Cost of petrol/running your car

[Yandards 0]

It's just mental, £88 to fill the wife's diesel Passat up prior to both the duty and VAT rise, getting far too close to the £100 mark for a tank of fuel.

[KipVR 1]

Petrol's costing me over 150 a week at the moment, takes the piss. I need a closer job!

[Album56 0]

My advice to everyone, live close to your work if possible, we're going back to the old days when most lived within a mile or 2 of work, things will only get worse with regard to the price of fuel I'm afraid, we have benefited from relatively cheap oil for decades, people born in the 40s & 50s like myself have had a good time burning oil but it cant last, sorry guys

[muppetlab 0]

Im going to start biking to work I think, only to get fit mind you and not be stuck on traffic everyday.

 

There was a bike to work scheme where you could get your employer to give you a loan to buy a bike and they stop a certain a mount from your wages each month but before tax so you save the % you would have paid tax and NI. My mate got a lovely Scott full sus bike, spent £1500 on it :shock: Lovely bike but i'd want a motor on it for that money. And he got really seriously into biking, however theres one thing a man should not wear and that's spandex cycling shorts! Unfortunately the image of my mate in his is one that will scar me for life :pukeright:

[swiftkid 1]

I have come to a point where I have to just like it and lump it. I'm paying something like £240-£300 in fuel a month but because public transport is shite and can't get me to work at the time i need plus i need my car just in case i need to visit site.

 

If were getting onto the VAT increase mixed with increasing petrol costs, one thing i cannot understand is why the government is ranting on about how much debt the country is in so petrol prices have to be increased which then puts individual people in debt. Do they not consider that at some point the country will not be in debt but the people living in it will be!

[dr_mat 0]

I think a valid point has been raised here .. cheap petrol has allowed everyone to make the choice to live a long way from where they work, when in reality this is just not necessary.

If nothing else the traffic makes commuting by car ridiculously unpleasant, and parking when you get there is also difficult these days. Regardless of public transport or no public transport, people should think twice before taking the leap of accepting a job that's so far away you have to put petrol in your car to get to it.

[colinstubbs 0]

Regardless of public transport or no public transport, people should think twice before taking the leap of accepting a job that's so far away you have to put petrol in your car to get to it.

 

If you NEED a job you may not have the luxury of choice of location, moving ain't exactly cheap either. I have to travel 18 miles and it's ridiculous by Public Transport.

 

My day is 0830hr to 1700hr and it takes around an hour-hour 15 round trip by car versus 5 by train/bus and a shit load of walking :epicfail: .

[davidwort 0]

Im going to start biking to work I think, only to get fit mind you and not be stuck on traffic everyday.

 

There was a bike to work scheme where you could get your employer to give you a loan to buy a bike and they stop a certain a mount from your wages each month but before tax so you save the % you would have paid tax and NI. My mate got a lovely Scott full sus bike, spent £1500 on it :shock: Lovely bike but i'd want a motor on it for that money. And he got really seriously into biking, however theres one thing a man should not wear and that's spandex cycling shorts! Unfortunately the image of my mate in his is one that will scar me for life :pukeright:

 

yes, and the inland revenue has just cottoned onto this tax dodge and is sending people some quite big bills at the end of the 'rental' period, basically they allowed the final purchase price (depreciation from new) to be too low, most of the people I know at work bought expensive mountain bikes and have never used them for work.

[Jim 2]

Sadly the Cycle To Work scheme as we knew it is dead and buried.. you're better off just buying the bike of your choice on a 0% credit card and repaying over 12 months.

 

I had two bikes on the scheme over the last few years and just scraped through when they changed the rules on the final payment earlier this year. My mate wasn't so lucky and his final payment went from an expected £40 to £250, completely obliterating any saving he was supposed to make.

[swiftkid 1]

Regardless of public transport or no public transport, people should think twice before taking the leap of accepting a job that's so far away you have to put petrol in your car to get to it.

