More economical driving and riding

You're making jokes about handbags. **** off.

 

131.9 at my usual garage, but the legendary Total in Southfields is
already charging 139.9 for regular unleaded. The cheeky cunts.

 

heh

I was expecting "the darsy retort".

 

They do it because people are too lazy or stupid to go somewhere
cheaper.

As I've already said, my fuel costs, despite going up, are nowhere
near high enough to make me change the way I ride or drive, but there's
no way I'll use a petrol station that is taking the piss on prices,
especially when there are ones that are far cheaper within just a few
miles.

 

Curiously the Shell garage have dropped their LPG by 5p / litre since
last week. 130.9 for unleaded, 75.9 for LPG.

 

That's all very well if you have plenty of competing options. I'm sure
things are a bit more difficult if you live in the back of beyond.

 

I'm sure they are.

 

plus those on expenses get more promo points[1] if they buy dearer petrol


[1] if the points are by the £ not the litre

 

Still ends up over the £600 mark when you add in the controller and
battery pack.

Have to say I quite like the look of the Golden Motor super thin
"Printed Motor"(disc shaped copper windings 4 layers, 2mm thickness).
That certainly looks innovative.

url:http://www.goldenmotor.com/frame22.htm
Scroll down to the bottom with "Super Thin Printed Motors" link.

My "three days in a row of sunshine and warmth" rule for taking the
bicycle out means any further investigation will have to wait until
about June at the rate the cold wind keeps blowing ;-) .

 

Every cloud and all that. Apparently oil prices have dropped due to
the Japanese earthquake.
http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/121635/20110311/oil-japan-earthquake-brent-crude-benchmark-crude.htm

 

You do not understand the problem.
The oil companies charge garages according to a sliding scale based
on sales per month. A typical small or rural garage can easily end
up buying at more than supermarket selling prices. They typically
make a GROSS profit of between 2 and 3 pence per litre which is
why so many have closed down ver the last 10 years.

The people really taking the piss are motorway services who can buy
at rock bottom rates because they move enormous quantities but still
charge top whack plus because they have a monopoly.

 

IDGAF about how much fuel the petrol stations sell, or where they get
it from and what they pay for it.

What I'm saying is that in a relatively small radius there can be
several petrol stations with prices differences of up to 5p/litre -
maybe more.

And what I don't really understand is why, if, in general, more and
more people are admitting to driving more slowly or more smoothly to
get better fuel consumption, that the more expensive stations don't
seem to be any less busy.

 

Price per litre isn't the only factor though. I drive past an Esso & a BP
on the way to Cardiff. Deviation off my route is a few metres in each case.
I also have the option of using Tesco and might save 2p a litre and get
some Clubcard points. I also have to drive 0.5 mile off the A48 into Tesco
and 0.5 mile back out, queuing at the trafic lights each way. This doesn't
make any sense unless I'm actually going into Tesco to shop.

Driving more smoothly is something that can be done which does not affect
journey times in any big way. I've found that driving to Portsmouth and
cruising at 75 mph does not affect my journey time compared to going as
high as 85-90. I spend more time at 75 mph and less at 60 mph as I don't
catch up so many bottlenecks on the M4 & A34. Fuel consumption improves by
"some". I'm also less stressed when I get to the destination, although the
climate comtrol is a big factor with that too.

 

The back of beyond!! Get a fucking clue, this is not the Australian
outback where it is 200 miles between pubs. This is one crowed little
fucking island (plus a few bits) where everything is no more than 10
minutes away.

 

I must remember to tell my parents that, it'll give 'em a good laugh.

 

Absolutely. You may care to argue, or not, that different driving
styles, or magnets, or cyclone technology can do much to reduce the cost
you pay for this and you may be right. To single out petrol use is both
wrong and very understandable. You only buy insurance once a year and
despite the fact it continues to go up regardless of how careful you are
or how old you get or how much effort you put into neighbourhood watch you
only see the bill once a year and having once again spent sufficient time
that you could have earned the cash equivalent of half a dozen blow jobs
to get a pound off the anger passes. Somebody has to pay for all the
roads you want to lose your licenses on, the costs of these go up on an
inflation + whim of the taxman basis. The costs to the NHS of people now
approaching retirement who are suffering premature brain damage from a
lifetime of breathing lead with every breath. The cost to every consumer
in the whole world of tackling the effects of excessive C02 in the
atmosphere. The subsidy given by government to foreign car manufacturers
to keep a few jobs in a place that would be best left a ghost town
anyway.. The money spent in legal aid defending scrap metal merchants
from attempts by the VAT man to make them pay their dues. The list of the
real costs of motoring is almost endless but the only one that jumps up
and slaps us round the face a hundred or more times every year is the raw
cost of the fuel. If you want to save money on motoring the only way to
do it is to stop doing it, a light right foot is not the answer and you
all know it.

 

I wonder what the economics of going say just 5 miles of route & back
for 3ppl cheaper really are.

Only if you're a senile old gimmer with attention span of a goldfish.

 

Speak for yourself, EssexMan. We don't have no truck with crows
hereabouts:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellyukrm/5044932937/sizes/l/

 

I certainly used to when you got gift promotions from BP and I had a
fuel card. If it's more expensive, them it must be better

 

I just spoke to a mate from Bishop's Cleeve. He spends about £100 a week on
fuel which he puts on a 1% cashback credit card. His employer then pays the
credit card bill. Mostly he uses Tesco so gets about 5000 Clubcard points
each year. He can convert those into £150 of vouchers to spend in shops,
Eurotunnel etc. So, he nets about £200 in his pocket for doing **** all
apart from put fuel in his company car.