Thread: How to reduce petrol prices

Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is a regular urban myth.

Firstly, there are limited oil refineries in Australia, and guess who owns them? Even if the boycott was possible, BP and Shell would be doing quite nicely thank you, and would start shutting down the now unnecessary outlets you boycotted.

Secondly, the chances of getting anything like all petrol users to boycott the major retailers is nil.

woodbe.

I have found one of the best ways to reduce petrol prices is converting your car to run on LPG. I converted my first car, a Toyota Landcruiser FJ55, to LPG in 1980. Every car I have had since, apart from company cars, has been on LPG.

Since the Govt now pays a large proportion of the conversion cost, $2000 subsidy, I cannot understand why more people aren't running their cars on LPG. My current car, a V6 Commodore, is cheaper to run than most small cars. Current petrol cost where I live is $1.25, LPG $0.50, a no-brainer really.


Conversion cost almost 2 years ago was $1800, savings since then $3900, so after paying for the initial outlay, I have so far made a profit of $2100. Show me any investment with that sort of return!

The other factor to consider is that with the 4c shopper docket, you get a discount of 4c a litre off petrol, amounting to about 3%, but you also get the same 4c a litre discount off LPG, a saving of almost 10%
.

First appeared in 2001? Certainly been around the traps a few times anyway.

Go diesel and make your own. It costs next to nothing. You just have to go round to places that has used cooking oil and buy/beg it from them and apparently its quite a simple process to convert it to Bio-Diesel. I have been told if you produce it for your own vehicle its not against the law but you are not allowed to produce it commercially.

Originally Posted by woodbe

Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is a regular urban myth.

Too true.

Why can't we just drive less, drive smaller cars, ride bikes, ride motorbikes/scooters, walk etc. In reality, we pay sweet bugger all for petrol in Australia. I look forward to hearing the outcome of OPEC's next meeting, in which they are set to discuss selling oil using the Euro rather than US $. That'll be interesting for those families who will be 'crippled' due to their poor choice of car.

Lotte

Originally Posted by munruben

Go diesel and make your own. It costs next to nothing. You just have to go round to places that has used cooking oil and buy/beg it from them and apparently its quite a simple process to convert it to Bio-Diesel. I have been told if you produce it for your own vehicle its not against the law but you are not allowed to produce it commercially.

a bloke up the road from me makes bio deisel.

when he goes down the road it smell slike a fish and chip shop just drove past.

you may think im talkig crap but no joke it still smells ike fish and chips (sort of) however he is well known for doing thins craply.

he has a excavator with no covers over the motor the arm has a mind of its own. i would not let him work within 2 lengths of my house incase ha smashed it to bits. tractor and slasher the slasher has no sides or top just a frame and set of blades no bonet on his tractor. and he dose contracts with this equipment.

i would not be putting his deisel in my car/boat/truck or tractor.

Originally Posted by whitewood

A friend of mine sent me an e-mail attachment on this subject. I can't reproduce it on this forum but felt the concept was worth passing on to FM.

This a simplified version of the attachment. The basic concept is for all petrol users to boycott the two largest retailers - BP & Shell. When these two Companies loose market share they will have to start discounting their prices to enable them to sell their products. This should start a real price war between all the retailers and the winner is us the consumer. (For a change)

The e-mail asked each receipient to send a copy to 10 others and and suggested if this happened the number of people involved would be huge within a very short time. I sent my copy to 12 friends. However the idea is so simple, it doesn't cost me anything, (maybe 4cents with a Coles docket - shop Woolworths) it is not inconvenient and the eventual outcome would be to reduce the huge profits made by all oil companies.

If the original e-mail is successfull I needn't have posted this thread. However it will take time before the boycott works and the sooner it begins the sooner the price will drop. This would be good for Xmas when they are forcasting a price of about $1.50 per litre. I am going to do my bit at least until Xmas to see if it works.

You work for Caltex?

Originally Posted by LotteBum

Why can't we just drive less, drive smaller cars, ride bikes, ride motorbikes/scooters, walk etc.

Simply changing driving style would be a good start for a lot of people. I go down to Brisbane every now and then and every red light is like a drag race.
It's getting pretty bad up here as well, we got our second set of traffic lights a year or so back, bloody things are everywhere.

Hey, guess what? If you drive 10% less, it costs you 10% less!

There's nothing you can do to make petrol cheaper, the prices are fixed by people too far away. Buy a push bike. You'll live longer and save money on healthcare too. Move nearer to where you need to be most often.

Grow your own tomatoes, pumpkins, choko, eggs even.

Walk, with your tool bag. and a ladder... Imagine how fit our grandparents must have been.

Originally Posted by LotteBum

Too true.

Why can't we just drive less, drive smaller cars, ride bikes, ride motorbikes/scooters, walk etc.

Cause the damned distances are too flamin great!!... yeah okay we can walk down the street to the shop but into town? thats where most of us work... and for some of us thats a 20 minute DRIVE!! so thats out... ride a bike? well heck yeah but only if Ive got a few HOURS spare to do so... then how do I get whatever Ive gone to buy back?... and what about if we need or must go to the smoke for something? for me thats a 200+ Klick ONE WAY trip... and I will tell you for nothing I AM NOT riding a bloody pushbike or walking THAT far for anything!

Yeah we can squish into a smaller antsnest theyre calling cars today... IF were able to squish down into the sodding things then of course there comes the problem of trying to get out of the bloody thing again!! ride motor bikes? sure no worries lets all become temporary Australians some of us dont have the balance to ride a bike due to whatever reasons some dont like riding bikes some even have missus's that they adore who are scared shyteless of motor bikes... so bikes are out... whats left? a skateboard?

