Has the diesel taxation properly started now?

KyleS1

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Driving past my local Sainsbury’s petrol station today and noticed unleaded was £1.17 and diesel £1.29. This is the biggest price difference I’ve seen. Have the goverment now started the official measures to reduce diesel cars?
 
I do about 5,000 miles a year and will do a lot less when I retire so will keep the car as long as it is sound and look at the state of things then.
 
Driving past my local Sainsbury’s petrol station today and noticed unleaded was £1.17 and diesel £1.29. This is the biggest price difference I’ve seen. Have the goverment now started the official measures to reduce diesel cars?
Wow that is cheap! Unleaded is about 1.49 around here.
 
I saw £1.14 in Scotland the other day
 
Driving past my local Sainsbury’s petrol station today and noticed unleaded was £1.17 and diesel £1.29. This is the biggest price difference I’ve seen. Have the goverment now started the official measures to reduce diesel cars?
This will be down to the price that Sainbury's pays for the fuel which is affected by oil prices and refining costs and whatever local pricing factors are in play at the location in question. The difference between diesel and petrol has always varied quite a bit and this sort of difference is nothing new. In the winter diesel tends to go up a bit in price as more heating oil is used and this has knock on effects for refining capacity for various fuels.

The only way the government can affect fuel prices is by changing the taxation levels and this hasn't happened recently.
 
I didn’t know that about the winter price difference. Around here diesel has always been within about 3p per litre of unleaded (I had a diesel car for 8 of the last 9 years), and never seen a variance this high. Just wondered whether this might be the start of things to come.
 
It's around 11-13p pre litre more expensive for diesel everywhere I've looked recently (Reading and Bracknell). Definitely the highest difference I've seen in years.
 
There are different crude oils needed for petrol and diesel so if the oils for diesel are in short supply or the lower cost fields aren't producing much then that could make a difference.
Anyone who knows the oil industry care to comment?
 
Got told (don't know if true), that heating oil and diesel come from the same crude oil, and in the winter production priority is always given to heating oil were a better profit margin exists causing the rise in diesel price. No idea if true or not mind :)
 
There are different oils e.g. Brent crude, Texas light sweet plus diesel has a high fatty acid content compared with petrol, that's why it used to freeze solid.

The oldies amongst us will remember stories of lorry drivers having to light a small fire under the diesel tank first thing in the morning if there was a lot of snow. naturally sometimes the fire got out of control.
 
1.319 at my Shell
 
Shell is always more than the supermarkets.
I guess living in Suffolk helps with prices...
 
As does the performance of the fuel.
I used Sainsburys diesel for year and started working at a place just past a BP garage - ten percent more mileage and a lot more power.
Doing some prowling of t'interweb Sell is pretty close to BP.
 
I used Sainsburys diesel for year and started working at a place just past a BP garage - ten percent more mileage and a lot more power.
Might have a try at that. It's 10p a litre more at the local BP, which is much further away than Sainsburys and I can't be bothered to do the sums...
 
Ouch!
I have noticed fuel prices vary a lot depending on location and even time - holiday season means prices go up, particularly at weekends in the hotspots.
 
Unfortunately I can only check mileage the old fashioned way, by refilling the tank. Which is 80 litres :(
 
A Challenger II.
 
Driving past my local Sainsbury’s petrol station today and noticed unleaded was £1.17 and diesel £1.29. This is the biggest price difference I’ve seen. Have the goverment now started the official measures to reduce diesel cars?

The short answer is no, duty is identical at 57.95 ppl on unleaded and diesel at the moment.

As a couple of people have said, diesel always becomes more scarce in the winter because it's a middle distillate like heating oil which, for obvious reasons, sees demand increase this time of year.

There's very limited refining taking place in the UK now, and the bulk of middle distillates are imported. Not hard to get your head round when you consider there were 30 active refineries in the UK in the 1970s and now just 3.
 
Diesel dropped by 8p / litre in the last few weeks.
 
Filled up the Mrs's car this afternoon in Morrison's, Preston. Diesel, £1.267 on the pump, 10p litre off voucher, paid £1.167. Result - happiness :smashin:.
 

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