Petrol v Diesel - Price differential

[crockers]

Today I saw a Texaco Garage in Tetbury offering petrol at 1.16 a litre and diesel at 1.32 a litre - that's a massive 16p differential - has anyone seen a bigger one.

I re-did my calculations for a manual CR-V petrol v diesel ( as we are thinking of changing the wife's) and the breakeven with a 10p differential was 70,000 miles BUT at this differential it is 99,000 miles.

No account for RFL, services and depreciation........BUT is diesel the great thing it was???? Well not in the UK.....IMHO..

 

[Gucci]

Didn't diesel used to be cheaper than petrol?

 

[peppernick]

Hence, a few people chopping in their petrol cars for a diesel on the assumption that they will save money only end up paying more.

 

[Gucci]

ML350 (3.7 V6 petrol) making more and more sense - glad I went for it!

 

[hawk20]

Today I saw a Texaco Garage in Tetbury offering petrol at 1.16 a litre and diesel at 1.32 a litre - that's a massive 16p differential - has anyone seen a bigger one.

I re-did my calculations for a manual CR-V petrol v diesel ( as we are thinking of changing the wife's) and the breakeven with a 10p differential was 70,000 miles BUT at this differential it is 99,000 miles.

No account for RFL, services and depreciation........BUT is diesel the great thing it was???? Well not in the UK.....IMHO..

Buy a Mercedes; the diesels are no dearer than the petrol engines and you start gaining straight away. At most garages, diesel fuel is 10% dearer than unleaded and you get 20%-30% more miles per gallon. And the servicing is less (no plugs etc) and the residuals are higher. I am getting over 50mpg on a run, from an automatic 2 litre diesel engine. And my brother's manual A160cdi will do over 60 on a run. Petrol versions cannot come near these figures.

Plus no reason to assume the differential will remain AFAIK. Only a year or so back the differential was only 1-2p.

Plus, the VED is much lower due to lower CO2 emissions.

 

[verytalldave]

In 1970 fewer than 2% of cars were diesel on the UKs roads.
Its now about 50%.
In 1979 diesel was cheaper than petrol due to lower taxation levels.
So because of 2 things. Better fuel economy and lower fuel price, diesels gained in popularity.
Chancellors have seen this shift and accordingly increased taxation levels to the point that we are now at.
I thought it was rich that GB on TV a few nights ago spouted that fuel prices were just one thing they were looking at to reduce the cost of living. He could at a stroke halve fuel costs if he wanted.
But will he?
Answers on the back of a fag packet please..............

 

[crockers]

Since the beginning of 2008 - with fuel prices rocketing the govt has received in excess of £500m of extra duty that wasn't planned for - this equates to 12p a litre.. So they could reduce taxation by 10p a litre and still be in the black.................BUT will they?

Also look to the States - diesel there is also more expensive than petrol...I don't think its all taxation as VTD says - that is part of the reason but there are also supply and demand reasons .. but has anyone seen a bigger differential than the one I posted? I found that gobsmacking.....

 

[verytalldave]

Diesel is cheaper to refine than petrol. Therefore the "raw" price - before taxes are added is lower.
The current high price for diesel is down to 2 factors.
One is a worldwide shortage of derv (petrol is abundant), therefore the law of supply and demand kicks in, and taxation levels.

 

[xpc316e]

I thought that derv was more expensive in this country because of the supply & demand business - that's what 'they' told us after it used to be cheaper than petrol. It is my understanding that crude oil can be refined into either petrol or diesel; you can't have two bites at the same cherry, so I fail to see why there has been such a huge jump in derv pump prices of late.

What I cannot understand is the price of derv in France - last year I was paying just over 1 Euro per litre compared to £1 in the UK, when a much higher percentage of private cars are diesels in France. I know the French tax structure is different on derv, but surely the French are also subject to the laws of supply & demand?

After years of owning diesels, I have just bought a petrol E320 - my love affair with derv is over for the time being.

