Fuel Pricing
myke pocock - 21/11/16 at 07:23 PM
Can anyone give me a valid reason why the price of petrol and diesel are about equal (or even lower for diesel) when prices drop but as soon as they
rise again there's a difference of a few pence with diesel being higher?
A1 - 21/11/16 at 09:55 PM
Something tax related maybe? Or refining costs?
Matt21 - 22/11/16 at 08:09 AM
Diesel should be cheaper as far as I know, it is a lot easier to make.
It always used to be a fair bit cheaper than petrol, then everyone started to buy diesel cars and guess what? the price crept up...
I'd say there are more diesel cars than petrol on the roads now so when they get an excuse for fuel prices to rise they but diesel up more and
rake in the profits. If they still have a cheap price for petrol then it may make people think it's a cheap petrol station, even though
they're buying diesel.
End of the day they can do what they want with the price. If you need fuel you're going to have to pay what they charge 
[Edited on 22/11/16 by Matt21]
dinosaurjuice - 22/11/16 at 08:50 AM
From what i understand the price difference is nearly entirely supply and demand. Both petrol and diesel now go through almost equal amounts of
processing from crude. Amazing how cheap it is without tax 
nick205 - 22/11/16 at 09:04 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Matt21
End of the day they can do what they want with the price. If you need fuel you're going to have to pay what they charge
[Edited on 22/11/16 by Matt21]
sadly that's true!
If you need to drive you'll have to pay the price they charge. I know people who drive further to get fuel £0.01 / litre cheaper. When you try
and explain to them they've spent more in fuel getting there than they've saved they look at you blankly
morcus - 22/11/16 at 06:16 PM
I wouldn't be surprised if the gap gets even bigger as diesel is now the enemy after a good few years being the solution.
I know people who go out of there way to buy cheaper fuel and rush out to fill up when they think fuel is going to go up but you really won't
save any money doing it unless you were going that way anyway.
big_wasa - 22/11/16 at 07:13 PM
I am sure they are getting more petrol from the crude than they used to.
Matt21 - 23/11/16 at 11:22 AM
big engined used cars are the way forward!
I bought a bmw 330ci coupe a few years back, at the time it was £3400 (I was looking at a 330cd, same mileage etc £7500)
So effectively I had £1100 of 'free' fuel
I worked it out after 2.5yrs of ownership and I still hadn't spent that!
yet people would pay the £7500 thinking they get 45-50mpg so it is better and cheaper...
Mr Whippy - 23/11/16 at 01:18 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Matt21
big engined used cars are the way forward!
I bought a bmw 330ci coupe a few years back, at the time it was £3400 (I was looking at a 330cd, same mileage etc £7500)
So effectively I had £1100 of 'free' fuel
I worked it out after 2.5yrs of ownership and I still hadn't spent that!
yet people would pay the £7500 thinking they get 45-50mpg so it is better and cheaper...
Hmm that's like folk at my work who buy a £40,000 car cos it does 20mpg better than their old car (so the sales brochure claims) but they've
lost masses in deprecation and are stuck with huge monthly repayments. Amazes me the amount of money folk around me are spending on their cars, worst
are the rental nonsense deals where they end up with nothing at the end.
As for fuel costs, it's just a tax fiddle and just what the government thinks they can tax us without people deciding to burn down parliament or
voting them out the next election
[Edited on 24/11/16 by Mr Whippy]
Slimy38 - 23/11/16 at 01:38 PM
This is how I see the difference between petrol and diesel, this is just one example of many (taken from What Car);
quote:
As an example, the Fiat 500 diesel does nearly 14mpg more than its 1.2 petrol sister, but its purchase price is £2400 higher. On economy alone,
owners would need to cover more than 130,000 miles in the diesel before the fuel economy/purchase price equation levels out. Once servicing costs are
factored in, the petrol car builds its advantage, ending up more than £900 cheaper to run over three years or 36,000 miles.
nick205 - 23/11/16 at 05:28 PM
Can't drive right now, but personally I prefer a decent diesel over petrol for day to day road driving. Amazing tops speeds and lightening
acceleration can't be used on the road anyway.
BenB - 23/11/16 at 05:39 PM
Might the pricing difference be due to the fact that diesel is also used for heating etc? As far as I'm aware petrol is used for fueling cars and
Vaseline and that's about it 