Fuel price, how does it affect you?

Galaxy66

Galaxy66

Jeremy Beadle
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As a follow on from the fuel price thread, how does it affect your way of life? are you changing your driving style/habits?, are you thinking twice before making that journey?.
I have eased off the pedal now not that I was ever heavy on it in the first place, I now spend more at my local convenience store rather than make the journey into town, I do not not cut my grass so often (lots of it), we make shorter leisure trips out for the day and not so often.
It is affecting every ones way of life...........except those filthy rich footballers.
 
I only drive where I need to anyway so it does not really affect me. I have a Tesco metro a short distance away and if I am doing a big shop I take the car in as I go past, otherwise I just walk. I don't go on many trips and the places I do drive to are not on bus routes so there is no real option, and for my normal places I worked it out that to use a bus + walking it would take me nearly 2 hours, whereas by car its only 25 mins maximum! I did consider getting a bike a year or so ago (nothing to do with fuel prices) but the roads are so fast around here its not safe and I have already lost one friend who got hit by a car and another was badly injured by a motorbiker so I gave up on that idea.
My car is very economical anyway, but if I get to the point where it needs replacing I would look into a hybrid if prices stay the way they are.
 
I've fitted a false plate and intend doing loads of petrol station fill & flee scenarios... hehe

On a serious note I've cut back on non essential journeys and also taken to booking "appointments" with friends to ensure the journey isn't wasted. The downside to all this is I can't afford to visit family as much (200 mile return trip) or do so many of my usual spur of the moment "tour & click" drives where I go out discovering new areas and photographing them.

What is worrying is the cost is now likely to impact on the growth of the economy as people tighten their belts and seek not alternatives but just don't travel. And of course those with money will just pay and drive anyway. I wonder how long it will take for any government to try incentivising us instead of penalising us for change to happen?
 
really starting to worry about it now

it now takes about £10 more to fill my car than it did when i bought it, im considering getting rid of it and buying something smaller as newer cars are getting nailed on road tax as well

im gonna start to ride my bike to work, about 6miles each way along dangerous roads just so i dont spend too much money!

id like to say the fuel increase (and the increases in gas an electricity) wouldnt have been an issue if my work had actually given us the cost of living as a pay rise this year, as it is we got nothing, and when added to the removal of the 10p tax bracket the net result is im really struggling


i think that since it was mentioned that fuel prices would be capped at £1.50 per litre the fuel companys are aiming to get there ASAP to maximise profit!

labour government can go to hell for all i care, we're stuck with a prime minister no body elected whos lost the confidence of the entire country moreso than ****** tony managed to (and he had 10 years to do it! brown as done it in 10months!) who seem to be doing all they can to mess up this country but hey the alternatives dont look to rosy either!
 
Well....

We have three 4x4s:

Land Rover Defender 110 TDi. Main work vehicle, does about 30 mpg and now costs £80 to fill. Not a lot I can do about that, I need to use it, and it does 30mpg whatever you do. It will run on cooking oil but as that is now over £1 a litre, not really worth the hassel.

Land Rover Defender 110 V8 3500. Thirsty thing, it is the play vehicle. It does between 5mpg and 15mpg. Not too worried about the costs because if it covers 50 miles a week, that's a lot. Often isn't used at all for a week or more (never seem to have the time!)

Land Rover Discovery V8 3900 with LPG. The day-to-day vehicle. It is never used for business and is the main runabout for us. I am travelling south to see family tomorrow and so will be covering 500odd miles in it. It gives me about 15mpg to 20mpg but, and here is the important bit, it is duel fuel. I only ever use the petrol part when starting from cold and then switch over to LPG within a mile or so.

LPG is currently 54p around here, and so my fuel costs are halved. LPG has only gone up by less than 10p in the last year and so we don't really notice the price rises when using this vehicle.

If you have a bigger than normal car, or do above aveage mileage, get converted to LPG! Not only will you save a lot of £££, it is greener, you get a discount off the congestion charge and your road tax is less (on motors after 2001). LPG kits start at £350 DIY fit.
 
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@ Jumbobeef, couple of questions regarding LPG, firstly, how are they to fit, could a noob do it or is it a more specialised job?
How does it affect the way your car drives, do you lose any power for instance, does it run smooth. It's one option i have considered tbh.
 
