£6/gallon £1.32/litre are you using your car less?

[Famine]

Do you have yearly road tax/licence costs in Holland too like in UK?
This also breaks my bank account. And it's shockingly proportioned to CO2 emissions rather than particulates. So my tiny city car costs twice as much to tax each year than a massive diesel MPV. Grrr.

Bit of a scam, that one. It's not related to CO2 emissions at all, but your manufacturer-stated combined fuel economy, reverse calculated using an assumed stoichiometric air-fuel ratio to work out how much CO2 is emitted at that economy. The metric is different for diesel, bizarrely.


Incidentally, that does mean, yes, that you pay for VED based on your fuel economy, fuel duty based on your fuel economy and VAT on fuel (and on the duty too) based on your fuel economy. Triple tax for the win.

 

[McLaren]

About $3.37/gal here. Using my car WAY less since I don't have a job but need to drive it to school.

Must be that fancy Pittsford gasoline. Only $3.25 here.

Gas is up to $3.45 here in West Michigan, but I'm not complaining. An extra $5 a week will not break the bank. Even though my average fuel economy has taken a nose dive with the cold weather, I'm still going more than a week on a single tank. Maybe when it gets up above $5 or more a gallon, I'll maybe think about complaining.

Creeping up on 4 dollars/gallon here in CA. FTS. seriously. diesel is already 4.15...

Just paid $3.39 here in So. Illinois for 87. Premium is usually like a quarter more. I'll have to fill the Civic up tomorrow, too.

You poor bastards. Well, except for Toronado unless I get a 10 cent discount.


$3.30 here for premium right now. Regular is at $3.15.

 

[Kievit]

Do you have yearly road tax/licence costs in Holland too like in UK?
This also breaks my bank account. And it's shockingly proportioned to CO2 emissions rather than particulates. So my tiny city car costs twice as much to tax each year than a massive diesel MPV. Grrr.

I pay about €300-400,- of road tax a year for a BMW e36. IDK how it compares to the UK though.

On the plus side, insurance for that car with a 1.6L is about €300-400,- aswell. I know insurance companies in the UK or USA are insane..

 

[blaaah]

The only good thing about UK fuel prices is it's strategic tolerance to oil prices. If the price of oil doubled overnight to well over $200 a barrel. It would cause chaos in America, but here in UK the price would be a tiny fraction increase compared to the tax we pay, it would be life as normal. If there was a worldwide Oil crisis UK would be one of the better off countries for drivers. But our food prices etc. would go up of course.

I pay about €300-400,- of road tax a year for a BMW e36. IDK how it compares to the UK though.

I suppose that is similar and a bit more than UK road tax.

 

[JCE]

To answer to OP, no, my driving hasn't been reduced. But, it does help that I am 0.7 miles 1 way from work.

In August the future wife and I are buying a house...much farther away from work.

 

[Richardrfo]

My friend hasn't stopped his needless driving even though he runs on premium, we spent Thursday night driving about for 3+ for the sake of it, even though he's getting 20-25mpg at best, drinking £25+ in a day. Luckily he works from home, otherwise working would just be paying his commute.

Criminals occasionally say thank you.

As a side note, this is actually true. I once shook hands with a guy that mugged me for about £3 in change. Just give the crazy man his money and walk on...

 

[Worst_Driver]

What ? 2.12 US $ / Litre.

Ok, I will never whine again about our petrol prices down here, which recently climbed to 1,26/litre in canadian dollars. It roughly equals to 4,78 Dollars per gallon.

BTW: 1 Canadian dollar = 1,022 US Dollar.

And to answer the OP, no I don't plan to reduce my driving....yet.

 

[Cale]

Gas here in SF is around $3.65 for the medium... Yesterday we went up to Tahoe where it was $3.80 for the same grade. My Outback gets around 20 mpg on a good week.

I thought my Outback was just a POS, but I guess not.

 

[homeforsummer]

I don't drive much in the first place so the price of fuel doesn't really bother me. I probably fill up once a month, though I'm doing 1,800 miles or so this week so I'll be spending a fair bit on fuel in the short term.

I'd mind the price of fuel even less if the other two fuel taxes that Famine mentioned didn't exist. At least a tax directly proportional to how much of a product you use is fair.

For the record, I'm averaging about 41mpg (35mpg US) and get about 250 miles from a tank.

 

[Keef]

They're charging $3.40 a gallon for regular here. Thankfully Shell has a deal with Kroger that I always take advantage of - you can use your Kroger discount card at Shell to save 10 cents per gallon. That nets me about $1.50 in savings every fill-up.

I can't worry about gas prices too much. Even on long trips, I'm lucky to net 25mpg on the highway, with an empty car. City mileage is more like 15 on a good day. My tank is 18.5 gallons and my usual fill-up is about 15 gallons. A tank is lasting me about a week now. I still love going on long trips because the RX7 is surprisingly comfortable and a joy to cruise on the highway with, except when it's time to fill up. I'll just have to save and budget for higher fuel costs.

My mom's Corolla gets great mileage. Her average, mostly city, usually sticks at 26 or more. I've managed 30 over 50 city miles while driving it before. On the highway at a 72 mph cruise the thing sat happy between 32 and 35 mpg.

