Gas prices set record for highest number of days above $4 a gallon in a calendar year
A customer purchases gas at a station on Sept. 15, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The national average gas price has topped $4 a gallon for a total of 158 days in 2026, setting a record for the largest number of days ever recorded above $4 in a calendar year, GasBuddy petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan said in a post on X on Wednesday.
The Iran war caused gasoline prices to surge after fighting in the Strait of Hormuz prompted a historic oil supply shock.
An oil shortage continues to bedevil crude sellers, who typically pass along higher costs to retailers and, in turn, drivers at the pump. Global oil prices register above $106 a barrel, marking a 50% jump from their pre-war level.
The record-setting gasoline price woes arrive as affordability stands as a top concern for voters ahead of early November’s midterm elections.
An inflation report issued by the federal government on Wednesday showed gas prices jumped more than 9% in September from August, accounting for more than half of the overall price increase last month. Overall inflation clocked in at a 4-month high in September, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said.
The national average gas price stands at $4.33, AAA said. Prior to the war, the average price stood below $3 a gallon.
The Middle East conflict drove up fuel prices and catapulted inflation to a three-year high in May, but inflation eased slightly over the summer after a preliminary peace agreement established an on-again, off-again pause in fighting.
The tentative accord between the U.S. and Iran expired in August, however, giving way to continued attacks on oil infrastructure and ships in the region.
Oil exports from the Gulf have improved in recent weeks, but heightened shipping costs and persistent risks have kept gas prices highly elevated.
Diesel prices, which feed into supply costs for groceries and just about every other product bought in stores, stand at $6.29 a gallon, according to AAA. That figure amounts to an increase of about 66% since the outbreak of the Iran war in February.
In September, consumer sentiment dropped close to the lowest level ever recorded in the 74-year history of the University of Michigan’s monthly survey.
Nicholson Francios pumps diesel fuel into his tractor-trailer at a truck stop on Sept. 11, 2026, in Miami, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Global oil prices on Monday climbed to their highest level since May after Saudi Arabia shut down a key pipeline, choking worldwide crude supply and threatening to put upward pressure on U.S. gasoline prices.
Brent crude, a major benchmark of worldwide oil prices, topped $109 on Monday before retreating to about $107. That’s a 50% increase since the start of the war.
Oil prices account for a large share of the price of gasoline. The average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. currently registers at $4.31, according to AAA, marking a jump of about $1.30 above its pre-war level.
A large-scale U.S.-Israeli attack in the winter prompted Iran’s near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which facilitates one-fifth of global crude supply. Alternative trade routes in the region, such as Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline, helped ease the fallout from a historic oil supply shock.
The closure of the East-West pipeline will exacerbate an already dire shortfall of oil worldwide, some analysts told ABC News.
The price of gasoline may move higher over the coming days as the latest spike in oil costs filters its way through to the pump, Ramanan Krishnamoorti, a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Houston, told ABC News.
The U.S. — the world’s largest oil producer — imports a small amount of crude from the Middle East. Since oil and gas are sold on a global market, however, the shortage has sent prices rising for everyone, including U.S. drivers.
“Workarounds like the East-West pipeline have been crucial for keeping prices in check,” Krishnamoorti said. “We’ll see prices rise after this.”
After the war began, Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco came to depend on a pipeline that runs along the width of the country from the Persian Gulf to a port on the Red Sea. The pipeline carries as much as 7 million barrels of oil each day, about 5 million of which are exported, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said in May.
Oil exports transported through the pipeline amounted to roughly 5% of global supply.
Last week, an attack prompted Saudia Arabia to close the pipeline as a precautionary measure, the Ministry of Energy said in a statement posted on X. Saudi Arabia faulted an Iran-aligned militia in Iraq of the attack.
The pipeline will be mostly out of service over a weeks-long period, The Associated Press reported on Monday, citing two officials in the region.
The average price of a gallon of gas could rise between 25 cents and 50 cents over the coming weeks as a result of the pipeline closure, Krishnamoorti said. If the pipeline remains closed for a matter of months, he added, U.S. gasoline prices could rise above $5 a gallon.
