Petrol prices

[stewartingram]

The £4 sounds attractive enough, the other two figures would rule it out for me. 

 

For those of us who live in rural areas and lack the six-figure wherewithal required for Tesla ownership, I think Hybrids will be the answer in the medium term. Their range on battery power is pretty derisory at present, though quite sufficient for the little urban driving I undertake.

 

The possibility of all-electric motoring, everywhere, for everyone, is still at least two decades away IMHO and I suspect hydrogen will prove the better technology for many in non-urban circumstances, even then.

 

John

Going back to my OT lpg post, just to add my vehicle costs in comparison.

 

Present car Rover 75 2.5 V6 auto. 

Purchased for £700 about 15 months ago. 

No depreciation - in fact slowly climbing in value

No intention of a replacement, I intend to keep it going whilst I can drive. I have NO desire for any of the newer cars on the road today thanks.

Previous car did appox 9 years and I gave it up for (to me) a minor fault when the present one came along. So I now have ample spares and an excellent owners club to help.

Present lpg kit bought new, self installed, checked by supplier after install - £700. Transferred to replacement car last year.

mpg* of car is 32mpg local, 42 mpg on a long journey, either on petrol or lpg. So using the 'Half Price Motoring' quote of lpg (remarkably correct and stable over the last 18 years), that is in round figures, 60/80 mpg in relative terms. Or, again, round figures, say 12p a mile? And I've erred on the worse side with the conversion comparisons.

 

(*Actually, tbh, those figures were checked on a tankful measurement on the old car many times, and that was on a typical 200miles per tank. The new car has larger wheels, and is more economical. I haven't bothered to repeat the measurements,except noting a tank now is reliably a minimum of 215 miles, and I have done 240. No need to check further!)

 

Stewart

 

ps I also get a reduction in car tax (a miserly £15 because of the age), and also it is exempt from emission tests in the MoT because it is so clean.

Edited May 21, 2018 by stewartingram

[jjb1970]

When my wife got her Golf one of the alternatives we looked at was the BMW i3. That was quick, had a superb cabin design and acceptable range. We liked it. The thing that put her off was the boot, because of how they installed the battery you didn't get much of a boot. Funnily enough the same thing put me off the BMW 330e phev. However they seem to be giving more thought to packaging now. The VW Passat GTE doesn't seem to lose any boot space.

That said one of my neighbours has a 5.0 Mustang and the sound and presence of it is just glorious. In all honesty I've been half tempted to buy one just to savour the experience before such cars are history.

[Dunsignalling]

Going back to my OT lpg post, just to add my vehicle costs in comparison.

 

Present car Rover 75 2.5 V6 auto. 

Purchased for £700 about 15 months ago. 

No depreciation - in fact slowly climbing in value

No intention of a replacement, I intend to keep it going whilst I can drive. I have NO desire for any of the newer cars on the road today thanks.

Previous car did appox 9 years and I gave it up for (to me) a minor fault when the present one came along. So I now have ample spares and an excellent owners club to help.

Present lpg kit bought new, self installed, checked by supplier after install - £700. Transferred to replacement car last year.

mpg* of car is 32mpg local, 42 mpg on a long journey, either on petrol or lpg. So using the 'Half Price Motoring' quote of lpg (remarkably correct and stable over the last 18 years), that is in round figures, 60/80 mpg in relative terms. Or, again, round figures, say 12p a mile? And I've erred on the worse side with the conversion comparisons.

 

(*Actually, tbh, those figures were checked on a tankful measurement on the old car many times, and that was on a typical 200miles per tank. The new car has larger wheels, and is more economical. I haven't bothered to repeat the measurements,except noting a tank now is reliably a minimum of 215 miles, and I have done 240. No need to check further!)

 

Stewart

 

ps I also get a reduction in car tax (a miserly £15 because of the age), and also it is exempt from emission tests in the MoT because it is so clean.

 

At the price paid last week (£1.23 litre/£5.60 gallon), fuel cost in my (2010) 1.6 litre Peugeot turbo-diesel estate averaging 53.2 miles works out at a tad over 10.5p per mile*, car tax £30 per year. A friend gets roughly the same out of his 2-litre Skoda but I think his tax is higher.

 

Range on a full tank before the low fuel light comes on is consistently about 580 miles, so around 630 to empty. I generally run it low every other tankful to avoid fuel going stale in the tank - don't know if diesels need that but it's a habit I picked up with petrol cars.

 

It will do a bit over 60mpg on a long run, like Aylesbury next weekend,  so long as I don't clog it in the third lane too much, but I don't do many of those as I get Priv rail travel.

 

John

 

* which increases to 10.9p at this week's price point.