 

Sorry but not everything is black and white, I live at home because I can't afford my own place. When I accepted my job I worked 6 miles away from work which isn't a problem seeing as fuel was cheaper. Since then we have relocated to about 17 miles away and petrol has gone up. I need my car for my job and still can't afford my own place and because im paying more out on fuel its harder to save for a house. I manage it because I love my car and I accept the fact it costs me more

[dr_mat 0]

When my company moved, they offered compensation (salary increases) to those who would travel further as a result of the move. That didn't include me, but the company moved a lot closer to me so I wasn't complaining. Obviously choices have to be made and everyone has different priorities, but on average I think people are choosing to live nearer to work, and that trend is going to continue.

Without wishing to be rude, you always have a choice of taking a different job that leaves you relying less on your car, if one becomes available. Maybe there's no "good" jobs readily available at the moment and you've already tried looking, but you always have a choice.

[swiftkid 1]

Yes I have a choice, everyone has a choice. Im not complaining, its just life, I wasn't given any extra money or anything and just got on with it. I love my job and it really is a brilliant opportunity that I won't find again so no chance of moving jobs, not that i'd want to anyway. All im saying is, you can't just say "petrol is high so don't use your car, move closer or change jobs".

 

Like I said though I'm not moaning about it, just seeing it from another point of view

[KADVR6 0]

cheap petrol has allowed everyone to make the choice to live a long way from where they work, when in reality this is just not necessary.

people should think twice before taking the leap of accepting a job that's so far away you have to put petrol in your car to get to it.

 

 

so what if there are no jobs near you then, as lets face it there are not many jobs out there, so if you have to travel 20+ miles to get to work you should't because of the cost of getting there instead you loose your house and end up on the dole?? yeh thats gonna help this country isn't it.

[dr_mat 0]

Then you make the choice to drive - I would. But I'd try bloody hard to either find something closer or figure out a way of moving nearer if the finances of driving to/from work were crippling me. That would be my choice, what's yours?

[muppetlab 0]

Where i live a 20mile commute is the norm. Fine if you live in a town or city then bike or get the bus etc but if you live in the countryside and the bus service is rubbish then theres no alternative unless you are a farmer or like working in the local spar. Lets face it its going to cost more to drive cars. Oil is finite and as the supplies get less guess what the price will go up even more. If you think its expensive now wait and see how much it is in 5yrs time. The reason taxes are going up is due to the last government behaving like a teenager with a credit card and buying what they liked, then realising that oh sh*t wehave to pay it back! What really makes me angry is when people blame banks for getting them personally in debt. Just another example of how no one takes responsibility for their own actions. So you had to buy the leather sofa from dfs on 4 years interest free rather than make do with the one you had. Oh and the 28" plamsa you had was not as good as the 42"lcd that you got on interest free credit from currys. What her next door got a new car so you fancy a new loan to buy an ex demo new vw. Please....its greed that got people into this mess. Sorry to have to say but theres some things you actually have to save your hard earned money up for. Not everyone can have what they want when they want it, and if you do want credit that you can't afford to pay back, don't moan when you've got no money for the yearly holiday abroad! Whoops sorry that turned into a bit of a rant.

[philie 0]

The only reason I use this is you can not get any petrol in Ireland any more higher than 95 octane no super unleaded is sold herre anymore and my g60 was running like crap so i tought i would try the e5 as i had tried every petrol station all crap.With the 5% bio in it its 99.2 octane the car runs sweet and smooth and feels better every week of using the stuff.

All petrol in Ireland comes from the same place same containers so its all 95 its what the petrol companies mix with it that makes the difference man i wish i lived in Japan 100+ is the norm.

 

Hey Philie - where do you get this '5% bio' stuff - and what the hell is it! like a fuel additive yoke? :shrug:

Hey man have a look a the maxol site it tells you which ones are E5 did I see you the other dAY IN RATHNEW?Im working down there green g60 watch out for me here is the site.

http://www.maxol.ie/general-content/e5-stations.html

[Critical_Mass 10]

As it stands right now, job security could be an issue. Changing jobs isnt [edit] necessarily an option, going to a new job could be less job security - last in first out and all that. There's no point in changing jobs so you can be closer to home and save cash on fuel, if 3 months down the line you could be facing redundancy.

 

You could see this as an extreme scenario, but people want job security and its not necessarily guaranteed.

[Tempest 0]

As it stands right now, job security could be an issue. Changing jobs is necessarily an option, going to a new job could be less job security - last in first out and all that. There's no point in changing jobs so you can be closer to home and save cash on fuel, if 3 months down the line you could be facing redundancy.

