The time has come to rethink driving habits

Willem,

Tell me about it. I love unexpected trips :))
I filled the Triton yesterday and ULP was $1.389 c/L while the poor Diesel owners were paying $1.529 c/L and that was Sydney

I wonder what the cost of fuel will be on the way to Calliope?

Cheers Kev

Nathan has just bought a bike to ride to work on which is nearly 2km dwn the road - 1km if he takes the bush tracks.

We thought about getting an el cheapo too, keep the wd tucked away for big trip and us the little one for town trips, but by the time you throw in the cost if regi & some sort if insurance, tyres, fixing it etc its just not worth the worry ( for us anyway)

Running the Navara is so far cheaper than the LC on LPG, its working out to be $40 a week instead of $50 ......but we'll see....plus I only fill up once a fortnight instead of every week - less times in town! Even better................

Have a nice day Willem....

Laura

I'm sure the dog is wrapt in option 1 :)))

Like you, we'll keep the two vehicles but be a bit restrained in how often we go for a drive.

Morning Willem

When I last filled my Nissan here in Tamworth about 2 weeks ago, diesel was about $1.39 a litre, yesterday I noticed that it is now $1.48 a litre. Up the road a couple of 100 k's at Inverell it's about $1.27 (cos the servo's there are closer to Qld and their cheaper fuel). Not practical to drive up there to fill the tank I afraid.
We all have to really think about using any vehicle these days as the costs are always going ap and unfortunately my salary does not keep up with the increases. Not sure how any really long trips can be arranged now - when I first started to plan a 5000k trip next September I allowed $2.00 per litre but not sure that will be enough now - might have to think more along the lnes of $2.50 to be sure.
I walk down to the CBD most mornings to collect my mail and ride a bicycle in the afternoons but that's just for exercise and fun. Work is a bit far from where I live to do either.
Ah well we shall just have to wait and see what wonders "Kevin" and his team can bring us after saturday I spose.

Cheers

Willem
How ya goin' , Wait until the Moonfaced Mongrel and his redheaded Tart along with all the Unionist Thugs starts running the country after Saturday , then prices will soar, it will probably take a few weeks or months for the flow on but yeh ....the bike might be the answer, Sorry Willem ...you have left yourself open to an attack here so here we go

Solution 1. Walk to most places around town. Exercise will do me and the dog the world of good.
( yeh I'll agree to that , it'll do you more good than the Dog)

Solution 2. Buy a bicycle...hmmmmm...maybe
( Do you know how to ride , what about the Dog)

Solution 3. Buy an El Cheapo car on gas for commuting trips. Also a thought
(Money wasted that could be spent on fuel for the Nissans)

Hey have a great day , Dusty sends a woof, And Hi to your Mrs

Doug

Hi All
I filled up with diesel last night, 1.33 cents a litre, average on the Gold Coast, so with 4 cents discount with woolies docket, and
business discount re: g s t it ends up 1.16 cents a litre.

Cheers
Daza

Bro, you and I both drive old technology engines. We may have savoured those in the past.

The Next Challenge just wait until the 'Greenhouse' taxes kick in after a new government is elected and the Greens get their way. Thats when the multiplyer will get the short and curlies.

Just about to get a new bike here for Christmas. No dog to walk, they have free leash.

Already have a low fuel useage car for trips. Want a lower fuel useage 4by too, with towing ability. Not a 3 litre.

Willem
Sell up down there and move to North Qld

Hi Willem
I know exactly what you mean. In the Last 2 weeks, diesel has had a price increase of 8 cents per litre here in Clare. Just returned from our early morning walk and up 1 cent from yesterday. Mind you it is still cheaper than many other places around. All but 1 servo is selling diesel for $1.439 per litre and the cheapest as at 6.45am this morning in Clare was the BP at $1.429

Cheers

Stephen

Hi Willem

There is one easy partial solution you left out which is to get a commuter type motorbike.

These can carry some shopping - even two people and under the right circumstances can significantly reduce fuel costs even for those short local trips.

My trail bike is not exactly a commuter type but I have 10km of dirt roads to nearset shop and its a lot of fun espically as there is a 4wd short cut along the way.

Robin Miller

'Twas Mulga Will, from Peterborough, that caught the cycling craze;
He turned away the old GQ that served him many days;
He dressed himself in cycling clothes, resplendent to be seen;
He hurried off to town and bought a shining new machine;
And as he wheeled it through the door, with air of lordly pride,
The grinning shop assistant said, "Excuse me, can you ride?"


"See here, young man," said Mulga Will, "from Walgett to the sea,
From Conroy's Gap to Castlereagh, there's none can ride like me.
I'm good all round at everything as everybody knows,
Although I'm not the one to talk - I hate a man that blows.
But riding is my special gift, my chiefest, sole delight;
Just ask a wild duck can it swim, a wildcat can it fight.
There's nothing clothed in hair or hide, or built of flesh or steel,
There's nothing walks or jumps, or runs, on axle, hoof, or wheel,
But what I'll sit, while hide will hold and girths and straps are tight:
I'll ride this here two-wheeled concern right straight away at sight."


