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£1.33 a litre here at the Shell Garage. Costs me about £22 fill up the 125 which gets 270 miles to a tank and £18 to fill the 600 up which gets about 180 miles to a tank when ridden at sensible speeds or 120 miles if i rag it a bit.
But a more economical car or a motorbike for commuting.
My solution has been to get this:
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I do a number of there-and-back 10-15 mile trips a week, say 80miles ish. We have a 2.5tdi camper van and a 2.5 landrover, both serve their function, but theyre not great for these kinds of trips and probably return <30mpg. The bike does about 100 mpg, even with me ragging it around at 65mph.
I got the top box for it and it has enough space to be able to pack my boots, jacket, gloves and helmet in it (and under the seat) when I get to the station for the train to london. I can even fit my toolbag in the top box for the trip to Plumbing school two nights a week. It's been a lot of fun learning to ride it too.
Three years low cost finance will have this paid off for £65ish a month. I reckon it will save me around 5-600 litres of fuel a year, so lets say £840. Ownership costs are around £15 tax, £50 service, £100 insurance and 50%/3 = £400 depreciation. So about £200+ up a year I reckon. And a saving of about 1,400kgCO2 a year.
^^^ I considered a small motorbike, but decided that it wouldn't be a great idea for 120 miles/day commute.
Car does almost 60mpg when I drive how I currently am....(slowly & carefully)!!
Would definitely consider one for the type of journey you describe.
(We can see your camper van in the reflection 😀 )
Increasing fuel prices have a knock on effect.
Transporting goods becomes more expensive,prices go up in the shops, so the consumer gets a double hit.
How people on low wages are expected to drive a new "eco" car,whether electric,hybrid or supremely fuel efficient is beyond my understanding.
My friends just bought a new Lexus Hybrid,probably over 30k.
Saving him money on fuel,yes,but depreciation is thousands more.
Saving the planet perhaps.No way.Unless its fashioned out of wood and has perpetual motion drive then the "eco"tag may apply.I think ego is more apt.
My friends just bought a new Lexus Hybrid,probably over 30k.
Saving him money on fuel
I dunno about the new compact one but the others are not economical at all. Just more economical than OTHER Lexuses.
I suspect he didn't think 'oh I need a £30k car to save me £20 each fillup'. More likely to be 'I want to spend £30k on a car, which is the most economical one?'
Whatever happened to the 'Equalizer' the tories promised if they got in to power, that was where they'd reduce the tax in accordance with increases in oil prices?
As a general point, fuel is still a fairly small component of the overall cost of running a car.
What world do you live in? I spend about 3500 quid a year on fuel for two cars (mileage shared depending on use requirement). I spend around £1500 quid a year on fixed costs and repairs.
Fuel might be a minor part of running a car for those who run leased, high power, new vehicles and change them regularly. Those of us who make do with a banger to keep costs low are getting slammed by fuel prices too now.
As for "your competitors have high costs too" - that's fine, but don't forget that generally larger businesses can ride out storms and find easier ways to work around it, so really all the increasing fuel price is doing is killing competition and penalising the less well off. Especially those who had to live in a cheaper housing location further from work and accepted that running a cheap economical car to commute was the hit they'd have to take to not live in crime riddled slums in right near their work.
To the 1000 miles guy, 1000 miles at 40mpg = about 40 quid difference from 1.00 to 1.40
if that makes a big difference, surely a business is hardly profitable if 40 quid a month makes a difference.
They already do, you can claim the VAT back, so business petrol is 20% cheeper.
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soon the tanker drivers will be going on strike, theyre being asked to ballot for strike action, just how difficult can it be to conect a hose to a pipe inlet, and not to have a fag while the tanks are filling.
An intelligently designed road pricing system gives people the best of all worlds. Flexible working,
Why would it? I know if I drive into town in the rush hour, it will take a lot more of my time (considerably more valuable to me than the money spent on diesel) than if I drove in an hour later or earlier, or cycled, or caught a bus. Charging less for fuel but wasting an unfathomably large amount on a technological solution that will not work one iota better than fuel duty already does just seems bizarre.
As for 'flexible working', it already costs a huge amount more to travel by public transport during the rush hour. It also costs huge amounts to park in cities during the week, and also takes considerably longer to get there by car (hence costing more in fuel and time) than it would outside the rush hour. However, none of these financial penalties on travelling between 7:30 and 9 seem to have had any effect on flexible working as a general rule, so I'm not sure how road pricing would. The fact of the matter is that most businesses need to be doing business at the same time as others - likewise public service - these things called business hours are there for a reason. Simply increasing road prices in the centre of a city during what's currently peak traffic won't make much difference.
Dropping the price and increasing the frequency of public transport, whilst increasing fuel duty would.
Just checked the figures on that scooter - have done 550 miles so far, at an average of 109mpg! About 5.8p per mile.
Amazed as Im a bit of a large lump to haul around and fitted the large windscreen to it and Im ragging it at 65mph for 80% of that mileage. The specs claim to be able to achieve 130mpg, so very chuffed with that.
ragging it at 65mph
😆
*bnnnneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee*
🙂
Increasing fuel prices have a knock on effect.Transporting goods becomes more expensive,prices go up in the shops, so the consumer gets a double hit.
And the company who makes their transport more efficient can reduce their prices, bringing their price in the shops back down.
it's a shame public transport is so useless.
It's also a shame that the govt/ media seem so london centric. public transport in london is much better than elsewhere.
if i want to go from the suburbs to my office (the closest major city) ~6 miles. it involves 2 buses and a mile walk and takes well over an hour. i can arrive way too early or just a bit too late.