Can't remember what I pay per litre, but it it costs me £60 ($120 ish) to fill my 2L Renault Laguna every 10 - 14 days.

Just checked and it's about 96p per litre, so if my maths is correct that works out to approx £3.63 per gallon ($7.26). Is that right?

(Edited by Teresa 28/06/2007 13:51)

Indeed, petrol prices are very high here, and in much of Europe, as I understand it. We have a big chunk of tax on petrol, for the very reasons you stated, to put people off using their cars and thus lower emissions. A lot of people are in favour of dropping regular car tax and hiking petrol prices even further, so rather than paying for having a car, you would be paying for how much you use your car.

We've got a very small car, with a very small tank (a 1.2 litre Vauxhall Corsa 3door), and it generally costs around £30 ($60) to fill the tank. Prices here in Leicester range at the moment from 97p ($1.94) a litre to 99.9p ($1.98) a litre (www.petrolprices.com is handy!).

I did a calculation, but I must be doing it wrong, because I make Teresa's 96p a litre to be £4.38 ($8.77) a gallon.

Aaaaaaand then i've just remembered that the gallons themselves are different. In a British gallon there are 4.55 litres, but in am american one there are only 3.78. Grr

Yep Teresa that's about right Which is considerably more than in the US. Therefore on average our cars are a lot smaller (therefore lighter) and more fuel economic.

Actually higher petrol costs haven't such a huge impact on getting people out of their cars as you might expect. Unless you seriously increase it (double or triple it, which is political suicide) people are not very likely to really leave the car as they mostly do not see other modes of transportation as a viable alternative. (Plus you bought the car so not using it is also a waste) As public transport is just about crap everywhere, not to mention expensive. And lets be honest most people on a weekday do not sit in a 4 mile queue to get through a pesky tunnel for the hell of it at 7 O'clock in the morning. Plus people are addicted to their cars and the "freedom" / mobility it gives them which mass transport system just cannot provide for the majority of us. Therefore people are willing to pay a lot of money to keep driving. The additional cost that people would incur would mean you would see a redistribution from leisure activities to the travel budget.

What might surprise you even more is that making public transport free doesn't actually help much either to reduce the cars on the road at rush hour. Just making it free doesn't mean that all of a sudden it becomes convenient or comfortable - which means it still won't be a viable option for the majority of people. Although research showed that the volume of travelers on public transport "exploded" when it became free the majority of these people are actually people that normally wouldn't have traveled and therefore doesn't have the impact you would expect on the number of cars on the road.

Seeing as people will always want to have a fast, flexible and personalized means of transport (they have grown accustomed to it and will want to do without) I don't see the car disappear any time soon in favor of mass transport solutions. However individual transport solutions can definitely be further optimized. From alternative / bio fuels to further automation can certainly improve things a lot. I can't wait till self driven cars for motorway traffic become available and they get their own lane(s) (like the bus lane). No more traffic jams, relaxed and very fuel economic. Ashame you have the same chicken / egg problem as with bio fuel with the self driven car. As nobody is going to buy an expensive self driven car until the lanes are available and the lanes won't be made available until the cars are there. I'm afraid this will require some visionary work from the government..... so I guess thats another idea down the drain.

(Edited by Chambler 28/06/2007 16:10)

So is there any particular reason diesel has suddenly become the same price, if not cheaper, than petrol?

I couldn't live without my car no matter what it costs to run it, even 'tho I've just got home after almost killing myself in it 'cos of an exploding tyre

See journal for details.

I've got a Corsa too and get around 400 miles out of about £36-£37. Petrol in the US was about half the price it is here when I was over a few weeks ago, but the fuel consumption on the car was so bad that I reckon the cost per mile was probably about the same!

Thanks for the responses, everyone. From what you're stating, what I've been hearing is about right. Petrol is about twice as expensive there as it is here, in general. You seem to be paying between $7.00 to $8.00 per gallon, after all the conversions are made.

Gas prices are rising here. As I said, they're about twice as expensive now as a couple of years ago. But $8.00 per gallon? I can't say it won't get to that point. But if it does, I have no idea what that would mean. We have a huge country with no well developed mass transit system. We also have cars that don't get very good gas mileage, on the whole--and a government that has been reluctant to mandate really meaningful increases in how far a car must be able to go on a gallon of fuel. We also have a large percentage of the public that is in love with huge cars and SUVs.

A lot of changes need to be made here, and a lot of people have to be educated. There has been an attempt to tell people they should drive smaller cars, hybrids, take buses and trains when they can, because it's good for the environment. And a lot of people have responded. But there's nothing like making gasoline so expensive that people have no choice but to drive less or buy cars that don't cost them a week's pay to fill up. I agree with Chambler that fuel has to be much more expensive to make a difference. But we'ere already double the price of a couple of years ago-even though that's still low by European standards. Long before gas got to the price of $7.00 per gallon, people would be marching and rioting in the streets. Well, maybe not. But something drastic would happen.

I have a 1999 Saturn SL2. As I mentioned upthread, it's not a large car. And one of the reasons I bought it is because, it got what I thought was pretty good gas mileage compared to what else was available at the time that I was able and willing to buy. (By the way, when you buy a Saturn--at least this used to be the case--the company policy was that the whole sales team at the dealership would gather in a circle around you and your new car and sing to you. Really. As I was walking out of the sales office to pick up my car, I said to the salesperson with me, "OK, you people aren't going to sing to me, are you?" He just looked at me and smiled. I told him they could skip it. I think he was relieved.) But the Saturn weirdness aside, I thought I was being good in buying the car. But I'm certainly not going 400 miles on a tank of fuel, like DJ Billy is doing in his Corsa. So the next time I buy a car (and that's not anytime soon if I can help it), I'm hoping there will be much better options.

