TORRANCE >> At the busy intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and 182nd Street sits a largely deserted Arco gas station apparently impervious to fluctuating pump prices or a desire to attract motorists running on empty.

Mere yards from a 405 Freeway entrance and exit in north Torrance, the location would seem a gold mine.

Yet with a pump price Friday of $4.89 for regular gas, rare is the driver who ventures in, especially with another Arco just down the road at 182nd Street and Prairie Avenue selling the same fuel for just $3.37.

Fuel prices at the Crenshaw Boulevard station have remained unchanged for at least the last month or so, but locals who frequent the area say prices have varied by only a dime or so for years.

“I used to buy my gas there for many years,” Raelyn Morgan emailed the Daily Breeze recently. “But over the past couple of years their gas price has stayed the same — $4.99 per gallon — it never changes. There are rarely any cars there, duh.”

Similar comments abound about the gas station on Yelp and other social media.

“I just want to know why the gas price has been set to $4.89 for the last six months?” wrote Culver City resident Isabella L in January. “What a mystery.

“And for those of you wondering who’s getting gas here — calm yourself. No one is getting gas here — except by accident. Everyone now parks at the pump to buy things in the am/pm minimart. I haven’t seen a pump out in a while and I look on the way to and from work because this place is a real curiosity.”

That seemed to confirm a comment made by Torrance reviewer OGB a year earlier on the same website.

“Beware,” the reviewer wrote. “This gas station is probably the most expensive gas station in the state. I was not paying attention and put in $20 when I realized that the price was so high. No wonder why the clerk was so happy about my purchase. I think he was surprised that I was actually getting gas.”

Indeed, a reporter who spent 45 minutes or so at the height of a recent evening rush hour witnessed virtually no motorists filling up.

Most drivers used the lot as a route to avoid the oft-clogged intersection, navigating through it with little fear other vehicles would impede them.

The occasional motorist who did pull up to the pump usually performed a double take before driving off with a bemused look on their face.

Costa Mesa resident Heath Lasher, driving home at the wheel of a large box truck, was the rare driver who paid $20 for gas, which he hoped was enough to get him back to Orange County.

“I just noticed (the price) after I paid,” he said somewhat sheepishly. “I was like, ‘Hey, there’s no cars here.’

“We’re so tired and thirsty, I don’t care,” Lasher added of the price.

The gas station and its out-of-step prices are a source of gossip at nearby Expert Barbers.

Customers come in all the time remarking on the crazy gas prices, barbers said, while noting that candy and other goods often are covered in dust, a point echoed by at least one reviewer on Yelp.

“They have regulars who still go there to get gas — that’s the crazy part,” said barber Jasmien Bendolph, who has worked at the shop in a strip mall behind the gas station for six years.

Tesoro, which operates Arco stations in Southern California, did not respond to an email message or voicemail.

A man behind the gas station counter Friday claimed he was the manager, but declined to provide his name. He eventually picked up a name tag off the counter and identified himself as “Alfredo.”

“Alfredo” declined to comment, requested a story not be written and finally offered the reporter food and a beverage before escorting him out of the store.

“We’re going to put the prices down soon,” he said.

History suggests that’s unlikely to occur any time soon.

“I don’t know how they survive,” said Redondo Beach resident Jason Von as he put air in his tires recently. “I can’t figure it out. It’s always empty.”