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OMG yes about the road construction! Between the Biden infrastructure bill and the new investments by PennDot and funding to the local municipalities to fix roads, it is sometimes impossible to get around here. It's also not just roads, utility companies, especially water and sewer, got a lot of fresh funding for projects too. I get that there is a lot to catch up on, but it's making it really hard to get about.

I thought it was a Sonic. It works for the vehicle it was put in though. It started at like 14k when it first came out. The Spark's was basically the same design that just looked newer(because it was). That's exactly what it was back then. Big tach with a small digital speedo + other information. This was my Triumph Daytona's instrument cluster (not my picture):

Definitely unusual and asymmetrical. I recall reviewers saying it resembled a sport bike gauge cluster.

I was cleaning out old photos and archiving and I found this ... ... amazing ... what a nasty rat-tat-tat dashboard ... any guesses? . . . . . It was a rented Chevy Sonic. Its dashboard was quite a bit more underwhelming than that of its smaller and cheaper sibling, the Spark

Yes, it is, I am glad I only fill up the Escalade once a month now, the swings have become normal here, but still crazy.

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This is supposed to be in line with inflation, which is understandable, to an extent. I believe this may be the smallest year over year increase since 2017. i think this year is just a 3c increase. And, in all fairness, I've noticed a ton more road construction since 2017. Yes, it's inconvenient, but there were a lot of bad roads. Now, there are a lot less and there's still plenty of construction in the area. In fact, it's currently taking me about 15 minutes longer to get home for the next couple weeks due to "emergency bridge construction". It sucks, but I understand it and also appreciate the nicer roads.

Honestly, that's actually a good thing that it goes up every July. The problem with many states, and this isn't just gas taxes but all taxes, is that they don't index taxes to inflation, and then the governments are forced into drastic budget cuts and big jumps in taxes. I work with local governments in PA and time after time I see this play out. They pat themselves on the back for keeping property taxes low and not raising them for 6 years and then boom, they find themselves in a deficit which local towns are not allowed to run in PA. Then there's a big tax hike and everyone gets pissed. I'm working with one town where the population of the town is very affluent, but the town is going broke because of the tax structure. They rely on property taxes, but the county hasn't reassessed property values in 30 years. So you have parcels that are worth 6-7 figures being assessed for tax purposes at like 100k. And now everyone is stuck because if the properties get reassessed, the property taxes jump a few hundred percent. Having the gas tax go up a little bit every year is the smarter way to do it.

IL has the highest taxed gas (or 2nd/3rd highest - it goes back and forth with PA or CA or something - I don't know, top 3. ). 48.3c/gal as of July. It's gone up every July for the last like 6 years. When it first went up in 2017, that was fine. It did need to go up to maintain the roads. I believe it had been a very long time prior and I understood that. It's since gone up every year. In 2017 it went up to 19c/gal and it's ballooned up to 48.3c/gal. Your average for 87 is $5/gal? The internet (AAA's website) is showing $4.39 for WA. IL is at $3.43. California is still the highest in the nation at $4.65. https://gasprices.aaa.com/state-gas-price-averages/