Frugal Foreigner Cost Comparison: Gas

If you’re new to my Frugal Foreigner posts, read all about what we’re doing in India here! You can read all previous posts in the series here.

After I took this picture of a gas station near our apartment, I realized it could be anywhere! Well, maybe not anywhere. The word “favorite” is spelled “favourite” and if you look really closely, you will see the steering wheels are on the right. But, I kept walking and took the next picture from the other side where the sign is in Kannada (see note). That’s our apartment building in the background.

Gas prices in the US are very volatile because they are dependent on oil prices. In many other countries, the price of gasoline is more stable. This is because taxes on gas are much higher and the amount you are paying for the actual oil is a much smaller percentage.

Don’t be fooled by the sign – gas is sold by the liter here, and remember it’s in Rupees. Our car actually runs on diesel, which is much cheaper than unleaded gasoline. In fact, the sedan we use here and the crossover we drive in the US cost about the same to operate, factoring gas/diesel prices and mph/kph. It took me about 10 minutes with a calculator to figure that out.

The price of unleaded gas in India, as pictured above, is 65.64 Rupees per liter, which translates to $5.51/gallon. Would you pay that?

How much is gas in your area? Comment here, or check out this topic on the message board.

Note: Kannada is the official language of the state of Karnataka, where Bangalore is. I’ve been asked this many times in comments and on Facebook, so I’ll point out again here that there are thousands of languages and dialects spoken in India. There are 22 official languages, and about 150 that are spoken by at least 10,000 Indians. The official language of India is Standard Hindi. Because of the hundreds and hundreds of “mother tongues” spoken, English is a secondary language. Indians may communicate via their native language with family and friends, but Indian English is used to conduct business transactions, label signs and menus, and for other day-to-day uses.