[MiniDoug]

A US gallon is 3.7854 litres or 0.8327 UK gallons. Optimax (100 octane) is £0.809 in London per litre. Regular is £0.769.
The dollar is about $1.75 to the £ at the mo so.......

A US gallon would cost...... $5.35 for Optimax and $5.09for regular over here in London.... a bit less than the $7 quoted above. Still pricey over here. Most of this is tax.... tthe motorist is heavily penalised over here. I believe that the actual net cost of fuel over here is actaully cheaper than it is in the US.

In Europe prices range from low 0.80 euros in Spain and Italy for 95 Octane to around 1 euro in France and Germany with Ireland about 0.9 euro. A US gallon in France would cost US$4.65!

I couldn't believe it when I was in the states last year I could fill the tank of a Jeep Grand Cherokee for less than £20!!
Your cost of living is definitely cheaper than ours, although over here some things ARE actually cheaper like bread and milk but that's about it. Gas was about $1.50 in Atlanta last August and that was supposed to be one of the cheapest areas in the states.

BTW I hated the Cherokee, but loved the Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible I hired! Not as fun as a MINI though.
I also prefer driving on your interstates.... even in Atlanta the traffic flows much better than in London apart from a few hiccoughs on I75/85/400 in rush hour!

[Aqualung]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ginge

We have some guys over here from the US and they can't believe how much we have to pay for cost of living comapared to our wages. You guys over the pond seem to have a much better deal.

Well, McDonald's just announced they're eliminating Super Size Fries, it's a start

The WSJ has an article on rising gas prices today, projecting it to go higher by summer.

Here in Boston, it's $1.91/gallon for premium (Mobil/Exxon)

[Rich_IX]

costs me £30 to fill my tank up from empty
and im a student

[MiniDoug]

Your fuel guage obviously ain't working.... costs me £36!

[AMT]

Quote: Originally Posted by MiniDoug

Your fuel guage obviously ain't working.... costs me £36!

You must run it pretty empty! Most I've ever put in was £31, and that was 45 litres!

You American's don't know how lucky you are, your fuel is SO, SO CHEAP!!!

[Z1GZAG N]

Quote: Originally Posted by GMINI03

yet another BS doomsayer, wasn't the world supposed to end in 2000? and California fall off into the ocean before now?

I'm still waiting for California to fall off into the Pacific!

[LordWinslow]

Quote: Originally Posted by Grings

Naughtyredmini - I don't know where you are getting petrol for $2.91 a gallon, but I'd like 1 million gallons please

Petrol in the UK is currently at the $7 per gallon mark (mind you that calculation is helped by the weak dollar). Although Naughtyred was right about filling a tank - about 75 bucks is right

I would love to be arguing about it hitting $2 a gallon - mind you most of what we pay is tax .

Yeah cost me almost $65 to fill up my Citroen Xsara (rental) in France last week. I was shocked when I paid.

We pay nothing for gas. As I say to people who and moan about gas prices (usually ones with SUVs): "If you can't aford the gas, you shouldn't of bought the vehicle."

I will be upset when the price of super here reachs $2 but I will still gladly pay that over $7 or $10 a gallon any day.

Winslow

[shiredweller]

OK let me see if I got this right. You Euro. guys pay about $5.35 for a gal. of the good stuff and 75% of that is tax? That would be $4.01 for tax and $1.34 for the gas.
Over here gas tax is about $0.37 per gal. So if gas is $2.00 a gal. we pay $0.37 in tax and $1.63 for the gas.
Looks to me like you guys have the cheap gas, but a ed up tax system.
But I could be wrong.

[buz]

When the big one hits the rest of North America will fall off of California and we will become an island nation.

[SFJAMES]

Quote: Originally Posted by buz

When the big one hits the rest of North America will fall off of California and we will become an island nation.

yeah.........like he said!

[tavis1]

Here the thing you have to think about. Gas prices just don't effect your driving ability.they efct food prices, utilities, clothing and general service (for example: the A/C goes out in your house. the A/C company has to raise there labor rates to cover gas for the service trucks). The major thing that ticks me off it's all BULL SH+T!! They pull this crap every summer and major/ minor event. You know they are lieing because for the past three weeks every week they have a different excuse why the gas prices are so high. How it works is they boost the prices's way up untile enough people complain or the goverment threaten's an investigation. Then the prices drop by about $.20 even though they went up $.40- $.75 and we think we are getting a great deal. It's a load of crap. I think they should be honest and say "We are going to screw every driver and bring the economy to halt because we want a new houseboat in the Camon Islands."
Tavis1

[andyupnorth]

Quote: Originally Posted by shiredweller

OK let me see if I got this right. You Euro. guys pay about $5.35 for a gal. of the good stuff and 75% of that is tax? That would be $4.01 for tax and $1.34 for the gas.
Over here gas tax is about $0.37 per gal. So if gas is $2.00 a gal. we pay $0.37 in tax and $1.63 for the gas.
Looks to me like you guys have the cheap gas, but a ed up tax system.
But I could be wrong.