EDIT: I just checked fuel prices in my area, and there's a weird difference between the north and south ends of Dayton. Everything north of Dayton is up to 20 cents cheaper than everything south of Dayton, which happens to be my end of town. It's all $3.40 down here, but go 20 miles north and it's 20 cents cheaper.

 

[Sureboss]

I pay about €300-400,- of road tax a year for a BMW e36. IDK how it compares to the UK though.

On the plus side, insurance for that car with a 1.6L is about €300-400,- aswell. I know insurance companies in the UK or USA are insane..

Looks like road tax for a 1.6 e36 is about £200/year over here. Which is about normal for a 1.6.

Car insurance has been increasing over the last couple of years in the UK, even with extra no claims, cost of car insurance is still going up.

As someone who is on the cusp of getting a first car it is a little infuriating to spend more on insurance than on a car, though at ~23, it's not as bad as if I was 17, where new 17 year old drivers have to pay around £2-3k insurance on a 1.nothing, I'll be looking at half that. They are completely random number generators though, I can insure a 1.6 Pug 306 for £400/year less than a 1.25 Fester, both with same value and miles. Given that I'll be paying more than £1.2k on insurance it's just encouraging me to wait a little while longer to get something a bit nicer and spend a little more on insurance, as I'm forking out a load anyway.

 

[Keef]

Clicky for gas prices by county. You can really see the effect of State taxes on gas prices on that map.

 

[Casio]

Hey at least there is a reason now to go to Wyoming....

In the end, I need to get to work and I need to drive. So until my weekly fuel bill is more than my weekly paycheck, then I'll keep paying. Otherwise I'd have to be one of those jerks who ride bikes or catch public transport. *shudder*

 

[Crash]

Ah ha! I knew it, I thought gas was expensive here. I paid 3.66 a gallon for premium a few days ago, and that is AFTER a 10 cent discount.

I guess I'll just have to go over to Azureman's area for cheap gas.

 

[Adamgp]

Just paid $3.85 (for 93 octane) in the NW Chicago Burbs.

And no, I'm not driving any less. I need my car to get to work.

 

[blaaah]

My car is stripped out so I save quite a bit of fuel due to considerable weight loss, but then I don't drive economically. So in the end I think I do about book average MPG. I do drive less than I did.
........
Talking of $200 barrels of oil...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/oil-price-set-to-double-if-production-is-cut-off-2226618.html

 

[Joey D]

It was $3.89 for premium today, that's $.20 more then I paid last weeks...a whole $2.40 more to fill up my car. I spend more then $2.40 on my morning cup of coffee so I'm not really concerned. When fuel breaks $5.00/gallon then I'll start to cut back, but even then it'll still only be $55-ish to fill up my car that'll run 400+ miles.

I actually don't mind higher fuel prices, it means my resale value stays up. I mean don't get me wrong, I certainly don't want to pay more but I'm trying to see the good here.

 

[Keef]

If you add up the weekly increase of $2.40 you get $125 for the year. What costs you $2.40 extra costs me $4.00 extra though...that's an extra $208 a year. The more money you make the less it seems, but for those who are living tight, every little bit counts.

For the record, the other day I filled up my workplace's Suburban. That'll be 5/8 of a tank and $107 please and thank you!

EDIT: On that website I linked they have a feature that lets you plan a trip and figure fuel costs using the least expensive stations along the way. My cost from Dayton to LA and back again? Nearly $600. All the hybrids in the world couldn't offset the tremendous carbon footprint I lay out on that trip!

 

[Joey D]

Christ, I don't even want to add up my coffee expenses then.

There are always things you can cut out or cut back on to make up the difference. $4 extra every week in fuel just means skipping a fast food joint or something. If you had to make up $20 a week that might be hard, but you could still find a way. You need fuel to run your car to get to work, so it's not really something you can cut out. And there are always ways to increase your mileage or drive less. I bet if I cut out my useless driving I could easily run a tank for two weeks.

 

[Eric.]

They're charging $3.40 a gallon for regular here. Thankfully Shell has a deal with Kroger that I always take advantage of - you can use your Kroger discount card at Shell to save 10 cents per gallon. That nets me about $1.50 in savings every fill-up.

I can't worry about gas prices too much. Even on long trips, I'm lucky to net 25mpg on the highway, with an empty car. City mileage is more like 15 on a good day. My tank is 18.5 gallons and my usual fill-up is about 15 gallons. A tank is lasting me about a week now. I still love going on long trips because the RX7 is surprisingly comfortable and a joy to cruise on the highway with, except when it's time to fill up. I'll just have to save and budget for higher fuel costs.

My mom's Corolla gets great mileage. Her average, mostly city, usually sticks at 26 or more. I've managed 30 over 50 city miles while driving it before. On the highway at a 72 mph cruise the thing sat happy between 32 and 35 mpg.

EDIT: I just checked fuel prices in my area, and there's a weird difference between the north and south ends of Dayton. Everything north of Dayton is up to 20 cents cheaper than everything south of Dayton, which happens to be my end of town. It's all $3.40 down here, but go 20 miles north and it's 20 cents cheaper.

