The cost of Unleaded fuel has fallen in the past two weeks by 0.8 pence a litre due to a fall in the cost of wholesale fuel, as reported widely in the media, but the same can’t be said for diesel. According to the latest information on PetrolPrices, in October average diesel prices have increased by 0.3 pence per litre, giving diesel drivers yet another reason to be concerned about their choice of car.
Supermarket price cuts
PetrolPrices reported two weeks ago, ASDA claimed to had dropped their prices by 2p a litre, but our research at that time found that prices were still rising at that point.
Since then ASDA, Morrisons and Sainsburys have all finally started to cut the cost of unleaded on their forecourts. ASDA as usual, took the first step by reducing the cost of unleaded by up to 2 pence per litre across its 308 petrol stations. This dropped the price considerably lower than the average throughout September. Morrisons reacted quickly to ASDA’s change as the cost of wholesale fuel reduced. The chain’s willingness to pass savings on to its customers has pleased motoring groups.
Driver benefits
The leading supermarkets’ quick reaction to lower wholesale prices has left not just motoring groups happy, but consumers too. Motorists tend to spend more on fuel as the Winter months close in. Cold cars need to use more fuel in order to run and power heating systems. As such, this price drop will be a real help to those who drive Unleaded cars, but the same cannot be said for Diesel drivers, where a small price rise feels like another kick in the teeth.
Unleaded fuel rose to an average of 119.3 pence per litre before this recent drop, which has now fallen to 108.5 pence per litre. This was due in part to tropical storm Harvey disrupting oil refineries in Texas, which pushed up the wholesale price. With Harvey bringing winds strong enough to shut down plants on the Gulf Coast, this caused a surge in the demand for unleaded which threatened to become more expensive than diesel.
Diesel drivers out of luck
As the price of a barrel of oil has risen to $69, its highest rate since summer 2015, diesel drivers unfortunately cannot expect similar price reductions at the pump. In fact so far in October, average diesel prices have increased by 0.3 pence per litre.
The situation deals a fresh blow to diesel drivers, who have already had a run of bad news following the government’s change of heart about diesel cars, as well as the introduction of an emissions charge for those who drive in the capital.
Despite diesel cars being championed as being better for the environment by past governments, it has now been found that even new diesel engines are far more polluting than first thought. A typical diesel car emits 3.65 more tonnes of carbon dioxide over its lifecycle than a petrol car does.
This is thought to be because diesel has to undergo a more intensive refinery process. It combusts at a higher temperature than petrol, so its components weigh more. It is because of this that governments across Europe have been making plans to ban diesel cars, along with older petrol models, from their roads over the coming years. This is all part of a bid to clean up the air in their major cities, with London being a prime example.
New diesel sales figures dive
Although this doesn’t seem to be putting people off of buying second-hand diesel cars, the demand for new diesel cars has taken a big hit. The number of new registrations in September was down by 21.7% year-on-year. This suggests that people are confused about the air quality plans and aren’t confident about purchasing a new diesel until they know more.
With all of these talks around diesel cars focusing on the negatives, and giving this particular fuel type increasingly bad press, diesel drivers are going to feel even more targeted because of their car choice if they start consistently missing out on lower prices at the pumps too.
Are diesel drivers more likely to change their vehicle type if they’re feeling the pressure at the pumps? Will this be the final straw for already beleaguered diesel drivers? Share your views by leaving a comment.
Interesting article on prices, but no mention of the scandal of super unleaded prices. It is obvious that the large suppliers (BP, Shell, Esso etc) are unwilling to reduce their rip-off pricing for super unleaded with a price margin often in excess of 7 pence per litre over the supermarket retailers. This cannot be justified and needs investigation.
Cannot see a need for super unleaded. I have tried it and not seen any difference in performance or economy.
I understand that the Shell (something V?) Is effective; it will clean your engine and give you some fuel economy. But according to my expert (Honest John) you have to use it all the time, not just now and then.
