Fuel up/down again

Justin Smith said:
I have to say I really don`t understand why "enthusiastic drivers" (I don`t actually think "enthusiastic driving" is appropriate on public roads but I digress) are against high motoring taxes.
Think about it.
Assuming you work you`ll be paying the tax one way or another anyway, the only question is whether it`ll be on motoring or something else, like income tax.
I`d have thought "enthusiastic drivers" dislike too many other cars on the road because it means they can`t drive "enthusiastically", or at the very least they get frustrated stuck in congestion, even "non enthusiast drivers" like me get no pleasure at all from that. So, paradoxically, one would have thought "enthusiastic drivers" would want motoring taxes as high as possible so as to encourage (or force) some of the other buggars off the roads and onto the trains or whatever.
You know it makes sense.
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This logic doesn't work.

Surely it's enthusiastic drivers who will become rarer, as they have to curtail driving as a luxury? Not everyone else who only drive as a purely practical activity and actually need to be in their cars.

People won't stop driving just because fuel prices go up, because a lot of them have no choice or access to reliable public transport. The roads will remain just as congested, just with everyone driving slower to eke out as much economy as possible. So enthusiastic drivers will have an even more frustrating time :)
 
NathWraith said:
Agreed. Hybrids are definitely the way forward.
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But how will they make the electricity, some of it is oil now. Batteries are not the cheapest option either

I think it'll be biodiesel and natural gas most probably if it did come down to the worst a bit like they did in the war. We can in theory produce enough of both ourselves, USA for example does not have to import any oil and they could export everything they produce but they currently prefer to choose oil over their own gas
 
Justin Smith said:
I have to say I really don`t understand why "enthusiastic drivers" (I don`t actually think "enthusiastic driving" is appropriate on public roads but I digress) are against high motoring taxes.
Think about it.
Assuming you work you`ll be paying the tax one way or another anyway, the only question is whether it`ll be on motoring or something else, like income tax.
I`d have thought "enthusiastic drivers" dislike too many other cars on the road because it means they can`t drive "enthusiastically", or at the very least they get frustrated stuck in congestion, even "non enthusiast drivers" like me get no pleasure at all from that. So, paradoxically, one would have thought "enthusiastic drivers" would want motoring taxes as high as possible so as to encourage (or force) some of the other buggars off the roads and onto the trains or whatever.
You know it makes sense.
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In practice what happens is that you have a load of 'non enthusiasts' overtaking lorries on a dual carriageway at 58mph whilst we're stuck behind them cursing the day they were born ;)
 
Just read a report in The Daily Telegraph stating that traffic congestion costs the average family £491 per year in wasted time and fuel. If you cut the cost of motoring it`s only going to have one effect on congestion, so I`m quite happy for them to tax fuel rather than load it onto my income tax.
Actually I`m quite happy for them to increase indirect taxation anyway, that way all those parasites in the black economy have to pay some tax for once.
 
Meanwhile in the US fuel seems to be going down... filled up for about 50p a litre yesterday. About £30 for my tank full here, but £80ish in the UK :(
 
Justin Smith said:
Just read a report in The Daily Telegraph stating that traffic congestion costs the average family £491 per year in wasted time and fuel. If you cut the cost of motoring it`s only going to have one effect on congestion, so I`m quite happy for them to tax fuel rather than load it onto my income tax.
Actually I`m quite happy for them to increase indirect taxation anyway, that way all those parasites in the black economy have to pay some tax for once.
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Wasted "time", hard to put a price on that really. I used to do 20 miles each way, took 45 minutes to an hour, with average traffic that would be 30 minutes.

So I was "losing" an hour each day, say I was paid a reasonable 10 p/h thats 200 a month alone. Two people working in a family, double that, plus increased fuel costs you would be looking at that "yearly" figure in a month.

OFC that is just a study someone pulled out their ass to make some news up.

Meanwhile in the US fuel seems to be going down... filled up for about 50p a litre yesterday. About £30 for my tank full here, but £80ish in the UK
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Totally different market and lifestyle, you can't simply say that X is cheaper than Y, you need to include cost of living and various other factors too.

Fuel in Australia is currently around $1.49 a litre for petrol, which is slightly cheaper than the UK at the current exchange rate, go back a decade and that would have been crazy cheap due to the weak AUD compared to the GBP at the time. In terms of living costs fuel is a lot cheaper than the UK, but the trade off is you have to travel more distance to get somewhere...
 
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Lethal` said:
Meanwhile in the US fuel seems to be going down... filled up for about 50p a litre yesterday. About £30 for my tank full here, but £80ish in the UK :(
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I believe it is down to the large amounts of shale gas being produced. Demand for oil has fallen for electricity production so there is a surplus, means cheaper petrol.
 
Westyfield2 said:
What would make sense is if they scrapped Road Tax and made up for it by raising fuel tax. That way the more fuel you use (whether it's by driving more miles or doing worse MPG) would mean the more tax you pay.
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That would make sense if all fuel was used for cars, what about people with strimmers, generators, and people like me with petrol rc cars.
 
whilst I fill up with Super rather than 'normal' unleaded, I noticed normal was 128.9 at my local Sainsburys yesterday. First time I've seen unleaded fuel starting £1.2*.9 in what feels like years.

Whats the cheapest price everyone else seems to see fuel at these days?
 
Conanius said:
whilst I fill up with Super rather than 'normal' unleaded, I noticed normal was 128.9 at my local Sainsburys yesterday. First time I've seen unleaded fuel starting £1.2*.9 in what feels like years.
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I was thinking the same thing, filling up the Supra at £1.29 a litre made me feel like a boss :D until I remembered filling up the Prelude for 8Xp less than 5 years ago lol.


[TW]Fox;23399058 said:
http://www.petrolprices.com?
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It may be different in metropolitan areas but PP has gone downhill massively in recent years (started when they got bought out). They currently have inaccurate/outdated prices for half the stations they show round here and they only show about 50% of the stations in the first place :(
 
ubersonic said:
It may be different in metropolitan areas but PP has gone downhill massively in recent years (started when they got bought out). They currently have inaccurate/outdated prices for half the stations they show round here and they only show about 50% of the stations in the first place :(
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It's got much better round my area, about a year ago the data was completely inaccurate, but now seems much more accurate and kept more up to date.
 
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