 

You could see this as an extreme scenario, but people want job security and its not necessarily guaranteed.

 

 

Exactly what I was going to write.

 

In the ¨good old¨ days, the generation born in the 40s and 50s, had job security, a job for virtually your whole life, so there was hardly a need to move other than if for personal reasons you fancied a career change. Those times are over. Our governments and industries demand from us, the workforce, an amount of flexibility 9as they like to call it) the beggars belief compared to several decades ago. In the past, big corporates built homes where the factories were. Today the workforce just has to see how they get to work, irrespectively of where their employer may move to, and in the case of losing one´s job, it all starts all over again: Move houses etc. Not a cheap excercise either. Not masny companies give compensation in thses scenarios any more. Why would they? With cheaper and increasingly highly qualified labour in India and China plus a whole market in those 2 and other countries, a lot of companies simply close up in the EU and move far east. B*st*rds!

 

What really makes me angry is when people blame banks for getting them personally in debt. Just another example of how no one takes responsibility for their own actions. So you had to buy the leather sofa from dfs on 4 years interest free rather than make do with the one you had.

 

Good point indeed! However, having observed life and luxury in both the UK and Germany for long enough, it is simply a fact that despite higher taxes in Germany, the average citizen in Germany is better off than in the UK. A lot of that is simply down to a (still) more equal wealth distribution in Germany. People simply earn more money, and the gap between the employee and boss isn´t nearl;y (not yet anyway) as big as it is in the UK. Why people don´t protest more against this fact in the UK is beyond me. Mind you, things are unfortunately changing in Germany, too, rich getting richer. Well, much as I hate to say this, perhaps it is time for an uprising again, possibly Germany led, as no-one else fancies standing up against the current failed society conditions. Erm, no, we have television to keep the masses entertained, so all is well, actually ....

 

Rant over. :)

 

Tempest

[Wendy 0]

Although this won't help anyone here.

 

VAT Rates in the majority of the European Countries have been 20% or higher for quite a number of years.

 

As has been said before in many Countries, fuel prices are higher.

 

i too am spending more on fuel than I do on food and have done for years.

 

On the subject of other Countries - I think it is all too easy - to see things through rose coloured glasses when you are not actually living in another country.

There many be some of the surface issues that seem better than the UK, but until you live there sadly you don't really know the extent of the ease of life or problems.

 

Has anyone ever tried going to the Doctors in Spain - I don't mean privately when on holiday through your Travel insurance.

All patients have an appt for 9am, when you arrive there are hundreds of others.

You are then given a token with a number on it, this relates to where you are in the order.

This could take hours.

 

Or, try making someone Redundant, or dismissing them in France. A near on impossibility.

 

My biggest gripe on the fuel prices ( and hidden taxes) is the state of our roads, we don't need speed limits with the poor state of the road surfaces.

 

Along with most Council workers - and i have friends in this area - the salaries, pensions and working conditions are far superior to that of the private sector.

Where else do you get graded each year, which increases your salary and that's not talking of general pay rises.

Or get long term sickness on full pay ( when actually you are not sick).

Apologies to all Council workers on here - this is not a dig at you personally - but the system.

 

I could continue, but its Saturday evening - calm calm..................

[colinstubbs 0]

As it stands right now, job security could be an issue. Changing jobs isnt [edit] necessarily an option, going to a new job could be less job security - last in first out and all that. There's no point in changing jobs so you can be closer to home and save cash on fuel, if 3 months down the line you could be facing redundancy.

 

You could see this as an extreme scenario, but people want job security and its not necessarily guaranteed.

 

Add to this the fact it took me 18 monthsto get a Countryside job that I'm actually qualified for (rather than jet washing scaffolding ALSO 18 miles away!!) and swapping jobs could well be a non-starter!!

 

......Council workers - Where else do you get graded each year, which increases your salary and that's not talking of general pay rises..........

 

Not this year! I started at the bottom in Nov and I'll still be there this time next year! :epicfail:

 

But it is a job!!

[Kevin Bacon 5]

So, we're heading for £100 per tank sharpish then :?