Actually shell v power is rubbish for my M3, i notice particularly on a cold start. tesco’s momentum 99 seems to be best – and cheaper!
Super unleaded has nothing to do with economy. It has a higher octane which reduces the likelihood of higher compression engines pinking (pre-ignition). This in turn prevents expensive damage to big and small end bearings. My motorcycle which is meant to be able to run on normal unleaded has a tendency to pink, so to look after the engine, I use super unleaded. No effect of performance either.
Super Unleaded average price has actually fallen by 1.2 pence a litre in the first two weeks in October. Premium diesel also up 0.3 pence a litre
Of course Diesel goes up in price in Autumn. Diesel comes from the generic 35sec. Gas Oil which is used among other things as heating fuel. Demand therefore rises and so do prices. It happens every year!
Euro 6 diesel cars are clean and produce considerably less CO2 than their petrol equivalent, which in turn helps with greenhouse gas emission and ozone layer damage, There is considerably more scope to improve diesel engines than there is to improve their petrol equivilents.
However a Petrol Engine is at least 40 times cleaner than the best DIEsel.
Rubbish have you not been made aware petrol engines exhaust will KILL you
Diesel and all vehicle pollution has been caused by authorities placing a large amount of traffic lights this stop start and idling is the cause. The levels on a motorway is very low so traffic moving is better. If you put traffic lights on a motorway then you would increase pollution thats simple logic but are authorities dont have logic just expenses.
“A typical diesel car emits 3.65 more tonnes of carbon dioxide”
This is quite meaningless, as continuing evidence shows the claims about CO2 induced climate warming are not materialising. Contrary scientific papers showing the failure of climate models are not given media time and politicians just go with the official line.
CO2 is not a pollutant and should not be treated as such. The push against diesel penalises the rural driver, who needs a car and chooses diesel for economy.
I’m completely confused by this extract from the above article concerning diesel fuels and taken from Diesel Drivers Out of Luck 4th Paragraph “This is thought to be because diesel has to undergo a more intensive refinery process. It combusts at a higher temperature than petrol, so its components weigh more. It is because of this that governments across Europe have been making plans to ban diesel cars” . It looks like someone has written this article who has no technical background. Essentially diesel engines run with a higher compression ratio than petrol and generates higher levels of NOx – this is what governments are concerned with. Euro 6 engines such as those that use AdBlue have comparable if not lower NOx emissions than the equivalent Euro 6 petrol engines.
I don’t know where the $69 per barrel comes from. Brent crude on 7/10 was $56.42 per barrel
What is going to happen to leisure vehicles? Vans, buses boats and lorries. These are built to last. Our motorehome is just 3 years old and euro 5. We have no plans to buy another so how will we fair in the future as we invested a lot of money into it.
They say a ban fron 2040 so I should think you’ll get your money worth from your vehucle, but may be hammered on road tax
Recently I worked out what the difference in fuel consumption between petrol and diesel Nissan Qashqai vehicles was, for the 30,000 miles I do every year. Diesel used 2573 litres, petrol 3686 litres (estimated from Honestjohn consumption figures).
Switching from diesel to petrol means I would use an extra 1113 litres of fuel per year, or about £1200 extra per annum. Switching to LPG would, I estimate, cost £1500 for the conversion and £2331 in fuel per annum.
This is why commuters like myself are going to stick with diesel: the consumption figures make doing so well worth our while, and even LPG isn’t worth it if you’re changing cars on a three-year cycle.
There you go! the higher the literage the higher the duty and VAT…….
Surely if diesel companies can’t sell the product they will have to lower the price
I am not a scientist.
If diesel cars are really that bad, why not just legislate to stop selling us the things. Then we might also get a better choice of petrol engines on new cars. If I look at a new car, and the only petrol version is three cylinder 999cc, I am not going to but the thing..
Stop blaming the motorist ..
