Ivan wrote:

johannes wrote:
Ivan wrote:

A few short months ago the prospect of diesel fuel breaking
through the £1.00 a litre barrier appeared to be unlikely, but
with it now costing over £1.20 a liter that's nudging £5.50 a
gallon, this got me wondering just how much it would have to
reach before people on this newsgroup reached a point where
they would be seriously thinking about giving up their car? ..
My own threshold would be somewhere around £10.00 a gallon and
that would be it.

Are you mad? You must be a lottery winner then. Current prices
are at breaking point. £10 per litre would mean £16250 per annum
in my case just for fuel to drive to work. I would need an extra
income of £27,083 just to support this single cost item. Then
add Road Tax and insurance plus cost of maintenance and car
renewal.


I was of course only referring to my own set of personal
circumstances, 'fortunately' retired, mortgage paid off along with
careful budgeting and running a diesel, which according to
manufacturer's spec can deliver around 63 mpg [presumably with some
'very' careful driving)] therefore around 70/100 miles of motoring
a week for £20.00 wouldn't represent too much of a hardship to me,
although I can well see how desperate the situation would be for
others at that sort of cost, which was the reason I asked at what
sort of threshold would make people on this ng 'seriously' think
about giving up their vehicles. Having said that however, judging by
what appears to be the ever increasing amount of traffic I see on the
roads on a daily basis the increased fuel cost so far doesn't apear
to have had very much impact.

Sooner or later the government has got to cap the price otherwise we
will end up in a situation where it will be uneconomic to work