Well, almost. Just another rant about the rising cost of fuel and general inability of the government to appeal to or help us motorist. The Fabia (Felix) is currently tucked up in the garage with 10MLS being displayed on the "fuel left" 'o meter. Being a student it's difficult to keep a car on the road... get a job i hear some of you cry? I have one, part time granted but it's the only thing that will fit in with my studies. I get about £70 per week from that. Let's have a breakdown of how much I spend and how much goes on the car:

£50 for a full tank of unleaded at my local filling station (that lasts me for about a week assuming 300miles/week getting in and out of college and travelling at the weekends)

£10/week beer money (that's about 3 and a half pints)

That leaves me with £10 to spend on lunches over the week.

Normally, i would say i should cut down on beer and use the car less, however, it was only a year ago when i could fill the tank for about £35... I need beer to help me forget about the problem! It's a visious circle people!!

My only solution to this as of now is to wait until the end of my exams (in two weeks) and then get a full time job to fund my driving habit. Anyone willing to employ me? lol. But with a full time job when will I get to enjoy the car???

For now then, Duggie is signing off and hanging up his driving gloves.

How has the "fuel crisis" been affecting others out there?

-Duggie.

Duggie, I hear you. I'm having to include increased travel costs for clients and I find the crusie control is set on 75 more and more when on the motorway.

Your obviously having to ditch the car for public transport or walking?

To make the public transport viable I guess its cheaper than the fuel you would use in the car. Save up that saving and thats your weekend fun in the car?

Steve

Understand your situation there. Pretty difficult. If common sense was to kick in i`d say sell the motor, get a friend to drive you around in their car and spend what you have on beer, women and fags.

That`s just me. All the best.

Just to answer your question i find i`m only putting £20 in at at a time, walking to the local shops and cruising at 70. If our lass wants to go to town to get some po puri for the ashtray i say no. I`m on a relatively decent salary for what i do (as little as poss) and i am watching the pennies more and more.

PS Slightly off topic , but i got a letter this morning from my employer looking for voluntary redundancy, my company makes millions but everyone appears to be tightening their belts

Thought i`d comment some more. Tis a real credit to your parents that a studious young man like yourself is keeping the faith when you could have taken the easy option and just dossed around. See you on the M62 in a few years and you`d better be driving something special.

Understand your situation there. Pretty difficult. If common sense was to kick in i`d say sell the motor, get a friend to drive you around in their car and spend what you have on beer, women and fags.

That`s just me. All the best.

Where I will public transport doesn't exist. We have maybe 1 bus every 4 years or so and it never goes anywhere you want it to and will always get you there late.

The ironic problem for me is public transport is both longer and more expensive than driving (50p per mile equivilent)

That leaves me with £10 to spend on lunches over the week.

Loaf of long life bread is less than a quid and will last a whole week...there you go, reduced your food expenditure by 90% (my invoice is in the post).

Rob.

There was a garage in Devon charging £1.99 a litre today due to the Shell strike. Disgusting.

I now car share with up to 3 others. I say up to cos working in IT they expect you to be available at any hour, do on call, stay late, be in early etc etc. So that kind of screws up car sharing plans (and any hope in hell of using public transport which would take 2 hours instead of 45 mins to do the same journey I might add). It saves me a fortune in juice and makes the gap between services that much longer.

Does have it's drawbacks though. One of the guys I car share with smells of BO, and the other one has a few insecurities and feels the need to try and prove he's better than you in every conversation. It's only the new guy that's hassle free, and I get to ride in his nice comfy chipped A4 2.5 TDi Avant Quattro.

There was a garage in Devon charging £1.99 a litre today due to the Shell strike. Disgusting.

i seen this on the news, the scary thing is these prices will be seen across the country before we know it! i thought having a diesel would be a good thing, used to be a lot cheaper to run than a petrol but these days diesel is more expensive than petrol (which i do not understand) and my MPG half the time isn't much better than i would get from a petrol engine.

First off, it's nice to know that i'm not the only one, but horrible to think that lots of others are also suffering. The public transport is an option but despite Oxford's maze of bus lanes and promice of one every 7 minutes when it comes to busses, the service is rubbish, and at just under £3.00 for a return ticket about the same as driving in (free parking at college). I have currently turned to my bike, and have quit smoking to keep costs down... a good idea i think! More posts and maybe a photo diary to keep you all entertained coming soon! lol! As for selling the car there is no way I will be saying goodbye to it, need it for the weekends and to visit the girlfriend who lives in a remote part of the Oxford countryside!

-Duggie.

I feel for you dude...

What's the country coming to? Were all going to loose our independence at this rate, and be reliant on public transport. Which is a joke at the best of times. I mean, who willingly wants to share their personal space with potential drug users, paedophiles and murderers. Extreme... yes, but you get my drift.

I for one have had to endure public transport and will fight tooth and nail to never have to again.

