00:00Gas in Los Angeles is expensive, but how expensive can depend on which corner you pull into.
00:05After two days checking stations on both sides of LA, here are the rules to use.
00:10Rule one, shop the mile. Chevron was $6.09 with a card, while nearby SK was $5.29, an $0
00:17.80 difference.
00:19Rule two, don't pay for the logo. There's a broader pattern here. California's petroleum
00:24watchdog found branded gasoline averages about $0.31 more per gallon than unbranded gas,
00:31compared with just $0.06 more in the rest of the country. So are you actually getting better gas
00:36for the extra money? All gasoline sold in California has to meet the state's standards for emissions
00:42and engine performance, and state regulators say they haven't found any public evidence that branded
00:47gasoline performs better than cheaper no-name stations. Rule three, Costco really is cheap,
00:54but may not be worth the drive. At Costco in Alhambra, regular was about $5.30,
01:0076 cents cheaper than every chevron we checked. But on the west side, SK was $5.29, about 4 cents
01:07less.
01:07So Costco can absolutely save you money, you just may not need to drive across town to get Costco
01:13level prices. So what did we learn? There isn't one magic cheap station, and the biggest savings we found
01:20came from simply comparing prices nearby. The hack isn't burning fuel to cross Los Angeles for cheaper
01:26prices. It's checking the mile around you before you fill up. Because in LA, one mile can be worth
01:32almost 10 bucks.
