# Fuel Prices - Whats happening?



## 106410 (Aug 12, 2007)

Passed a garage on Friday afternoon and noticed that diesel was priced at £1.23.9p a litre. Today at the same garage diesel is priced at £1.29.9 a litre. I must be losing the plot some where along the line or are they just increasing as they think fit. I know things are unstable at the moment but if fuel keeps going up as fast as this I may need to get a bank loan to fill up.


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## asprn (Feb 10, 2006)

laidback said:


> are they just increasing as they think fit


Considering there are very many links in the supply chain, who exactly do you think "they" are? Or is it another conspiracy?

Dougie.


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## Snelly (Aug 20, 2005)

Urgent action is needed by the motorist, but unlike a few years ago no one seems bothered that we are getting rogered.

So many people saying boycott this and do that, but I recon the best thing to do is the mass protests like years ago with blockades etc... lets claim back some of that 65% fuel tax!


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## asprn (Feb 10, 2006)

Snelly said:


> Urgent action is needed by the motorist


Well, I vote that you sent HMG your avatar, & tell 'em there'll be a few more like that if they don't drop the rate.

That'll sort 'em.

Dougie.


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## Snelly (Aug 20, 2005)

asprn said:


> Snelly said:
> 
> 
> > Urgent action is needed by the motorist
> ...


Your not the first person to pass comment on my avatar. I blame my mother.


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## Rapide561 (Oct 1, 2005)

*Diesel*

Hi

I am near Oswestry at present. Diesel is about 125p per litre, and LPG is 50p per litre. I reckon the cost of running an RV coverted to LPG is about the same as running a european motorhome on diesel.

Russell

PS - spotted some at 132 p per litre earlier.


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## 107088 (Sep 18, 2007)

apparently, according to one of those " calculate your savings websites", with petrol being the cost it was ( £1.18, I think) the cost of conversion to LPG and 50ppl. with my 10,000 miles peryear mileage, I'd break even within the first 10 months.

Makes you think. 

If I did that, then as soon as I had paid for the job, HMG would put the pric of LPG up to a quid a litre.

 :roll:


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## 106410 (Aug 12, 2007)

By they I mean the smug B-----d who always smiles when he takes my money.


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

laidback said:


> I must be losing the plot some where along the line or are they just increasing as they think fit. .


Good question. We have the same here; we pass the local Esso garage about twice a week and every time the price of diesel has gone up. I've never, ever seen it do this before. It was £1.29 this morning.

G


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## 107088 (Sep 18, 2007)

Laidback, 
that doesnt narrow it down by much

everyone who takes my money seems smug these days.

I'm looking forward to when I can be that smug git...roll on Rv arrival


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## 96299 (Sep 15, 2005)

Grizzly said:


> laidback said:
> 
> 
> > I must be losing the plot some where along the line or are they just increasing as they think fit. .
> ...


That sounds like its about on par for the estimated £2.00 a litre by about september that I heard somewhere 8O

steve


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## asprn (Feb 10, 2006)

laidback said:


> By they I mean the smug B-----d who always smiles when he takes my money.


Good answer. 

I'm actually feeling quite smug now with the price differential between diesel and petrol. All my friends gasped when we bought the 11 mpg RV (6.8 V10 petrol), but working out the fuel costs compared to the 24 mpg diesel we sold to buy it, they're actually diminishing. 

Shrewd of Shrewsbury.


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## Carper (Aug 15, 2007)

bandaid said:


> apparently, according to one of those " calculate your savings websites", with petrol being the cost it was ( £1.18, I think) the cost of conversion to LPG and 50ppl. with my 10,000 miles peryear mileage, I'd break even within the first 10 months.
> 
> Makes you think.
> 
> ...


Hi

I had a company Ford Galaxy 2.3 converted to LPG. We worked out that I had to cover 35k miles on LPG to break even.

You will get lower mpg on lpg, about 15-20%. On top of that you have additional service costs, and trying to run purely on lpg is a pain...or it was for me with a 60ltr tank.

The other downside is that you will get reduced performance. Before conversion it used to go like a rocket, after they had messed about with the plug gaps, it was slower than the TDI Galaxies that we had.