 

[verytalldave]

Worth reading............

http://www.petrolprices.com/why-diesel-costs-more-than-petrol.html


xpc316e is incorrect in saying that you cant get derv and mogas from the same feedstock (crude oil).
It all comes out the same column. It just depends at which point the fuel is extracted.
Put simply, see the following explanation............

http://science.howstuffworks.com/oil-refining2.htm

 

[recycled]

who said servicing a diesel is cheaper, no spark plugs e.t.c.
I seriously doubt that, i know a peugeot diesel is way more expensive than petrol to service and it comes in half the mileage as well 10k as opposed to 20K. plugs cost at least mine £1.50 for a pack of 4.

 

[verytalldave]

I would hazard a guess and say that running a petrol and equivalent diesel car is now almost the same cost-for-cost taking everything into account and consideration. Thats for your average 12,000 miles a year driver. Diesel still has the edge for high mileage users of course.

 

[recycled]

I would hazard a guess and say that running a petrol and equivalent diesel car is now almost the same cost-for-cost taking everything into account and consideration. Thats for your average 12,000 miles a year driver. Diesel still has the edge for high mileage users of course.

and if you are not a high mileage user and hate the sound of rattling nails and tractors in the morning?

 

[Fady]

Today I saw a Texaco Garage in Tetbury offering petrol at 1.16 a litre and diesel at 1.32 a litre - that's a massive 16p differential - has anyone seen a bigger one.

I re-did my calculations for a manual CR-V petrol v diesel ( as we are thinking of changing the wife's) and the breakeven with a 10p differential was 70,000 miles BUT at this differential it is 99,000 miles.

No account for RFL, services and depreciation........BUT is diesel the great thing it was???? Well not in the UK.....IMHO..

...though not everyone buys a diesel merely because they think they will be saving money at the pump.

 

[recycled]

...though not everyone buys a diesel merely because they think they will be saving money at the pump.

Thats right, some people like the turbo whoosh, the torque and the smell/ sound.

 

[verytalldave]

and if you are not a high mileage user and hate the sound of rattling nails and tractors in the morning?

PRECISELY why I bought a C200K petrol instead of the diesel equivalent that nearly everyone advised me to buy a year ago.........

 

[Inkyskin]

For those who are interested, I have just built a little online application that will show the difference between running a petrol car vs a diesel one.

Simply enter the current fuel prices, MPG for the cars, and cost of each car, and it will calculate the fuel costs, with and without the cost of the car

(PS, I have only just thrown this together, if it's wrong at all, let me know!)

http://www.ben-griffiths.com/fuel-cost-calculator/

 

[verytalldave]

Thanks for that Ben. Trouble is, theres more to overall cost of running than that. Most diesel cars are dearer to purchase in first place and they generally require servicing more frequently as has already been mentioned.
Which is why I think the petrol v diesel overall running costs are now broadly similar.
Unless of course you are able to use cooking oil in your car!

 

[Inkyskin]

I added the cost of the car on the second set of results

As for servicing, thats really to flexible to take into account - you could take it to MB, or do it yourself.

I'm open to ways to improve this application though

 

[fyonn]

For those who are interested, I have just built a little online application that will show the difference between running a petrol car vs a diesel one.

Simply enter the current fuel prices, MPG for the cars, and cost of each car, and it will calculate the fuel costs, with and without the cost of the car

(PS, I have only just thrown this together, if it's wrong at all, let me know!)

http://www.ben-griffiths.com/fuel-cost-calculator/

that's a nice little app. I've done something similar on a spreadsheet at home.

a good start but now I think you need to make it better perhaps get it to bring in the costs from the petrol prices website itself. and then have some drop-downs on maker/model and then pick the data off parkers for mpg, cost, cost after a year (for depreciation purposes), CO2 emissions (for road tax), and servicing intervals.

then you can show more detailed info

also, explicitly pointing out the "crossover" point might be nice.

err.. I guess I'm giving you a lot of work here eh? I'll shut up then. good work anyways!

dave