You read it right, for the first time in almost a year, the price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline fell below $3 for some Hawaii residents. The statewide average is $3.13 with Costco on the Big Island coming in the cheapest at $2.62.

On the island of Oahu you can find gas under $2.97 all over the place as all of the Aloha Gas stations on the windward side have dropped their gas to that price. In town, same story. Gas under $3 is popping up all over the place.

Does that mean you should run out and fill up? Maybe. Or at least a little bit. But gas prices are falling all around the nation as some states have ventured into the realm of regular unleaded gasoline at under $2 a gallon. The current national average is $2.28 with some states reporting an average of $2.05.

This is welcome relief to a lot of car owners on Oahu.

That’s right. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Maui is now holds the highest gas prices in the nation at an average of $4 a gallon. In fact, somewhere in Hana the price was up to $4.55 per gallon of gasoline. How crazy is that? The national average is about $3.36 per gallon, and I’m sure it will be close to $4 sooner or later. That also means that if the national average rises, so will the Hawaii’s gas prices.

Driving around town, I noticed that gas prices for regular 87 octane was about $3.60 on average. Costco was selling their gas for $3.50 a gallon. I guess that’s not so bad, but they usually cut the competition by at least 15 cents, and usually by 20 cents. I guess they feel that most people don’t actually look at the price, but just trust that it’s much cheaper. Tony’s gas station which isn’t too far away, probably no more than a mile, was selling gas at the same price as Costco. And they both use Aloha gasoline…lucky for those who aren’t Costco customers.

Fortunately, my girlfriend and I both have cars that don’t use up a lot of gas…her Civic that pretty much gets only city driving, still pulls in a respectable 25mpgs. My Acura gets around 28mpgs, but that’s cause I drive farther on the weekends, so it gets a bit more mileage due to driving on the freeway. Nevertheless, we both get decent mileage. Our coworker gets 36mpgs on his Toyota Yaris, which is outstanding, and makes me think that the Prius might not bring in that much more for the premium you have to pay…and not to mention the maintenance.

Just watch out. Maui may be expensive, but Oahu isn’t that far behind. Might be time to change that SUV to a compact car no?