Not sure how much difference it would make on a large engined RV though.

not long after it was converted (2001), there was a rumour flying about that the duty was to be increased significantly....though it never happened

Just come through Germany, and paid 1.60 euro a litre for fancy pants diesel. Last time i filled up, i got truck diesel at 1.48, and the Hymer run like a pig...it felt that it had the power of a Norman Nippy engine when going up a 9% hill........it runs like a dream now. Now in Austria and the diesel is cheaper

Doug


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## 98452 (Apr 2, 2006)

I am paying 39p plus vat for LPG at coiutrywide farmers outlets.


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## 92859 (May 1, 2005)

*Fuel*

Greetings,

I remember back in the good old days of motoring in the 70's I had several taxis' on LPG and with the mileage covered it made sense to convert, however, in the 80's the government in its wisdom, thought, seeing that taxis were converting, ambulances, gas board and others, what a great idea it would be to raise the tax on gas to almost the same as that for petrol............. yes you've guessed it, it became more expensive to run on gas and allowing for the £350 conversion costs made it impractical.

I used to convert vehicles to run on LPG and it was a great idea, engines stayed cleaner, less pollution, lower running costs, the only drawback were on some of the older engines, it used to hammer the valves and seats causing more repair costs until they changed to hardened ones.

When I last tried to sell some redundant LPG kits in the early 90's, I could not get anything for them so scrapped two full kits.

I am waiting for the hydrogen engines when I can fill up with water!!


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## chrisgog (May 17, 2005)

wELL THE COST OF FUEL IS NOT GOING TO DROP SO I AM LOOKING WHERE TO SAVE MONEY

Asda have some of the cheapest fuel near us and I noticed that if you have their credit card you save another 2p a litre.

Guess what, we have the card now and have saved £2 this week so keep adding that up over a year and that will be a saving .

We have now decided to travel with only 30-40 litres of water onboard and keep to 60mph. Just returned from Newbury and instead of 25mpg we recorded 34 mpg this trip. I can't believe our economies have gained this many mpg but it seems to be working anyway. My calculations could be out though. We have a 3 litre Renault Master.

I also use petrolprices.com regularly. http://www.petrolprices.com:80/

All the Asda stores are now loaded onto our satnav so filled up at Swindon on way home.

Serious economies have to be made now if we all want to keep enjoying our hobby.
Chris


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## chrisgog (May 17, 2005)

Swindon Asda was £1.19.9 so we had it for £1.17.9.


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## geraldandannie (Jun 4, 2006)

chrisgog said:


> Just returned from Newbury and instead of 25mpg we recorded 34 mpg this trip. I can't believe our economies have gained this many mpg but it seems to be working anyway.


Hi Chris

Our Chausson has only done around 2000 miles, so isn't really run in yet, but I flicked the computer to mpg on the way to Newbury, and I was pleased to see that since we embarked on our Holland trip, we had been achieving something over 29mpg (the last time I checked was when we were driving home after picking it up, and droning along the motorway was returning 27mpg if I was lucky. With a bit of care, I was able to get it up to 30mpg by the time we reached Newbury on Friday. This is the new standard 

In our (1.4 diesel) Skoda Fabia, I'm doing the same, and on longer trips, we aim to get 60mpg by taking it steady. 55mpg is easy now since we started watching it :wink:

On the radio a couple of weeks ago, I heard about :: Hypermiling ::, which is kind of interesting, but maybe a bit extreme 8O But, as you say, Chris, small changes to how we drive can make big improvements in mpg, and save some money (or at least, help to keep the costs down).

Gerald


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## sallytrafic (Jan 17, 2006)

I have been using the technique of smoothing out the stop starts, or traffic bunching, as we tend to call it this side of the pond, for years since doing an OU study of traffic congestion problems. (with really hard sums)

To save reading the whole article, what you do is try and drive at the average speed rather than follow all the movements ahead of you. Saves an awful lot of fuel for you but also for everyone following you. The best bit is that you arrive at the same time as you would have done if you hadn't saved the fuel and your brakes. 

The only problem with leaving a variable gap in front of you is that some silly fool will dive into it. But hey he soon will be off again when he spots another gap so no matter.


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## artona (Jan 19, 2006)

Hi

_I am paying 39p plus vat for LPG at coiutrywide farmers outlets._ thats a cracking price - is that for domestic use or legal for use in the engine.

