I see oil has dropped to $100 a barrel today - would it be too much to expect fuel retailers to pass on the saving straight away?
Couple of stations near us out of petrol, with queues forming at cheapest station. I did top up diesel @ £1.67/litre (from 1/2 tank) which I suppose is most peoples definition of panic buying. Next job: build loo roll fort.
would it be too much to expect fuel retailers to pass on the saving straight away?
yes.... very much so.
On the plus side there does seem to be a gradual drop in the barrel price going on - how long it takes for it to be reflected in forecourt prices is yet to be seen.
BoilerJuice are now actually giving prices for my area again (not that I'd use them) although interestingly they're quoting 128p for delivery in 2 weeks and 109p for delivery in 1 week!
We were in Inverness today and running low on diesel so filled up @ £172.9. I did wonder about putting in less as prices are possible going to fall again but the local filling stations are so much more expensive.
Is anyone else using a bit less throttle?
I'm doing a 240 mile round trip this weekend and will def be setting the cruise control lower than usual - and I'll come back via Costco to fill the tank back up (it was so much cheaper than everywhere else when I filled up 8 days ago).
We have 300 miles left in the tank of the camper. This weekend we have a 700 mile trip to collect something. Instead of doing it in the day we thought we may as well make a weekend of it hopefully with a bit of riding. Already looking at where we can pull off the motorways so as not to have to pay the silly prices. Local Tesco has gone up 10p over the last week and is at £1.65 however they haven't had an diesel in the last few days.
I’ll come back via Costco
you'll burn more than the savings on normal filling stations queueing to get in and out of the place if the Chadderton one is anything to go by.
I'm convinced the fuel prices at my local Tesco went up by 5p/litre during the 45mins I was in the shop last week. Still filled up afterwards as I was almost in the reserve and only get <250/miles out of a tank (at 20 mpg, ouch).
Betcha haven’t forgot the taste of the greenshield stamps thou 🙂
Now I haven’t. That’s a memory that could have stayed lost forever.
WE are still using the free glasses that came with the petrol in the eighties, think they came with Texico petrol. We still have some spare up in the loft just in case we break any.
you’ll burn more than the savings on normal filling stations queueing to get in and out of the place if the Chadderton one is anything to go by.
Might be true!
But when I went last week the 18p/L saving over the local Esso,BP, etc was def worth the 5-10 minute wait.
5 weeks into my new EV ownership, thank f##k!
70 mile round commute (site based), I reckon I'll be looking for something closer to home in the next few months.
I'm kinda thankful for my old school 2.0HDI Berlingo as despite annoying French car electrical problems it does nearly 60mpg and never seems to need filling up or it could be fuel gauge is faulty.....
I see oil has dropped to $100 a barrel today – would it be too much to expect fuel retailers to pass on the saving straight away?
Of course it would be too much, It only works one way with the fuel companies.
Is anyone else using a bit less throttle?
If I used any less I'd be standing still but watching some people you'd think it didn't matter. (maybe it doesn't to some people)
Here's me pumping 4* at .42p a litre.
I know lots of you have seen this one before but It's the only one I've got from my days as a petrol station owner.
I'm getting 50mpg+ out of my old petrol Fabia thankfully, otherwise the 430 commuting miles per week would be the end of my finances!
WE are still using the free glasses that came with the petrol in the eighties, think they came with Texico petrol. We still have some spare up in the loft just in case we break any.
I got a set of free tumblers and tall glasses free with Esso fuel when I first started driving in 1998, they're at my parent's house and are only for use by me! Strange how you don't see offers like that any more.
I'm at 60 mph on the motorway to work, but then I always have been. I'm not in any great rush to get to my desk!
Also an couple of days of my half ride/half drive commute is an effective 20% mpg improvement, that's well worth the effort if you can arrange it. As is a day working from home, another 20%.
Here’s me pumping 4* at .42p a litre.
I remember petrol hitting 50p / litre - we were just kids but being driven around by parents or grandparents, every time we'd pass a garage that was at 50p, that was a talking point. But that was also back in the day when people would put £5 in. If you put £5 in now, it'd get you a couple of miles down the road at best!
My sadly departed FIL was infamous for offering his Green Shield Stamps collection to anyone who would marry his daughter! I took so long to ask that they were out of date by the time we got to the altar, he wouldn't let his Nectar points go either.
