WAaay OT & spew warning!

Sadly I am afraid this is coming close to truth. I can't wait to start working so that we can a- refi the house and b- buy a new hybrid vehicle

ellice

Amen. We just bought a new car to replace the one we totaled. It's rather annoying that most of the hybrids on the market over here in Norway are teeny-tiny little buzzy things that quite literally look like meter-maid or clown cars. Otherwise, we'd have seriously considered one.

It's impossible to look dignified in one of those...or carry groceries. Becky

Today in Kirkwall I bought petrol (gasoline) at just over one pound four pence (1.04 GBP) per litre.

1 litre = 0.26 gallons 1 pound sterling = 1.98 USA dollars (Not too sure about gallons, there may be a US gallon which is bound to be bigger than a British gallon )

Hey Becky, which are you more worried about? LOL. We've talked about a hybrid and have decided for it to work the prices have to come down a lot.

C

That's too bad. Over here, there is a good variety now, sizes from compact, to mid to pretty big, to quite big. We already have a really small car, and a really huge one - so we're looking at something a bit smaller than the huge Expedition, but more efficient and hybrid. We'll see.

ellice

We've been spoiled here with much cheaper gasoline than Europe & the UK for many years. However, we also tend to have longer distances to travel on a regular basis than the average over there, and not quite the public transport network.

I think that a British pint is slightly different than a US pint, so I'd expect the gallons to be different - but I won't go further than that. And I could indeed be wrong.

ellice

One UK gallon = 1.20 US gallon

thanks

Given that we're thinking about starting a family in the foreseeable future...the main criteria was "can it fit a pram in the back?" and "how about a 'Sweden-sized' load of groceries too?". So, we ended up with a low-mileage used station wagon.

The prices on cars in Norway are insane to begin with, so the hybrids were utterly out of reach. Think of how much a new car costs in the US, multiply by two...then add taxes based on the weight of the car, taxes based on engine size, an 'end-of-life' deposit, a punitive car registration fee...and THEN figure in the sales tax (VAT). Yes, we literally had to pay taxes on the taxes.

I'm hoping that by the time we're due for the next car, whatever children we have will be old enough that we won't be hauling their crap all over...and we can seriously entertain the idea of a hybrid car. Prices will probably have come down significantly by then.

As far as looking dignified...I've seen more than one tiny three-wheeled electric car in Oslo. It's impossible to look dignified in one of those. But...I can see it being very handy in the tiny, meandering side streets.

Looks like a toy from a happy meal... Becky A.

I worked it out to be $7.84 per US gallon.

Our prices in eastern Norway are around $7.57 per gallon.

It's kinda strange that Britain and Norway are pumping oil up as fast as it can be put in barrels...but we still pay more than in the States, where it has to be imported (from us!). In all seriousness, I wonder why that is? I have yet to deduce why this is true.

Glad I never took Economics...would have gotten a big, fat F... Becky A.

ROFLMAO!

One of the problems in the US is people who "need" an SUV because once or twice a year they buy something too large to fit in a car. A friend had all sorts of rationalizations for why paying extra for the SUV and having to buy extra gas every week was somehow "cheaper" than twice a year spending $20 to rent a U-Haul.

She didn't drive carpool, didn't need to ferry sports equipment around, I don't believe her claim that she couldn't fit enough groceries for two people into the same size small car that we fit groceries for two into... so I don't feel sorry for her now that she's paying twice as much per gallon for twice as much gas. She ignored my advice and now has to live with her decision.

Here in the UK it's because the Chancellor of the Exchequer insists on a fuel duty to generate lots of money. And then you have to add VAT on top of the fuel duty - a tax upon a tax! Fuel duty in the UK (as of September 2006) was:

48.35 pence per litre for ultra-low sulphur unleaded petrol/diesel 48.35 pence per litre for conventional unleaded petrol 48.35 pence per litre for conventional diesel 28.35 pence per litre for bio-diesel and bio ethanol - low tax to encourage consumer conversion 12.21 pence per kg for gas other than natural gas (LPG) 10.81 pence per kg for natural gas used as road fuel. 7.69 pence per litre for rebated gas oil (red diesel) 7.29 pence per litre for rebated fuel oil (source )

"Bruce" recently entertained us with.................

Today in Kirkwall I bought petrol (gasoline) at just over one pound four pence (1.04 GBP) per litre.

1 litre = 0.26 gallons 1 pound sterling = 1.98 USA dollars (Not too sure about gallons, there may be a US gallon which is bound to be bigger than a British gallon ) __________________________

here in Western Australia I thought my throat was cut when I paid AU$1.39 per litre (for the 98 octane unleaded) fuel. This equates for 58pence a litre (about half of what Bruce is paying!), and/or US$3.14 per US gallon.

My round trip to work each day is approx 60kms (37 miles), fortunately my car (A160 Mercedes) is relatively economical and I usually only fuel up once every fortnight.

And yes, Australia is also 'self sufficient' in oil, but we pay the same astonishing range of taxes as the UK which take the price to what is alleged to be world parity pricing, but may as well be called extortionate profits for oil companies.

Joanne in a cold Perth!

Bruce ( snipped-for-privacy@btinternet.com) writes: (snip)

Someone has already provided the figures on US/UK gallons. A little history. The UK and US gallons both come from the UK. IIRC, the UK gallon comes from the beer makers, and the US from the wine makers.

The solution to the hauling issue over here is that nearly everybody has a trailer hitch. It's very easy to rent an open trailer (ie: a fancy plywood box with wheels) from either a rental place or and Esso (Exxon) station. The reason we didn't have a hitch installed on our wagon is that if it's too big or too yucky to go the back, we'll have it delivered.

Surprisingly, our new station wagon gets pretty decent gas mileage. The manual gearbox helps out, as does the in-line engine.

It's a mystery to me why Detroit insists on V-type engines. You can get more horses and better mileage out of a straight-line 4 cylinder than you can from the equivalent V-4. It's also way easier to keep cool than a V engine. And it also provides more low-end torque (ie: hill climbing).

The other half of it, though, is that we're putting 98 octane in our tank. DH was shocked that they were selling "dirty gasoline!" (ie: 93 octane) at the pump in WV. 98 might be Premium or Super-Premium in the US, but it's the Regular gas over here.

My oh my, am I chatty today or what? Becky A.