Fuel cost is definately getting scary. Was it about £1.95 a couple of months ago. If its gone up 15% and keeps on at that rate by high holiday season (August) we will be talking about almost £1.50 - £1.60

STEW


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## Telbell (May 1, 2005)

> I also use petrolprices.com regularly. http://www.petrolprices.com:80/


Seems you have to register with the site to find out exactly which supplier id the cheapest?? More Passwords and More Spam?? :roll:


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## geraldandannie (Jun 4, 2006)

Telbell said:


> Seems you have to register with the site to find out exactly which supplier id the cheapest?? More Passwords and More Spam?? :roll:


Hi Tel

No spam from this site. I'm registered there, and get a regular (once weekly? monthly?) update by email on the cheapest fuel within 5 miles of me. It's a very good site.

Gerald

_Edit: it's a weekly email bulletin, and by looking back through my emails, I can see that a year ago, the cheapest diesel was 93.9p / ltr. Today, the cheapest is 116.9p / ltr. That's nearly a 27% increase in a year :evil: _


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## Telbell (May 1, 2005)

Thanks Gerald (and Chris) i'll go for it then!


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## 106410 (Aug 12, 2007)

Can you remember the days when fuel was 60 pence a gallon and when the chancellor decided to put it up by 1 penny a gallon there were queues a mile long at the pumps. Now thats giving my age away.


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## geraldandannie (Jun 4, 2006)

laidback said:


> Can you remember the days when fuel was 60 pence a gallon ... Now thats giving my age away.


Ha! Youngster :wink:

I can remember when I started a part time job at a petrol station at 14 (1970), petrol was less than 7 bob a gallon (pre-decimilisation).

Ah, them were t' days 

Gerald


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## Zebedee (Oct 3, 2007)

geraldandannie said:


> laidback said:
> 
> 
> > Can you remember the days when fuel was 60 pence a gallon ... Now thats giving my age away.
> ...


Another juvenile!!! :roll:

4 gallons and enough change from a pound note (remember them?) for a pint of cider.


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## Telbell (May 1, 2005)

I wanted to get that pint of cider but I remember now I'd lost my ration book

(Now this is getting silly :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: )


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## 92859 (May 1, 2005)

*fuel*

Greetings,

I remember my first petrol was 4s 6d a gallon and beer was 1s 6d a pint. and I am still not a pensioner yet! :wink:

I was looking forward to getting our new van and getting away, it should be full of diesel when we pick it up, but not looking forward to the next fill up, its gonna be more expensive than our last fill up in the Hymer in December last year.


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## 107088 (Sep 18, 2007)

My first petrol cost was 19 pence per half gallon, moped, half gallon a time, fill up once a week. Actually, fil up about 3 times a year, 'cos I was never home that long to use it.

38 ppg...38p=er...( takes off shoes and socks) nearly 40p which is about 8/- a gallon....blimey. 

My first 16 year old squaddie wage was ......£11.50 and I could buy, if I had a car, 23 gallons for that. or better still go to naafi and get buns,. ( not old enough for beer then  )


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## SpeedyDux (Jul 13, 2007)

If you are interested in improving your actual mpg by a significant amount, there is a technically fascinating thread on the Bongo Fury forum. http://www.bongofury.co.uk/ Fuel economy is not the Bongo's strongest feature ...

I couldn't link to it, but just click on forums; then Bongo fuel and performance issues, and the thread titled BREAKING THE 40 MPG BARRIER! You don't need to register to see the thread. I haven't cut and pasted here either because of copyright issues.

"Torchwood" talks a lot of sense - it isn't just Bongo-specific - there are useful tips that you could apply to any MH chassis to boost your mpg and save fuel, money etc.

Food for thought in these expensive times.

SD


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## geraldandannie (Jun 4, 2006)

SpeedyDux said:


> I couldn't link to it


Try :: this ::

Off to read now 

Gerald


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## Lys520 (Mar 24, 2008)

Hello

Can anyone explain to me why I keep hearing about protests against a 2p tax rise on fuel in October, when as mentioned in earlier posts, diesel is going up approx 10p a week and no one seems to be doing anything?

Lys


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## Glandwr (Jun 12, 2006)

Its funny I was doing a rough calculation yesterday re cost of petrol. I seem to remember paying 4s 11d a gallon in the dark ages somtime when I was on an unskilled (minium wage) of £14 per week. I could have bought 56 gallons per week. 

Guess what at very rough prices ie £5 per gallon and £200 per week I can buy 56 gallons today !!!! 

Dick


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## asprn (Feb 10, 2006)

Glandwr said:


> Guess what at very rough prices ie £5 per gallon and £200 per week I can buy 56 gallons today


Plus you'll go further for your gallon, due to engine & road efficiency.