In reality, we pay sweet bugger all for petrol in Australia. I look forward to hearing the outcome of OPEC's next meeting, in which they are set to discuss selling oil using the Euro rather than US $. That'll be interesting for those families who will be 'crippled' due to their poor choice of car.

Lotte

Oooh are we?... interesting... at what we pay here where I am $1.30 per litre thats what $5 per gallon?... Id say were paying WAY more than we should be... no its no where near as bad as what Ive heard the poms pay but by shyte we have further to damned well travel than they do just to go to friggin work so our usage is more ergo we pay more cause we use more cause we have to work... gez I hear the yanks whinge and whine when there "gas" price goes to $2 per gallon and they go into a hissy fit... but we pay over twice what they do... and yet we have idiots like you saying we pay buggar all for petrol in Australia?? GET A BLOODY GRIP!!

Okay what about diesel? $1.43 here... FOR DEISEL??? its less refined more cruder and yet it costs more at the bowser? WHY? huh? someone explain that to me.... Deisel has until recent times been cheeper than petrol ALWAYS... sudenly were goin to war in Iraq and it JUMPS higher than petrol?... bullshyte!

We do not pay buggar all for fuel here we pay too bloody much for the damned stuff!!

Oh an then get me started about who gets the most cut from the $ we pay!! bloody mongrel government!!...

An how about we have a damned go... ah buggar it

I think West Aussies should have a gallon of petrol free every month. The target of the reduction in car use is *unneccessary* trips in the car. Here's an example. SWMBO obeyed suggests we go into the Valley for breakfast. Now we live 3.5km from the city, so that we are near to eveything we need. So what do we do, we pack the kids in the (6 cylinder) car and drive for 5 minutes past 2 train stations and a dozen bus stops which would all have taken us to the Valley, spend 10 mins driving around to find a parking space, when we could have walked to the train station and got a train to the valley. It was Sunday, there's no rush, the kids would have enjoyed the train ride, etc, etc.

There's always a "But..."

But... the trains aren't very frequent on Sundays. And they're always filthy - my kids are one and two and spend most of their life on the floor. So we stick to our nice safe, clean, oil guzzling car. And yes, this is a rant about QUeensland Rail. Generally I think the QLD govt do an ok job, but QR is a pile of Sh##te, if you're a passenger - they've spent billions working out how to get beer to Mt Isa, but bugger all on getting passengers around the state. It took a visitor of ours *three* hours to get to the beach on the Gold Coast!

Rant over.

Wild Dingo, you can drive yourself as far as you like - you're not the problem!

Originally Posted by Wild Dingo

Cause the damned distances are too flamin great!!... yeah okay we can walk down the street to the shop but into town? thats where most of us work... and for some of us thats a 20 minute DRIVE!! so thats out... ride a bike? well heck yeah but only if Ive got a few HOURS spare to do so... then how do I get whatever Ive gone to buy back?... and what about if we need or must go to the smoke for something? for me thats a 200+ Klick ONE WAY trip... and I will tell you for nothing I AM NOT riding a bloody pushbike or walking THAT far for anything!

Yeah we can squish into a smaller antsnest theyre calling cars today...

You'd be surprised how accommodating cars like the Toyota Yaris are. My mum's partner, predominantly a Falcodore man, was skeptical when my mum bought herself a Yaris. Now he loves it and demands to drive it when they go somewhere. Self confessed convert!

IF were able to squish down into the sodding things then of course there comes the problem of trying to get out of the bloody thing again!!

You must be huge, which you don't look...

ride motor bikes? sure no worries lets all become temporary Australians

I've said it before - motorcyclists are overrepresented in accidents on the roads, however this data would have to be skewed given the way some of them ride. I ride a scooter and rarely have near misses... that's not to say that some motorcycle/scooter/pushbike accidents are not directly attributed to poor driving ability on someone else's part - just that the statistics are no doubt skewed by those who don't take life very seriously.

some of us dont have the balance to ride a bike due to whatever reasons some dont like riding bikes some even have missus's that they adore who are scared shyteless of motor bikes... so bikes are out... whats left? a skateboard?

You could always try - skateboarding is fun. I'm almost 6 months pregnant and riding a scooter poses no problem to me - it's hard for me to see why even driving a smaller car poses such a huge problem for some people.

Oooh are we?... interesting... at what we pay here where I am $1.30 per litre thats what $5 per gallon?... Id say were paying WAY more than we should be... no its no where near as bad as what Ive heard the poms pay but by shyte we have further to damned well travel than they do just to go to friggin work so our usage is more ergo we pay more cause we use more cause we have to work... gez I hear the yanks whinge and whine when there "gas" price goes to $2 per gallon and they go into a hissy fit... but we pay over twice what they do...

If you put it into perspective, you will find that we actually pay a lot less for fuel than what we should, given the environmental impact of its use.

and yet we have idiots like you saying we pay buggar all for petrol in Australia?? GET A BLOODY GRIP!!

I'm being called an idiot by someone who can barely spell, let alone punctuate. Go figure.

Mind your manners and leave the name calling in the school yard.

Look, my opinion is that if people want to live a million miles from anywhere and be reliant on driving long distances in big cars, that's their perogative. But I'm tired of hearing the complaints associated with same. If petrol prices were to be representative of the environmental impact it has, we'd be paying a lot more than we currently do.

You're entitled to your opinion, I'm entitled to mine. If I were to call everyone whom I disagree with names, there would be a lot of name calling going on around here. That's what separates constructive argument from abuse.

Lotte

Get a Prius, then break your right leg so you cant drive anywhere,

Drive less.