I'm struggling too... this will have an effect on what other things people spend on ... you say less beer, ...... less CD's, less new jeans ect ect ===== recession......... :(

I was already planning to cycle to work this year, and I have been doing so for the last few weeks now, with the price of fuel, I'm glad I have the chance. Gave up smoking at the start of the year.

Fuel increases hit EVERYONE whether you drive or not it's a double whammy, price of food etc. goes up as it costs more to transport it, so people want more pay as everything goes up in price = inflation and job cuts = recession.

Inflation is currently above the governments targets and they (the government) are trying to blame the Bank of England cause of interest rates, however, any sensible government, any prudent chancellor, would have saved money during the good years so in the event of troubled times in the economy the country had some money to fall back on, and taxes could be lowered.

Its what I've been saying, people having to spend more on fuel means they'll spend less on luxuries and leisure items/activities :(

I was planning on f*cking off to Canada in maybe 10 years... it's looking like I might have to move that up

Not what people want to hear, but at the end of the day the rising cost of fuel is just the free market in a limited commodity having its effect. There's lots of people round the world who want the oil that is now being pumped, and if we want our share we're just going to have to pay more for it.

Government could reduce taxes on fuel (note that the rate they're levied at has been set by many governments through the years, not just the current one) but we'd all just have to pay more taxes in some other way.

The common sense approach is to change our lifestyle to reflect the new reality, ie by driving less and using the car more efficiently. But people don't like to hear about using common sense - they just want to be able to go on living their lives in the same old way, even though things have fundamentally changed.

i really dont know how i could of kept my old fabia on the road if i hadnt of written it off! £5 wouldnt even get it out of the red a while back!

mind you im with you Duggie, i would rather have my car (if i had one of my own at the mo:rolleyes: )on the drive way than sell it! haha. public transport is bloody awful down here in cornwall. also expencive. by the time tax and fuel has been payed... might as well make the most of my road tax.

Full time job is the way forward over the summer. thank god for student loans and my scholarship!! altho im maxed on my overdraft too! damn!!

it's kind of the same for me, just finished my A levels so was surviving off a part time job, but the thing it is that not many of my friends drive so i usually give them little lifts to places. but it all adds up dunnit. fuel is rediculous, i have a habbit of going out for a drive every night. expensive business

Not what people want to hear, but at the end of the day the rising cost of fuel is just the free market in a limited commodity having its effect.

Not entirely accurate, it is a free market being controlled by a cartel.

Government could reduce taxes on fuel (note that the rate they're levied at has been set by many governments through the years, not just the current one) but we'd all just have to pay more taxes in some other way.

i disagree with this, all the arguements about the frozen rate of tax on fuel is crap, yes the rate of tax may be the same percentage wise but the higher the cost the more the government make on tax revenues so they CAN reduce the tax rate while still raking in the same amount of money allowing us a little breathing space on bills. will they do that? hahahaha i doubt it.

It's disgusting that we are taxed TWICE on fuel, duty (which is fixed) then VAT (standard 17.5%).

So the more the price goes up, the more the government get.

A 1p increase gets the government an EXTRA 0.175p. Not much, but just look at all the litres of fuel sold every day.

It's disgusting that we are taxed TWICE on fuel, duty (which is fixed) then VAT (standard 17.5%).

But the same applies for any commodity which qualifies for duty and VAT...

Rob.

yes fuel is getting more expensive, you could start riding everywhere on a bike. i use to cycle 10 miles to work and then back at the end of a shift. take pack lunches to college with you. drive more economically and ask mac donalds to make a drive thru on the A420 where the A338 joins it then that will save some of your drives to abingdon

You could also look at doing an advance driving course, SAFED (Safe and Fuel Efficent Driving) course (or find someone who will teach ya). You migfht also want to think what will you do if you need to replace a tyre or have a repair on your car if you are already having money issues with the fuel? or look at getting a motorbike/scooter as they are great on mpg.

It's disgusting that we are taxed TWICE on fuel, duty (which is fixed) then VAT (standard 17.5%).

So the more the price goes up, the more the government get.

A 1p increase gets the government an EXTRA 0.175p. Not much, but just look at all the litres of fuel sold every day.

they get the vat on that 1p increase extra plus the rate of duty, i'm not sure but i'm guessing its 60% so i would say 0.775p to every 1p increase on forecourt prices is revenue.

What fuel strike?

I am in Guernsey where petrol is still under a £1 per litre - spend £30 in the local supermarket and they given you a voucher for 10p off per litre - so there's your answer - move to the channel islands!* Cost under £50 to fill an Octy vrs petrol up from empty.

*Might not be the best advice either given the average open market property is £3.5 million :(

But seriously, I think the UK has a lot to be learned from Guernsey - which is not classed as being under the EU. There are only 98 people currently unemployed on the island, sin tax (beer, fags etc) is massively cheaper and everything in the shops is duty free - money is gained from income tax only - which has a flat rate of 11% (I think, need to look this one up to be sure)