At least Mazda was nice enough to compensate for the crap mileage of the rotary by giving you a pretty big tank.

My Civic's is like 13 gallons, and I've never put more than 8gal in the MR2. It might be 10 gallons.

 

[Keef]

Christ, I don't even want to add up my coffee expenses then.

There are always things you can cut out or cut back on to make up the difference. $4 extra every week in fuel just means skipping a fast food joint or something. If you had to make up $20 a week that might be hard, but you could still find a way. You need fuel to run your car to get to work, so it's not really something you can cut out. And there are always ways to increase your mileage or drive less. I bet if I cut out my useless driving I could easily run a tank for two weeks.

I preach about cutting out the small purchases because a lot of those go a long way, and they're so common they slip past your radar. But I'm no shining example - the other day I bought 6 pounds of gummi bears. For that previous week I was paid $92 (got lazy on Monday and went home) and within an hour off cashing the check I had spent $140 on omeprazole, a tank of gas, and gummi bears. I figured what the hell, $12 on candy won't make a difference, right? Wrong...

Eric, apparently my car was rated at 23 highway. The best I ever managed was during the summer, a whopping 26 highway. This latest trip to Philly I took with a passenger and a trunk full of luggage peaked at 23, but averaged 21.5 for the whole trip. Most of the highway driving was on cruise at 72 mph. I wonder if going 2 slower would make a difference over that distance? I'm sure idling like a boss to combat that 5 degree temperatures didn't help any lol.

 

[Thatman]

Heck no I'm not cutting down! What I am doing is driving the Eclipse more, the Lincoln slower and the Rx7 on wintery/poor weather conditions. But no no less driving for me.

 

[Eric.]

I preach about cutting out the small purchases because a lot of those go a long way, and they're so common they slip past your radar. But I'm no shining example - the other day I bought 6 pounds of gummi bears. For that previous week I was paid $92 (got lazy on Monday and went home) and within an hour off cashing the check I had spent $140 on omeprazole, a tank of gas, and gummi bears. I figured what the hell, $12 on candy won't make a difference, right? Wrong...

Eric, apparently my car was rated at 23 highway. The best I ever managed was during the summer, a whopping 26 highway. This latest trip to Philly I took with a passenger and a trunk full of luggage peaked at 23, but averaged 21.5 for the whole trip. Most of the highway driving was on cruise at 72 mph. I wonder if going 2 slower would make a difference over that distance? I'm sure idling like a boss to combat that 5 degree temperatures didn't help any lol.

My MR2 pulled off about 25mpg bringing it home at 70mph in 4th gear, turning 4500rpm.

Edit: Oh, and its still $3.39 for 87, $3.59 for premium (93) tonight.

 

[Sniffs]

notice which states are orange. Cali's blood red, and so is most of NYstate. we've got one of the higher state gas taxes.

 

[Adamgp]

notice which states are orange. Cali's blood red, and so is most of NYstate. we've got one of the higher state gas taxes.

Chicago is also blood red. We often go back and forth with California for highest in the country.

 

[nick09]

Luckily a part of my county is in a lighter orange color in NY. In the start of the winter I was amazed that WV had $2.80 gas down to $2.50. During that time gas prices in NY were $3.25. I'm pretty sure all NY'ers would be happy if we dropped the tax by 10 cents.

 

[Max Powers]

When I got my license when I was 16, back in 2001, 87 octane was $0.99 a gallon. Now it is a bit over $3.00

Yep, it was under a dollar in 2002 when I got my license, and stayed pretty cheap all through high school at least for me.

I mean, I notice when the prices rise, but since my civic gets around 30mpg it doesn't hit me too hard. If it gets above $4 per gallon this summer like predicted, maybe I'll start to notice.

If I lived in the city I would probably cut down my driving if the gas prices went up, but where I live there is nothing within walking distance, and no semblance of public transportation, so i don't have much of a choice besides driving everywhere really.

$9 per gallon is nuts though.

 

[blaaah]

So $5 a gallon seems to be a barrier point for the US, let us know how quickly it takes to get there, it might not be too long.

 

[Famine]

$9 per gallon is nuts though.

It's nearer to $8 a gallon - the OP didn't convert from Imperial to US gallons.

It's worth noting that about $5.20 of that $8 is tax.

 

[astrosdude91]

Here in Houston, I'm paying $3.08 a gallon for regular unleaded. I guess it's because since all the gasoline is refined down here, it's only an hour's drive from the oil refinery to the local gas station, so the costs are kept down. Though, I filled up the Tundra on Wednesday, and I surpassed $60 for a fill-up. And since I'm making less than 20 mpg, I'll burn through it in a week. I know gas is super expensive in Europe, but most of you guys have little city cars and diesels to get around. I've got a big thirsty V8 pick-up truck. So we'll probably be about even in the long run.

I'm really considering selling the Tundra and picking up a car. I don't need a truck since it's not like I haul anything around, I just use it to drive. My dad already parked his Ram and picked up a Celica to drive most of the time.