Fuel cost per 100 kilometres!!

Just saw diesel here in Penrith at the BP $189.9 unleaded $146.0. Bloody rip off. Regards Steve M

I think very soon we will see the grey nomads selling off their vans and headed overseas to Bali for 3 months of each year....
Andrew

We're nowhere near the grey nomad stage, but yes precisely the reason we decided to trade in one of our deisel 4wd's for a smaller petrol one. Namely traded in the 80 series and ended up going for a Forrester. Mind you with the Chev the 80 is a lot more efficient than it would otherwise have been. Hubby still has the '79 series to keep him satisfied.

What the future holds is camping trips much closer to home and yes why not, save up for Europe - at this rate it certainly may cost the same as a driiving holiday to the Kimberley or NT.

It's rather sad that it can actually be cheaper flying somewhere than it would be to drive (if you also take into consideration time / accomodation / food when driving).

I am about to retire and find my dreams diminishing somewhat. But I thought to myself - let's look at this from a different perspective.

Forget about the fuel price for a moment but concentrate on the cost of running the vehicle. Say it cost $1/km all up (incl insurance, wear & tear, tyres etc) to run the vehicle. Forgive me if I am way off the mark.

Now I am planning to do about 10,000k's next year so that will cost me 10 grand.

Sure it is a lot of dough but I might take 3 months to do it. Now compare that to other options eg going o/s. Air fares, accommodation, vehicle hire for 3 months is going to cost a motza. For $10 grand I would get less than 3 weeks in Europe. I know - I have done it.

So the way I see it touring around Aus has become much dearer with the price of fuel but it is still damn good value.

Perhaps what will change is that I won't be heading off every year but maybe every couple of years with shorter trips in between.

My main concern is all those towns out there who are going to hurt like hell when the tourist dollars stop coming in.

Are Ghost towns going to be the next big tourist attraction?

Cheers
Fred

We are in the grey nomad group and have just brought a full size van but only lightweight makes little difference to fuel, still get a little over 12/100 but now drive at around 80-- 90km/h

Our planed monthly trips are now just day trips to free camps
closer to home.

Still plan to have the annual trip regardless of the fuel cost.

We now do all the running around for the week in one day only.

I have worked out the advantage of the higher fuel prices. Instead of travelling 500klm each day I now travel 250klm, same money but now see much more (less in Tasmania or I will get wet).
It is a buggar when you have nothing to do and all day to do it in.
I will have to live longer now as it will take 20 years instead of 10 to get around Australia.
Neil

Hi Michael
We are about to set out for Darwin through Qld and back through the centre towing a van .Even with the price of fuel it's still good value for money compared to overseas trip and I don't expect fuel to get any cheaper. I shudder at the thought of what it will cost but will probably look back in a few years and say how cheap it was
Cheers Bob