It has caused me to spend more on petrol! I have stopped driving my car on small journeys when its raining which i used to do far too much. As i live in sheffield it rains alot!
 
wez130 said:
@ Jumbobeef, couple of questions regarding LPG, firstly, how are they to fit, could a noob do it or is it a more specialised job?
How does it affect the way your car drives, do you lose any power for instance, does it run smooth. It's one option i have considered tbh.
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Wes, as far as have always been led to believe it is an experts job, if you google lpg conversions there is tons of info there.

Not all cars are suitable for converting, for instance I am a Honda devotee and they can not be converted.
 
i drive a mondeo 2.0l TDCi fwiw.
 
All cars can be converted to gas including Hondas....
 
I changed to a turbo diesel last year(1.7 astra estate) and always get at least 50mpg - 55 if i drive carefully - although diesel is going up i've spent the last 30 years of driving at around 25mpg petrol so this really seems cheap as chips at the moment
 
I too am getting very worried about the rise in fuel prices. I drive a diesel car, and price of diesel where I live is 128.9p per litre (today), meaning a full tank will now cost me over £80. Which when you consider not that long ago it was costing me less than £60 is a big difference!

It seems to be never ending! I remember the last time fuel got close to a pound a litre - the country was in uproar - fuel blockades etc. This time the pound barrier was reached and no real fuss made. Also, it is shocking the difference between petrol and diesel. Always used to be a couple of pence. At my local garage, there is now a 13p difference between the two.

But it is not just fuel - everything is going up, week in - week out. I work in retail and have seen the prices in my store rise dramatically of late. I didn't have much spare cash before - but now it is getting serious.

Back to the OP, I certainly don't use my car other than for essential journeys anymore. I have also changed the way I drive my car, am now a lot more light footed.

I can't be the only one who thinks it is very scary!!

:thinking:
 
Can't say it has changed anything for me, I still make the same journeys and not particularly worried about making extra journeys.
I could save some money by using normal unleaded instead of super unleaded, but I don't.
 
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jamiefsmith said:
All cars can be converted to gas including Hondas....
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:thinking: I definitely had something in my head that had me thinking that Honda cars were not suitable for LPG conversion, maybe it harks back to the time LPG conversion kits first came on the market, I have been a Honda devotee for nearly 20 years so maybe they were not suitable then.:thinking:
 
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i have told the world in general, that when my old escort expires, i,m gonna get the smallest car with the smallest engine i can.
all i do is a 20 mile round trip every day.
why do i need a 1600.i drive(the car) like a little old lady anyway.
and my bike does 135 AND 46 mpg.0-60 in nottverymuchatall and is WAY more fun than a car.
 
Honda engines used to be fitted with a valve oiler system when retrofitted with LPG, not sure if thats still the case.

Wez, although a diesel can be converted to run on LPG, it's not financially viable at the moment as you still need to burn diesel in order to light the lpg
 
We took the chance to replace my old Rover 620 with a Hyundai i10. 1.1 litre engine that (supposedly) does about 50mpg.

As a result £30 does me the entire week, just. It's creeping up, but thanks to the VED Tax Banding, the car is cheap to tax and also to insure.

Shame, as it's not the most fun in four wheels...but it does what I need it to!

Cheers,
James
 
It is defo affecting the way that my partner and i live. We used to go for evening drives, hit the road for a hour and see where we ended up. Not any more. I make sure that i go round freinds houses when i know they are in so i don't waste a trip. Most importantly though we have both had to cut down on buying clothes and other things like CD's/ DVD's.

I think twice now before getting a photo printed, before i just did it and popped it in the file for later.

I am currently being under paid for the job i do (after changing job roles internally) and have not got a cost of living either.

Things are starting to bite, i have never been in a position where there is too much month left at the end of the money. But its getting close now.
 
I've just gone from a Mondeo TDCi to a Seat Leon turbo. 50mpg to 33mpg (on a good day)but I've had enough of being sensible for the time being and think i can afford a bit of fun before family comittments come knocking at the door.

I used to do 30 - 35K a year doing photoshoots but now my assistant is much more accomplished, the workload has been spread more evenly so i'm in the office much more, hence the move to a thirstier car.

Still, for work I get my fuel covered but day-to-day journeys are mainly to Tesco or the DIY store and even in a deisel, it never worked out that economical.

Long journeys will show the difference but hey ho, life's for living and you can't take it with you....
 
Not affecting me that much at the moment, even though I do between 500 - 1000 miles per week. Company pays for any business mileage and I work from home, so don't really use the car that much personally.

