Two-car Families Will Pay Extra £400 Fuel Costs This Year

The average two-car family in the UK will spend more than £400 extra on petrol (gas) this year as fuel prices hit record levels, figures show.

Soaring petrol (gas) and diesel prices have increased the total cost of running a small family car to 58p a mile, from 55.3p a year ago, according to the AA.

UK pump prices will certainly continue rising to record levels in the spring following the price of oil hitting a series of highs since the beginning of the year.

Two-car families are now £36.93 worse off every month than they were a year ago, based on the average distance travelled in a mid-sized, petrol-fuelled vehicle, according to the AA .

They will pay £443.16 more this year just to fill their tanks, even before higher insurance premiums and a bunch of new motoring costs in Alastair Darling’s recent Budget are taken into account.

Average prices for unleaded fuel have shot up to 106.76p a litre, an increase of 17.23p in a year. It now costs £8.62 extra to fill up a typical 50-litre petrol tank.

Petrol prices are currently highest in London at 107.6p and cheapest in Yorkshire and Humberside at 106.7p. There are local variations with some garages charging 110p.

A few weeks ago, petrol hit the landmark price of £5 a gallon on British motorways with the M40 Cherwell Valley service area charging 110.9p a litre.

Experts expect rises of at least another 3p a litre over the next few months as recent oil price highs filter through and have warned that the £5 gallon may become the norm by the summer.

Consumer spending power is already being depleted by more than £11 million a day by the increased cost of petrol, compared with last year.

Motorists were the biggest losers in the recent Budget with the Chancellor signalling above-inflation petrol tax increases in future. This is all in the name greening the UK.

He also unveiled a £735 million tax increase on large family cars and resurrected speculation that the Government is preparing to introduce a national road-pricing scheme which could see drivers paying £1 a mile to use their cars during peak times.

Over the past two years, the soaring price of oil has allowed the Treasury to rake in £5 billion more than expected with windfalls from fuel duty and taxes on North Sea oil, according to analysts but the greedy, spendthrift government wants even more..

Hugh Blaydon, from the Association of British Drivers, said: “The more money people have to spend on fuel the less money they have to spend on anything else.

“It’s not just luxuries, people will have to cut back on everyday necessities. Most people drive not for the fun of it but because they have to, so they are going to have to pay these increased costs. It’s outrageous.”

Drivers of diesel-powered vehicles are suffering from even faster rises than those hitting petrol-driven car owners.

The average price of diesel in Britain is now a record 114.25p a litre, up nearly 5p in a month.

A litre of diesel is 7.5p more expensive than petrol.

Wales has the highest priced diesel at 115.1p while the cheapest is in north-west England at 113.6p.

Diesel cars, which give better fuel economy than petrol, accounted for 40.2 per cent of the 2.4 million new cars sold in Britain last year, compared to 13.8 per cent in 1999.

A diesel car costs on average £1,400 more than its petrol equivalent and it usually takes more than 45,000 miles before the savings from greater fuel efficiency recoup the extra purchase cost.

Edmund King, the president of the AA, said: “The dash for diesel continues in the UK, with motorists primarily trying to reduce their fuel costs but with the added benefit of reduced CO\u2082 emissions.

“However, diesel is more expensive than petrol and the differential is growing.

“For many low-mileage drivers, buying a diesel is a false economy”

If this is the case, then why aren’t more motorists switching to LPG? LPG conversions cost, on average, slightly less than a diesel alternative but the fuel is about half the cost – and a lot cleaner.