Petrol Cost Cutting Article Discussion

Former_MSE_Lawrence · 21 May 2007 at 12:43PM

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Petrol Cost Cutting article

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Conor_3 · 21 May 2007 at 11:44PM

Apart from the advice about load carrying etc etc, the shopping around and travelling to get the cheapest ppl is a complete and utter waste of time because you'll have burned more fuel in the extra mileage involved than you'll save on the total cost of a fill up.

Say you save 2p/l. You'll save £1 at best on a full tank. A quid will get you a whole whopping 6 miles at best on urban cycle and it'll take you the thick end of half an hours travelling in most urban areas due to traffic levels.

melancholly · 22 May 2007 at 12:02AM

Conor wrote: »

Apart from the advice about load carrying etc etc, the shopping around and travelling to get the cheapest ppl is a complete and utter waste of time because you'll have burned more fuel in the extra mileage involved than you'll save on the total cost of a fill up.

Say you save 2p/l. You'll save £1 at best on a full tank. A quid will get you a whole whopping 6 miles at best on urban cycle and it'll take you the thick end of half an hours travelling in most urban areas due to traffic levels.

however, if you check which is the cheapest in your area and don't wait until you are almost out of petrol, you can fit in a visit to the cheap place in and around other driving..... and if you save £1 a tank and use a tank a week, to me that's £52 worth saving!

tripled · 22 May 2007 at 12:17AM

I'm personally dubious about the 'filling up at night'. Considering the petrol is stored in vast underground tanks, I doubt the temperature of the petrol/diesel being pumped into your car changes vary much between day and night, even if you fill up at five o'clock in the morning. Perhaps "ensure you give the nozzle a good wiggle to get those extra drips off at the end" would be equally as effective?"

I would also question the ethic of always filling up when your tank is a quarter full - if a heavier car uses more petrol, if your nearest cheap tesco is only half a mile away (such as it is with me), and due to its location I almost always pass it when I use my car, surely it is better for me to fill up when it is on the reserve rather than lugging that extra diesel about? Also if you do keep it above a quarter and one day for some reasone you go down to the reserve, isn't there a risk it will clog up the fuel filters?

Apart from that though I think the advice is generally very good. I have noticed ragging the engine does increase the amount of diesel I use. Also increases tyre wear too!

anewman · 22 May 2007 at 2:12AM

You will tend to find most petrol stations keep their prices about the same pitch in the market, so there's often no need to go to petrolprices.com and check and re-check. My nearest petrol station is a Shell and it's always the same price as Asda, Tesco, Morissons etc, for the standard ron95 premium unleaded. I also wonder if it is better quality than any of the supermarket's petrol, especially after the recent tesco/morissons problems.

bakerag · 22 May 2007 at 10:57AM

Does anyone have any news about the website https://www.pipelinecard.org.

I checked on the website and it doesm't look as though anything has happened for a while.

anewman · 22 May 2007 at 12:36PM

bakerag wrote: »

Does anyone have any news about the website https://www.pipelinecard.org.

I checked on the website and it doesm't look as though anything has happened for a while.

I think the whole scheme was just an idea, which seems to have not got off the ground really. I think each petrol station company, asda, shell etc, would rather have their own loyalty schemes than be part of a bigger one. I have signed up and seen no increase in junk mail though.

Spikeybabe · 22 May 2007 at 9:22PM

I was recent watch a program on BBC 2 called 'It not easy going green' and there was was man on the site wanted to save money on fuel and they showed him how to make biodiesel from waste veg oil. They didn't go into to much detail does anyone know on this site ? They suggest the price would be 41p (inc the VAT).

Can someone help on to do this and does it really work ?

anewman · 22 May 2007 at 10:10PM

Spikeybabe wrote: »

I was recent watch a program on BBC 2 called 'It not easy going green' and there was was man on the site wanted to save money on fuel and they showed him how to make biodiesel from waste veg oil. They didn't go into to much detail does anyone know on this site ? They suggest the price would be 41p (inc the VAT).

Can someone help on to do this and does it really work ?

It works on some cars without modifications, but most cars need some sort of modification (to heat the oil). There's lots of info about this on the internet - but remember you have to legally declare how much you use to customs and revenue and pay tax on it as it is being used as a fuel substitute on the road, and if the police stop you and dip your tank to test whats in it, you can end up in lots of trouble.

melancholly · 22 May 2007 at 10:15PM

Spikeybabe wrote: »

I was recent watch a program on BBC 2 called 'It not easy going green' and there was was man on the site wanted to save money on fuel and they showed him how to make biodiesel from waste veg oil. They didn't go into to much detail does anyone know on this site ? They suggest the price would be 41p (inc the VAT).

Can someone help on to do this and does it really work ?

http://www.itsnoteasybeinggreen.org/inebg_courses.htm
http://www.biodieselfillingstations.co.uk/
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=433051&highlight=biodiesel
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/case_studies/homebrew_biodiesel.pdf

MSE_Martin · 22 May 2007 at 11:38PM

To answer a few of the questions.

1. Shopping around for petrol. I'm certainly not suggesting that you do this, the driving around would waste the cash, in fact I try to avoid the phrase 'shopping around' in everything I write - the whole point of this site is to do the research. What I suggest is using a website that tells you which is cheapest within a pre-arranged area and then going to it; hopefully as part of your journey or with limited movement away.

2. Filling up at night. This is one I put in for fun, hence the deliberate use of the word 'miniscule' in there - the difference is never going to be big.

3. Pipeline card. As for the pipeline card in the article I write "As a footnote. In past incarnations of this article I included mention of the Pipeline card, which aimed to get 100,000 together and then said it could pull off a discount card for up to 5p/litre of petrol. Using the power of this sites email we got the people together, but sadly Pipeline never delivered, and still doesn't look like doing so. If there's any change I will include it in the weekly e-mail yet for now it seems to be a dead duck."

Martin

Petrol Cost Cutting Article Discussion

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