fatherpierre

Why is diesel so much more expensive than the already **** takingly expensive petrol?

Just saw on the news derv has risen by a shocking 30% in the last year, with petrol up 18%.

I seem to remember diesel was always cheaper than petrol when I was a lad.

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

No doubt someone may come along with an actual attempt of a valid reason, I will stick with my view though. We are in rip off Britain, where everybody slowly but surely is getting shafted, no matter what you do.

Tam the bam

I assume it's because derv vehicles tend get more than to the gallon than petrol, so many people switched to derv for that reason, but the rip off gov realised this and put diesel up to compensate the shortfall, also trucks and buses all run on diesel, so if the price of food/travel go up as a result the amount of of vat on these things also go up so it's win win for the gov. As Lisa says 'this is rip off britain' and they (the Government) will nail your ***** to the table and screw every last penny they can out of us

warrenm2

I think its probably more to do with refining capacity - also I seem to remember that 1 barrel of oil yields much more gasoline than diesel, hence the yield is lower

dpb

Im sure the cabinet are dreaming up ways of taxing water/hydrogen/thin- aired powered cars as we speak

Tam the bam

The ******* will be taxing us for farting soon, be prepared to get a fart 'o' meter fitted to your *** soon. It will be an environmental, green, global warming, climate change tax, so that's ok, cos we're saving the planet

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

Is that so? I thought it was easier to extract diesel than petrol, or should I say petrol needs more refining, so should be more expensive to produce. I hadn't considered % yield and always thought yield was relative to demand.

fatherpierre

I always thought derv was the 'dirt' of the oil?

dpb

diesel is lower down the cracking order than petrol now isnt it ..!


its been 20 years since my A level chemistry - dont tell me im senile already

Removed.

We won't, but if we did, you'd soon forget!


And yes it is, if my nearly 30 year old CSE chemistry serves me correctly. I can't be ar$ed to Google it!

ScoobyWon't

You lot make me feel young

Removed.

You're only as old as the wo(man) you feel.

Leslie

Diesel is cheaper to produce than petrol, but diesel cars do more to the gallon so they must feel they can get away with ripping us off.

There is no moral justification for it that I can think of.

Les

PeteBrant

Is it an exclusively British thing where Diesel is more expensive than petrol?



I would say the reason is supply and demand.
In the 70'/80's/90's diesel were almost the sole preserve of vans and black cabs.

We are now in a situation where diesel cars are on the verge of outselling petrol cars - Where as late as 1990, diesel cars sales represented just 5% of the market.

When something rises in demand, the price rises - It's simple economics.

David Lock

Worldwide demand for diesel is outstripping production capacity so the price goes up. As simple as that. China is taking a lot of it. dl

Shark Man

It was only up until last month that diesel was cheaper than petrol in Spain.

My view is its offsetting the poor profitability on petrol.

I was doing a bit of number crunching the other day, and on a 550mile trip in a modestly "potent" 138bhp manual 2.0 diesel which averages 41mpg would have saved me just £15 in fuel compared to the same journey in a 190bhp n/a 2.5 petrol automatic which averages 31mpg. So I'm saving £1 for every 36.6 odd miles. (admittedly, the deisel was quite poor on MPG in my opinion - probably the euro IV compliance forcing it to burn fuel in the exhaust to keep the DPF clean )).


So the saving isn't that much; And even if it was taken over a long time,tax may be cheaper for the diesel, but with like-for like models in terms of perfromance. The equivelent diesel version is usually more expensive.

So say that there is 10mpg difference betweeen the petrol and diesel (arguable, but realistic IMHO - some may claim to get upto 60mpg, but I'm yet to see it or belive it).
The cost difference is about £1500 (compare, say, a BMW 325d SE to a 325SE. I know the 330d is actually closer in performance, but thats even more expensive! ). At current prices, it would need to be driven for 55,000miles before you actually realise any fuel saving to cover the vehicle's extra cost!!

Makes one wonder if there is any point to buying a performance diesel as an alternative to a sporty petrol. The only real gain is road tax - but that could change very easily.

NACRO

Supply and demand.

Some of you seem to forget the UK isn't the whole world. There is massive demand for diesel which has grown faster than refining capacity. More demand=higher prices.

The extra duty levied on diesel accounts for only a small amount of the price differential over petrol.

David Lock

My pal in New Zealand pays 60p per litre for diesel and 80p per litre for petrol.

But they always were a bit behind the times dl

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I knew I was right to buy another petrol car, cheaper to buy, better performance despite what TD owners reckon, no black smoke, no rattling noise, a nice power band thats bigger than 500 rpm and cheaper fuel.

Petrol its the fuel of the future

fatherpierre

My 1984 Merc 300D only manages about 23mpg - time to pension it off I think.

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

I blame the gypsies

lordretsudo

But buses get a reduction in the price of diesel - this is partly what the truckers were complaining about yesterday.

As someone else has already said, diesel is now more expensive than petrol because demand currently outstrips supply. In other countries, diesel is still cheaper than petrol, this is because most other governments tax diesel at a lower rate, given that is the lifeblood of industries like trucking, fishing, public transport, agriculture, etc, etc. Of course, our government doesn't worry about such niceties...

David Lock

Not quite correct..... One hates to be fair to the Gov't but most off-road stuff can use red, untaxed, diesel. Agriculture, construction etc. Why do you think crane drivers all own old London cabs?

Didn't know about buses though - what concessions do they get?

And river boats are about to lose their red diesel concession from this autumn, big fuss about this in the boating world. dl

lordretsudo

D'oh! I forgot about red diesel...

It was in the article about the lorry protesters, I think it said there is around a 25% reduction in tax on diesel for buses...

bigsinky

holy **** FP my LS400 does more than that and it's a 4L

Leslie

There some who would say thats a good way to be!

Les

fatherpierre

1960/70s diesel tech wasn't quite up to today's standard!

Plus it has covered just shy of 500000 miles, so may not be quite as efficient as it should be lol

Nimbus

Well, I've got a BMW 320d and I've just driven 100 miles from Leicestershire to Yorkshire (so up hill ) and averaged 64mpg, and that was normal driving, not pootling along at 50mph. You can get high MPG with a diesel if you drive it right. I agree that you need to do a lot of miles to offset the higher fuel costs and higher purchase price. I currently do about 25k.

dpb

andythejock01wrx

Supply and demand has to come into it, but I seem to recall the thinking was that diesel was more environmentally sound than petrol, hence the Govt of the day did not not increase the duty on diesel when it was doing it's annual "shaft the motorist" tax levy. However, they evntually worked out that the particulates in diesel made it rather nastier than they had thought, so the tax was hiked up again.

All with the proverbial pinch of sailt, of course.