old.sparkles

That was with discounts - price was 128.5, 4c off from coles and 10c off cos I spent $20 in store (buying things I would have got in Coles anyway )

cresta57

Diesel is still way overpriced @ around 149.9 I had to fill up in Noosa last week & they ripped me off for 163.9!

spouse of scouse

Hey, doesn't matter how you get the price down, as long as you do Haven't seen 114 odd for yonks!

jad n rich

Yes coles currently have 3 products we use sold at the same price as in the supermarket, ( service station stuff is usually marked up ) so its easy for us to get the extra 10c. Plus I stick in 2 petrol cans we had, 40 L fills the smaller vehicle, and all bought at the lowest price. I cant believe the lengths I go to here not to pay ridiculous prices for everything.

Was in NZ last week. Petrol was 2.19 or 2.09. Diesel was 1.39 or 1.49.

spouse of scouse

Now now, just think of the financial management skills you're getting

I get a bit pissed off with Perth prices too, am looking forward to cheaper grocery shops when we're in the UK. Not petrol unfortunately, but we're going to try to get along without a car. I reckon we'll last a month

spouse of scouse

Cresta, tell me this and tell me no more (unless you want to!) - why is diesel more expensive than more refined fuel? When the ex and I first switched to diesel it was far cheaper than petrol. It's gradually crept up to where it is now - dearer than petrol.

I bet the oil companies (or whoever makes the profit from it) cite 'environmental reasons' for the increase in price, but cynical old me says that when so many people switched to diesel they lost money. Simple solution, up the price.

spouse of scouse

This discussion (that I'm having with myself ) reminds me of an overnight cruise we did in Halong Bay, Vietnam. The most stunning place and I'd expected it to be the highlight of our North to South exploration of the country.

Unfortunately, the Bay was jam packed with boats, all using what must have been the crudest, cheapest fuel available. The plumes of black crap they emitted, combined with dense, low cloud cover, saw me throw up almost continuously.

While Scouse kept saying things like 'are you going to eat that? I'll have it then'

Amazulu

One of the things I've learnt and studied in my Oil and Gas MBA:
Diesel is mainly used as an industrial fuel - ships, power generation, trucks, heavy machinery etc. It's use as a personal transport fuel is limited. So when economies are doing well and industrial activity increases, the price of diesel rises to reflect this - and vice versa. We live in a region where a lot of Asian economies are steaming along (forget all the bollocks you read about China slowing, they are still growing at around 7.5% and will continue to do so), therefore the demand for diesel is high, driving its price higher. We import a lot of diesel, mainly from Asia. If you remember back to 2007/8 when China's economy was white hot leading up to the Olympics. Australia was also booming. The price of diesel here went through the roof

But saying that

I'm sure the oil companies/supermarkets are tacking on a bit extra as well. Shell/Coles and Caltex/Woolworths are big culprits of this IMO. Their diesel prices, around here anyway, are always the highest - and by a big margin. I tend to find that Gull (or Puma as it now seems to be called), which is an Aussie company, usually have the best price

GarryP

I knocked this up to show how the fuel price cycle makes money. The solid chunk at the bottom is the terminal gate price of fuel (how much the distributor sells for). We can assume the Coles/Woolies lot get a bit of a discount on this, so given a margin for the station which is typically 4% in the UK, we get somewhere in the green zone (a guess, but probably right).


As you can see, at the bottom of the cycle, the garage might actually be making a loss, with the supermarket also eating the cost of the 4c voucher on top (even with 50 litres of fill up, its still only worth $2 max). However at peak they are getting 20c extra margin (15% extra) and they arrange the length of the cycle such that the average time between fillups (16 days) means you HAVE to buy at an enhanced margin rate eventually. This is why they no longer have a weekly cycle.

As for the diesel price. It doesn't run a price cycle, meaning there is a constant margin for them. They also do the same "no cycle" in Canberra & Hobart on unleaded - I guess since there is no real chance of them being undercut by competitors, etc. Diesel is a few cents more in such locations (accounting for the increased energy content), and if you look at, say, Melbourne and take account of this offset, you get the 'flat' diesel price bisecting the price cycle. In other words the overall effective profit is the same, they just get it another way.

Buzzy--Bee

and in NZ you also have to pay an extra tax/km for diesel cars.

BB

Amazulu

NZ has an extra tax for diesel cars - currently $58/1000km - called Road User Charges

What a stupid system

Buzzy--Bee

Very very expensive country to live in.... very high costs and very low wages combine to make life a struggle there - you can't eat the beautiful scenery!

BB

jad n rich

In the few days we were on the South Island, the scenery we saw just made us want to go back and campervan round the whole island.

But.... prices. Its rare a western lifestyle country makes Australia look cheap but NZ does

A few things things seemed very good value, like the $14 return airport bus, the 3.50 local fare with transfer, pork! ( not lamb ) some tourist stuff like the gondala we paid 22 each with discount and its an amazing few hours up there.

I have no desire to live there but would go back to south island any day if someone said tasmania ( which is lovely, been round twice ) or south island NZ I would jump at NZ.

We usually get diesel motorhomes, and like them quite large, saves family killing each other, will have to check out the tax further then but an extra 5.8c litre still makes diesel resonable - ish.

One really weird thing we noticed. Rollies, the cigges your grandad used to do, saw one packet cigarette smoker the whole time, similar amount of smokers but all doing the paper and baccie thing. Must make the cancer rate high, dont know if they use filters but didnt see any. Price sounded similar to OZ, about 18 but not sure as none of us smoke.

Amazulu

It's $58/1000km not 5.8c/l

So for a vehicle that does 10l/100km (say a RV) it is 58c/l

jad n rich

Turbo reading threads again.

Do not apply said style to legal documents