BBC article saying sales are down 15% in the 6 months to June............loss of £1bn revenue to Govt.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15176330
Is this because people are driving the same but in a more fuel efficient car?
Lots of new 1 litre cars.
Driving slower in their cars?
60mph rather than 75mph on the motorway.
Driving fewer miles?
Sitting watching Sky Sports rather than going to the match.
or
Just plain skint and cannot go out in the car!
How has the higher fuel price / few pay rises affected your driving?
Driving less / about the same.............
|
SWM is driving more now she's got the little C2, thinks nothing of popping down to see her daughter 75 miles away when i've gone to work, as she's now a lady of leisure she ambles along at around 65/70 mph (unless she needs to teach someone a lesson-;), and likes seeing the readout averaging over 60mpg.
I rarely buy petrol since i had the old Benz LPG converted, halved my fuel costs at currently 66ppl....have to release the fuel cap now and again to make sure it doesn't stick solid.
Little change here then, but our fuel costs are much lower than before.
How long before some form of road pricing i wonder, all for the good of the environment you understand...the beast is starved it must be fed.
|
|
The government has not lost £1Bn, don't forget they have been putting duty up and up and up then VAT up as well, they're quids in already. The fuel companies have been doing the same with prices, so they haven't lost out. The only ones who have lost out are the motorists, necessary journeys, like commuting and companies with deliveries, cost more and convenience journey have had to be reduced or cut out. This government are intent on pricing us off the roads. Motoring will soon become a privilege of the rich.
Last edited by: Kithmo on Wed 5 Oct 11 at 11:12
|
...don't forget they have been putting duty up and up...
Have they? The last move in duty was down by 1p in March. Even when it was RPI +1p the increase was a couple of pence a year. Add maybe 3p from the VAT increase and you're well short of pinning the blame on the government - especially when fuel prices in other countries have gone the same way. The 'pricing us off the roads' argument is just silly.
|
|
One of the reasons for our recent move was to dump my daily *commute*. I've now removed 9000mls/yr from my travelling, over 50%. Mountain bike for most local stuff now.
|
|
I assume Caroline Lucas has congratulated G Osborne. If not, she should.
|
I gave up work in January and this has saved me about 800 miles a month and I rarely go outside a 20 mile radius of my home, unless it is by train, having driven 10 miles to the station.
I drive at or below the speed limit and get 53 mpg in a Fiat 500 (1248cc?). Car is 2 years old in 2 weeks time and is just coming up to 15K miles
|
|
I didn't answer the original question. My travel decisions mostly make themselves, so I've not consciously been doing anything different recently. I was, however, surprised to see that my car has done barely 8,000 miles from its 2010 MoT to yesterday's 2011 one. It was the first full year since I moved closer to work, but I'd estimated 10-12,000 for the year, so perhaps I've subconsciously changed my habits. We've certainly had fewer weekend trips this year than previously - although we use the other car for those.
|
|
i have always averaged 15k a year over the last 20yrs but the other day i looked at the odo on the car and to my surprise I've only done 10k this year. I didn't think my driving has changed but it must have done
|
Big change for me recently in getting a company car with private fuel paid. Tax bill on the fuel card is about £120 a month. The commute alone is 800 miles a month, (working out at about £140 a month at 35 mpg) so effectively I'm in "profit" the second I drive the car anywhere outside of going to and from work. Plus, SWMBO now uses the company car whenever she needs to go anywhere outside of work hours. As a result, her (formerly my) Golf is using a tank of diesel about every six weeks now. Apart from any "profit" made, it's just nice to know my fuel costs me £120 a month come rain or shine, and that I can just jump in the car and go somewhere without having to factor in the fuel cost.
A tank of diesel in the aforementioned Golf was about £47 when we bought it in early 2009. At last fill, it was a whisker over £71. Pre company car, this cost hike certainly affected our choices quite considerably. We both have family and friends in various places within a 60 mile radius of home, and would visit without even thinking about it. When diesel passed £1.30 a litre though, we found we were really thinking about the cost of doing so, and reducing the frequency of these trips, or combining several visits in one. I reckon our personal fuel use reduced by more than 15%, given that the cost of fuel has gone up by 50% in two years of stagnant wages and general price rises across the board.
I would also say, the same applies not only to road fuel costs, but domestic energy bills too. The escalating cost makes you think about using fuel of any kind.
I guess that's what happens when a finite and peaking resource faces exponentially increasing demand. It's actually frightening when you think about it.
Last edited by: DP on Wed 5 Oct 11 at 17:58
|
My impression is motorway speeds have declined in the last few years.
On the rare occasions I give it some welly on the way to the caravan, nothing comes past me now.
A few years ago, the same heavy right foot meant mixing it with other drivers doing the same.
|
|
ive lowered my cruising speed on the motorway and keep the cruise on at 65mph and sometimes lower.
|
Unfortunately Mrs F has just started working in Oxford rather than Reading, where we live, so her petrol usage is going up :(
We did look at public transport options, and while the cost is competitive, the (in)convenience isn't. I'm still using public transport for my commute to Bath though; perhaps surprisingly my train tickets haven't gone up since last November.
|
>> ...don't forget they have been putting duty up and up...
