The Price of Petrol... Should we pay so much.... or is it time to make a stand?!

Hermione54

IMO the Americans consume far to(sic) much fuel and should be taxed more to encourage them to drive more economical cars - if they consumed less the price would fall.

We tend to forget that Americans drive far more miles than we do on average because of the size of their country. My son who lives in California drives about 30,000 miles a year just on his commute, and this is not considered especially high. Thus they spend about the same on petrol/diesel as we do, taken overall. They will not reduce their demand; their public transport is even worse than ours.

The days of easily affordable fuel are over for ever. Oil production has just about reached a plateau and will soon start to decline in the face of increasing demand from China, India, etc. Prices of $10 per US gallon are predicted by 2015, in the US, which means about £3 a litre here by then, in today's money. The Government will use the green argument to justify even higher fuel tax. Get used to it.

odowdchr

Garnet_Gem wrote: »

Petrol will soon be a luxury, only available to rich drivers. This will be done under the guise of saving the planet.

More likely, worldwide oil production will have peaked and begun to slow down, so with a rising world population needing more and more, prices will absolutely rocket because the stuff will be scarcer.

edit...(which is exactly what Hermione54 said )

ispartacus75

Hermione54 wrote: »

We tend to forget that Americans drive far more miles than we do on average because of the size of their country.

Americans also have a much larger selection of alternative fuel cars aswell.

At last count I think we have 2 viable options, the Toyota Prius and a Lexus 4x4 Hybrid.

In the US most vehicle manufacturers have either a Hybrid or dual fuel engine available on most of their vehicles, and of course vehicle prices over there are a damn site cheaper than they are here.

Toyota Prius USA £11,000 ($22,175)
Toyota Prius UK £17,777

Ford Escape Hybrid £12,600 ($25,265)
Not available in the UK

Acura RD-X, RL
BMW X5
Chevrolet Malibu, Tahoe, Equinox
Dodge Durango, Intrepid ESX
Ford Escape HEV
GMC Sierra Partial Hybrid
Honda Insight, Civic, Accord
Lexus RX 400H, LS
Mazda RX-8
Saturn EV1, VUE
Subaru B9 SC
Toyota Prius, Camry, Highlander

Above is a list I found of all the Hybrids currently available in the USA.

If we are so green why are none of these available in the UK?

BMW, Chevy, Ford, Honda, Lexus, Mazda, Subaru and Toyota all trade in the UK yet we dont see their Hybrids.

So whats stopping them from releasing their vehicles over here? Its either the Govt who will lose all that tax revenue from the drop in petrol sales or the manufacturers themselves.

Conor_3

albertross wrote: »

The haulier's action didn't work the first time,

Yes it did. If it hadn't, you'd have been on over £1/litre by the end of 2000 instead of 81p.

albertross wrote: »

and hardly started the second time.

Because the public weren't prepared to put up with a bit of inconvenience that the first one resulted in.

albertross wrote: »

The country doesn't look much better than it was in 97 as far as I can see, and public spending has doubled.

You must be blind.

indierocker85

Conor wrote: »

WELL WHEN US TRUCK DRIVERS TRIED TO DO A SECOND FUEL PROTEST, YOU DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW SO YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN.

PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTESTTTTTTTTTTT

rob_da_bank

ispartacus75 wrote: »

My point was that if the govt didnt spend the tax on absolute crap we wouldnt have to be taxed so much in the first place.

Less tax wastage=less taxation=more money in peoples pockets to buy more fuel efficient cars=greener society.

More taxation=more cheap cars on the road=more pollution.

Taxation is not the answer.

I totally agree the ministers are wasting our money and living the life of riley at our expence. especially the recent one who was paying his son a wage or about 40k for not doing a stroke of work and gets a 2 week ban from the house of lords instead of a real punishment. makes me mad

rob_da_bank

and i have somthing to say about hybrid cars whats the point of them on a 4x4 thas like making a real juicy engine then giving it a AAA battery and calling it green.

Kez100

I'm not sitting around waiting for others to act or the government to reduce tax only to put it on somewhere else. We have to change our car, so are buying a car that does 60 to the gallon.