It is not the average driver of a diesel vehicle that has created the environmental issues, it is business vehicles and council run vehicles such as bin wagons, road sweepers, haulage companies, even fuel tankers themselves are run on diesel, farm vehicles etc etc. Maybe if we start with getting these vehicles off our roads first we may just be able to save the environment without having to hit the individual car driver. Now there’s a thought…
Is it beyond the wit of diesel engine manufacturers to produce a modification kit which will a) capture the noxious particles and B) reduce CO2 emissions? I can’t afford to change my car for a hybrid or electric or petrol for that matter. I would consider having the power unit upgraded, however.
The cost and size of such kit would be prohibitive for a car. Lorries and buses are larger, have more space and pollution measures are a smaller proportion of their cost.
I’m surprised that diesel engines are still in small cars.
Fed up with the anti-diesel lobby of so called “environmentalists and greens” who forget that as well as older more polluting diesels there are many times more old smelly inefficient petrol driven vehicles. My diesel, manufactured in 2017, is extremely efficient and has “blue” recovery built in to minimise pollutants in the exhaust emissions but all us diesel users are now labelled as anti-social and evil do-ers. What about all the stinking public service buses so praised for taking cars off the road and what about the extremely emitting trucks used to deliver the goods and these are the vehicles which Oxford is proposing to ban last, years after the humble non-electric car? Bet Environmentalists would howl if their shops had no stock due to banning fume belching trucks!
Euro 6 cars only meet the EU standards if driven at EU test cycle accelerations and speeds. Something like 0 – 30 kmh in 28 seconds – slower than an A35.
I have never read such unadulterated garbage as this article, especially the section on “Diesel drivers out of luck”. Some un-named source (“it”) states that Diesels emit 3.65 times more CO2 that petrol cars (presumably if they cover the same distance). For this to be true, the Diesel would have to use more than 3 times as much fuel as an equivalent petrol car. I have never heard of anyone claiming this to be the case. It is always the other way round, but not by a factor of more than 3. Whether combustion temperatures are higher or not is irrelevant with respect to CO2 emissions and has absolutely nothing to do with refining. Nor does it have anything to do with the weight of its components. And then to blame these alleged chemical effects on government plans to ban Diesels is barmy. If they were true, they would be true whether governments made such plans or not. P*** poor reporting!
its just another gov tax hike follow the money they tell us to buy diesel they get tax off every car sold then the expert are wrong change your car once again the gov wins what puzzles me is last Christmas we ere told the nat grid could guarantee supply and the possibility of power cuts but they want us to go electric is that just our cars what about diesell generators army tanks ships the list is endless its all a BIG CON
All scaremongering, governments trying to justify any penalties they may impose on diesel vehicles, well all the have to do is buy my euro 6 diesel at the market price and I will hand my car over. Do not try and penalise innocent motorists who were encouraged to buy diesel by the blair labour governement,
I have often queried, in other groups, as to why diesel motorists are being penalised. HGV’s, cargo/cruise ships, trains all burn vast amounts of diesel or heavy oil – no mention of them paying the price eh? Probably most worrying of all is the quantity of jet fuel dumped in our skies by planes reducing their fuel load to land more safely – quantities of up to 200,000 lb at time (extreme carcinogen risks to all)!!
No one seems to blame the increase in flights into and out of the UK, it must cause more pollution. No, the government seem to blame the motorist each and everytime, causing a downturn in the production of diesel vehicles and the knock on effect, loss of jobs. This government I have no confidence in. They are the ones telling us in 2010 to buy diesels, now they have decided that diesels are the polluters. They are useless at telling the truth or is it an excuse to increase taxes, when they again said we will not increase taxes. You can at least trust them to go back on their word!!!
Interesting article on prices, but no mention of the scandal of super unleaded prices. It is obvious that the large suppliers (BP, Shell, Esso etc) are unwilling to reduce their rip-off pricing for super unleaded with a price margin often in excess of 7 pence per litre over the supermarket retailers. This cannot be justified and needs investigation.