'Twas Mulga Will, from Peterborough, that sought his own abode,
That perched above Dead Man's Creek, beside the mountain road.
He turned the cycle down the hill and mounted for the fray,
But 'ere he'd gone a dozen yards it bolted clean away.
It left the track, and through the trees, just like a silver steak,
It whistled down the awful slope towards the Dead Man's Creek.


It shaved a stump by half an inch, it dodged a big white-box:
The very wallaroos in fright went scrambling up the rocks,
The wombats hiding in their caves dug deeper underground,
As Mulga Will, as white as chalk, sat tight to every bound.
It struck a stone and gave a spring that cleared a fallen tree,
It raced beside a precipice as close as close could be;
And then as Mulga Will let out one last despairing shriek
It made a leap of twenty feet into the Dead Man's Creek.


'Twas Mulga Will, from Peterborough, that slowly swam ashore:
He said, "I've had some narrer shaves and lively rides before;
I've rode a wild bull round a yard to win a five-pound bet,
But this was the most awful ride that I've encountered yet.
I'll give that two-wheeled outlaw best; it's shaken all my nerve
To feel it whistle through the air and plunge and buck and swerve.
It's safe at rest in Dead Man's Creek, we'll leave it lying still;
Shank’s pony is good enough henceforth for Mulga Will."

apologies to Banjo Patterson

G'day Willem,

give the walking a go I reckon, you're not too far from the shops and it will do you good indeed. Just put an EO sticker on the back of your stubbies, you'll be right! Don't be too proud to buy a granny trolley either, they are very practical, and again, just whack an EO sticker on it....

he he....

Perhaps "our" government should have introduced retail price maintenance some time ago but I would expect that that was not possible as the oil companies are more powerful than the government.
I use a Daihatsu Coure and it only gets filled with fuel every month. $25.00 to do 700 kls. Not too comfortable though but we are only 20kls from the nearest shopping centre and the is no public transport here.

Your challenge if you chose to accept it is to get on the phone and ring your local OPPOSITION ( aka Labour ) candidate and find out what their position is on fuel tax excise. Would you change your vote if the excise was cut by 10c- 15c /pl? We need to put pressure, who ever we can over the excise, whether it be the sitting person or the other person. If either of the parties came out today and said that as of Sunday the fuel price was dropping 15c/pl they would win, even the donkey vote would vote to cut the fuel tax excise.

My kids are members of a community group and tell you the community group have offered everything from the key to city to prizes for raffles during this campaign.

I filled up on Tuesday ( full driveway service) at 138.7 c/pl, in an industrial area/truck stop. On the highway the prices was 147.6 c/pl.

22 days till we leave for Tassie

Debbie

Hey Willem

I paid $145.1 all dry season 4 cars twice a week, Last year it was $155.5 all dry season, So this year I did notice the difference.

So if I fuel up the car and it's under $200 I think it's Xmas.LOL

It's about $ 138.2 in Darwin last weekend.

Cheers Steve.

Instead of buying your goods in nearby towns Willem turn to the internet and have it delivered for 1/10 the cost of the fuel you would have used driving there.
I've gone the cheap 3rd car route picking up a Festiva for next to nothing. Even with the $450 for reg and a few other minor running costs, for us it saves running the big Cruiser around and will delay the need to replace it by a couple of years.
As for a bike I paid more for it than the Festiva but some how I can't imagine you in your licra shorts and fluro top heading into town :-))
As much as fuel prices are a pain, another 40 cents per litre would have one positive effect.................... It would halve the number of tourists getting about and leave a few more campsites available ;-)
Cheers Craig...........

Willem,
I have seen diesel here in Melbourne at $1.55 lt at Shell/Coles.
It's all a blatant rip off. Notice how since the election was called and the govt went into caretaker mode the price of fuels lifted. yes the price of oil went up but so did the $ which should have kept it at the same level. ACCC gone to sleep. When the price of oil falls nothing seems to happen for ages yet when it goes up it is reflected instantly.
They predict that the Aussie $ may equal the US$ very soon. Let's see if we start paying 80cpl then........that's what the US are paying.


Rob

Grotius thumb to nose ...........

Still paying 9 CPL for my home made bio .....

saved about $4500 so far ... in fuel


Boc

this is a depressing subject
as i have now been informed by Willem that the running costs of a 4wd is too and therefore is subsequently uneconomical to own i'm gunna get a zeta

Youve made me miss living in Kalgorlie
I used to ride my bike most places and a 5 min drive saw me in camping territry.
Everthing is so far away here in Perth I couldnt ride my bike there in any reasnable timeframe and decent camping is at least 5 hours away

And it was only about 18 months ago that posts to this forum were saying it was just like 1972 and the prices would soon go down again. They wont go down. We have been protected by the very high Oz dollar. It is now falling so the current rises are now hitting us. It will still go quite a lot higher as current international prices come through and we have to buy at the lower $ rate.
The current (as of Thursday) govt has much to answer for because for the last decade they have bought popularity with tax cuts for the wealthy and have avoided investment in infrastructure. They are still pushing this line this election, althouigh more and more people are starting to question it. Interesting to see the posts calling for price intervention. Don't say we are starting to question the free market economy!
Why are we selling our gas on long term contracts so cheaply offshore instead of setting up the existing technology that enables gas to be turned into diesel? The WA govt has had a major, but largely ignored battle with the Fed govt to NOT sell off all the gas resources and reserve it for Oz use.
The scary thing is that our prices are still cheap by international standards. The death of our hobby?

