widely the price of premium varies.  At least around here.  The price of regular only varies by a few cents locally.  Last night as I was looking to fill up, I noticed the price of premium here in the Baltimore area running between $3.10 and $2.80.  I saw stations right down the street from each other, having the same exact price for regular, differing by as much as 20 cents a gallon on the price of premium.  I’ve no idea why that might be.