Cannot see a need for super unleaded. I have tried it and not seen any difference in performance or economy.
I understand that the Shell (something V?) Is effective; it will clean your engine and give you some fuel economy. But according to my expert (Honest John) you have to use it all the time, not just now and then.
Actually shell v power is rubbish for my M3, i notice particularly on a cold start. tesco’s momentum 99 seems to be best – and cheaper!
Super unleaded has nothing to do with economy. It has a higher octane which reduces the likelihood of higher compression engines pinking (pre-ignition). This in turn prevents expensive damage to big and small end bearings. My motorcycle which is meant to be able to run on normal unleaded has a tendency to pink, so to look after the engine, I use super unleaded. No effect of performance either.
Super Unleaded average price has actually fallen by 1.2 pence a litre in the first two weeks in October. Premium diesel also up 0.3 pence a litre
Of course Diesel goes up in price in Autumn. Diesel comes from the generic 35sec. Gas Oil which is used among other things as heating fuel. Demand therefore rises and so do prices. It happens every year!
Euro 6 diesel cars are clean and produce considerably less CO2 than their petrol equivalent, which in turn helps with greenhouse gas emission and ozone layer damage, There is considerably more scope to improve diesel engines than there is to improve their petrol equivilents.
However a Petrol Engine is at least 40 times cleaner than the best DIEsel.
Rubbish have you not been made aware petrol engines exhaust will KILL you
Diesel and all vehicle pollution has been caused by authorities placing a large amount of traffic lights this stop start and idling is the cause. The levels on a motorway is very low so traffic moving is better. If you put traffic lights on a motorway then you would increase pollution thats simple logic but are authorities dont have logic just expenses.
“A typical diesel car emits 3.65 more tonnes of carbon dioxide”
This is quite meaningless, as continuing evidence shows the claims about CO2 induced climate warming are not materialising. Contrary scientific papers showing the failure of climate models are not given media time and politicians just go with the official line.
CO2 is not a pollutant and should not be treated as such. The push against diesel penalises the rural driver, who needs a car and chooses diesel for economy.
I’m completely confused by this extract from the above article concerning diesel fuels and taken from Diesel Drivers Out of Luck 4th Paragraph “This is thought to be because diesel has to undergo a more intensive refinery process. It combusts at a higher temperature than petrol, so its components weigh more. It is because of this that governments across Europe have been making plans to ban diesel cars” . It looks like someone has written this article who has no technical background. Essentially diesel engines run with a higher compression ratio than petrol and generates higher levels of NOx – this is what governments are concerned with. Euro 6 engines such as those that use AdBlue have comparable if not lower NOx emissions than the equivalent Euro 6 petrol engines.
I don’t know where the $69 per barrel comes from. Brent crude on 7/10 was $56.42 per barrel
What is going to happen to leisure vehicles? Vans, buses boats and lorries. These are built to last. Our motorehome is just 3 years old and euro 5. We have no plans to buy another so how will we fair in the future as we invested a lot of money into it.
They say a ban fron 2040 so I should think you’ll get your money worth from your vehucle, but may be hammered on road tax
Recently I worked out what the difference in fuel consumption between petrol and diesel Nissan Qashqai vehicles was, for the 30,000 miles I do every year. Diesel used 2573 litres, petrol 3686 litres (estimated from Honestjohn consumption figures).
Switching from diesel to petrol means I would use an extra 1113 litres of fuel per year, or about £1200 extra per annum. Switching to LPG would, I estimate, cost £1500 for the conversion and £2331 in fuel per annum.
This is why commuters like myself are going to stick with diesel: the consumption figures make doing so well worth our while, and even LPG isn’t worth it if you’re changing cars on a three-year cycle.
There you go! the higher the literage the higher the duty and VAT…….
Surely if diesel companies can’t sell the product they will have to lower the price
I am not a scientist.