The rise in price may be far more muted than some analysts fear, Tom Seng, a professor of energy finance at Texas Christian University, told ABC News.
The disruption of the pipeline has already been factored into gasoline prices, Seng said, meaning an additional supply shock would be necessary to substantially increase prices at the pump.
Even more, gas prices typically enjoy some relief over the course of the fall as fuel use eases as people stay indoors. That downward pressure on prices may negate the impact of a supply shortage, Seng added.
“The high-demand season is behind us,” Seng said.
Even so, Seng cautioned, the Iran war may escalate after a military offensive carried out by Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen over recent weeks. The Houthis have improved their ability to attack tankers in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which feeds into the Red Sea, Seng said.
That would be the exact sea corridor used for the export of crude in the event of a fully repaired East-West pipeline.
“If oil starts flowing well, the question is whether Houthis will start firing on tankers,” Seng said.
Tankers could avail themselves of a northern route from the Red Sea through the Mediterranean Sea, but it would bring added delay and cost, Seng added, underscoring the threat Houthis pose for global oil supply.
“This represents a new phase in the conflict,” Seng said.
The 2027 Corvette Grand Sport X, a high-performance AWD hybrid model on display at the New York Auto Show, April 01, 2026 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
A sports car with a naturally aspirated V12 engine and a manual transmission? It’s every enthusiast’s dream.
Buying one, however, requires deep pockets. The S1, Gordon Murray’s latest supercar creation, reportedly costs at least seven figures. All 64 units were sold even before collectors, industry insiders and admirers of Murray got a sneak peek at the S1 in August.
Murray himself has described the 681-horsepower car as “more elegant, more refined” but also “analog and deeply driver focused,” a seeming affirmation that manual gearboxes, gauges and ear-piercing revs (12,100 rpm!) can still exist in a world of increasing technology and electrification.
“A lot of customers are not too excited about hybrid supercars,” Matt Farah, host of “The Smoking Tire” podcast, told ABC News. “Regulations are making the new cars worse. People want an analog experience.”
The safety tech found in daily commuters — lane keep assist, emergency automatic braking, blind spot monitoring — has hindered the driving experience in sports cars, he argued. And hybrid powertrains — which boost output, speed and miles per gallon — can actually become a liability for owners, he said.
“Cars have just gotten insanely fast but that does not make them more fun, it makes them more braggable,” he said. “There’s no difference between 800 hp and 1,000 hp … you can only use so much on the street. I drive all this stuff and it’s boring.”
Enthusiasts are now splurging on older sports cars that have been “reimagined” by high-end restomod companies like Singer and Gunther Werks.
“The elite of the elite get real knobs and gauges and real stick shifts,” said Farah. “These small outfits are charging a lot to make old cars go faster.”
He added, “Everyone else gets stuck with a computer. The new stuff has become very digital but doesn’t have a lot of feel.”
Tony Roma, executive chief engineer for the global Corvette and performance cars team, called the latest supercars built by Murray, Czinger and others as “trendsetters,” adding that these boutique carmakers purposely keep production small.
“A lot of what they do is for show,” Roma told ABC News. “Corvette will never compete with these [supercars].”
He added, “This is a fashion industry. We sell a fashion product and people are buying the greatest and latest shiny thing.”
Roma declined to say whether a manual transmission would return in the Corvette, though he acknowledged the appeal of rowing one’s own gears and the desire for a more raw driving experience.
“What makes a great sports car? That is the question,” he said. “People want a visceral connection to their car. Customers want precise steering, a linear range of handling, they want the car to feel natural, to be a modern interpretation of the sports car in their youth. And they want it to sound great. The weight of the throttle and brake pedal — do they feel like the same person tuned them? And the car has to be confidence inspiring.”
Roma said Corvette’s customers also request a comfortable ride, which he said was achievable in all six Vettes currently sold, from the Stingray to the new Grand Sport to even the beastly ZR1X.