It's completely unacceptable that the price of all fuels has gone up so much, and yet the fuel companies themselves are still making billions of pounds of profit.

But - what can you do?
 
Moos3h said:
We took the chance to replace my old Rover 620 with a Hyundai i10. 1.1 litre engine that (supposedly) does about 50mpg.
Click to expand...

I've been considering that car myself moos3h, I'm not worried about street cred or bells and whistles, a car to me is a box on wheels that gets me about. Can I ask, is there plenty of room for a big fellah inside and is it comfortable to drive any distance?

Currently I have a work vehicle and much of my work takes me to supermarkets so shopping is not a problem, my only need for a car is on days off and holidays, the Rover 214 I have is 14 odd years old and worthless, it's pretty thirsty and while the mileage is very low the bodywork is failing. I worked out it's costing me £400 a year just to have it sitting on the driveway which is daft but I'd hate to have to do without the freedom it gives altogether.
 
I work for a company (lorry driver) and have noticed how I am putting £250 worth of diesel in it everyday now..:eek:

My own car is a Golf diesel still doing 45mpg.:)

Good consumtion but when is the goverment going to realise that everything (goods) is moved by roads.

When haulage companies are going bust by the day who is going to shift it then.:(
 
what we need is blockades like in 2000, unfortuanetely i think they'de have written laws in to prevent lorry drivers from doing that, and probably get them up on terrorism charges to boot.



im starting to think that britain is not somewhere where i want to live anymore, the rich get richer and the common man just gets shafted
 
my lorry does 11mpg.
dont forget as fuel costs get higher, goods transport gets more expensive.
transport gets more expensive, cost of goods have to increase.
and EVERYTHING you have in your house,garden and garage will have been delivered to your house , the store or warehouse on a lorry.

i reckon eventualy the gov will just put huge taxes on anything over,say, 1400 cc to stop us buying em.
or increase the insurance tax on owt with a big lump.
evryone ought to ride a motorbike.:D
wouldnt it be nice if ALL the road tax was actualy spent on transport systems, insted of just lobbed in the treasury.
mark
 
I don't do a great deal of private milage TBH
I don't cover a very big area any more but half my day is spent driving
BUT I can easily do £100 / week ( in an easy week) on company business in my company car
I am just greatful that I don't pay the fuel bill.
my wife drives a 4x4 for towing horses around but even she has taken to driving
my daughters baby peugeot around where possible so I guess it has hit us ( well her actually :D)
 
Since I used public transport all I've noticed is a 10p increase in the train fare. Apart from that the other indirect effect that I've noticed is the rise in food costs. But that's about it. I'm actually quite pleased because more and more people are using the train, it's busier every day which means there's more cars on the road. I think I high fuel price is good for us because it makes us use the fuel more efficiently.
 
i've only been driving 4 years... my first car was a frugal 0.9l Cinquecento, it seems like a life time ago i was able to half fill a tank with a tenner.

My 1.3l Suzuki swift - hardly a speed demon - would laugh at me for putting in a tenner.

I'm driving as little as possible although still not making big changes, and I'm definitely being a bit lighter with my heavy right foot. I can still only squeeze 42mpg combined out of it :(
 
well, my car went on the red yesterday so i stuck £15 - never even took it to the 1/4 mark, drove about 15 miles and stuck another £55 in today and it never even went to the full mark, when i bought my car 2 years ago, £55 used to brim it from the red light :(
 
wez130 said:
well, my car went on the red yesterday so i stuck £15 - never even took it to the 1/4 mark, drove about 15 miles and stuck another £55 in today and it never even went to the full mark, when i bought my car 2 years ago, £55 used to brim it from the red light :(
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Tell me about it!

I used to put £60 of diesel in my mondeo when I first got it in December 2006 and I could have driven to the moon and back on that. Just got rid of it and I was putting the same amount (value) in and getting about 400-450 miles back of that. I use to get about 650 miles when i first got it.
 
I have no car, yet, so it isn't causing me any issues atm, that said of course, the moment I get a car the initial statement will change :(
 
wez130 said:
@ Jumbobeef, couple of questions regarding LPG, firstly, how are they to fit, could a noob do it or is it a more specialised job?
How does it affect the way your car drives, do you lose any power for instance, does it run smooth. It's one option i have considered tbh.
Click to expand...