If diesel cars are really that bad, why not just legislate to stop selling us the things. Then we might also get a better choice of petrol engines on new cars. If I look at a new car, and the only petrol version is three cylinder 999cc, I am not going to but the thing..
Stop blaming the motorist ..
It is not the average driver of a diesel vehicle that has created the environmental issues, it is business vehicles and council run vehicles such as bin wagons, road sweepers, haulage companies, even fuel tankers themselves are run on diesel, farm vehicles etc etc. Maybe if we start with getting these vehicles off our roads first we may just be able to save the environment without having to hit the individual car driver. Now there’s a thought…
Is it beyond the wit of diesel engine manufacturers to produce a modification kit which will a) capture the noxious particles and B) reduce CO2 emissions? I can’t afford to change my car for a hybrid or electric or petrol for that matter. I would consider having the power unit upgraded, however.
The cost and size of such kit would be prohibitive for a car. Lorries and buses are larger, have more space and pollution measures are a smaller proportion of their cost.
I’m surprised that diesel engines are still in small cars.
Fed up with the anti-diesel lobby of so called “environmentalists and greens” who forget that as well as older more polluting diesels there are many times more old smelly inefficient petrol driven vehicles. My diesel, manufactured in 2017, is extremely efficient and has “blue” recovery built in to minimise pollutants in the exhaust emissions but all us diesel users are now labelled as anti-social and evil do-ers. What about all the stinking public service buses so praised for taking cars off the road and what about the extremely emitting trucks used to deliver the goods and these are the vehicles which Oxford is proposing to ban last, years after the humble non-electric car? Bet Environmentalists would howl if their shops had no stock due to banning fume belching trucks!
Euro 6 cars only meet the EU standards if driven at EU test cycle accelerations and speeds. Something like 0 – 30 kmh in 28 seconds – slower than an A35.
I have never read such unadulterated garbage as this article, especially the section on “Diesel drivers out of luck”. Some un-named source (“it”) states that Diesels emit 3.65 times more CO2 that petrol cars (presumably if they cover the same distance). For this to be true, the Diesel would have to use more than 3 times as much fuel as an equivalent petrol car. I have never heard of anyone claiming this to be the case. It is always the other way round, but not by a factor of more than 3. Whether combustion temperatures are higher or not is irrelevant with respect to CO2 emissions and has absolutely nothing to do with refining. Nor does it have anything to do with the weight of its components. And then to blame these alleged chemical effects on government plans to ban Diesels is barmy. If they were true, they would be true whether governments made such plans or not. P*** poor reporting!
its just another gov tax hike follow the money they tell us to buy diesel they get tax off every car sold then the expert are wrong change your car once again the gov wins what puzzles me is last Christmas we ere told the nat grid could guarantee supply and the possibility of power cuts but they want us to go electric is that just our cars what about diesell generators army tanks ships the list is endless its all a BIG CON
All scaremongering, governments trying to justify any penalties they may impose on diesel vehicles, well all the have to do is buy my euro 6 diesel at the market price and I will hand my car over. Do not try and penalise innocent motorists who were encouraged to buy diesel by the blair labour governement,
I have often queried, in other groups, as to why diesel motorists are being penalised. HGV’s, cargo/cruise ships, trains all burn vast amounts of diesel or heavy oil – no mention of them paying the price eh? Probably most worrying of all is the quantity of jet fuel dumped in our skies by planes reducing their fuel load to land more safely – quantities of up to 200,000 lb at time (extreme carcinogen risks to all)!!
No one seems to blame the increase in flights into and out of the UK, it must cause more pollution. No, the government seem to blame the motorist each and everytime, causing a downturn in the production of diesel vehicles and the knock on effect, loss of jobs. This government I have no confidence in. They are the ones telling us in 2010 to buy diesels, now they have decided that diesels are the polluters. They are useless at telling the truth or is it an excuse to increase taxes, when they again said we will not increase taxes. You can at least trust them to go back on their word!!!