 

I don't understand the sustainability of all this. How can EVERYTHING car related keep going up, and up, and up, and people being able to afford it run ANY car, let alone one with some muscle?

 

Funny thing is, as Corozin says, is people are paying £1.40 a litre without complaint, still buying new Audis with all the over-priced S Line options ticked, still buying iPhones on 2 year contracts, binning old Xbox 360s and buying the new one with Kinect, still buying expensive clothes, footwear and watches etc etc.

 

I thought the country is in recession? John Lewis saw 8% increase in sales this year. House of Fraser, M&S etc and all Supermarkets, all up in sales.

 

Seems to me like the oil companies are seeing this and pushing us to find our breaking points, then drop it a few pence. They clearly haven't found a breaking point yet and if we keep spending like this, we're not giving them any incentive to reduce the prices.

 

I was discussing this with a fellow heating oil using mate of mine. Heating Oil went from 40p litre in september to 80p in December. It's absoutely dispicable these companies are allowed to rip people off in their time of need like this, but allow it the governments do. So anyway, all we would have to do is put some extra clothes on and go to bed of an evening for a fortnight and say "Fcuk you and your overpriced oil" and they'd soon get the message. 2 weeks of no oil sales would make quite a dent I would imagine?

 

Anyway, I'm ranting....

 

Do you need to have any sort of engine work done to the car to be able to run the bio fuel?

 

If you mean E85 (85% Bioethanol / 15% petrol), then yes you do mate.

 

The main changes are bigger injectors and a remap to suit.

 

Bio-ethanol is not corrosive to unprotected aluminium like normal methanol is (or is much less so at least), or rubber, and since the corrado's fuel tank and fuel lines are plastic, you're good to go.

 

You *might* need a higher flow fuel pump to keep up with injectors but they aren't expensive.

 

The single biggest problem with E85 is availability. Our nearest station is Morrisons in Ipswich, one of only a handful of pumps nationwide. It was 85p a litre last time I looked.

[Walesy 0]

I was discussing this with a fellow heating oil using mate of mine. Heating Oil went from 40p litre in september to 80p in December. It's absoutely dispicable these companies are allowed to rip people off in their time of need like this, but allow it the governments do. So anyway, all we would have to do is put some extra clothes on and go to bed of an evening for a fortnight and say "Fcuk you and your overpriced oil" and they'd soon get the message. 2 weeks of no oil sales would make quite a dent I would imagine?

.

 

Agreed, it's bloody terrible they can get away with it! I bought a house which needed full renovation including a heating system last year in a village with no mains gas so I went for oil, I had a 2000 litre tank installed and my heating engineer thought I was mad, lots of local people also joked with me about how huge my tank is when I moved in but I was able to fill it in the summer for 41p a litre, I still have just over half a tank left which will see me through to the summer when (hopefully) prices will be back down around 40p and i'll fill it up again, it's a pain having to fork out £900 odd to fill it but its the most cost effective way of doing it :( I wouldn't be surprised if it gets robbed at some point either! just before xmas there was a 2 week wait for oil and that was at 84p/l!

 

As I said in another thread, its actually cheaper for me to fly to Cardiff and back than it is to take either of my cars, its got ridiculous :shrug:

[jamiehamy 0]

So, we're heading for £100 per tank sharpish then :?

 

I don't understand the sustainability of all this. How can EVERYTHING car related keep going up, and up, and up, and people being able to afford it run ANY car, let alone one with some muscle?

 

Funny thing is, as Corozin says, is people are paying £1.40 a litre without complaint, still buying new Audis with all the over-priced S Line options ticked, still buying iPhones on 2 year contracts, binning old Xbox 360s and buying the new one with Kinect, still buying expensive clothes, footwear and watches etc etc.

 

I thought the country is in recession? John Lewis saw 8% increase in sales this year. House of Fraser, M&S etc and all Supermarkets, all up in sales.

 

Seems to me like the oil companies are seeing this and pushing us to find our breaking points, then drop it a few pence. They clearly haven't found a breaking point yet and if we keep spending like this, we're not giving them any incentive to reduce the prices.

