Is there any hope of petrol prices going back...?

[baccalad]

Is there any hope of petrol prices going back to how they were 10 or 20 years ago? Or are they only ever going to go up?

[HD Adam]

None whatsoever.

Even if oil dropped to $10/bbl again, the tax would be increased on it to keep the easy money rolling in.

[HD Adam]

None whatsoever.

Even if oil dropped to $10/bbl again, the tax would be increased on it to keep the easy money rolling in.

[matthias73]

Relatively speaking the price we pay at the pump has been going down over the last couple of years..

[EK993]

I have been out of the UK for 5 years now, how is it working over there, are petrol prices reducing in line with the drop in oil prices or are they just keeping them flat?

Prices at the pump here in the US are dropping literally by the day as the price of oil drops. A couple of months ago I was paying $4.70 per gallon for Shell V Power, now its down to around $3.90. Prices here really do drop dramatically (or rise) based on oil prices.

[RobinBanks]

People don't seem to realise that if you take inflation into account, we don't really pay much more than we did 10 years ago....

[Tribal Chestnut]

RobinBanks said:

People don't seem to realise that if you take inflation into account, we don't really pay much more than we did 10 years ago....

Relative to wages perhaps....?

[TheInternet]

RobinBanks said:

People don't seem to realise that if you take inflation into account, we don't really pay much more than we did 10 years ago....

~15% more

http://www.speedlimit.org.uk/petrolprices.html

[TooMany2cvs]

EK993 said:

I have been out of the UK for 5 years now, how is it working over there, are petrol prices reducing in line with the drop in oil prices or are they just keeping them flat?

They've been fairly flat for pretty much most of that five years. When we left the UK in early '11, petrol was £1.35/litre. It's now £1.25ish.

The July '08 peak of £1.18 would, adjusted by the RPI, be about £1.40 today. Add in the 2011 VAT rise, and it'd be about £1.43.

[BrownBottle]

RobinBanks said:

People don't seem to realise that if you take inflation into account, we don't really pay much more than we did 10 years ago....

A gallon of UL in 1994 was £2.43 which would be £4.13 today with inflation.

The current average is £5.76 per gallon.

[shred2bits]

5 years ago you were buying petrol in England in litres not US gallons, which aren't even the same as UK gallons so why talking in US gallons on UK Forum?

[RobinBanks]

BrownBottle said:

RobinBanks said:

People don't seem to realise that if you take inflation into account, we don't really pay much more than we did 10 years ago....

A gallon of UL in 1994 was £2.43 which would be £4.13 today with inflation.

The current average is £5.76 per gallon.

I did say 10 years rather than 20. I'm fairly sure that by 2004 it was approaching or around £1 per litre and there has been a lot of inflation since then.

[DonkeyApple]

baccalad said:

Is there any hope of petrol prices going back to how they were 10 or 20 years ago? Or are they only ever going to go up?

First you have to work out the value of GBP today v that period. Then you have to work out the taxes that have been added.

In short, our fuel cost has little to do with the price of oil but more to do with the domestic value of the GBP, the value of the GBP v USD and most importantly, the taxes levied the sale of fuel.

Oil was back at $30 after it's ramp up to $150+, and it has a real value below $30 but the price of oil isn't all that relevant.

[Blayney]

RobinBanks said:

I did say 10 years rather than 20. I'm fairly sure that by 2004 it was approaching or around £1 per litre and there has been a lot of inflation since then.

I passed my test in the middle of 2006 and it was in the low 90's/litre

[Pixelpeep7r]

Blayney said:

RobinBanks said:

I did say 10 years rather than 20. I'm fairly sure that by 2004 it was approaching or around £1 per litre and there has been a lot of inflation since then.

I passed my test in the middle of 2006 and it was in the low 90's/litre

Passed in 1998 and it was 69p/litre

[RobinBanks]

Blayney said:

RobinBanks said:

I did say 10 years rather than 20. I'm fairly sure that by 2004 it was approaching or around £1 per litre and there has been a lot of inflation since then.

I passed my test in the middle of 2006 and it was in the low 90's/litre

Was it? Maybe my memory is off then.

[Pixelpeep7r]

i remember being outraged when it went over 70p/litre lol.

i also think that petrol prices went up too quickly and they've just kinda hovered around the 1.40 mark until inflation caught up so now what we pay is probably, dare i use the word, fair.

[Wills2]

RobinBanks said:

Blayney said:

RobinBanks said:

I did say 10 years rather than 20. I'm fairly sure that by 2004 it was approaching or around £1 per litre and there has been a lot of inflation since then.

I passed my test in the middle of 2006 and it was in the low 90's/litre

Was it? Maybe my memory is off then.

It was £1 litre in 2008, I don't earn anymore money than I did then so although there has been inflation my income hasn't seen any of it.

According to the ONS inflation has been 16.9% 08-14 wage inflation was 8.6% for the same period.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27047966

Fuel prices have outstripped average inflation to make the situation worse.

[DonkeyApple]

Blayney said:

I passed my test in the middle of 2006 and it was in the low 90's/litre

But it is all relative. You have to consider how many more GBPs now exist 8 years on with all the QE etc. take into account general inflation, the VAT rise and then contrast GBP to USD which is what oil is priced in. And then compare the oil price itself from then to now.

I would hazard that in real terms 130 isn't far off 90 when all factors taken into consideration.

[k-ink]

The UK is not far behind France in terms of being bankrupt. If you include the £900bn us tax payers gave to the banks (not included on most calculations), on top of the huge national debt already outstanding, plus future borrowing imminent, we are screwed frankly. Tax on everything will be going through the roof. The NHS will likely be scrapped before long. Our entire GDP will be spent servicing a debt pretty soon. So I suspect petrol will be multiples of what it is today. Not just a little bit higher. If you really think the future is brighter perhaps you are unaware what is really going on.

Short of a revolution to reset the balance I am not sure there is much to change the nation becoming debt slaves to the banks.