Just thought this might be worth discussing.

:soapbox:

It does not seem very long ago (less than 12 months) that fuel was between £0.85 and £0.90 per litre.

There was a lot of hoo haa before xmas when it went through the £1 barrier, but since then it seems to be steadily rising and not really attracting much press heat for it.

In the last 12 months I would estimate that fuel has increased in price by 25%

Surely this cannot continue!!

Last time fuel was below 90p round here was back in December 2005 when it briefly dipped to 89.9p (after peaking at 97.9p in September 2005).

Chris

There was a lot of hoo haa before xmas when it went through the £1 barrier, but since then it seems to be steadily rising and not really attracting much press heat for it.

In the last 12 months I would estimate that fuel has increased in price by 25%

Surely this cannot continue!!

It can and it will. We're well into the Northern Hemisphere winter now when oil traditionally goes up though mostly heavier heating oils.

£1 was a phsychological barrier that's why prices were held at 99.9p for a long time. The human brain sees a big differernce between 99 and 100 even if it doesn't exist. Now that we are through the 100p barrier it is much easier for them to put it higher and stupidly easier for our brains to accept.

110p will be the next sticky point for normal petrol but since we're racing through that with diesel already I doubt things will slow down much until we get to 200p.

The oild price is high enough now for teh oils companies to look at extracting more expensive to get to crude. The dregs of old oil fields are being worked on (I think about 33% of oil gets left in but I'm not sure) and deep water oil is being investigated in the Gulf of Mexico and the West coast of Scotland.

So I think we'll have oil for the forseeable future but it is never going to get cheaper.

Personally I think the future will still be with the ICE but probably using bioethanol. I saw a plan to use large bioreactors (big coils of clear tubes) filled with algae engineered to produce alcohol. You can stack them out in the desert so that you get the ethanol crop but without using arable farmland.

Using Palm oil and corn isn't sustainable.

I don't like paying for fuel any more than anyone else, but it's gone up slower than some things. I got my driving licence in 1987 and the cheapest petrol I've ever put in a car was £1.60 a gallon. It's now almost exactly three times that. But the flat I bought for £68,000 in 1989 is now worth more than three times that much, while the job I had back then, paying me £11,000 at that time after 2 years in post, would currently stand at about £28,000. Can't remember what beer and bread cost back then! But it looks to me as if fuel has only gone up by about the rate of inflation, or not very much more.

What has definitely gone down in real terms is the cost of second-hand cars. I've bought 7 or 8 cars since then, most of them for around £300 - most recently a lovely low-mileage Favorit for £350. I think people are all too scared of old cars these days!

I think people are all too scared of old cars these days!

I suspect EuroNCAP plays a big part in that, especially after reading the comments on the Saxo thread.

Chris

Last time fuel was below 90p round here was back in December 2005 when it briefly dipped to 89.9p (after peaking at 97.9p in September 2005).

Chris

:eek: I bought diesel for 89.9p in September 2007. That price was held for a good few weeks according to my records. Saying that, fuel always seems cheaper round here than other areas, Last week it was 105.9 at my local, but when I was in Rotherham prices seemed to be more around the 108.9-110.9.

I don't think the fuel price is ever going to drop below £1 again unfortunately, unless the government heavily cut the tax on it. I'm surprised there hasn't been more people prosecuted for running their cars on red diesel recently given the price hikes.

:eek: I bought diesel for 89.9p in September 2007. That price was held for a good few weeks according to my records. Saying that, fuel always seems cheaper round here than other areas, Last week it was 105.9 at my local, but when I was in Rotherham prices seemed to be more around the 108.9-110.9.

I don't think the fuel price is ever going to drop below £1 again unfortunately, unless the government heavily cut the tax on it. I'm surprised there hasn't been more people prosecuted for running their cars on red diesel recently given the price hikes.

Snap I can remember it being under 90p for derv last year at shell and that was around September time as I can remember comparing prices to elsewhere in Europe.

Certainly was 92.9p ish per litre at one point in October, so the increase over 3 months to £108.9 is just a joke. Especially when other countries it is 107.9 Euro!!

Snap I can remember it being under 90p for derv last year at shell and that was around September time as I can remember comparing prices to elsewhere in Europe.

Certainly was 92.9p ish per litre at one point in October, so the increase over 3 months to £108.9 is just a joke. Especially when other countries it is 107.9 Euro!!

Exactly my point - an increase of nearly 20 pence per litre inside 4 months - 20% increase? With inflation running at just over 2%

Something is not right! :thumbdwn:

i paid 108.9 p a ltr at the nearest shell station to me the other night...

VPOWER that is.. so if anyone knows any other shell's that are cheaper in sheffield region... give us a shout

The big rise recently was partly due to the 4p tax increase that "£$% head Brown had been with holding for a couple of years.

The big rise recently was partly due to the 4p tax increase that "£$% head Brown had been with holding for a couple of years.

And there is another one due in April.

The big rise recently was partly due to the 4p tax increase that "£$% head Brown had been with holding for a couple of years.

That would have been the 2p a litre rise - the other 15p has been because of the petrol companies yet you still think the government is more to blame.

And there is another one due in April.

I'd bet very good money on that not happening.

That would have been the 2p a litre rise - the other 15p has been because of the petrol companies yet you still think the government is more to blame.

2p ? thought there were two 2p increments last year ?

BBC NEWS | Business | Oil falls on US slowdown worries

Just as we say it. Crude is dropping fast and may drop further if the US economy goes titsup.

Any bets on when this will translate to a drop at the pumps...

BBC NEWS | MARKET DATA

we'll never see it! lol

BBC NEWS | Business | Oil falls on US slowdown worries

Just as we say it. Crude is dropping fast and may drop further if the US economy goes titsup.

Any bets on when this will translate to a drop at the pumps...

BBC NEWS | MARKET DATA

Bearing in mind the real price of crude in GB£ hasn't increased much due to the weakness of the US$, I can't see us seeing any savings now they have bent us over.

Shell is the cheapest round my way at 100.9 compared to 102.9 for the BP literally across the road.

I'm getting 42 mpg on my Felly. Fill up usually near empty, £42 per full tank.

Most places round here are 107.9 or 108.9 for derv.

The Texaco down the road from me is 110.9p I thought that was outrageous when it went up to that about 4 weeks ago but everyone else is slowly catching them up.

One place is also doing BP ultimate for 116.9p :eek:

One place I use regularly has seen a 2p/litre rise in about 10 days.

It will carry on going up....I know I have said it before BUT in 3 years time the people on this planet will be using more oil than they can produce..........it will be going up in £s per litre then so make the most of it being cheap at the moment.

Seeing as oil PRODUCTION is slowing down (peak oil) and oil DEMAND is going up it's inevitable that prices will continue to rise. There may be some small fluctuations in price but the general trend will be upwards.

The rises will get more dramatic as more oil producing countries hit the dreaded 'peak oil' scenario and have no choice but to throttle back the production of the black stuff.

Short of finding some absolutely massive fields of good quality crude oil in the near future things are looking bleak.

Glad someone brought this up, i have set my barrier at 120p a litre. Once it hits that i'm selling the octy vrs and buying a smaller diesel car. I just cant afford to run it, im spending about £80-100 a week on fuel.

I am paying on average 108p a litre for VPower at the moment.

108p! i paid 112p a litre yesterday for v-power it seems to go up every week!!!! I spend about £60 a week at the moment.

I fill up 3-4 times a week and at £58 a fill up it's getting silly.

It has got to the stage where I'll be changing jobs if fuel doesn't stabilise.