“Our niche, our draw, is that we’re affordable performance,” he said. “Most of our customers are not buying race cars.”
The backlash to big screens has helped propel sales of older Corvettes, like the C5 generation with manuals, Roma noted. As for the constant chatter about the unwelcome safety tech, Roma said the objections may be exaggerated.
“The people complaining about the tech … I am not sure they hate it,” he said.
Dan Pund, editor-in-chief of Road & Track, has driven many of the top supercars with hybrid powertrains. He said he’s astonished at what these machines can deliver when pushed hard on the track.
“The Ferrari 296 and F80 are amazing … they’re maintaining the sound of the engine, the gear shift, the dual clutch,” he told ABC News.
The 296 pairs a twin-turbocharged V6 with a plug-in hybrid system, which makes 819 hp. The F80’s twin-turbo V6 gets an assist from three electric motors for a terrifying 1,184 hp.
He also had high praise for McLaren’s new W1 supercar and its 916-hp twin-turbo V8, noting in his review that the electric motor is “fed by a tiny 1.4-kWh battery — might as well be a high-capacity pump flooding the driver’s brain with adrenaline, norepinephrine, and endorphins through a fire hose.”
Pund recognized that hybrid powertrains can add weight, a nightmare for purists. Automakers, however, have realized that “this is the reality of the situation … hybrid is the best option at this point. To be competitive in the industry, there has to be noise and vibration because that’s what sports car buyers want.”
And enthusiasts are clearly choosing hybrids over fully electric sports cars, he said.
“The Rimac [Nevera] was a darling of the industry but it did not sell. It feels like any electric car. You dip into the throttle and holy s— it’s fast. But you don’t hear anything and you don’t shift gears,” he said.
Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds, said there will be “no end to how much people spend” on restomods as vintage sports cars with three pedals become sought after by consumers.
“As we layer in more tech and more electrification, sports cars become faster and easier to drive. But this slowly hacks away at the soul of the car,” he told ABC News. “These cars are borderline autonomous. There are so many warnings. The vehicle has more control than you do at this point.”
Fuel economy has never been a selling point for sports cars, he noted, which make up less than 1% of industry sales. Drury said he, too, has become nostalgic for older models like the Honda Prelude, which was his first car.
“Honda brought back the Prelude nameplate as a throwback,” he said. “Prelude looks the part but doesn’t back it up with speed and innovation. It would not surprise me at all if Honda pulls the plug on the Prelude after two to three years.”
A Honda spokesperson told ABC News that the company is meeting sales targets of the sports car.
“We announced during the launch of the Prelude that we expected annual sales volume of approximately 4,000 units,” the spokesperson said. “We also noted that Prelude wasn’t meant to be a volume model, but instead a halo for our hybrid lineup, as it attracts faithful Honda fans while also bringing new buyers to the Honda brand. In fact, more than a third of Prelude buyers have come from another brand.”
Farah said he was impressed with the Nissan Z Nismo, a manual sports car that costs a fraction of the price of supercars he regularly test drives.
“It’s under $70,000 and very engaging. That car has a lot of poise, great brakes and is very good dynamically — there’s not a lot of computer intervention,” he said.
But the Nissan is an exception, he admitted.
“It’s very telling that people would rather spend $3 million to $4 million on a [restomod] supercar than $700,000 on a new one,” he said.
In this Nov. 16, 2023, file photo, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman looks on during the APEC CEO Summit at Moscone West in San Francisco. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, FILE)
(NEW YORK) — OpenAI, the artificial-intelligence company behind ChatGPT, announced Monday night it had filed confidentially for an initial public offering (IPO), setting up the firm to raise fresh funds as it competes with deep-pocketed tech giants in the fast-growing AI industry.
In a post on X, OpenAI said it had not determined when the company would begin listing on public markets.
“We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company. But it’s a complicated set of tradeoffs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best,” the company said.
The move would subject the privately held company to new scrutiny from public investors and regulators, as well as ongoing financial reporting requirements. OpenAI valued itself at $852 billion after a round of funding in March.
