The petrol experience

On our last visit to England which involved driving (1979) I was astonished:

• at the price of petrol; and 
• that it seemed to be in short supply (despite the UK exporting squillions of barrels from the North Sea),

Counterbalancing this was the massively better fuel consumption of the car we hired.  Thus this page will look at both the cost of fuel and its utilisation.  

There seemed to be no shortage of fuel in the UK at the time we were there, although I did  notice one service station - from a small/independent chain -  had a 'no fuel' sign out.  We basically bought fuel where we saw it cheaply: sometimes this was Jet (the original independent, when I lived in the UK), at other times Esso.  (If BP had been giving fuel away I don't think I could have forced myself to take it.  That is, I think, an ongoing policy.)

We actually used one more tankful (and did about 560 extra miles) but had struck a deal so that we returned the car empty.  Given the appalling driving conditions on the M5/6 on the last day it would have been interesting to see the economy on that leg.

Date	Start miles	end miles	elapsed miles	litres of fuel	MPG
22 June	9453.2	9879.9	426.7	38.7	49.6
25 june	9879.9	10290.0	410.1	35.0	52.7
28 June	10290.0	10730.9	440.9	36.3	54.7
2 July	10730.9	11090.9	360.0	32.0	50.7
4 July	11090.9	11436.8	345.9	28.8	54.0
6 july	11436.8	11742.7	305.9	25.4	54.2
	Cost per litre (p)	pence per mile	Cents (Aus) per km
22 June	120.9	11.0	12.24
25 june	122.9	10.5	11.71
28 June	120.3	9.9	11.05
2 July	120.9	10.7	11.98
4 July	119.9	10.0	11.16
6 july	119.9	10.0	11.12
	Total distance	Total fuel	Av MPG	Total Cost £	Cents (Aus) per km
	2289.5	196.2	52.5	237.1	11.6