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What's going on. The normally highly competitive supermarkets are jacking up their prices to the extent that they're really no cheaper than anywhere else and more expensive than some. Yesterday Mrs V filled up with Esso @ 81.9p. (diesel 85.9) whilst a couple of miles down the road, the nearest Tesco was charging 86.9p. The most expensive we came across on our very short trip was 89.9p. An 8p per litre difference equating to 36p per gallon!!
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I've noticed the BP in Windsor has gone from 85.9 to 88.9 in a week. Diesel hasn't moved at 90.9, which is slightly odd. Esso down the road is 86.9.
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Diesel (aka heating oil) price usually drops in the summer as domestic/industrial demand falls whereas petrol demand/price increases with holiday motoring.
Doesn't seem to be happening this year, though!
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Tesco are knocking 5p per litre off if you spend £50 in store so maybe that part explains it. My local Sainsburys (Staines) is 87.9p for diesel but 2 miles away (Egham) I can get Shell for the same price.
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Around here (between Bicester and Warwick) BP always seems to be the most expensive with Shell not far behind.
Esso on the otherhand always seems to be reasonable.
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Yep, that could be a reason but I don't recall their petrol being more expensive than elsewhere when the 5p off offer has been on in the past. In fact, a few months ago I was buying diesel and petrol at Sainsburys which was already 3-4p cheaper than elsewhere and still getting the 5p discount.
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BP were the cheapest of the ones I passed last night- Murco and what I assumed to be Q8 were 95.9 for Diesel with BP 90.9 for regular Diesel.
Didn't go past any of the supermarkets so couldn't compare. Also noticed the BP a few miles from town (between Weston Super Mare and Burnham on Sea) was also 90.0 for Derv.
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The Texaco station near me (newcastle under lyme) is selling regular unleaded for 83.9 and diesel for 86.9.
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Shell Watford 81.9p Petrol
ASDA Watford 79.9p Petrol
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Price fixing?.Where i live there are five petrol stations,Esso,Shell,Tesco,BP, etc. But funnily enough they always charge the same amount as each other(petrol 85.9/diesel 90.9).Talk about a cartel.
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Agree with Mark re BP. In this part of the country (Norfolk/Suffolk) BP are always more expensive than rivals.
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Around Bath I've not noticed much price difference. But I try and use BP Ultimate diesel, Megane seems a bit smoother with it.
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Always no contest between my two locals - BP & Esso.
Esso invariably at least 2p litre cheaper.
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The reasons are simple:
world demand for oil is rising 6% pa.. mainly the US (conservation ? whatsthat?) and China (+16% pa).
world output is rising 2.5%.
There is a squeeze.. oil prices in NY tonight are close - at - record alltime highs and the summer driving season has not started in the US..
madf
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Do these increases really make (in personal terms) any difference to the average driver?
If Volvoman's original estimation of an extra 36p per gallon is correct, then, unless I am wildly wrong, on an average maybe 40mpg car we are talking 36p extra over 40 miles?
For a *very* heavy driver maybe it might make some difference but surely most of us aren't really going to find our lives changed by that extra 36p every 40 miles or so? Any more than we might find our lives blighted by the 36p chocolate bar that we buy after driving 40 miles?
I admit to being a very light driver, but even if I wasn't I cannot imagine getting worked up about this. I have never even thought to check fuel prices when filling my car, let alone compare them with other garages - I need fuel, I get some - I'm just grateful the supply is there when I need it.
Maybe that's where I've been going wrong all this time...
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If you drive 20k a year it works out to nearly £200. On it's own it;s not a lot but over the year it works out worthwhile
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Ok forgive me if I am wrong but are you still talking about 40p per week? Yep we could all tally up our weekly charges on anything to leave us with a big annual figure (as per Mr and Mrs average in every newspaper after every budget), but with all these charges, yes it builds up, but like I said the amount we are talking here really doesn't sound that big to me. Understand what you mean about yearly charges but how many people actually wait year-by-year, compared to those who pay monthly or whatever? - surely the difference there is so small as to be too embarrassing to mention?
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A couple of pence difference a litre equates to approx £1 extra a tankful, which depending on miles/year can add up.
The point is, petrol is now consistently above the 80p/litre mark that started the protests 5 years ago!
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But pretty much everything has gone up in price over the last five years. I don't see too many people taking to the streets to riot about the increase in all our domestic gas/electricity etc costs, or anything else for that matter - so why does an increase in petrol price cause such fury? Surely it's just one of those inevitable things.
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Maybe we are starting to pay the price of the aggressive policy supermarkets had when they started to build petrol stations as an integral part of any new site.
Where I live in Cheadle, Tesco and Sainsbury on the A34 now appear to have a virtual monopoly on fuel.
In the almost ten years they have been open almost every "independent" station within a few miles radius has closed. There were 5 within 2 miles of my house, all gone. It is only the sites owned by the larger companies such as Shell that have remained open.
The end result is supermarkets can and now do, dictate what we pay for fuel and not only that, because of the shortage of sites, we have to queue longer.
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Do these increases really make (in personal terms) any difference to the average driver? If Volvoman's original estimation of an extra 36p per gallon is correct, then, unless I am wildly wrong, on an average maybe 40mpg car we are talking 36p extra over 40 miles?
Hang on HF - is this coming from a certain young lady who's been banging on about the need to run a diesel in order to secure a few extra mpg? :)
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Yup and the same one who's just bought a petrol car so na na na naaa na.:)
It's been pointed out to me that the savings on diesel as opposed to petrol, or indeed the savings from having a lower cc engine, are so minimal bearing in mind the amount I drive as to be negligible. In the same way, I would think that for someone filling up their tank with maybe £50 of petrol, the extra pound or so here or there really isn't going to make much difference. OK so over a year it might build up, but it's gradual. Even to me, I doubt an extra pound every fortnight or so is really going to move the earth.
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I put some diesel in the car yesterday as the gauge had just dropped under the quarter full.
I'd done over 450 miles. including towing a folding caravan for 180 miles, so I'm not complaining.
However, prices around Essex are now around 90p per litre but I don't expect much in the way of public reaction until it hits £1.
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Seeing the £1 tag reminded me when I had my first car in the mid 70's - just before the fuel crisis. Then I could buy 3 Gallons for 99p. That's right it was 33p a gallon. A few months later it was 54p a gallon, hard to stomach as I was a student at the time. Now we are looking towards £1.00 per litre - just a small increase (tongue in cheek mode).
I certainly believe that the media will have a blitz when fuel breaks the magical £1.00 per litre barrier. Will it be later this year? The only good thing will be that the pump prices will be back to whole pence per litre not the 0.9p increment - who do they think they are fooling anyway.
Since I bought a diesel car last August I have seen the price at the local Esso garage rise from 81.9p upto 92.9p during the winter and now drop to 87.9p. The winter rise was far greater than I expected. What urks me most is that such a large proportion of the price is tax, and most this is not spent on our road system.
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