>>
>> Have they? The last move in duty was down by 1p in March. Even when
>> it was RPI +1p the increase was a couple of pence a year. Add maybe
>> 3p from the VAT increase and you're well short of pinning the blame on the
>> government - especially when fuel prices in other countries have gone the same way. The
>> 'pricing us off the roads' argument is just silly.
>>
Yes but they put it up twice last year and don't forget, the pence figures are per litre not per year. Multiply by the number of litres sold per year that's a big chunk of money they've collectively taken from us. Also as the price of fuel has gone up steadily they have taken an ever increasing amount of duty. It's ok for us low milers with a decent wage and mortgage paid off etc. but I feel sorry for the families and businesses who need to do the miles.
I must be missing something, but don't see why fuel duty has to increase by percentage at all, as the price of fuel goes up the amount of duty paid in pence goes up anyway so why should they increase the percentage of duty ?
|
...so why should they increase the percentage of duty?
They don't. For every penny increase at the pump, the duty on a litre stays at 57.95p. The only percentage charged on fuel is VAT.
Because they're levied at flat rates rather than percentages, duties are always adjusted for inflation; the regular 'penny on a pint of beer' you hear at most Budgets is just that. The 'Fuel Duty Escalator' introduced by the previous government was a modification to the inflation adjustment to introduce a price incentive to reduce road fuel use, by setting an adjustment rate above inflation. The Coalition has decided, for now, that the market is applying that incentive, and has reduced Road Fuel Duty temporarily to compensate.
If road fuel sales (in litres, not £) really are down by 15% then even allowing for changes in RFD and VAT, and saying the pump price has increased from £1.00 to £1.40, the HMRC take is still down by about 6.5%.
|
>> The 'Fuel Duty Escalator' introduced by the previous government was a modification to the
>> inflation adjustment to introduce a price incentive to reduce road fuel use, by setting an
>> adjustment rate above inflation. The Coalition has decided, for now, that the market is applying
>> that incentive, and has reduced Road Fuel Duty temporarily to compensate.
>>
>>
The 'Fuel Duty Escalator' is not something you can credit the Labour party with having the brains to implement. 1993 was its first incarnation.
|
Much of the Petrol/Diesel price rises over the last 10 years or so were not Green Taxes BUT Brown Taxes (G Brown, MP and possibly worst ever former PM)
|
|
You won't get any argument from me there however I don't see it getting any better what with the supplementary charge up from 20 to 32% being levied on oil and gas production to raise extra funds for the Exchequer.
|
>> How has the higher fuel price / few pay rises affected your driving?
Not at all - I need fuel, I put it in. Simples!
What has happened is that I've looked at more economical cars, but it's cheaper to keep the current car at low mpg on the road than pay loads of cash to save a few pence/cents. 27mpg around town, 33mpg on a (rare) long run. It would take me 3 years to save the cost of an old diesel Golf for example (assuming it didn't have any expensive failures), so I figured that as the projected life span of current car is less than 3 more years it was a pointless exercise.
|
>> Is this because people are driving the same but in a more fuel efficient car?
Some of that
>> Driving slower in their cars?
some of that
>> Driving fewer miles?
Some of that
>> Sitting watching Sky Sports rather than going to the match.
some of that
>> Just plain skint and cannot go out in the car!
and some of that - adds up to what we are seeing.
>> How has the higher fuel price / few pay rises affected your driving?
>>
>> Driving less / about the same.............
Bout the same for the last 18 months, but I have to confess - slower.
|
I average about 12000 miles a year.We don't go for long drives as we used to.
On the motorway set cruise on about 75mph.If traffic allowes any slower and I start to nod off.
|
I've found my cruising speed on motorways has gone up slightly.
I tended to bowl along around a true 65 MPH which was 3K RPM, it seemed to be a 'sweet spot'.
I now find I'm in a 'concertina' of traffic that's all travelling at the same sort of speed and I'm constantly having to adjust mine. If I go a little faster, then I'm passing them.
|
Swmbo now drives just over 40k a year with her sales job, compared to marginally under 40k a couple of years ago. She likes to make progress when conditions allow on the mway, cruising around 90, yet her Insignia Ecoflex still returns over 50mpg compared to the previous Passats high 40's. She tells me that journey times are getting lower because fewer cars in lanes 3 & 4, so higher fuel prices must be making a difference to the average motorists cruising speed. Her colleagues fuel costs are also down throughout the UK.
For myself, I walk to work, and fill alternate tanks with V Power. Its only a couple of pints (of beer, or half a bottle of Sancerre) more but money well spent in my opinion, and my fuel costs are down by 50% with the new job.
|
|
Remember also there will be a group who used to commute by car who now have no job so don't anymore.
|
Petrol sales down 15% - -
