Petrol price

[Alan]

Four and a half seconds driving up Shelsley?

[Austin in the Shed]

I know I am getting old when I think of the first gallon of petrol I bought at 3 shillings and 4 1/2 pence. Today’s decimal equivalent of 17pence a gallon.

John Mason.

Not quite so long ago but my dad sold 2 star at 4 and a penny a gallon and 5 (gallons) for a pound.
Although I was young at the time I remember it was still a lot of money to fill a mk 10 jag up with its twin tanks at around 15 mpg.
I sold my first car off the front a 1937 Vauxhall 10 or 12 for £10

[Steve kay]

Travelling up through the Marches into midWales for marshalling duties yesterday, I saw no evidence whatsoever of Rishi’s alleged 5p reduction in duty, and therefore not the faintest reduction in fuel costs. Two garages pricing diesel at over £1.80 per litre. One of the garages in Builth Wells with no fuel at all, the other one with half the pumps shut.

[Mike Costigan]

My local garage put up the price by 10p the day before the 5p reduction was supposed to be applied!

[Chris Garner]

My daughter brimmed her new Defender the other day costing her a shade under £180.
I noticed Charles's comment earlier about deciding not to buy a horse. Good move Charles. Same daughter has four of the damn things. Feed, stabling, vets fees and shoeing - at least with a car you can stuff it in a garage and forget it!

[Hedd_Jones]

Travelling up through the Marches into midWales for marshalling duties yesterday, I saw  no evidence whatsoever of Rishi’s alleged 5p reduction in duty, and therefore not the faintest reduction in fuel costs. Two garages pricing diesel at over £1.80 per litre. One of the garages in Builth Wells with no fuel at all, the other one with half the pumps shut.

we headed slightly further north yesterday. Noticed the local 'main road' station was £1.80 for diesel. 2 hours later when we went passed again. £1.82

[Tony Griffiths]

Buy no fuel and go electric? An acquaintance was boasting the other day about how, with his new electric car, he'd never have to visit a fuel station again, so we ran the figures. The £44,000 he paid for his family-sized buggy would have bought two I.C. cars with the same space (and twice the range). i.e. the owner of the I.C. would have £22,000 to spend on fuel before reaching cost parity. At £7.50 per gallon that's 2,933 gallons which, at 45 m.p.g. gives 134,685 miles or, at 8,000 miles a year, 17 years of motoring. While diesel engines regularly run to over 200,000 miles and more, would his electric car battery last 17 years? Of course, if he could withstand the social disgrace, one of these would be even better https://www.dacia.co.uk/vehicles/sandero-stepway.html and motored for over 50 years for the same outlay (well, in theory....)

[Ian Dunford]

I do like your thinking Tony.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

The most environmentally friendly way to use cars is to keep them as long as possible.

The trend for a new one every three years, or less, is cringeworthy

[Tony Griffiths]

The most environmentally friendly way to use cars is to keep them as long as possible.

The trend for a new one every three years, or less, is cringeworthy

So true. Unfortunately, for business use, it's the ability to claim tax relief on the considerable depreciation that's so attractive. This could easily be changed so that the same level of tax-saving was applied if the car was kept for longer - but imagine the outcry from manufacturers if this was proposed. The lobbyists would be booking 5-star hotels and "comfort girls" by the dozen to persuade politicians that this was a Very Bad Idea.