ILLINOIS — If you want to smile, just drive to the nearest gas station.

“Ending December, we finished just under the $2 mark in Illinois,” says AAA Chicago spokeswoman Beth Mosher. “It’s down about 17 cents from the previous month and down 54 cents from last year’s.”

Right now, the national average is $1.99 Gasoline averages $2.34 in Chicago, $2.17 in the Chicago metro area, and Downstate prices range from $1.76 in Danville to $1.91 in Rockford, Quincy, and Bloomington-Normal.

Mosher says the latest AAA research, though, shows gasoline is only about 19 percent of the cost to own and operate a car.