Cheapest Petrol & Diesel Discussion Area

Sgwilko

I-LOV-MONEY wrote: »

Surely leaving it in gear means it is using more power to keep the wheels moving. Presumably when in neutral the wheels are turning because they are round and are going downhill.

Slowing using engine braking in modern fuel injected cars will result in the ECU cutting fuel flow to the injectors altogether, so you will be saving fuel if you look well ahaead and slow down gently at junctions/traffic lights using the engine braking in an appropriate gear.

All engines will give better economy when they have reached operating temperature. That is why short journeys really kill the fuel consumption.

fopetesl

Hi, guys n gals. Newb here :j

I see that BP have an offer of 5p off / litre if you have a car wash at the same filling station.

Where are these filling stations?
All south'ish of Peterborough!"

North of England doesn't get a look in. :mad:

Must be short of oil after dumping a lot of their reserves in the sea.

RedGoose

dumpty wrote: »

The last 3 times I've been to get petrol based on the prices shown on that website, I find that the prices at the pumps have changed, and invariably it is then cheaper somewhere else. (In the last couple of weeks, I have particularly noticed Diesel prices at some places changing on a daily basis, making it impossible for the website to keep up to date!) I have given up using the website now - I just keep my eyes open as I drive around, and stop when I think it's a good price.

One thing that really hacks me off is Tesco offering 5p per litre off petrol if you spend more than £50 in-store. This is fine for families with that sort of spend on groceries each week, but pensioners or single people like myself are NEVER going to spend £50 on groceries in one go, so never qualify for this discount!! I strongly feel that us smaller users are being discriminated against. After all, it is the small people like me paying full price for the petrol which gives Tesco the scope to give the 5p per litre discount to people spending over £50 in-store! Why can't they give everyone 1p per litre off (or, if they want to restrict it just to loyal Tesco Shoppers, only issue coupons to customers who use a Tesco Clubcard at the checkouts). That would be much fairer.

This hacks me off as well- the Morrisons one (12p/L off if you spend £60) is a big saving, but a single person's unlikely to spend £60 in one go (and if they are, it's hard to see how they'd be saving money). It's hard not to feel discriminated against.

Maybe they could have a sliding scale (4p/L off if you spend £20, 8p/L off if you spend £40, 12p/L off if you spend £60)- but sadly, I think they set it at £60 to encourage you to spend a bit more than you normally would! If I were to fill my tank the 12p/L would probably make a difference of about a fiver, so I guess you'd have to do a quick calculation to see if spending the extra is going to save you money.

I'll just have to try not to run out of petrol while this deal is on- otherwise I'll be stuck in a queue at the Morrisons petrol station!

grizzly1911

RedGoose wrote: »

This hacks me off as well- the Morrisons one (12p/L off if you spend £60) is a big saving, but a single person's unlikely to spend £60 in one go (and if they are, it's hard to see how they'd be saving money). It's hard not to feel discriminated against.

Maybe they could have a sliding scale (4p/L off if you spend £20, 8p/L off if you spend £40, 12p/L off if you spend £60)- but sadly, I think they set it at £60 to encourage you to spend a bit more than you normally would! If I were to fill my tank the 12p/L would probably make a difference of about a fiver, so I guess you'd have to do a quick calculation to see if spending the extra is going to save you money.

I'll just have to try not to run out of petrol while this deal is on- otherwise I'll be stuck in a queue at the Morrisons petrol station!

Means one of two things either the shoping is overpriced or the fuel is.

They are all at it now so I don't see how they are gaining competitive advantage over each other.

I find ASDA the best for consistency low prices with no need to actually shop.

I shop for my groceries where it is convenient not because of the price of fuel.

Being able to do 700 miles per tank does give me plenty of chance to top up at the most competitive prices whilst traveling.

AngryPig

RedGoose wrote: »

This hacks me off as well- the Morrisons one (12p/L off if you spend £60) is a big saving, but a single person's unlikely to spend £60 in one go (and if they are, it's hard to see how they'd be saving money). It's hard not to feel discriminated against.

This is a moot point for now, as the recent tranche of supermarket fuel offers has finished, but they'll be back. A "baseline weekly shop" (ie fresh fruit, veg, meat, dairy etc), for just me is about £20, but I often stockpile non-perishable goods while they are on offer to spend £50+ in one visit. I'm sure there are other threads about the pro's and cons of such a shopping habit, but qualifying for cheaper fuel is definately a pro. Toiletries, laundry products, tea/coffee & booze can soon make up the extra £30 for that much coveted fuel voucher. The real challenge is the self discipline to not over-consume the surplus goods you've bought, otherwise its a false economy.

sabretoothtigger

grizzly1911 wrote: »

Being able to do 700 miles per tank does give me plenty of chance to top up at the most competitive prices whilst traveling.

Which car is that sorry and mpg ?

jebuk2

tomstickland wrote: »

I've noticed recently that prices differ quite a bit in different towns. At the moment I fill up when I visit Bristol on Thursday nights because it's 97-98p per litre there whilst it's 101-102p per litre in the area where I live.

Yes, you're right. In Warwick and Leamington fuel prices are consistently 2p/litre lower than Rugby or Stratford-on-Avon, for no accountable reason. And don't assume that Tesco is cheapest - in Warwick/Leamington Ada is cheapest, then Sainsbury at 0.2p/litre more, then Tesco 1p more than Sainsbury. Five miles away, in Southam, Tesco is another 3p dearer than at Tesco, in Warwick.

sailorchief

Maybe this has been covered but whenever I use cheap supermarket diesel I get really bad economy which doesn't actually save me any money but actually costs more!! People I talk to about this say that it is down to the fact that there are additives in premium quality fuel (eg Shell/BP) which are left out of the cheap stuff. Also they say that there are other 'fuels' in supermarket diesel (chip fat oil?!) which just bulks it up and isn't too good for your engine.
Having said that using (much cheaper!)supermarket diesel in France on a wine run when there is a Ferry Fare Offer gives me the same economy as (say) Shell/BP does in the UK.
Can anyone add a reasonable argument FOR using cheap supermarket diesel?

scooby75

It will depend on your car and driving. I've not noticed any difference between supermarket fuel and branded fuel for my car.

RocketSteve

So if you buy one litre of fuel, you'll spend £1.31.9 (say)
but we all know you can't spend 0.9p so the fuel station has to round that up to £1.32
If you buy two litres that'd be a price ending in 0.8p (£2.63.8)
0.9p + 0.9p = 1.8p) Again the fuel station would round up the price.
If you buy 5 litres the price would be £6.59.5
Under rules of mathematics anything .5 and above (.6, .7, .8, .9) is rounded up, so the actual price is £6.60
BUT
If you buy 6 litres the cost becomes £7.91.4 and under the rules of maths the .4p is rounded down. (£7.91)
The point is if you buy 5 litres instead of 6, you'll spend 0.9 more each time. (£7.91 - £6.60 = £1.31)
This works out the same for every volume of fuel you buy, ie 16L you'll save nearly 1p over 15L and again with 26L over 25L
In fact you'd be better off buying your fuel in 6L amounts each time: example below.
I hope the above makes sense and from now on everyone will by an amount of fuel ending in 6L (7L or 8L at worst, but you're still saving.)

Example:
A driver buys 36L of fuel at £1.31.9 The cost is £47.48.4 (£47.48) He saves 0.4p on the deal.
The same driver later buys 6L of fuel on 6 separate occasions. Each time the fuel price is the same and be spends £7.91.4 (£7.91)
6 x £7.91 = £47.46 a grand saving of 2p