Chiriquí Chatter

Feed on: Posts; Comments

Feb 15th, 2007 by Don Ray

Tags: Gas Prices

Posted in Panama Journal

17 Responses to “David’s Gasoline Prices Today”

on 15 Feb 2007 at 5:13 pm1Laurel from Chicago

Wow! That’s higher than it is in the Chicago suburbs right now. Is this high for you, or about normal?
on 15 Feb 2007 at 5:26 pm2Jan

Gas here in Oklahoma is $2.09 TO $2.13. Has been down to 1.89 but has gone up in the past two weeks. Snowing here right now temp 18 degrees but supposed to get up into the 60’s this weekend. Jan
on 15 Feb 2007 at 6:53 pm3Don Ray

Laurel. It is normal around here. It is usually about 50 cents higher than in the US for the areas I compare to.

Jan - Yes this went up recently too. Diesel here is probably the same price as in the US?
on 15 Feb 2007 at 10:29 pm4wsdave

I don’t know how yer gas is rated, but in Seattle we have:

87 Octane (Regular): $2.41
89 Octane (Plus): $2.51
91 Octane (Premium): $2.61

Diesel: $2.65

How does this compare to Defenda? What IS Defenda?

Thanks,

Dave
on 15 Feb 2007 at 11:24 pm5Don Ray

Panama has 95 and 91 octanes. Panama uses the European octane system. Panama 95 is equal to 91 in the US. Panama 91 is equal to 87 in the US. Subtract 4 from the Panama octane to get the US octane equivalent.
on 16 Feb 2007 at 6:11 pm6Ron Miller

Last Thursday when they raised the price I was driving to David from Boquete. Saw the price at $2.14 for diesel and saw the tanker truck truck refilling the station’s tanks and thought about stopping but didn’t. On the way back it was $2.27. Oh well….
on 16 Feb 2007 at 6:22 pm7Don Ray

I had heard it was going up Thursday. Always good to watch the local news on Wednesdays. They will tell it it is going up on Thursday or not.
on 16 Feb 2007 at 10:17 pm8wsdave

What is Defenda Diesel? How is it different?
on 17 Feb 2007 at 7:58 am9Don Ray

I can’t tell you. They have two grades of diesel and that is all I know. I assume that the more expensive runs cleaner in the car. I have heard that some people had been told to burn the mor expensive in their car. I would like to know what most drivers here use as well.
on 17 Feb 2007 at 11:40 am10wsdave

I’ll inquire with the diesel instructor at the local college on Tuesday, and let you know the difference.
on 17 Feb 2007 at 12:28 pm11Don Ray

Thanks in advance for the follow up .
on 17 Feb 2007 at 1:03 pm12melissa

Hola Don! Last week I was in Miami and couldn’t believe how expensive Diesel was. Here, at the time of selling a car, you will get more $$ if the car is diesel, that is only one of the benefits. I have learned it the hard way @ Ricardo Perez!

Un abrazo,
Melissa
on 17 Feb 2007 at 1:17 pm13Don Ray

Hi Melissa. Thanks for the comment. The difference in price between gasoline and diesel is getting smaller it looks like to me. I also understand that maintenance to diesel motors is higher. I don’t know if the maintenance expense and the higher initial expense is worth purchasing diesel or not.
on 18 Feb 2007 at 6:28 pm14wsdave

Don,

Diesels have a higher initial cost because they have to be built stronger than gassers (much higher compression and higher torque), and they don’t make as many of them. Maintenance and parts are generaly higher because fewer people are trained to work on them, and fewer parts are built by 3rd party manufacturers (although they DO run 100,000s before needing major work).

Because I can do my own maintenance (saving 2/3 the cost), the parts cost vs. gas and the fuel cost are the only parts that affect me.

Any call for a Gringo mechanic in David?
on 18 Feb 2007 at 6:58 pm15Don Ray

I’ll stay in touch.
on 20 Feb 2007 at 7:23 pm16wsdave

It turns out the two versions of diesel roughly correspond with the two versions of gasoline. There is a low octane (”certane” or something like that, is the diesel version of octane) fuel and a high octane; though in diesel, it’s less explosive and more explosive.
on 20 Feb 2007 at 7:58 pm17Don Ray

Thanks for the comment wsdave. I think I understand that the more expensive one burns cleaner in the engine and theoretically is better for the engine.