Dougie.


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

Lys520 said:


> diesel is going up approx 10p a week and no one seems to be doing anything?
> Lys


Exactly. It's as if no-one has noticed. Very odd.

G


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## DTPCHEMICALS (Jul 24, 2006)

We must have the worst tax system in the world.
We have vat on fuel plus fuel duty on top.
I spend £90 per week just on diesel to deliver goods to my customers, most of this is in tax. So to try to reduce my bills i have started to boycott the big boys, shell bp esso etc .
If we all did this maybe they woud reduce the forecourt price.

Or maybe i should watch for the flying pigs. 
Dave P


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## Wizzo (Dec 3, 2007)

Just been told by my petrol station manager daughter that fuel is going up 2p per litre after tonight. Diesel in Nottm will now be 122.9

JohnW


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## oldun (Nov 10, 2005)

Why is diesel now up to 16p a litre more than petrol?


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

Wizzo said:


> Just been told by my petrol station manager daughter that fuel is going up 2p per litre after tonight. Diesel in Nottm will now be 122.9


Does your daughter have any idea who or what is driving these price rises ?

G


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## johnandcharlie (May 2, 2007)

Have a read of this. It's a US article, but explains quite a bit about the global problem with supplies of diesel.


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## 96299 (Sep 15, 2005)

Hi Guys

I just came past my local fill,and it is upto £129.9 from £125.9 just last week. 8O That is bang out of order.When is all this going to end?not just yet I imagine. :roll: 

steve


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## 107088 (Sep 18, 2007)

Dave P.

I also thought of boycotting the larger suppliers, or at least I did until somebody more clever than me told me it wasnt worth it.
She said, something like, 

Its no good saying the suppliers should reduce the cost of fuel at the pumps, in fact, the Oil companies, ( texaco, BP, Shell etc,) acually dont make a fortune from the sale of fuel at the pumps, tis about 3p per litre, and thats no fortune, even supermarkets pretty much sell fuel as a loss leader. So the pump price is fairly immobile.

The only relistic way of reducing fuel to what most people would call reasonable....I have no idea what reasonable fuel prices would be...is for HMG to significantly reduce the tax and excise duty.

This could be done easily, she said, but the revenue shortfall would be enormous, and would need to be recovered in other existing or new taxes. 
this increase would be Political suicide.

At the moment, HMG can say they're increasing fuel taxes to save the world, and some will believe it, they can say, oh smokings bad for you and a terrible burden on the NHS, so we charge loads to help people stop smoking, they forget the revenue from smoking is about 5 times the amont spend on what are perceived to be smoking related diseases. If they stopped the tax on fuel, they'd get it back somewhere.


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## Wizzo (Dec 3, 2007)

Grizzly said:


> Wizzo said:
> 
> 
> > Just been told by my petrol station manager daughter that fuel is going up 2p per litre after tonight. Diesel in Nottm will now be 122.9
> ...


She's just another cog in the wheel Grizzly. She works for one of the big Supermarkets but they monitor prices all the time and they set the prices. She has no control over price and even local competition seems to have no bearing on the price level set. Sometimes they are cheapest in the area and sometimes they are not.

I think the point made about low margins on fuel is a valid one. Mr Darling is the one person who could make the biggest impact.

JohnW


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## 112477 (May 20, 2008)

Have I got this right that the fuel duty tax is put on, then we are charged VAT on the lot so effectively double taxed on some of the price.
Surely a fair thing now with this CRISIS and it really is and is going to keep hitting us all hard everywhere not just on the motorhome front, would be too add the duty charge after the vat is added.
That would save us all 40P plus straight away at least I think?. 

If we were still using gallons the price rise in some areas in the last year would be getting on for £1.40+.

I don`t want to get political but before Tonys mad sandy ways escapades oil was $28 per barrel and and been going up ever since.

The cost of the escapades are high but compared to the extra costs the country had shelled out every week since and rising because of it is astronomical and likely in the 100s of billions plus.

Surely if the government can shell out 25 billion up to possibly 100 B to help northern rock and pump 50 billon in to keep bankers bonus`s up we all deserve a bit of help now.

Sorry didn`t mean to rant and the government seem to completely ignore global dimming carbon wise and also the fact it was degree`s warmer here 5,000 years ago.
All said before many times I`m sure etc etc.

We`ve still go the coal ( sorry!!!!) fires burning up here in N, Yorkshire in late May .
Best Mark.


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