No - you're spot on. The gas is cheap - the tax makes it expensive. In theory it all goes into the Chancellor's tax pot and he spends it wisely on free health care and social programmes.....I'm yet to be convinced on the spending it wisely bit though...

[Windshadow]

Here on Nantucket we Pay $2.36 and rising right now for MOBIL premium (no choice all island stations are MOBIL) and last year we peaked at about $ 2.89 it has never been cheap as the distributer Harbor Fuel has to pay the ferry company to bring its tank trucks over and back on the special HazMat Freight boats with the Propane etc.
Fuel is always more expensive out here... But as the island is small, most islanders just drive about 5,000 miles a year, so it does not bite as hard as it would at 20,000 miles a year. A good thing as we have the highest % per capita of SUVs and 4X4 trucks in the country... over 65% at last count

[JBA]

I'd have thought a bicycle was about all you'd need on Nantucket. Go over 30 and you'll fall off into the water!

Quote: Originally Posted by Windshadow

Here on Nantucket we Pay $2.36 and rising right now for MOBIL premium (no choice all island stations are MOBIL) and last year we peaked at about $ 2.89 it has never been cheap as the distributer Harbor Fuel has to pay the ferry company to bring its tank trucks over and back on the special HazMat Freight boats with the Propane etc.
Fuel is always more expensive out here... But as the island is small, most islanders just drive about 5,000 miles a year, so it does not bite as hard as it would at 20,000 miles a year. A good thing as we have the highest % per capita of SUVs and 4X4 trucks in the country... over 65% at last count

[cliffywong]

Funny thing this we pay really high price for gas - But compare to the rest of the world Mc Donald Meal is one of the cheapest - USD 2.56 - Big mac , coke and fries..... oh well...

[Windshadow]

Quote: Originally Posted by JBA

I'd have thought a bicycle was about all you'd need on Nantucket. Go over 30 and you'll fall off into the water!

with over 50 miles of soft sand beaches a good 4x4 is needed to get to the best fishing spots...some of which are several miles in low range to the nearest road this is one of the places where off road vehicles get used the way their designers intended
and I do not think our quaint cobble stone streets will be the best thing for my new MINI's suspension... but in a year or less I will be living somewhere else
http://www.mini2.com/forum/florida-region/52499-road-trip-find-retrement-home.html
so it won't be for long that I will be abusing her to said roads and salt spray

[ScatPackMopars]

I drive 30K miles a year and don't think I should have to pay for a product that traditionally sells for the 1 dollar mark in the state I live in. If i wanted socialized medicine and other tax burden items I would expect to pay California gas prices. But I live in Florida. Too bad it isn't close enough to Georgia so we could get the gas for what it should cost.

[MINILLA]

A long, long time ago.... there was a guy in Swansea, Wales who converted his engine to run on Chicken droppings! Seemed it worked quite well .... not that he had the gas compnies worried...most people were put off by the smell! I had been thinking on a similar conversion! I figure that the amount of gas I get when I eat McDonald's ought to be redirected in a more useful manner....unfortunately...seems like the Big M caught news of my idea and so they have discontinued the SUPERSIZE! I guess I'll just have to try regular!

[shiredweller]

Florida has no state income tax and does not allow off shore oil drilling but you still want cheap un-taxed gas? No disrespect meant, but you can't have it all.

[JBA]

Just to mention that we liked that part of the world when we holidayed a while ago. I envy you your little island in the fog. Lobster sandwiches from a shack. Those archean "crab"-shells (inedible,the pilgrims found, related to woodlice IIRC) littering the shore. Wonder what its like in winter!

Good fishing, Windshadow.

Quote: Originally Posted by Windshadow

with over 50 miles of soft sand beaches a good 4x4 is needed to get to the best fishing spots...some of which are several miles in low range to the nearest road this is one of the places where off road vehicles get used the way their designers intended
and I do not think our quaint cobble stone streets will be the best thing for my new MINI's suspension... but in a year or less I will be living somewhere else
http://www.mini2.com/forum/florida-region/52499-road-trip-find-retrement-home.html
so it won't be for long that I will be abusing her to said roads and salt spray