Edited May 22, 2018 by Dunsignalling

[Ron Ron Ron]

When my wife got her Golf one of the alternatives we looked at was the BMW i3. That was quick, had a superb cabin design and acceptable range. We liked it. The thing that put her off was the boot, because of how they installed the battery you didn't get much of a boot. Funnily enough the same thing put me off the BMW 330e phev. However they seem to be giving more thought to packaging now. The VW Passat GTE doesn't seem to lose any boot space.

That said one of my neighbours has a 5.0 Mustang and the sound and presence of it is just glorious. In all honesty I've been half tempted to buy one just to savour the experience before such cars are history.

Some car manufacturers are now moving away from EV versions of their regular petrol/diesel offerings.

New platforms are in development for completely new ranges that will only support EV.

Better packaging of the batteries and motors means that load space, for both passengers and luggage, isn't compromised, or compromised as much.

 

There's a new thread for EV and Hybrid cars here....

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/134352-electric-ev-hybrid-cars-news-and-discussion/

 

 

Ron

Edited May 22, 2018 by Ron Ron Ron

[jjb1970]

On the fuel price upside, IEA reports predict a significant softening of middle distillate prices in 2023 based on predictions that by that time shipping will have completed its transition to 0.5%S fuels and be operating primarily on new blends and refinery streams along with increasing adoption of alternative fuels such as LNG, methanol and shift to newer technologies along with increasing electrification of road transport.

[ejstubbs]

The price for unleaded at my local Tesco (just round the corner, so I pass it every day) has been hovering at 116.9-117.9p for a long while. It went up from 116.9p to 118.9p last week, and from 118.9p to 122.9p over three days this week...

 

I don't know why they have to have the '.9' at the end - if they used the other eight numbers between 0 and 9 to represent competitive pricing then OK, but everyone uses it so there is little justification for complicating the buying process. We don't have a 0.9p coin...

 

Asda (round here, anyway) always quote fuel prices as xxx.7p per litre.  Obviously this is to make them seem worth detouring to, thus tempting you in to the shop.  I once worked out that it would cost me more in fuel to drive from the junction with the road I normally drive along, to the filling station at the back of the Asda site, and back to the road again, than the 0.2p per litre price difference vs my normal fuel source right next to the office would save me on a fill-up.  (I was never going to be tempted in to the shop itself.)  The same would be true for driving half a mile up the road buy fuel at the Asda adjacent to the supermarket where I usually shop and buy fuel.

 

See also Kibblesworth.

Edited May 22, 2018 by ejstubbs

[mezzoman253]

The BBC has finally woken up to this https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44195218

 

Rob

[admiles]

Petrol and diesel are a fraction of the price of fancy coffee, soft drinks and even some bottled water, all of which people seem happy enough to buy without considering themselves as being ripped off. I always find that quite an interesting example of behaviour.

In the UK you are not really paying for petrol or diesel, you are paying tax. Is it a bad thing that oil is expensive? I always think if you genuinely want to reduce the consumption of anything then making it expensive is an effective (if blunt) way of doing it. Get an efficient car or a battery car. Travel less. Plan your journeys. If paying for fuel is cheaper than paying for a more efficient car then I don't see why the cost of fuel should be a problem.

 

You're saying all that from the view point of a person with a decent income. You can afford to buy a "battery car" or a "more efficient car". For many people that simply

isn't an option. They are stuck with the dregs at the bottom of the secondhand car market. For those people fuel increases hit them hard. Especially in areas with poor or non-existent public transport. 

Edited May 22, 2018 by admiles

[jjb1970]

You're saying all that from the view point of a person with a decent income. You can afford to buy a "battery car" or a "more efficient car". For many people that simply

isn't an option. They are stuck with the dregs at the bottom of the secondhand car market. For those people fuel increases hit them hard. Especially in areas with poor or non-existent public transport.

Quite so, but if people are happy to pay more for alcohol, coffee, fizzy water etc than they are for petrol or diesel (as everybody I know seems to be) then I really can't see that they can whinge that petrol and diesel is too expensive.

[mezzoman253]

Quite so, but if people are happy to pay more for alcohol, coffee, fizzy water etc than they are for petrol or diesel (as everybody I know seems to be) then I really can't see that they can whinge that petrol and diesel is too expensive.

It's a matter of degree. Nobody is likely to be buying 50 litres of coffee, in one go. They might consume that over a year, but not in one go, and multiple times a year. 

 

People do have choices, most can decide to buy coffee or not. Fuel is usually not an option to do without.

 

Rob 

[jjb1970]

It's a matter of degree. Nobody is likely to be buying 50 litres of coffee, in one go. They might consume that over a year, but not in one go, and multiple times a year. 

 

People do have choices, most can decide to buy coffee or not. Fuel is usually not an option to do without.

