Are high fuel prices changing your driving habits?

[waynne]

Would you say that the high fuel prices are changing your driving habits? Are you more likely to walk/cycle or use public transport now? How expensive would fuel have to be to stop you driving a car?

[WRXASH]

I wouldnt ever stop driving my car but maybe calm down and not drive as much and not have turbo kick in everytime i put my foot down and try save bit on fuel by taking it more steady.

[pgarner]

walk around town but public transport consists of a bus that costs more for a return fair (£4 last time i got one to dumfries 12 miles away ) than it would be just to jump in the car and drive

defenetaly takeing my time more and more not so willing just to pass for the hell of it if i know im going to get stuck behind someone 1/2 mile further on

[waynne]

I think that is key - the high price of public transport and the infrequency.

[pgarner]

yeah its stupid at times were told to take the bus / train as there supposed to be subsidised. yeah right were going down to essex the end of feb plane was £101 plus petrol gettng to glasgow parking then the train from stansted, train was £140. using auto route to go down the A1 getting an average of 31 mpg ( a get around 32 around here with in town and country driving so hope to get more) it will cost £90 in petrol so i save around £50 by polluting the world yeah i feel good about it

public transport only works in cities where there is frequent buses and trains along with set prices such as edinburgh has all day travel on the bus for £2.50 in london last year all day off peak travel (after 9am ) was just over £5 that was tube and bus

[DimmaThanDim]

You forgot to mention the carrying of all the bags and cases, waiting in the cold because they aren't running on time, missed connections, the taxi or walk the other end. Family of 4 travelling from Hampshire to Glasgow in a 2.5 v6 Vectra estate on LPG cost me £75 return door to door. £18.75 per person. Public transport cant match that cost or comfort.

[pgarner]

that was what got us there wouldnt be much bags with us as jus going down to celebrate the wife and a mates birthdays train tickets were £80 odd pound on the day and £72 in advance that was around 3 weeks ago. jus me and the wife works out as £45 each, hopefully less.

[HDi fun]

Originally Posted by DimmaThanDim

You forgot to mention the carrying of all the bags and cases, waiting in the cold because they aren't running on time, missed connections, the taxi or walk the other end. Family of 4 travelling from Hampshire to Glasgow in a 2.5 v6 Vectra estate on LPG cost me £75 return door to door. £18.75 per person. Public transport cant match that cost or comfort.

The LPG case is a compelling one but is the gentle fuel duty going to last much longer? Also, what's the performance like on LPG? I'm inclined to think that it's woolier than running on petrol. I still favour diesel as a road car fuel.

Totally agree that the public transport alternative is pointless at the prices charged.

Further, what's the point of running a whole train with a couple of dozen passengers? Surely that's far dirtier than six cars.

A fully laden train is perfect.

But, at the price of fares, who's gonna bother?

[Prince]

Originally Posted by waynne

Are you more likely to walk?

Haha, I'm far too lazy for that! I could quite easily walk to my destinations, but I've paid all this money to drive, so I might as well! I don't see the point in buying a car and walking around, or taking the bus. I understand if somebody can't afford to put petrol into their car, but I can, so I choose to.

[pgarner]

Originally Posted by HDi fun

The LPG case is a compelling one but is the gentle fuel duty going to last much longer? Also, what's the performance like on LPG? I'm inclined to think that it's woolier than running on petrol. I still favour diesel as a road car fuel.

am i right about saying that LPG creates less power than petrol as its effecively too high an octane ( certain tat i read somewhere that it about the same as 130 ? although i think this may be a bit higher than what i remember) if the engines set up to run solely on LPG with higher compression pistons then the gains are much higher

did look at and LPG conversion to save fuel but the fact it was going to be £1700 sorta made me go nah not worth it

[Overwrite]

High fuel prices in my area have forced me to adjust my driving syle. My A3 is telling me my current MPG is 29.1, which aint bad considering I do no motorway driving whatsoever (maybe that Ecotek v/v is beginning to pay for itself?).

I do use a website to track the cheapest petrol garages in my area. Check out http://www.petrolprices.com/

[Stiggy]

LPG is a hit and miss i think, i know on Toyota's that if you to the conversion the Heads will only last 80,000 mile before needing to be scrapped and replaced, yes that does mean the whole head.

you would have to make sure their are no long term set backs if you were to do the conversion, but as far as road fuels go, go for a diesel,

with the rise in fuel prices it hasnt changed my driving habbits but i am more incline to stay home on nights now to save fuel

[DimmaThanDim]

The lpg setup on my vectra actually makes the engine run smoother and seems quieter at speed. The power seems no different, but not sure how it would be on a lower powered car with less cylinders. When working out the economy, i probably drop between 1 and 2 mpg on gas, but at around 50 pence a litre, i would strongly advise those higher mileage users to look closer at this option. The other up side is there is also no congestion charge on cars that run on lpg. There are sellers on places like ebay offering self fit systems for about £500 including inspection and safety certification. Can be a really cost effective solution to the problems faced by those of us who get stuffed by living or working around London area or travel long distances.

[HDi fun]

The congestion charge point is a good one. Thankfully I no longer have any cause to travel into Cental London so that doesn't affect me (yet!)

I do wonder though, for how long will the UK government maintain the low rate of duty on LPG. If it gets too popular then they will surely ramp up the road fuel duty applicable to it. The same happened with diesel - it used to be so cheap. That's because the cars were undesirable at best and undriveable at worst. Hence, I hated the things and never bothered buying one until a very few short years ago.

I have driven a couple of LPG dual fuel cars, both V8s and yes, they are fine.

Diesel is my current favourite - I like the ridiculous amount of mid range shove available, although at today's fuel prices and the cost of buying and servicing a diesel car I wonder if it's much of an advantage overall, whether or not you like the drive.

[waynne]

I think the gap and price advantage of owning Diesel is pretty much non existant now.