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

I probably buy about 20 gallons of gas per year than I would if I were driving the same model with a manual transmission. At $3.50 per gallon, that's about $70.00 a year. I pay that much for telephone service every month.

][That should have been "20 *more* gallons of gas per year."]

Maybe you should have a look at what we pay for gas

I've heard rumors.

I've just done the conversion. Right now, at the cheapest petrol station near me, unleaded petrol is $7.41 per gallon.

That's US gallons, converted from litres, and US dollars converted from sterling.

How does that price strike you?

That is more than double what I paid when I filled my tank earlier this week.

That's more than twice what I'm paying. You have to wring every possible mile out of every gallon. Carmakers in your country know this, and they tweak things to give you the highest fuel efficiency they can. Not to do so is to lose market share.

In the UK the consumer pays a 100 units (pounds etc) for petrol. The UK government take 60.3 units as tax. The oil companies take 36 units, while the retailer/delivery takes 3.8 units. Out of the 36 units taken by the oil companies, and the 3.8 units by the retailer/delivery the UK government will take more units as corporation taxes. I assume in the US the consumer doesn't have to pay so much tax?

http://www.petrolprices.com/the-price-of-fuel.html

There have been some advances in engineering automatic transmissions, as outlined in this article:

http://green.autoblog.com/2010/08/18/greenlings-why-do-automatic-transmissions-now-get-better-fuel-e/

" I assume in the US the consumer doesn't have to pay so much tax?" [Stone Aart]

You assume correctly. Most of the tax on gasoline is imposed on the state level. Massachusetts charges 21 cents per gallon. The federal government charges a little less than 3 cents. The Massachusetts legislature was considering raising the state tax by 3 cents.

Notice that the tax is assessed per gallon, not as a percentage of the total bill. By comparison, the state's sales tax is around 5% of the purchase price. As gas becomes more expensive, the tax as a percentage will decline, hence the need for periodic raises by the legislature. It's not a good system. The money supposedly goes to help repair roads and bridges, but who really knows where it's going? Anyway, 24 cents as a percentage of $3.50 is far less than the 60% that British motorists are paying.

Well few taxes are raised in isolation. With less tax on food, clothes and fuel you have to pay loads for health insurance. It all costs the same in the end.