 

Rob

Regardless of that, if people are happy to pay ££££'s for fizy or fermented water, or hot flavoured water, then how can they really then consider a product which requires hazardous drilling, extraction and refining relying on assts costing billions of dollars in some cases, global distribution etc is too expensive?

[admiles]

 

Also it's way nicer to drive than a petrol car.

 

Having driven a Nissan Leaf on a few occasions I'd have to very (very) much disagree with that I'm afraid.

[Horsetan]

Having driven a Nissan Leaf on a few occasions I'd have to very (very) much disagree with that I'm afraid.

 

Other options are available....

[admiles]

 

Other options are available....

 

A leccy Beetle or Fiat 500 could be fun but still the same problem exists - totally soulless!  And b*gger all range.

[Horsetan]

..... b*gger all range.

 

One day, a 500 mile range might be possible from an electric motor and battery. But probably not during my lifetime.

[Guest]

One day, a 500 mile range might be possible from an electric motor and battery. But probably not during my lifetime.

 

Tesla Semi has a range of 500 miles and prototypes are running now...

[brianusa]

But Teslas are hardly the vehicle for 'l'homme dans la rue' - unless he's in Bath!

 

Brian.

[Peter Crawford]

You need to break up prices into two groups:

 

 

SCOTLAND

 

Prices in this country are about 10p cheaper

 

REST OF THE UK

 

In the UK, prices were (on the cheap end) 99p/litre. Now they are (at over-inflated M-Way services) 140p/150p

[Trainshed Terry]

I have just done a diesel price on my phone, well the cheapest that I can find is £126.9 Ltr at a well known supermarket, as for the dearest that is a eye watering £132.9Ltr 

 

Fuel prices are a joke.

[Mike Storey]

At the price paid last week (£1.23 litre/£5.60 gallon), fuel cost in my (2010) 1.6 litre Peugeot turbo-diesel estate averaging 53.2 miles works out at a tad over 10.5p per mile*, car tax £30 per year. A friend gets roughly the same out of his 2-litre Skoda but I think his tax is higher.

 

Range on a full tank before the low fuel light comes on is consistently about 580 miles, so around 630 to empty. I generally run it low every other tankful to avoid fuel going stale in the tank - don't know if diesels need that but it's a habit I picked up with petrol cars.

 

It will do a bit over 60mpg on a long run, like Aylesbury next weekend,  so long as I don't clog it in the third lane too much, but I don't do many of those as I get Priv rail travel.

 

John

 

* which increases to 10.9p at this week's price point.

 

Owners of diesel cars are warned not to let the fuel run down too low, as this messes up the catylitic converter. If my fuel light comes on, I panic buy......

[Peter Crawford]

If you live in Northern England, it might be worth a hop across the border to Scotland to bag a bargain. Especially if you've got list of prototypes to see and model!

[Dunsignalling]

Owners of diesel cars are warned not to let the fuel run down too low, as this messes up the catylitic converter. If my fuel light comes on, I panic buy......

Yes, the garage did warn me of that, but I don't push things that tight. There's also the issue of having to manually re-prime the pump/injection system on some makes/models if you do run dry.

 

According to the book, there's still 5 litres in mine when the light comes on. My usual procedure is to fill up as soon as the gauge shows below a quarter tank and I only do the running low routine when I know I won't be going far for a couple of days. 

 

I accidentally filled mine with petrol once but realised and didn't start it so no harm was done. Just embarrassment and two or three hours lost while it was towed away, cleaned out and filled with the right stuff. Quite interesting to see the procedure/equipment employed though, and those towing bogies that retract away inside a Transit are amazing.

 

John

Edited May 23, 2018 by Dunsignalling

[MarkC]

If you live in Northern England, it might be worth a hop across the border to Scotland to bag a bargain. Especially if you've got list of prototypes to see and model!

And if you have friends up there in Scotland, you can do the booze run for them - win-win situation

[chris p bacon]

Quite so, but if people are happy to pay more for alcohol, coffee, fizzy water etc than they are for petrol or diesel (as everybody I know seems to be) then I really can't see that they can whinge that petrol and diesel is too expensive.

 

 

Only the other evening this was pointed out, the person moaning does approx 20 miles a week* and was bemoaning the increase in fuel cost, and yet in the space of 90 minutes he popped away £12+ in Lager ( the devils urine).

*He lives barely one mile from work and yet won't walk and drives.

[Mike Storey]

Only the other evening this was pointed out, the person moaning does approx 20 miles a week* and was bemoaning the increase in fuel cost, and yet in the space of 90 minutes he popped away £12+ in Lager ( the devils urine).

*He lives barely one mile from work and yet won't walk and drives.

 

If he drinks that much lager each night, he probably can't walk?