Community Corner

Birmingham Mobil Offers Low Gas Prices For Classic Car Owners

Taking customers back to an era of rock 'n' roll on the jukebox, duck tails and hot cars, costumed gas station attendants pumped gas, cleaned windshields and dropped gas prices way down.

As the 20th Annual Woodward Dream Cruise approaches on Aug. 16, cruisers are already lining up, to take advantage of gas prices from the the 1950s and 1960s, The Detroit New reports.

The Collector Car Appreciation Day was sponsored by Hagerty Insurance, which specializes in insurance for classic cars, motorcycles and boats. The Mobil station at 36101 Woodward Ave. offered car collectors low-cost, high-octane gasoline.

An Eastpoint resident, Russ Vorpagel, paid $3 to fill-up his 1957 Bel Air.

Find out what's happening in Birminghamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Related:

Participating cars had to be 25 years or older and gas was limited to 10 gallons per vehicle.

Find out what's happening in Birminghamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“They look up the price of gas for whatever year your car is,” Vorpagel said. “It was 30 cents a gallon in 1957. I arrived at the station at about 6:30 a.m. and there was hardly anyone here. By 7 a.m. they were starting to line up down the street.”

Waitresses also wheeled around on roller skates, offering patrons free doughnuts.

“Attendants would automatically clean your windshield, check the oil and the pressure,” Vorpagel told The Detroit News. ”Nowadays they don’t even know what a windshield is.”








Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Birmingham