Friday 7th November 2008

New Fuel Price War

Supermarkets slash 2p from cost of unleaded

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Could other retailers now cut prices?

A new petrol price war has broken out with two supermarkets slashing 2p off a litre. Asda said it would reduce its fuel from today, bringing it down to 92.9p across all of its 172 outlets. Tesco rose to the challenge and immediately knocked 2p off of its forecourt prices, while Morrisons also followed suit.

The move caused a domino effect and before long Total had cut the cost of unleaded to 92.9p a litre. The price of diesel remains at 106.9p a litre. AA spokesman Andrew Howard said: ‘When supermarkets decide to move, the rest usually follow and that really helps to pull average prices down across the country. This is good news for drivers – and we hope to see the price fall again.’

RAC motoring strategist Adrian Tink said: ‘It’s great to see there’s more welcome news for motorists. We hope the other major petrol retailers quickly follow suit.’ The news comes just days after Prime Minister Gordon Brown asked the Office of Fair Trading to monitor forecourt prices to ensure retailers were not profiteering.

[hugh_]

Why am I still driving a diesel?

[bob1179]

Why is diesel so dear? As far as I knew, the cost to refine diesel and petrol is little different? (though I don't really know, hence the question mark.)

I'm happy to stick with my 4.0 V8 petrol engined barge.

[Ricky944s2]

hugh_ said:

Why am I still driving a diesel?

[tim2100]

This is all because i brought a diesel last month lol

a few years ago there was only a couple of pence between petrol & diesel. Why isn't diesel dropping as well?

[Maxmpg]

All fuel price reductions are appreciated, but does anybody know how much of a headline-grabbing token gesture this is? What percentage of the UK car population is now diesel? I'm willing to surmise that it is greater than 50 %. There is an unsavoury cynicism apparent in reducing the price of unleaded (the minority of sales) while maintaining the price of diesel (the majority of sales).

[The Donster]

How do we get a straight answer from the fuel companies about the massive difference in price between petrol and diesel? The simple answer is we don't. They can bang on about the increased demand of diesel, increased demand of kerosene etc, but when diesel was only a couple of pence more per litre than petrol this time last year, can they give me the cold hard figures that justify the even bigger difference betwen the two at the moment? Nah, didn't think so......

[DamoLLb]

hugh_ said:

Why am I still driving a diesel?

It wouldn't look very good if you rolled up in V8 petrol in your trade now would it! (show 'em what they want to believe!)

[Batfink]

There are separate refineries making diesel and petrol.
There are plenty supplying petrol but there has been no increase in refineries in Europe since the diesel became a popular transport choice. Simple supply and demand therefore keeps the price high.

[Bladedancer]

hugh_ said:

Why am I still driving a diesel?

Beacuse 50 liters last for 550 miles instead of 300?

Today diesel is priced at 106.9. Quite a break from 136.9 horror we had a few months ago.
Although I'm still thinking about buying a V8 and converting to LPG...

[beano9]

GOOD NEWS

Can i get some info - how good a quality actually is supermarkets petrol unleaded / super unleaded, compared with shell/bp`s or even V-power ? ?

[gumsie]

Maxmpg said:

All fuel price reductions are appreciated, but does anybody know how much of a headline-grabbing token gesture this is? What percentage of the UK car population is now diesel? I'm willing to surmise that it is greater than 50 %. There is an unsavoury cynicism apparent in reducing the price of unleaded (the minority of sales) while maintaining the price of diesel (the majority of sales).

I think petrol cars still outsell diesels.

[Lytham Stag]

hugh_ said:

Why am I still driving a diesel?

What's diesel?

[Saied]

This is good news.

Roll on unleaded coming down below 90p/litre again.

[M3CHA-MONK3Y]

Now this is the kind of war Britian should be involved in!!!

Sod Iraq, get the boys home and let petrol stations fight instead . They could even put it on Setanta for extra profit, then maybe Gordon () could drop the tax on fuel. All good I say. I can now justify running the TVR everyday instead of the diesel astra .

[Apache]

? Tescos still 97.9 here in Cambs

[mrk4thom]

"in 2005, diesel took a record share of the market - 45 per cent of all vehicles"
http://www.carpages.co.uk/skoda/petrol-v-diesel-09...

Would be very interested to know why diesel is not dropping in price as much, can anyone enlighten us?

Just found this about Diesel;
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-2349106...

Edited by mrk4thom on Friday 7th November 11:32

[Huff]

I thought it was simply a matter of UK refinery capacity, and diesel's even more popular in Europe so there's little availability there to meet demand here.

[Thinbo]

Lytham Stag said:

hugh_ said:

Why am I still driving a diesel?

What's diesel?

It's a drink drunk by students made by mixing cider and beer together

[Maxmpg]

mrk4thom said:

"in 2005, diesel took a record share of the market - 45 per cent of all vehicles"
http://www.carpages.co.uk/skoda/petrol-v-diesel-09...

Would be very interested to know why diesel is not dropping in price as much, can anyone enlighten us?

I think Batfink supplied your answer, above:

batfink said:

There are separate refineries making diesel and petrol.
There are plenty supplying petrol but there has been no increase in refineries in Europe since the diesel became a popular transport choice. Simple supply and demand therefore keeps the price high.

The widening price difference is irritating, but it's still only equivalent to a few mpg:

40 mpg @ 106.6 = 2.67 ppm (diesel)
35 mpg @ 92.9 = 2.65 ppm (unleaded)

[kev 46]

The real truth is we are all paying the extra cost of diesel. Every thing we use, eat, touch, watch, listen too, at some point is carried by a wagon or van, all of which are diesel, these reductions in fuel costs wont help the economy until diesel is reduced to the same, or as before slightly dearer than unleaded.