 

I was discussing this with a fellow heating oil using mate of mine. Heating Oil went from 40p litre in september to 80p in December. It's absoutely dispicable these companies are allowed to rip people off in their time of need like this, but allow it the governments do. So anyway, all we would have to do is put some extra clothes on and go to bed of an evening for a fortnight and say "Fcuk you and your overpriced oil" and they'd soon get the message. 2 weeks of no oil sales would make quite a dent I would imagine?

 

Anyway, I'm ranting....

 

 

I completely agree with this - I just don't get it. I can never fathom how there are so many people running about in flash cars that cost more than my mortgage, in houses that are worth many times what my flat is, having expensive clothes, eating out in restaurants whilst going on holidays. they can't all be company directors!

 

I live in a small flat and could barely afford even a very low end brand new car, never mind a 2 week package holiday. And i can't remember the last time I bought new clothes!

 

I'm fortunate that these thing's don't bother me, but at the same time, I think I must be missing some big trick that lets me afford these things! Where does the money come from?!

 

I think one day the real credit crunch will come - when people (in the UK) can't afford their debt, or miss one month which topples everything else. And then the banks will REALLY fall.

 

That's my rant over... :)

[davidwort 0]

So, we're heading for £100 per tank sharpish then :?

 

I don't understand the sustainability of all this. How can EVERYTHING car related keep going up, and up, and up, and people being able to afford it run ANY car, let alone one with some muscle?

 

I reckon company cars in a lot of cases, the whole UK car market is skewed by the company car thing here, one of my neighbours was commenting that his wife's run around was almost ten quid more to fill up, which they do once every two months. His own car is filled up for nothing (by his company) several times a week :roll: I suppose his firm might eventually go bust, but for now fuel prices don't seem to be directly affecting him at all.

 

another friend has a new Octavia VRS every six months (works for Skoda) and a massively subsidised 2L TDI golf for his wife new every six months too, in the past they've had a string of TT's all on cheap lease from his work, but a baby is now forcing her to slum it in a 20+ grand golf :(

 

and the other thing is that a lot of the population have seen big improvements in standard of living and disposable income in the last 10-20 years so there's a long way to go for a lot of people before they are down to only being able to afford essentials.

 

I'm not saying there aren't a lot of people struggling, it's just there's a huge middle class with plenty in their pockets still.

 

Me, the only time I've ever got rid of an old car is when it rusted to pieces, I like to and have to get my money's worth from them :)

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Agreed, it's bloody terrible they can get away with it! I bought a house which needed full renovation including a heating system last year in a village with no mains gas so I went for oil, I had a 2000 litre tank installed and my heating engineer thought I was mad, lots of local people also joked with me about how huge my tank is when I moved in but I was able to fill it in the summer for 41p a litre, I still have just over half a tank left which will see me through to the summer when (hopefully) prices will be back down around 40p and i'll fill it up again, it's a pain having to fork out £900 odd to fill it but its the most cost effective way of doing it :( I wouldn't be surprised if it gets robbed at some point either! just before xmas there was a 2 week wait for oil and that was at 84p/l!

 

As I said in another thread, its actually cheaper for me to fly to Cardiff and back than it is to take either of my cars, its got ridiculous :shrug:

 

Our tank is only 1200 litres but my mate's is 2500!! As you can imagine, his bill is horrendous. We have a seperate bank account for heating oil which we pay into monthly. It doesn't come as such a huge shock that way :D

 

We stocked up in August and have done exactly what I said. Extra clothes on and heating on the bare minimum! I will not pander to the oil companies' greed!

What we've got left should see us through to February if we're frugal! It's different if you've got kids or are an elderly person I suppose, but being a bit cold has never bothered us!

 

It's actually quite nice huddling round the open fire with the gf anyway tbh, awwwwwww :lol:

 

I completely agree with this - I just don't get it. I can never fathom how there are so many people running about in flash cars that cost more than my mortgage, in houses that are worth many times what my flat is, having expensive clothes, eating out in restaurants whilst going on holidays. they can't all be company directors!

 

I don't get it either and there can't be that many lottery winners either!

 

I think some of it could be interest only Mortgages? Me and my mate have similar size / value properties and his IO mortgage monthly payments are less than a 1/4 of our repayment mortgage. And yep, he has a flash new Tiguan with all the over-priced R line options ticked :lol: