The rising cost of petrol - options?

tiff

The cost of petrol is a major worry for me, along with food rises but I can find ways round that by changing what we eat etc. Cost is currently 132.9p at my nearest Tesco garage and has been going up almost every day lately.

I use £40 of petrol a week and thats to take kids to school 3 miles away and once a week to where I work about 8 miles away. Thats mostly it, I always combine journeys with errands etc so I dont waste petrol. Was talking to the OH the other day, it costs a minimum of £220 a month to keep our car on the road plus MOT & maintenance. We cant afford at the moment to change our car to a more fuel efficient one.

Is anyone else considering taking their car off the road or selling? I am tempted but not sure the OH is ready to do that yet.

laidbackgjr

A quick calculation, suggests that 5 days a week doing a 6 mile round trip to school twice a day plus the 16 mile round trip once a week and spending £40 on fuel, suggests you are getting about 11.5 MPG from your car or anotherway nearly 50p a mile on fuel alone.

Not sure your figures are right, but at that price I'd seriously look at alternatives.

tiff

Well its a 1999 Saab 2 litre turbo, we only had a small amount of cash to buy a car and my husband went for quality over fuel efficiency :mad: It has been a great car in the 2 years we've owned it in that we have only paid out for usual maintenance.

LSfan

Hi

My 4 Litre lexus does 14mpg when i do local runs

Astra Mark 4 diesels are good/relaible/cheap to buy

The LPG equivelant are extremely reliable aswell

Notmyrealname

tiff wrote: »

I use £40 of petrol a week and thats to take kids to school 3 miles away and once a week to where I work about 8 miles away. Thats mostly it

Your car is broken. Thats the kind of fuel economy I'd expect from a 32 tonne lorry.

My 2L Mondeo diesel does over four times the MPG that your car is apparently doing.

Mark_Hewitt

tiff wrote: »

The cost of petrol is a major worry for me, along with food rises but I can find ways round that by changing what we eat etc. Cost is currently 132.9p at my nearest Tesco garage and has been going up almost every day lately.

I use £40 of petrol a week and thats to take kids to school 3 miles away and once a week to where I work about 8 miles away. Thats mostly it, I always combine journeys with errands etc so I dont waste petrol. Was talking to the OH the other day, it costs a minimum of £220 a month to keep our car on the road plus MOT & maintenance. We cant afford at the moment to change our car to a more fuel efficient one.

Is anyone else considering taking their car off the road or selling? I am tempted but not sure the OH is ready to do that yet.

You're numbers don't add up at all. Do you mean 220 MILES not pounds as that's what your numbers work out to. Even at a modest 35 miles per gallon per a petrol car that works out to more like £38 per month, not £220.

I pay considerably less than that and I'm doing a 70 mile round trip to work every day.

Plus £40 per week doesn't equal £220 per month either...

Can you check you numbers and get back to us

Lum

Given it's only doing runs of 3 miles and 8 miles it's never going to get warmed up and will always be running rich.

This isn't a fault as such but something people here need to bear in mind when comparing MPG figures.

FWIW, from the age of 5 I used to cycle more than 5 miles to school every day, I was accompanied by my dad until I was 10.

This option isn't for everyone, I have no idea what sort of terrain and traffic you would be passing, but it's something to consider.

Mark_Hewitt

tiff wrote: »

Well its a 1999 Saab 2 litre turbo, we only had a small amount of cash to buy a car and my husband went for quality over fuel efficiency :mad: It has been a great car in the 2 years we've owned it in that we have only paid out for usual maintenance.

Even then I'd measure the MPG if really are getting those numbers.

System

get something small for doing the school run like a smart - as mentioned running a big car like that on short trips will give you terrible economy

gilbert_and_sullivan

the_r_sole wrote: »

get something small for doing the school run like a smart - as mentioned running a big car like that on short trips will give you terrible economy

Take the children one at a time like?....;)

Lum

Selling an old but known reliable car for a newer, more efficient car is also often a waste of money as by the time the fuel and tax savings have compensated for the money you'll spend on a Smart, the Smart will probably be at the end of it's life and need replacing anyway.