Fuel at 2 euros per litre ?

[Don]

OK, so it is not there yet but with predictions of $200 oil price looming, would a forecourt price of mas o menos 2 euros per litre change the way you drive or what you buy to drive ? And yes in old money that would be getting close to 10 pounds a gallon!

I am sure diesel has already doubled in price per litre here in the past few years and in general fuel here is not that far behind UK prices with the current exchange rate.

Spain seems to be introducing more speed cameras week by week and has just brought in the new penal code but still I see everyday big thirsty cars with pedal to the metal.

[Campo Kenny]

To turn the topic on its head I'd like to mention an article I read that compared average earnings to fuel prices from 20 years ago......suprisingly in relation it's cheaper now believe it or not.

A point of my own I'd mention is also the economy of the modern engine.
It's not unheard of now for family hatches to hit close to 70mpg which was only something you saw on Tomorrows world back then and costing a million quid!
Even the big luxury motors will deliver outstanding mpg coupled with brutal performance compared to say the Jaguar of 20 odd years back i.e. 14mpg and sluggish performance. All in all I'd doubt the price increases are as outrageous as we'd believe, although the UK governments slice of tax on a litre is a real annoyance to most.

As for dictating what I drive the answer to your question would be no, it won't alter how or what I drive, but if they keep up the onslaught on RFL duties in the UK it might.

Cheers,

Kenny

[Kmoppz]

I have this year downgraded my car partly due to fuel, but more to do with RFL.

Went from an Audi S4 4.2 V8 to a Mitsubishi L200 diamond... big change, and as an aside... it is much easier to keep the right side of the speed limit too

[Don]

OK, true about modern cars being more efficient although I used to get 28 mpg out of my 3.4 Mk2 Jag back in the 70s but thought that too expensive for me at the time. Now I could afford it and was looking at the Range Rover Sport TDV6 which returns a healthy 9 to 10 l/100 km according to my neighbour who has one as a second car but the prospect of forking out 100 euros or more for each tankful is thought provoking. So far I havent been influenced in my buying by the RFL or equivalent here although I have just found out that the annual tax here for a bike just under 1000 cc is a third of the tax for a bike just over 1000 cc, so that is another reason to stick with what I have and not go for a new 1050 cc. As for the speed limit, that is where I find cruise control most useful as it is so easy to creep up and up and ................ flash. Since "going diesel" in the car, I have played with fuels, speeds etc and even at today's price the difference on a 400 km run between being very light footed and getting 5 l/100km and rather heavy footed and getting 6 l/100 km is only 4 litres or just under 5 euros.

2 euros a litre sounds horrendous (and the possibility of that in 2008 even more so) but how high would it have to go to really change our behaviour, I wonder.

[Cassandra]

Well it'll give me the perfect excuse to buy another roadster. I really missed my mazda eunos when we moved here but when we were in England last week I saw the perfect replacement - a Daihatsu Copen. Small but perfectly formed, unlike me, economical, low tax 'cos it's only 1.3 but it's soooo tiny it still goes fast Best of all, no room for kids, drum kits, dogs, shopping ('cept for bling) and OH will leave it alone 'cos he's scared of roadsters

[Don]

We had a Spanish professor in last year discussing energy efficiency in general and he had an interesting point. Because the unit efficiency of cars is getting better, we (as society in general) are choosing to buy the bigger cars because we can now afford to run them when we could not afford to run them at their previous inefficiency. Therefore in his view, although the unit efficiency was getting better, our buying preferences meant that the overall fleet efficiency was not.

When I used to run a Range Rover for work I only got 9 to 12 mpg from it and there was no way I would run one as a personal car, only when it was paying for itself. But now a new TDV6 diesel Range Rover can return around 30 mpg it would be viable as a personal car despite the fact that it would be twice as thirsty as the smaller car I currently drive.

[Retro P]

OK, so it is not there yet but with predictions of $200 oil price looming, would a forecourt price of mas o menos 2 euros per litre change the way you drive or what you buy to drive ? And yes in old money that would be getting close to 10 pounds a gallon!

I am sure diesel has already doubled in price per litre here in the past few years and in general fuel here is not that far behind UK prices with the current exchange rate.

Spain seems to be introducing more speed cameras week by week and has just brought in the new penal code but still I see everyday big thirsty cars with pedal to the metal.

Don't know what level of maths you reached at school Don, but a gallon of fuel at 2 euros per litre will never equate to "ten pounds in old money"
or new money for that matter!
Might be closer to six!!

[Don]

Don't know what level of english you reached Retro but "getting close to" does not mean the same as "equate". If you take exactly 2 euros per litre at todays exchange rate, then a gallon would be costing you just over 7.26 pounds. As fuel prices in the UK seem to be already around 1.20 pounds per litre then even your maths would tell you that 2.20 pounds per litre is on the cards later this year.

To help you on the last bit 2.20 per litre = 9.988 pounds per gallon.

[Retro P]

7.26 isn't close to ten is it? not even if you're thick See my comments on missiles!

[Don]

... not even if you're thick See my comments ...

Enough said.