Still, like Teresa, I can't see giving up my car no matter how much gas costs. But it sure would change the way I use the car if it gets too expensive. No more driving trips across the country to California by myself. I'd need to get another three people in the car just to pay for it!

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by Sandia
A lot of changes need to be made here, and a lot of people have to be educated. There has been an attempt to tell people they should drive smaller cars, hybrids, take buses and trains when they can, because it's good for the environment. And a lot of people have responded. But there's nothing like making gasoline so expensive that people have no choice but to drive less or buy cars that don't cost them a week's pay to fill up.

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I think part of the reason that many people in the US drive bigger cars, with poor fuel consumption, is because they're just so cheap. When I was over there the price of US-built cars amazed me. For example you can buy a new F250, which must be as big an SUV as you'll see outside of a monster truck rally, for the same price as a basic small family car over here!

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by DJ Billy
For example you can buy a new F250, which must be as big an SUV as you'll see outside of a monster truck rally, for the same price as a basic small family car over here!

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I want one of those when I move to the US

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by DJ Billy
(quotes)

I think part of the reason that many people in the US drive bigger cars, with poor fuel consumption, is because they're just so cheap. When I was over there the price of US-built cars amazed me. For example you can buy a new F250, which must be as big an SUV as you'll see outside of a monster truck rally, for the same price as a basic small family car over here!

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I didn't know cars were that much more expensive over there as well. I only sort of knew about the petrol. If that's the case, you're right. That's also part of the "problem." It's too easy to buy a big boat and drive it around on the roads.

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by Teresa
[quotes]

I want one of those when I move to the US

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Come on over. We'd love to have you!

But no fair moving to someplace like California. That's just too easy. I'm thinking you should look into North Dakota. People are running screaming out of there like they're being chased. I'll bet big ol' F250s are really cheap up there right now.

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by Sandia
(quotes)
Come on over. We'd love to have you!

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Oh I'm working on it As is Yvonne 'tho I'm sure she'll deny it. We can't have one of us over here and the other over there

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by Sandia

I didn't know cars were that much more expensive over there as well. I only sort of knew about the petrol. If that's the case, you're right. That's also part of the "problem." It's too easy to buy a big boat and drive it around on the roads.

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in general, prices over here are similar to the US price - you just take the price in dollars, snip off the $, and replace it with £...
it was bad enough when the exchange was $1.60:£1, but now its hovering around $1.99:£1, its a bloody ripoff.

Two dollars to a pound is not so great for us either. Makes it a lot more expensive to visit the UK, although I don't know that it's stopping a lot of people yet.

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by Sandia
Two dollars to a pound is not so great for us either. Makes it a lot more expensive to visit the UK, although I don't know that it's stopping a lot of people yet.

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Which is why I'm L.A. bound in October 'cos it's cheaper for me to fly there to see people than for them to come here to see me.

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by Teresa
(quotes)

Which is why I'm L.A. bound in October 'cos it's cheaper for me to fly there to see people than for them to come here to see me.

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You must go to Los Angeles a couple of times a year. Cool. Can I have your bank account?

I really do have to go back out to California at some point and see Los Angeles. I've only been one place in the city--the train station.

I had taken the train out from New York to Seattle, because at the time I thought I'd just die if I didn't see Seattle. Go figure. There's just no explaining some things. Anyway, my California friend was in San Francisco. So I took the train from Seattle down there and hung out with her for a few days. Then, I had to go home.

There are four major train (Amtrak) routes that go east-west across the US. I had just taken the northern one out from New York to Seattle. I had taken the route from San Francisco to New York on a previous trip. So I decided to take one of the southern routes back home, just to see different scenery. That meant going to Los Angeles to get the train back East. So, I got to roll up to the LA train station on the bus. Then I got out of the bus and went into the train station. Then I got on the train to come home. That's it. My whole LA experience.

But, thinking back on it, one thing did make the trip worthwhile. The scenery on the Los Angeles to New York route didn't turn out to be as interesting as I thought it would be. But I got a welcome surprise along the way. Amtrak has (at least it used to have; don't know about now with budget cuts) "guides" that ride the train at certain parts of the route to give talks on the history or culture of the land you see rolling by outside the train windows. On this route, a Navajo Indian guide gets onto the train and rides a large part of the route through New Mexico. And since the route passes through the Navajo Reservation for quite a distance, the Navajo person (we had a woman) describes what you're seeing outside the train--buildings, settlements, historical sites, landforms--in terms of the history and culture of the Navajo people. I really loved it, and it made the trip to Los Angeles to pick up the train worth the trouble. Ok, end of off-topic story. I just think of stuff--and I like to share.

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by Teresa
Oh I'm working on it As is Yvonne 'tho I'm sure she'll deny it. We can't have one of us over here and the other over there

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Don't marry me off just yet! It's scary enough that I'm going over there to spend Thanksgiving with his family (apparently we're all going away to a big lake somewhere on the actual day), without you wishing ex-pat status on me! lol

Back on topic - petrol prices are shite.