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Oil hits 135USD per barrell...

PostPosted: Thu May 22, 2008 11:19 am
by mcgon1979
anyone else noticing the squeeze? Petrol is about 1.30 a litre now on average. you can add 5 - 10cent to this next week...

Its not unrealistic to think petrol will be 150cent per litre very soon.


thats kinda the point where I may consider selling the car. Just can't do it anymore. 28mpg out of a daily driver. I could be getting 40mpg minimum with something else. Obviously I don't WANT to sell up, but its just costing too much per week now.

PostPosted: Thu May 22, 2008 11:27 am
by mcgon1979

PostPosted: Thu May 22, 2008 1:10 pm
by CJ
The question is, when will the petrol heads sit up and really notice? Has anyone given serious through to the idea otf swapping your FTO for a more a more fuel efficient car?

CJ

PostPosted: Thu May 22, 2008 1:17 pm
by mcgon1979
CJ wrote:The question is, when will the petrol heads sit up and really notice? Has anyone given serious through to the idea otf swapping your FTO for a more a more fuel efficient car?

CJ


I seriously doubt anyone has noticed (or given a fcuk) that petrol at the pump price has almost doubled in 2 years. I think when it hits 1.50 a litre people will take note of it then. Until then total apathy seems to eb the order of the day. 88.9cent a litre I used to pay. 95cent seemed expensive, and I used to laugh at the chancers charging 1.02 or 1.04 per litre. now its 1.30 or 1.35. not really very funny anymore. Im seriously annoyed. yep. annoyed enough to sell :cry:

PostPosted: Thu May 22, 2008 1:54 pm
by TopCat
I've certainly noticed it, and seeing 140.9 on the Diesel now is very scary. I've a GS, so amn't too badly hit, but was always considering a GPX. Now, that option is definately out the window. I think somehow people (myself included before) got the impression this was a temporary glitch, and prices would settle, but I'm not so sure now. :(

PostPosted: Thu May 22, 2008 2:23 pm
by d_dan
If anyone is considering it when I got the gpx remapped and its about 20-25% more economical

PostPosted: Thu May 22, 2008 3:03 pm
by mcgon1979
d_dan wrote:If anyone is considering it when I got the gpx remapped and its about 20-25% more economical


you gained torque too right? and lost 1 or 2 bhp? might be worth considering... How is the drivability? any noticeable difference ?

PostPosted: Thu May 22, 2008 3:23 pm
by Myfeckin FTO
The bigger issue for me will be Road tax increases over fuel costs.

Road tax on 225 CO2 per km cars will rise to €2K.
In comparison even if petrol increases by 40cent per litre - over 25,000kms per year - thats just an additonal €1K.

Ireland isn't actually all that expensive for fuel in the European scheme of things - whats outlandishly expensive in comparision is the whole VRT and Road tax factors.

I'd prefer if the government actually got rid of VRT and CO2 tax etc and just increased the charge on petrol. A fairer system all round - you pay according to the amount of petrol you burn (and hence road useage and CO2 you create).

PostPosted: Thu May 22, 2008 3:58 pm
by mcgon1979
its only on new cars though. right? won't be buying one of them for a while... I doubt.

PostPosted: Thu May 22, 2008 4:24 pm
by Bernard
We all look at petrol prices and complain, rightly so.
I think it was around 75c when we changed to euro.

It's the same with cigarette prices, I know loads of people that said they'll quit if it gets to 'x' amount..... still smoking though.

FTOs are always going to be more expensive to run and maintain than the more garden variety car, it's just part of the package.

I've no intention to trade, sod the petrol prices!

PostPosted: Thu May 22, 2008 5:48 pm
by kevinod
Roll on the oil alternatives, Maxol e5 is the only evidence that there's been any effort to generate a non oil based fuel alternative and sell it to the masses.

Its nuts though that its linked to the US$ which is half the problem at the moment, but I reckon a lot is just profiteering - hurricane in the gulf, oh have to push up the prices, hurricane gone no sign of prices going back down. Any excuse its being pushed up.

We should do more and more 'petrol/diesel free days' to make a point if nothing else, although they'd prob just push up the prices again 'cos their profits went down.

Brazil from what I hear have it sussed... now that the farmer's few quid for not farming all their land is going maybe they'll start producing more fuel, bring in some more bobs into the country.

PostPosted: Thu May 22, 2008 7:45 pm
by colm_mcm
Myfeckin FTO wrote:I'd prefer if the government actually got rid of VRT and CO2 tax etc and just increased the charge on petrol. A fairer system all round - you pay according to the amount of petrol you burn (and hence road useage and CO2 you create).

Sounds like a great system, but it would push the consumer price index so out of kilter that they'd never realistically do it. It'd be great to have half a dozen cars in the garage and drive whatever one you fancied, you wouldn't be using any more fuel than if you had one car.

kevinod wrote:We should do more and more 'petrol/diesel free days' to make a point if nothing else, although they'd prob just push up the prices again 'cos their profits went down.
.

These petrol free days are a waste of time, petrol isn't something you buy on a whim, if you don't buy it on a Tuesday, you'll have to buy it on Wednesday. The petrol companies know we need to drive, and it's a sellers market unfortunately.

d_dan wrote:If anyone is considering it when I got the gpx remapped and its about 20-25% more economical

This could be more of a reflection of the bad fuel economy your car was doing before the map. what sort of mpg are you getting now?

This €2k a year thing mightn't be an issue to those spending €60k on a new 350z, but it's gonna be an issue in 5 or 6 years time when a good few of the people on this forum will be looking at used ones!

What sickens me is that a small increase in the net price of fuel translated to a large increase at the pumps once the government take their huge tax chunk of it. Revenue could intervene and reduce the duty on fuel to such a level that they are making the same amount per litre in tax as they were 2 years ago. but why would they?

Maybe FTO DI-D conversions seem far fetched at the moment, but we could end up like Cuba, with their American classics with Lada engines because they have no other viable way to keep their cars on the road!

PostPosted: Thu May 22, 2008 10:25 pm
by Muad_dib77
colm_mcm wrote:
Maybe FTO DI-D conversions seem far fetched at the moment, but we could end up like Cuba, with their American classics with Lada engines because they have no other viable way to keep their cars on the road!


Uhm Biodiesel could well be the future - but I'd much rather see a development in electric engines..still can't get my head around that tesla thing they have in the states..

I want one..soooo bad!

PostPosted: Thu May 22, 2008 10:49 pm
by colm_mcm
The Honda CR-Z is quite nice too (IMO)

Hybrids for the masses apparently

Image
Image
Image

reminds me of the TT, Citroen C4 and Mazda 323f 3 door, and of course the CRX!

PostPosted: Fri May 23, 2008 12:28 am
by optical illusion
Is that a concept car?

Coz, I'd so crash looking at all those LEDS in front of me...