Willem, we are considering a Fly-by-wire uniycle to save rubber LOL...but seriously, we intend to get a bike as despite living in the Southern Highlands, we actually are on a reasonably flat bit.

Good for the world and your (I mean my) waistline!!

Cheers, RayJen

Years ago someone was quoted as saying "you ain't see nothing yet" and in reference to oil prices, he could be right.

I am just one of the minows who buys the stuff at the local servo but I have been reading as much as I can find on the net about it in recent years in an attempt to find out a little about what is going on. When you throw in the tension between the US, Iran and Venezuela, pipe lines through Afghanistan, radial Islam, oil trading currency, Iraq oil which is apparently the cheapest to extract anywhere in the world, peak oil and Russian plans to control world oil supplies, it all adds up to things looking grim at the bowser.

You then look into our own supplies and find all of our capped reserves are small and nowhere near adequate to meet our increasing dermands. To make matters worse, most are in areas such as deep water making the oil expensive to extract.

To further add to the problem, I heard an Arab spokesman from OPEC speaking on Sydney radio about eighteen months ago. He predicted oil would be $150 US a barrel within three years. Nothing is happening at the moment to suggest he is wrong.

Maybe we should all get out into the bush and see whatever we want to see as soon as possible while we can still afford it.

Brian

Willem I think maybe you are onto something here "walking the dog"... I guess you are very close to your dog huh? I was going to suggest trade the dog in on a more substantial breed and make yourself a "dog cart".....Dogs are amazing creatures, I take the Pointer for a swim and hang onto the lead and he goes for it thinking, one can only assume, that the dog thinks I'm trying to catch him but in reality he is towing me...
I'm voting Green, simply because I want to see how the rest of you cope after the Greens shut down industry, ban cars (except older inneficient ones) and everyone is living, like me on welfare, with no one actually "working" for a living to fund my lavish lifestyle... I'll be happy as long as the Greens don't shut down the net, they'll still need it to circulate their propaganda.

Willem
One of these should suit you, less tyre to worry about too
Reliant Regal 3/25 Super




.

At the risk of sounding like a cracked record I will say it again , invest in oil stocks and get your fuel for nothing , be hedged against further price rises , and when your driving days are finished , get your money back . For example , you have saved $7,000 for your funeral so you wont burden others . If you had invested that $7000 in Colonial First State Global Rescources in January , you would now have about $9300 . Not enough for fuel yet , so you keep rolling over the profit until jul 09 . At the same rate of increase , you now have $14000 and tax on profits made after the first year is slightly under 25% . Start paying for your fuel out of your investment instead of rolling all the.
profits back in . You have foregone use of the income for 2.6 years , but your investment has grown to where it now pays for your fuel and you can pay for two funerals , or one and a massive wake . But the hedging is most important . If fuel goes to two hundred dollars a barrell at any stage of the investment , or after , you are covered because your investment returns will increase at the same pace . What , you haven't saved $7000 , come WA and we will find you a job where you can .

We brought a VW

a Polo

1.9L Turbo inter-cooled CD diesel

it gets 5L/100 thats 55 mpg we get 49 mpg

it say top speed is 188 km/h.. lol

I got 195 km/h

you just got to love those Germans

Cheers Richard

Now Willem, dear Judith gets around in the much more expensive car, flog it off and buy a second hand CT110 postie bike, the difference will keep you both in fuel for years.

better not tell her I said that, she doesn't read the forum does she?


I'm not putting my name to this

Hi Willem, Yep I know what ya say'n, just recently paid $2.10/ltr for diesel on the Anne Beadell track didn't get much by the way ??
Time has come to "prioritise" we love our outback trips, wide open spaces, no one around, so while liv'n in the city we now cut out the stuff that really doesn't matter ?? We all know that there are things we spend $$$$ on that doesn't really matter "BUT" now it's more important to "GO 4x4'n spend your $$$$ on what really counts.
I personally will "go without" to pay $2.10/ltr to go Cruis'n in my 79 series Yota
It all comes down to what's more important "Choices" !!!
Fuel prices ain't going back to the good old days when I could fill my Valiant pacer for 10 bucks ( for you young'ns that was in the 70's )
even on an apprentice wage back then didn't seem a lot of money.
Why ?? "Choices" more important to go Park'n than anything else !
Cheers
Just my spin on Life ??
Happy 4x4'n
Bazza