This morning, on the way to work, my car’s extended warranty expired. I’ve driven 72,000 miles since I bought it on 26 April 2003. In those 845 days, I’ve averaged 85.2 miles per day. Every time I calculated it, I got about 27 miles per gallon, which means I’ve used roughly 2,666 gallons of gasoline, or 3.1 gallons per day. I filled up my 20-gallon tank at least 133 times — although probably more like 150 times (once every 5.6 days) since I usually didn’t wait for it to empty completely. When I purchased my car, a full tank of gas would have cost me about $34 (roughly $1.70 per gallon in Waterbury). Now, that same tank costs me $52 ($2.60 per gallon). Based on my rough eyeballing, I’ve probably spent approximately $5,000 on gas since I purchased my car.
Update: Wow, my eyeballing was ridiculously accurate. Based on some real historical gas prices, I've spent $4954.02 on gas.