Even **** Turpin had the decency to wear a mask!!

[M P Hales]

Just been to put diesel in car

£1.45 per litre

Haveing paid for road tax last week, MOT on Thursday am in need of re-mortgage advisor so I can raise funds for next fill up.

As Terry Wogan would say "Is it me" or has the cost of motoring got to the stage of being ridiculous?

At least we can be happy in the knowledge that the tax we all pay for the "luxury" of running a car is being well looked after by the lying bunch of muppets- sorry - politicians that thinks its their right to rip off the motorist to subsidise second homes,expences etc.

£1.45 is cheapest near me - how much around UK?

M

 

[Travis]

I'd love to help you Gerry except for this one thing.

Its hard to help anyone when you are 16 1/2 Trillon down.

Travis

 

[deserter]

£1.43 in Shrewsbury.


~Nil carborundum illegitemi~

 

[MickCheese]

I think we are at the stage where using the car is a luxury and only to be used as a necessity.

Surely the more you put up fuel duty the more you discourage people from driving and as a result your revenue either goes down or at best stays the same.

Then there is a knock on effect to the car industry. People don't need their cars serviced as frequently, they don't need as many tyres they don't need washing as much and so on.

I need my own transport to get to work. I tend to use a motorbike but even that only does about 45 miles to the gallon.

Mick

 

[DrPhill]

It hurts, doesn't it? I feel it too. It would be nice to believe that part of the pain could be removed by the government reducing the fuel duty to keep prices stable but......

The fuel companies would keep increasing their prices to match the governments decreased tax take. They all know that we are 'fossil fuel junkies' that cannot break our 'habit'. They know we are prepared to pay 1.45GBP/l, so why should they charge any less?

Add to that the dwindling supplies of oil, and the increased demand (India, China etc) and I think the pain is only ever going to get worse.

And no, I don't want to think about that either.

Sorry.

 

[RogerM]

Surely the more you put up fuel duty the more you discourage people from driving and as a result your revenue either goes down or at best stays the same.

Yep - it's called the "laffer curve". The easiest way to explain it is that if fuel duty was zero, you would sell huge amounts of fuel but you'd collect no tax. At the other end of the graph, if fuel duty was £5mill a litre you'd sell no fuel and still collect no tax. If fuel duty was 1p per litre you'd sell loads of fuel and collect some tax. If fuel duty was £5/litre you'd sell a little fuel and collect a little tax.

In between these extremes there is a level of duty where people still buy plenty of fuel and the "tax take" is at a maximum. At this point reducing duty doesn't create enough extra consumption to offset the tax reduction, and if duty is increased further, reduced consumption more than offsets the higher duty and the overall tax take is reduced.

The trick is to to find the level of duty that maximises the tax take - assuming that is the only agenda (a big assumption!). My guess is that the level of tax is already on the high side of the curve and that is the reason Osborne abandoned the extra 3p fuel duty due in April. Nothing to do with helping people - he just knew that basic economics meant that after applying the extra 3p he'd collect less tax - not more.

Rant over!

 

[t8hants]

Everything these days is priced at just before the tipping point of where there is a noticble reduction in demand, the result, nobody has any spare money so there is no growth in the internal economy. The vampires are keeping the corpse in a coma.

 

[Lons]

Everything these days is priced at just before the tipping point of where there is a noticble reduction in demand

Except the national lottery I suspect as 100% increase seems past the tipping point. Or is it just the case that they know that addicted gamblers will pay anything, no matter the long odds for the chance of winning?

Bob

 

[mailee]

On this subject just reminded me of something. Close to my workshop there are two mechanics who are starting to fit hydrogen kits to cars. They were showing me the Land Rover they have just converted and stated that it saves around 30 - 40% on fuel! They are going to use the vehicle as a demonstrator with a view to selling and fitting the kits. Needless to say I am watching with interest.

 

[RogerM]

On this subject just reminded me of something. Close to my workshop there are two mechanics who are starting to fit hydrogen kits to cars. They were showing me the Land Rover they have just converted and stated that it saves around 30 - 40% on fuel! They are going to use the vehicle as a demonstrator with a view to selling and fitting the kits. Needless to say I am watching with interest.

.... and when enough people are doing it the govt will slap a "petrol equivalent" duty on it. You can't win.

 

[CHJ]

Remember the Hindenburg.
Makes me even more nervous about road accidents than LPG.

 

[Losos]

Its hard to help anyone when you are 16 1/2 Trillon down.
Travis

Hello Travis, yes the numbers are truly mind bogling.

I always felt that American and Britain had a close bond, now I see that both countries have been downgraded by Moodys (We hung on a tad longer but it was inevitable) and the debt to GDP ratio is roughly the same.

I read recently that the 2000 to 2008 period was really just a giant Ponzi scheme with ever increasing spending backed by ever increasing lending and no one thinking about where the money was comming from. With a bit of luck I'll get through my time on this planet....just about solvent.........but future generations have got some BIG shocks comming to them. Sixteen and a half trillion will NEVER be repaid, not even a fraction of it.

 

[heatherw]

Remember the Hindenburg.
Makes me even more nervous about road accidents than LPG.

CHJ, you must be really really old......

 

[t8hants]

Bloke I know built his own hydrogen system from info of the net, it worked quite well until it blew up and wrecked his engine bay. I didn't think a large glass sweet jar was a suitable vessel.

 

[barkwindjammer]

Hydrogen fuel cells aint the future, Li-Ion is the future, and that future aint around the corner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Killed ... ric_Car%3F

 

[Lons]

Just passed a garage tonight selling diesel @ £1.48 - I kept going :shock:

Bob

 

[graduate_owner]

We live in the country, nearest town 9 miles away, so a car is essential. We get deliveries from Asda / Tesco so no need to food shopping regularly. We try to arrange things so that when we do travel, we make every journey count - kill as many birds as possible with the one stone. I'm not expecting prices to come down any time soon - if ever. And I think that when the world recession is over and countries start increasing their oil usage, the increased demand will encourage OPEC countries to raise the price of crude oil yet again. That, in turn, will lead to increases in the price of EVERYTHING since everything id delivered / imported / produced using oil. Things don't look hopeful to me.

K

 

[heatherw]

Absolutely agree, graduate owner. We need to start weaning ourselves off the stuff.

And barkwindjammer, the thing is that hydrogen is readily available everywhere, and lithium is not. Well, there's a lot of it around, but concentrated in certain areas so that it is politically controlled. Rather like petroleum.

 

[Mark A]

My van averages around 44mpg so this Monday's work will cost over £72 just in fuel. It seems the rise of 6p/litre they predicted came true after all...

 

[M P Hales]

My van averages around 44mpg so this Monday's work will cost over £72 just in fuel. It seems the rise of 6p/litre they predicted came true after all...

On a good day the artic wagon I drive at work does 8-9 mpg so when people ask why shop prices are going up do the math on every truck journey and figure out how any retailer can try to absorb any of the increasing cost.

Just to add to the mix the money most people spend on fuel is whats left after income tax and national insurance(tax with a different title) and all the other little add ons the treasury deem ok to fleece the population with :!:

M