Price of Petrol in your country?

[Harrison]

The price of petrol has slowly been rising again in the UK over the past year.

After protests the average price of petrol did drop to about £0.87 per litre to begin with, but now the average is back up and the cheapest I've seen it in my area in the south of England is £0.96 this month. And some places in Cornwall were over £1 a litre!

So it would be interesting to see roughly what the price per litre is in other parts of Europe, and the rest of the world.

What makes me laugh is that in the USA they have been complaining about their petrol prices which are on average about $3 a gallon! That works out at about $0.79 a litre, or about £0.40 a litre in british pounds (US Gallon is much smaller than imperial gallon, as is the case with most things American ).

[AlexJ]

A useful tool for those that live in the UK is www.petrolprices.com where you give your postcode and it'll give you the 5 cheapest petrol outlets in your area. The website even creates a Google Map thingy showing the location of the stations. You can also have it send the details to you by email once a week.

In my area it's 94.9p for both fuels, a change as diesel has been more expensive than petrol for a while now.

[Demon Cleaner]

We were one of the countries where it used to be cheapest, and I guess we still are, but since 3-4 years now, the price has increased a lot here too. But it's "still" at 1.16€ which is 0.77£.

We have a lot of gas stations around our borders which are overfilled with foreigners coming from Belgium, France and Germany, as they have a lot higher prices.

I found a price guide for Europe at Aral, which is here. Just chose the country and click on the button.

[Teho]

I just filled up my tank with diesel this morning, at kr10.52 per litre. That's £0.87 per litre. Petrol has always been a krone or two more expensive than the diesel, but I never look at the price of that anymore anyway so can't tell what it was this morning.

[Submeg]

1.25 AUD so thats what? 0.53?

[Harrison]

So it looks like the UK is being screwed as usual then, being the most expensive anywhere!

I did a search on petrolprices.com and the cheapest could find in my area is 94.9p which is 2p a litre cheaper than my two nearest garages, but by the time I've driven to the cheaper one I would have spent more on petrol getting there.

And then we have the rise in car tax coming next year, so any car with a large engine is going to have to pay over £400 a year in car tax. It definitely isn't the answer to traffic congestion. You will just get even more people on the roads without tax or insurance than we already have (already estimated at over 10% of all cars).

[AlexJ]

And then we have the rise in car tax coming next year, so any car with a large engine is going to have to pay over £400 a year in car tax. It definitely isn't the answer to traffic congestion. You will just get even more people on the roads without tax or insurance than we already have (already estimated at over 10% of all cars).

The current car tax is a useless system when it comes to this environmental/congestion business because it doesn't take into account the fact that many performance cars are only used at the weekend. That's not to say I want to see PAYG road-pricing either because that system, aside from costing an absolute fortune to implement, allows the operator to track exactly where you're going (and as such see the regular trip you make to work, see which school you take your kids, see which gym you're a member of, see which sports team you support etc.) and also by timing the journey and and measuring distance it can work out your speed and bang, instant fine issued each time you exceed the limit.

The obvious answer would be to scrap the tax and add it onto the cost of fuel. I know this makes fuel even more expensive but at least it's fair depending on the miles you do and means you're not being tracked.

Saying that, I'm still quite sceptical about this whole environmental thing. There a lot of bad science being thrown about by people and people making tiny insignificant changes. There's a bloody great big ball of fire in the sky, that despite being some 90 million miles away that when it's visable makes it warm, and at night when it's not can make the temperature drop by 20 degrees C. A couple of degrees C change could easily be just the effect of the sun. That's not to say we shouldn't waste resources but when someone got all hung up over the fact I use shower gel instead of a more environmentally friendly plasticbottle-free soap bar as if I was single-handedly killing the planet, I do start to wonder what we're coming to.

[Harrison]

PAYG is really already in place if you consider the amount of tax we already pay on fuel, so we are already in effect paying tax on every mile we drive based on the fuel we are using.

I think the whole point of car tax has become forgotten. The original point of it was to pay for the upkeep of our roads, while at the same time being a way to register a car as being on the road and who owns it.

The government are approaching the whole problem of traffic congestion from completely the wrong direction. They are just focusing on trying to reduce the volume of traffic on the roads, as well as the types of vehicle being driven, without actually looking at why so many people are actually driving cars in the first place. The answer is a lack of decent public transport at affordable prices that is convenient to use and accessible to all, not just those living in central cities.

For city congestion, park and ride is definitely the best solution. I use this every time I got to Brighton as it saves a lot of hassle trying to park, and it gets you directly into the centre of the city without a problem. It is also inexpensive compared to parking in the actual city centre and you don't have to worry about parking tickets expiring, traffic wardens, or very expansive parking charges. In this respect introducing inner city charges for cars is a good idea as it should force most to use park and ride or public transport to get into the city centres. This is one thing I am for, as long as it is done sensibly. They do need to consider people working in a city and their need to drive into the city for work related activities. Being able to apply for a special exemption if you work in a city centre would be a good idea so that city congestion charges only force people living and working outside of the city to leave their cars outside of the city.

[Stephen Coates]

I can't remember how much it is here. I'll check next time I go past a petrol station.

I do wish tat they would either incres the cost of petrol by 0.1 pence or reduce the cost by 0.9 pence though.
I really don't see the point in petrol costing something like 97.9 pence per litre. Just 97 or 98 would be much better.

[Harrison]

That is because saying something costs 97.9p instead of 98p sounds cheaper.