Steve, a young Chula Vista resident, says that for now, he saves more than a third of what he consumes on gas by filling his tank in Tijuana and not in San Diego County.
"Here – in Tijuana – a gallon of gasoline is cheaper than anywhere in San Diego County; here you pay $3.80 per gallon, while Chula Vista or San Diego sells the cheapest for $6," Steve told Chula Vista Today.
Steve's compact model car fills up with 11 gallons, and the fuel lasts him a week to go to work and his regular performance, like going to the grocery store.
With a calculator in hand, Steve says that the difference between filling his tank in Tijuana and not in San Diego County "is that here I fill with 41 dollars, and there I fill the tank with around 65 dollars".
He regrets the time he has to wait in line to cross the border back.
Despite that inconvenience, Steve is far from the only north-of-the-border resident to cross south searching for cheaper fuel.
At the Tesoro gas station in Tijuana's Libertad neighborhood, employee María Guadalupe Quezada told Chula Vista Today that "right now seven out of ten customers come with license plates from the other side" of the border.
She said it's the owners of large vehicles who save the most. "There are some big trucks that fit 30 or 40 gallons, imagine how much they save," she said. It would be between $65 and $88 for a full tank.
A man with a large pickup with California license plates, but who did not want to identify himself, said that it is precisely those who drive these types of vehicles that consume the most.
"If you have a small or medium car, you can get about 25, 30, maybe 35 miles per gallon, but when you have a vehicle like mine, a gallon of fuel only gets you about 9 miles," he explained.
At the Tesoro gas station in the same Libertad neighborhood, Gilberto said that he increased the number of customers from San Diego. They come to consume gasoline all this week.
"About 7 out of 10 customers come with California license plates, most with large cars, and yes, it is the most frequent conversation with him," said Gilberto.
"They tell me, 'hey, there I filled last week with 200 dollars, and here it came to 125, or 120,'" he recalled.
The leader of the owners of gas stations in Tijuana, Alejandro Borja Robles, said that the increase in gasoline purchases among visitors could lead to a rise in the price in Tijuana.
