How does the cost of petrol affect your driving habits?

Answer 1

I must admit that I drive more efficiently ie. smoother acceleration, smoother braking and I have been monitoring the use of my cruise control to see whether I use more fuel when it is on. Usually I find that I am taking a similar amount of time to reach my destination. I own a fast car but I enjoy driving it at a less hectic rate.

Answer 2

I refuse to pay the exorbitant prices.

Having been a member of the Less Tax on Fuel lobby and demonstrated publicly with the Federation of Small Businesses, we saw the amount of support that the general public was willing to give - just about zero.

I have now bought an old milk float and charger that I can charge up on the cheap rate electricity over night and take sheer delight in driving along narrow B roads at 20 mph holding everybody up.

Do you all realise that when oil was $15 a barrel back in the seventies, we were paying 10/- or 50 pence a GALLON not a litre, now with crude prices hovering around the $60 mark we are paying just on £1 litre.

So as you an see the price of crude has risen by 400% whereas forecourt petrol prices have risen by over 900%
Nearly 80% of which is TAX.

Its time the country stood up and fought for some sensibility.

Oh, and if you are stuck behind my milk float ( can't miss it its bright green with a yellow rotator light on top) TOUGH.

Answer 3

Hello Chris,
My dreiving habits have a very long history, which started in 1962 with my first Motorcycle, in the North of England
, and I had no mind on me as to how much fuel I used, as it was less than Half a Crown a Gallon, then shortly after along came the cars, the wife and the house and in that order. the whole house cost me less than £2000, the wife cost me 7/6, and my first car cost me, close on a thousand pounds, well it would, it was a beautiful Vauxhall Cresta, and by then the Petrol was up to, 3/8 a gallon, ( 2 Gallons of petrol = one wife @ 7/6)
My foot, always semed to be trying to force its way through the floor, and I didn't care, there was no suh thing as a 70 MPH limit then, and I was making a lot of money from my job as a haulage Driver, and as a musician in a popular Band, around Lancashire, Cheshire and the areas in general.
I always had large and powerful cars and paid for the priveledges that came with them, Now to your question in point. I am retired now, and still drive a large powerful car, it's a Saab, 900i, and is quite a juice sucker, as it is an automatic, with a 'sport' button on the gear selector, with a letter 'S' lit up, on the dashboard when it is selected, I swear I can almost watch the fuel gauge needle suffering from an overload of gravity, as I can see it move sourthwards as I drive along. I have now adopted a new, ( To Me anyway ) method of car usage, and keep the selector in 4th, which in turn keeps the engine revs at a lower rate, and an empty boot is helping too, couple all this to the cars service schedule being kept up to date, I find it more diffidult to see that fuel needle move now, I have obviously considered a small car, but my 'cheap' wife and I prefer the luxury of the Saab, and are prepared to pay its running costs. I will admit though, that the day is approaching when we will really have to consider something much smaller and economical, but I have not thought of which Make and model would suit our needs best, with the ever rising price of fuel, and this current global warming thing, as we travel to and from Ireland fairly often, I was wondering about a little Honda Civic, I have read and heard good reports about those, and I have had 3 Hondas in the past, one an Accord which I sold when I had put 244,000 miles on it, what a motor that was, and I still got over a thousand pounds for it, on a trade in deal.. I hope this helps you in you question Chris....Bye for now...Tony M

Answer 4

When the cost of petrol goes up, my expenses increase and less money will be spend for other things than petrol. However i will start to think whiles driving bcos i have come with over expenses and might cost my driving on the road.

Answer 5

dearest chris be careful your american slavemasters don't find out you are mucking around on answers, (they are a right bunch of hardar*ses)! but in answer to your question;
here in london petrol is the last cost/con on my mind when i set off to drive anywhere, i think i have got institutionalised to being robbed blind by successive governments over the last 20 years.
1. congestion charge £8 a day!
2. parking - anything up to £40 a day!
3. parking fines - £80 for a ticket, £300 for a tow!
4. Road Tax - £150 a year.
5. Mot - £ 50 a year
6. Servicing - £300 a year
7. AA. membership - £80 - (great value tho!! i'm being sarcastic)
8. Comprehensive Insurance - £500 +
9. Countless lost hours (that i will never get back) sitting in traffic! (incalculable)
and finally petrol - £1800 + a year.
and it still makes no difference. I drive because i have to!!

Answer 6

At the end of the month, I coast my car down a lot of hills. I have no choice but to drive to work.

If public transport was cheaper, and more convenient, and reliable, then I would consider it. At the moment, I pay out about £550 per month in petrol. Which is over half my wages. I drive 400 miles a week. If i could work closer I would.

But jobs in my area are not stable, there is no decent work, and the jobs (working in the local supermarket) would not pay what i need to be paid.

I live in a rural area, which mean it is necessary for me to drive the 8 miles to go and buy a pint of milk, and the reason for this is because all th smaller shops, post offices and independant businesses have gone out of business because huge supermarket chains have forced them out of a market.

We the consumers are to blame for this. Why do we have to go and buy a pint of milk at 2am? Why do we have to buy strawberries all year around? Bring back milkmen, bring back seasonal foods, and the green grocers, fish mongers and butcher.

Allow our country to flourish, allow people to work closer to home, allow people to have a family life, get to know their children, let their children grow up with the same friends for ever and let community spirit keep communities together. And then we wouldnt be worring about petrol prices because we would have a more fulfilling lives.

Just a thought.

Answer 7

Being self employed I offset the price of fuel against the job,
Meaning the price of diesel is all ready paid for by the customer
The tax man is not very friendly either. So either way all of us have to use our cars, vans. or bikes to get to our place of work.
If the government was to reduce the cost of public transport I am sure more people would use them.
But as I can drive to :London cheaper from Norfolk than the cost of British rail and quicker Is does not take the brains of Einstein to work out what mode you will use.
I needed to get from Dias to Coventry on a Saturday morning to collect a car using British rail. So it was Dias Ipswich London then across London using the underground network and then to Coventry. The journey would have taken all day so needless to say i did not bother instead i used a friend to drive me there regardless of the cost of fuel which was cheaper than BR

Answer 8

It doesn't, I still have a lead right foot... Mind you I do have a tear from time to time when my petrol needle is going down faster than my Speedo is going up, lol

Ps to the people from the States on here, In the UK, currently fuel Prices are 97.5 pence per litre, which obviously is almost £1 a litre.

The current currency converted means that £1 is $1.99.... We have it much worse over here....! I might come live in the states it's way cheaper, lol

Answer 9

I drive carefully anyway and a diesel, but I did notice when we had the petrol shortage a few years ago, there were few cars on the road and no one overtook me, personally i think the price of fuel would have to go up drastically to alter drivers hapbits or mileage much, i think in economic s they call it inelastic

Answer 10

Doesn't really.

I have to get to work and that's it.

As for the leisure side of it, the cost is just spoiling the fun of young families who can't afford to travel so much now in their car.

the government are turning this country into a state of stay at home people. You try taking two adults and three kids on the train or bus. It is much more expensive.