Gas Prices and Rental Cars on Vacation

Gas Prices:

Las Vegas, Nevada: $2.85 a gallon. No gas shortage.

Memphis, Tenn.: $2.89 a gallon. No gas shortage.

Tupelo, Miss.: $2.66. There were spot shortages here. One gas station we stopped at was out of regular gas. But other gas stations had regular gas. I really expected to pay more in Mississippi because of the damage Katrina did to the oil refineries. But Mississippi had the lowest prices.

The price of Gasoline was definitely on our minds during vacation. We rented one car in Vegas ( a Saturn Vue) and one car in Memphis (a Chevy Impala). Both cars were new. Between the two cars we spent about $120 on gas. That doesn't include the price of renting the two cars.

If we had driven our Van from Madison to Mississippi, we figured gas alone for our minivan would have run about $200. And one could add another $50 in gas for the side trips in Mississippi.

So, for us, whether to fly or drive depends on:
Cost of airfare.
Can we apply frequent flyer miles towards the price of the airplane tickets?
If we drive, how many nights will we need to get a hotel on the way?
Cost of gas.
Wear and tear on our personal car.
Will we need a rental car or is there public transportation available at our destination?
How much time will we save by flying?

It's not rocket science, but figuring out how to get to a vacation destination, without paying an arm and a leg, is a little more complicated now.

Some of the gas stations we filled up at required us to prepay before getting gas. If the pump accepted credit cards, it was fine. But if the pump didn't accept credit cards, it was a pain trying to guess how much the rental car was going to take. When we were at the gas stations with the lowest prices, we tried to fill the tank up to the top. And we had to fill both rental cars to the top before returning them.

We drove both a Saturn Vue and a Chevy Impala. I liked the Saturn Vue a lot. Visibility wasn't as good as my Chrysler Voyager, but it was tolerable. The Vue handled well, rode well, and had plenty of power when I needed it.

I liked the looks of the Chevy Impala but that was about it. It was harder to see out of and was sluggish when I hit the gas pedal. The car rode well. The cruise control was very unsteady, especially on hills.