Said wife has just come in and ranted "I've never spent so much on a tank of fuel" £85 in a mini apparently.
If Tiger Tokens were still one for every pound spent on fuel I’d have enough to buy a Lear Jet in about two weeks.
If I used any less I’d be standing still but watching some people you’d think it didn’t matter.
I have argued in the past that petrol and diesel aren't nearly expensive enough given the rate some folk seem to use it up! 😉
The list of prices someone posted on a previous page shows petrol to be no more expensive relatively than in the 80s
http://www.speedlimit.org.uk/petrolprices.html
Its certainly too cheap to get many folk to change behaviour
Is anyone else using a bit less throttle?
Started idly wondering what the actual cost of each acceleration was on my drive to work over the weekend.
Will be riding to work 2 days a week until things calm down. Sod my hernia and knackered knee this will save me 200 miles a month.
Its certainly too cheap to get many folk to change behaviour
Somebody must surely have modelled the outcomes of reducing the national speed limits by 10mph or so?
The list of prices someone posted on a previous page shows petrol to be no more expensive relatively than in the 80s
http://www.speedlimit.org.uk/petrolprices.html
/blockquote>Your link shows petrol prices in May 2021 when it was apparently 123.9 pence per litre. This thread is about current petrol prices which according to the OP 4 days ago was 170p per litre. Recently I have seen it at over 180p per litre.
There is every reason to believe that it is currently relatively more expensive than it was in the 80s.
Your link shows petrol prices in May 2021 when it was apparently 123.9 pence per litre. This thread is about current petrol prices which according to the OP 4 days ago was 170p per litre. Recently I have seen it at over 180p per litre.
There is every reason to believe that it is currently relatively more expensive than it was in the 80s.
Yeah but I (and I think TJ too) was referring to the more generic, ongoing issue, outwith this temporary blip.
Somebody must surely have modelled the outcomes of reducing the national speed limits by 10mph or so?
Remember the fuel crisis of the 70s ( I think it was then) when speed limits were dropped from 70 as the national speed limit to 50 or 60? someone must have data from then. A road speed limits were never put back to 70
fair enough Ernie but as Scotroutes says I meant the general trend
Edit - and as cars have become more fuel efficient the cost of fuel per mile is lower
back in the 70s 35 mpg was considered economical. Now 50 or 60 mpg is not uncommon
It’s made our holiday a bit more expensive, we’re 900 miles away from home at the moment in a not massively efficient van 😬
Its certainly too cheap to get many folk to change behaviour
Now 50 or 60 mpg is not uncommon
So it has changed the behaviour of many people - gas guzzlers are now less fashionable. Yeah?
Its certainly too cheap to get many folk to change behaviour
Still seems cheap enough that folks are happy to sit idling on nearby streets while stopped and chatting on their phones or eating crispy chicken in their cars.
So it has changed the behaviour of many people – gas guzzlers are now less fashionable. Yeah?
Not sure gas guzzlers were every really fashionable in the UK and I have been driving for almost 40 years. UK has typically preferred smaller cars it is just that cars are more efficient for same power now even with increased weight.
Compare say a 1L Metro with a 1L Aygo. Aygo has more power and achieves extra 15 MPG.
Anyway, TJ is clearly referring to a change in behaviour of people driving less and using other methods of getting around. I would take a guess that has not happened. Was looking positive during pandemic but all that is long forgotten and roads are no better than they were pre pandemic.
Of course 45 years of high petrol prices has effected people's behaviour, both in what they buy and how they use their cars. As has ever increasing parking and congestion charges.
It might not have changed behaviour to the point where no one owns a car and everyone uses public transport but it doesn't mean that it hasn't affected behaviour.
people commute further and for longer, people still drive short urban distance, average miles driven has not dropped
Cars have become more efficient, behaviour has not changed significantly
only get <250/miles out of a tank (at 20 mpg, ouch).
Pfffttt... amateur. I managed a gargantuan 47 miles from half a tank last week. I've now taken it upon myself not to drive again until mid-April.
Your link shows petrol prices in May 2021 when it was apparently 123.9 pence per litre. This thread is about current petrol prices which according to the OP 4 days ago was 170p per litre. Recently I have seen it at over 180p per litre.
There is every reason to believe that it is currently relatively more expensive than it was in the 80s.