You cannot tell the difference between petrol and gas. It drives just the same, just as smooth and with the same amount of power. No issues with insurance either. The only difference is other drivers wish they were you on garage forecourts :)

Newer cars (and so more complex cars) do need to be either converted professionally or you need to know your way around a box of spanners. Older and more simple motors can be done DIY.

Prices here go from £440 for a 4 cyl carb and £998 for a V8 injection.

You do lose some boot space if you put the tank in there (on my Disco the tanks are under the floor so I don't have that issue).

I travelled more than 500 miles yesterday in my V8 Disco, spending 54p/litre instead of 118p/litre: a HUGE difference :eek:
 
Wasn't there an issue with cylinder lubtication JumboBeef? I'd heard you had to drive on petrol for a while every so oiften.
 
Steep said:
Wasn't there an issue with cylinder lubtication JumboBeef? I'd heard you had to drive on petrol for a while every so oiften.
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I've heard you are supposed to start the car on petrol till warm then switch over.
No mention of chip fat conversions the. A bloke at work converted his Citroen to run on used cooking oil. He used to refine/seive it in his back garden.
 
Because LPG is much cleaner than other fuels, I've been told wear and tear on the engine is less. Yes, you start the engine from cold on petrol and switch to LPG after a mile of so: my system is automatic but some are manual.
 
ive heard that LPG can cause valve seat damage on petrol engines


i went on line and looked at some prices and it would cost me £2k to convert my focus over to LPG, which when doing 10k a year would take nearly 3 years to pay itself off, by which time id presume the government would have latched onto LPG and taxed it through its A-hole, i dont really see it as worth it personally, if i was to keep the car til it fell to bits fair enough but i dont plan to, best bet id presume would be to buy a duel fuel car in the first place
 
nilagin said:
I've heard you are supposed to start the car on petrol till warm then switch over.
No mention of chip fat conversions the. A bloke at work converted his Citroen to run on used cooking oil. He used to refine/seive it in his back garden.
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a bloke at work does that with his BX, its vile, if he is ahead of me leaving work then ill pull over and wait as the smell makes me sick:gag:
saying that i dont think he filters it or mixes it with ethanol etc, i think he just bangs it in chip scraps n all
 
whitewash said:
a bloke at work does that with his BX, its vile, if he is ahead of me leaving work then ill pull over and wait as the smell makes me sick:gag:
saying that i dont think he filters it or mixes it with ethanol etc, i think he just bangs it in chip scraps n all
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I don't think the bloke I know mixed ethanol with it but there was a faint fried chip odour if you followed him.
 
My Gas Maverick i had a few years ago started on petrol then the first time it hit 1500 RPM you heard the soleniod click as it switched to gas. From then on you were saving money. As for power loss, i towed a car trailer loaded all over the place and could not tell any differance in power.

I'd buy another gas car and if i went as far as buying a nearly new 4x4 i'd have it converted.

LPG :thumbs:
 
I have two new private jets, 2 new deluxe wives (it was a "buy one, get one free" offer) and I'm saving my stamps for a new palace.

So what's your problem ?


Abdul
arab-emoticon.gif
 
whitewash said:
ive heard that LPG can cause valve seat damage on petrol engines
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Never had that problem, or know any other gas drivers who has. I've covered 16,000 miles in this Disco since I've had it, and it has covered more than 80,000 since it was converted: runs beautifully.


whitewash said:
i went on line and looked at some prices and it would cost me £2k to convert my focus over to LPG, which when doing 10k a year would take nearly 3 years to pay itself off, by which time id presume the government would have latched onto LPG and taxed it through its A-hole, i dont really see it as worth it personally, if i was to keep the car til it fell to bits fair enough but i dont plan to, best bet id presume would be to buy a duel fuel car in the first place
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The Gov has a rolling three year agreement that they will not increase tax on LPG (and that agreement has been in place for a number of years now).

While you might feel it might not be worth converting your current car, it certainly is worth looking at LPG cars when you buy your next car (here is a LPG Focus). My LPG Disco was already converted when I bought it, and I only paid a few hundred more for it than a non-LPG Disco (I saved that much within the first month!)

Talking about downsizing? Consider this: say your current car does 30mpg. You want to save costs so you might look at a car which does 40mpg. Hang on a minute, how about buying a car which does less mpg than your current motor, lets say 25mpg but runs on LPG.......so giving you the equivalent of 50mpg.

You'd be buying a bigger car and spend less than driving a smaller car: sounds good to me :thumbs:
 
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