h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Morning.

I have never been one to baulk at paying ANY taxes. They have to be paid and all I ask is for them to be reasonably fair.

We will all pay taxes to support things we don't use and don't want (I doubt that I get my money's worth out of tax paid to the rail companies to support them for instance). But I would suggest again (since I have done somewhere here before), that the tax situation with regard to motorists is wrong.

Fuel duty ought to be much greater than it is and there needs to be a link between tax raised this way and the maintainence of the road network. The road fund license should go.

This way, those that use the roads most, pay most for them. Goods carried by road may become more expensive. That is a reflection of the benefit of the road system to the end user.

I would lose out this way being an above average mileage road user. Yes, people in the country would complain that their car is essential. I live in a town and so is mine. Without it I don't work. Or get to those places that I wish to in my leisure time (which is usually the country).

Robyn, your journey sounds horrible. Would it be cheaper to use a car? It would certainly add to congestion (I drove from the edge of York to the football ground last Saturday. 2.5 miles took 1.25 hours). But you would always get a seat. My employers are encouraging working from home wherever possible:-

1. That would be an unwelcome invasion of my personal space. I don't need the division between work and home blurred any more than it already is.
2. I wouldn't get any work done - I'd be poking around H2G2 all the time!

PP

Hiya PP

Yeah, I do drive when my car's working! I was on the bus over the winter because my car was out of action. It was pretty grim! I try to use the bus but the expense Vs the flexibility and useability doesn't come out on the side of it being terribly user-friendly. A major reason why I will not get rid of my car simply because taxes go up. I also work ten till six so miss the main rush hour traffic (thankfully!)

I suspect that one of the reasons for the annual car tax is that they get to keep tabs on what's on the road and what's not (because every year you have to tell them where it is and who it belongs to and what it's doing, whether it's being used - and therefore taxed, or off the road and therefore SORN). It's sort of a census that we pay for. Otherwise I'd possibly agree with you, get rid of it and pay higher fuel prices.

I still think if we tackled bad driving and took those without the correct attitude and ability off the road, you'd reduce the number of cars, too. If you dont have the confidence, awareness, competence and empathy to drive safely and well then you shouldn't drive. but again, we need a GOOD alternative and our current public transport system is worse than awful (and/or prohibitively expensive) almost all over the country, and especially between urban areas.

September 1st......2010.....0030..hours

UPDATE***

Petrol at my local garage is currently £1.10. Last month it was £1.17... How can this dintly little garage lower so much, yet the likes of the big garages still charge £1.15 at the cheapest??

A mystery I hear you all cry.....

eitherway, I hope it goes down more, because come new year they estimate an average of £1.25 to £1.40 a litre...across the UK.

Anyway petrol patrol will update again in a few weeks.....

Keep checking and putting your own additions on this conversation...




Andy Orchard

At the risk of comparing apples with oranges, it seems to have settled at around 1.35 Euros per litre here. We generally fill up as long as the price is under 1.40 and the tank is less than half full. There's nothing you can do about it - you don't want to get caught out halfway along the motorway to somewhere.

November 2010 UPDATE

My local garage is now £1.17......The big brand name garages are around about the same price.

It would seem my earlier investigation was correct...petrol will go up considerably within the new year, averaging at £1.27 a litre...

These increases in petrol aswell as tax may make me give up my pride and joy. Proberly have to go for something economic, like a C1 or even a Toyota Prius, the cars that nobody wants to drive.

I've got a theory...the government know and have the technology to create a free reusable energy source...but like every greedy government, this wont come out into the open until all coal, oil is spent.....

Petrol Patrol out

There is clearly local price fixing going on.

If I buy a box of Cornflakes at my local supermarket, I can be pretty sure that the same box will be the same price at the same supermarket chain 10 miles down the road.

Not so petrol bought at supermarkets. I am not sure what the local price pressures are, but everything concerning delivery and supply incurs the same costs at both. Of course, they will sell at the highest price they can, they are not philanthropists, I know that, but it does all feel a bit wrong somehow.

PP

To be honest, I don't keep an eye on the price of petrol. I usually put £20.00 worth in my car, and I get approx 200 miles out of it, which isn't bad considering I commute across a busy city twice a day.

Don't fill your car to the brim, as all the extra weight is actually not very fuel efficient.

Supermarket prices on food change across the country as well. our local T**** is in a constant price war with the scallop garage less then half a km away. It's the cheapest scallop I've seen anywhere and they sometimes move faster on their prices and undercut the supermarket

I meant to post here a couple of weeks ago after we had been to Spain on holiday. Petrol there was a good 20 cents cheaper than here in Germany: 1.17 Euros per litre as opposed to our 1.37 Euros per litre at the moment here.

Are those pounds, euros or dollars in your post, Andy? My browser can't parse the character.

1,37 €xpensives for one litre of petrol...h*ll, I remember paying 59 pfennigs for a litre of petroil mix for my moped and I can´t be really old, or am I ?

<>

you sure it wasn't for your trabby

Never had that little clockwork monster. But my dad was as blueeyed as to buy a Wartburg ( 3cylinder 2stroke engine ) 25 liters per 100 Km translate as yards per gallon.

Are you telling me that the wonderful Wartburg swallowed 25 liters??? I hope you are talking about the 311, not the 353? The 311 did look ever so cool, especially the station wagon type.

Y.

My brother-in-law drove a Wartburg until about two years ago, and said it was quite fuel efficient!

So my dad had managed to get himself a lemon...again?
Then that must be an ability I´ve inherited from him.

<>

don't be bitter about it

I ain´t. But that Hercules that was nearly new and later turned out to have done Marshal duty in the ISDT...

pit

UPDATE

These prices I put are displayed as pound sterling.

Petrol near me is now £1.25.9p.....

Maybe its time I got rid of the 1.8 for something a little less expensive...maybe a 1.25 Fiesta lol

or

use my push bike lol

Orchard....standing by

Andy, have a giggle if you have friends in the US - convert €xpensive petrol into mega$$$ per gallon.