It is, very much so. I know the maths isn't exact but if 123.9p/L in 2021 is the equivalent of 94.4p/L in 1983 then 179.9p/L is the equivalent of 137.1p/L in 1983, and represents a 52.3% increase in price over 5 years.
tjagain:
people commute further and for longer, people still drive short urban distance, average miles driven has not dropped
TJ as per earlier in this thread, you don't seem to grasp that people are commuting further due to property prices - few people can afford to live near their work and many (like me) end up living somewhere cheaper where there are no public transport options = long-ish commute.
You are very lucky that you were able to buy your first property when average prices were more affordable relative to average income, you also have a rental property that gives you an income - please stop banging on about people commuting. I would be very happy to be able to walk/cycle to work, however economics of unaffordable mortgage vs much cheaper cost of living of lower mortgage + fuel costs means I have some disposable income.
Is anyone else using a bit less throttle?
Yes, generally rolling along at speed limit +5kph (so an indicated 105kph for most of my journey) also using the ACC and not overtaking anything except trucks (which are doing 95).
Wasn't going much faster than that before TBH. Speeding tickets are expensive over here, so is fuel, there's also no traffic so you don't gain a huge amount by rushing everywhere.
Seeing around 60mpg (4.5l/100km) on a tank if i do a full week of commuting and not much else, if its WFH and lots of little trips as well it's more like 48-50mpg (5.5-6l/100km). That's in a large estate car, a fair chunk less than the official figures either way.
Somebody must surely have modelled the outcomes of reducing the national speed limits by 10mph or so?
Yeah, it's significant. Some countries have already reduced speed limits on certain roads to do this (amongst other benefits, noise, accidents.)
Bigger savings from not driving like dickheads though. Some of the autonomous drive simulations reduce consumption by 15% compared to a normal driver doing the same journey in the same time, if you use all the predictive stuff that's already available (traffic lights, roundabouts, speed limit changes) you can get more than 5%. It all adds up.
+1 @guest1 and 90% of the traffic on the road heading the same direction.
70 mile round trip commute. Next week planning to drive/ride combo some of it.
Don't expect a few pence on a litre to change behaviour. Once the car is bought, taxed, insured, serviced, and MOT,d it is going to get used.
Outwith congested city centres it is more convenient, faster, and for many journeys the only practical option.
Last job I left had moved the base from 7 miles away from home to 12 miles than to 20 miles. People don't always choose to work miles from home.
people are commuting further due to property prices
It's almost as if several factors affect whether someone drives a car, and fuel prices is just one consideration.
Is this possible?
Guest - are you really including the full costs of the commute?. Not the additional costs? Remember for someone like me that full cost would be all the costs of the car. several thousand a year as living in the city I do not need nor own a car.
I could buy a flat near me for under £200 000 ( not affordable on a nurse salary but lets ignore that). a place in the burbs would be the same or a bit less. Out in the sticks maybe £50 000 less. the reduced mortgage costs would be less than the full cost of the commute ie buying the car, insuring it, paying all the costs
I would get a bigger house in the burbs of course but not by much
Don’t expect a few pence on a litre to change behaviour. Once the car is bought, taxed, insured, serviced, and MOT,d it is going to get used.
This is more or less what I said 6 pages ago but you won't convince some of it...
Try bringing up 3 kids in a top floor tennement flat with no car and let us know how much fun you have.
My grandparents moved out of a city centre flat in the 1950s to bring up their family because it was shit. My parents did the same in the 80s.
What if people change jobs and the new one is only accessible by car? Are you expecting people to buy a new house each time they move job? Or just be unemployed in the hope they'll eventually find a job they don't need to drive to? What if they have a partner who also works and occasionally changes jobs? What if the employer closes their local office and moves it further away by 12 or even 35 miles?
All things that have happened to me.
Of course if employers were more flexible and allowed more working from home, or there was better public transport and cycle networks, maybe all this wouldn't be necessary. Which I think is the real answer here.
I could buy a flat near me for under £200 000 ( not affordable on a nurse salary but lets ignore that). a place in the burbs would be the same or a bit less. Out in the sticks maybe £50 000 less. the reduced mortgage costs would be less than the full cost of the commute ie buying the car, insuring it, paying all the costs
you still assume both people in the household work in the same vicinity.
What if the employer closes their local office and moves it further away by 12 or even 35 miles?
ill pre-empt a get the union involved response.