LPG below 60p

[mondeoman]

that wouldn't particularly help though. Due dilligence on the business would take more account of profit amount and margin than just turnover, so if they started selling at a very low margin they would damage the business more than enhance it. Of course, they may be doing it to sell shed loads and still be making a good margin. With a UK wholesale price that has just dropped below £0.10 per liter, even with 18ppl duty and VAT 39.9ppl could still leave a decent margin IF you can buy at the wholesale price, and that is a big IF.

[scottyf]

I know that. I just heard through the grapevine. I thought it was an interesting tactic if that is the case.
If not who cares we still get incredibly cheap gas.
As a prospective buyer might think ok I sell this many liters here. If I put it up 5p over the course of a year then I'll make this much extra. Negating the fact that there will be less of a take up... Probably...

However even as is so low over there it doesn't make it worth while to travel to fill up.




Its costing me less than £15 for 200 miles currently so I'm not complaining.

[mondeoman]

You've not been tempted up the M6 to Stoke for the BP station at 20p per litre yet then Scotty?

[Brian_H]

Something tells me that one just isn't true....

[mondeoman]

Something tells me that one just isn't true....

iirc, road fuel duty is 38p per kg which is 20p per liter or thereabouts, then you have vat on top .....

[Brian_H]

Exactly. Unless they are trying to empty the tank for some reason.

[Brian_H]

Its now marked as unavailable and deleted, so suspect its no longer doing lpg at port hill. Yet another bp station gone.

[mondeoman]

I wondered if it was a sell off, seems that may have been the case. Stoke is reasonably well served with LPG outlets and in truth this was not one of the cheaper ones, pre 20p! But every station gone reduces the competition.

I am having to travel further afield to get competitively priced gas. We holiday in Suffolk, Dorset, Cornwall, Northumberland and Scotland (lovely having a caravan) and it's getting serious in all of them. Twenty plus miles to a retailer to buy LPG at well above average price.

[Brian_H]

As I've said previosuly bp have started seriously reducing their outlets. Generally if the equipment breaks they won't repair it now. This doesn't apply to the franchised sites just the ones they run themselves.

Bigger tank seems the simplest answer. I can usually manage to fill up somewhere, but as you say the price varies.

Your right about reducing the competition though, all very well having a few depots about if your that lucky, till the time you need to fill up on saturday afternoon or late/early.

Malthurst seem to be finding more places though, which is good given their sites are cheaper generally, and run the accumulator scheme.

[scottyf]

There is loads round brum but even so it doesn't inspire much competition.
I even said to the owner of the Texaco (Franchised) I'd use their station more if the prices were a bit lower. I think he is giving it some serious thought as I said if you were to lower it the Taxi's would all start using it.

They fill up every day...

But yes bigger tanks are the way forward. When i fit a kit to another car I will definitely fit a larger tank. Cylinder as they seem to be far larger and I'll take a hit on the space.

[mondeoman]

I'd say the opposite Scotty, the number of stations in Birmingham are producing competition. Birmingham has the lowst LPG prices in the country. You've got pershore rd now under 40p, several others under 50p just inside the M5/6/42 triangle. When the Flogas depot at Merry Lees near us closed the nearby BP at Markfield went up 10% overnight, literally the day they closed, and have got increasingly more expensive since. Likewise when the garage on Coventry Rd in Hinckley gave up LPG (about the same time) the BP around the corner on Watling Street went up about 10p overnight.

[mondeoman]

I have thought of some radical surgery to the CRV to increase tankage size. If I cut the spare wheel well out, which has nasty tapered sides limiting the internal tank size, fabricate a flat plate that sits up into the boot space where the picnic table used to sit, weld that across the gap then sling an external under the back I'd get a 720 x 300 under and still have vertical spce for a couple of bars to go under to hold it.

[mondeoman]

or just go and buy a Mondeo diesel with £30 a year tax and 60mpg ......

[scottyf]

That is the issue. But then again those peskey diesels are never as good as the claims.
The only way you get 60mpg is by sitting on the motorway as 60mph. Constantly. But they are good.

Its best to work out things at pence per mile.
My Alfa on fuel is coming in at 0.85p a mile. Inc petrol that brings it closer to 0.95p a mile.

Diesels of the same caliber and speed are around 12p a mile.
Petrol 15p a mile.


I meant regarding competition. Some pay attention to it. Others don't the prices vary a lot. Even when you look at the map I lvie by three inc the cheapest one in the north Birmingham area and they can vary by 25%.


Also the cheaper ones I noted I always get lower MPG on the calcs... So I reckon they fiddle the machines to read higher amounts of gas even if the price is lower.

[mondeoman]

am I reading that right Scotty, you are under a penny a mile on LPG? I want one of what you're driving. Even at 40ppl, or £1.80 / gallon 0.85 p per mile means 200 plus miles per gallon?

I had an Alfa GTV6 many years ago, but I never measured that in miles per gallon, usually it was miles per breakdown. It got so bad I ended up selling it to the garage. They fetch good money now!

A friend has a Volvo V50, the stop start diesel and he averages 67mpg, 10% short af the advertised 74 that Volvo claim, and that seems to be the "going rate" amongst owners on the Volvo forum. At current derv prices that's just under 8p / mile, whereas with lpg my CRV manages 12ppm at current prices, but 30 miles per tank are lost to filling up, that's one sixth of the miles I get from a tank, pushing the lpg price per mile nearer 15, in real terms. Still a very good saving on Petrol, and my insallation has paid for itself three times over in just 18 months but it's getting hard to ignore potential savings elsewhere.

[scottyf]

Sorry thats me using my phone to write messages. Its basically 10pence per mile.
Else I would have some how crewted the worlds most frugal car if it did just point of a penny per mile.

[scottyf]

I honestly like lpg but its no where near half the price of petrol. The true cost saving per year is closer to 30-40%
Which is still not a bad compromise.
Petrol running and power with diesel running costs without the clatter.

Still im happy. If only we got petrol mpg with lpg it would be closer to a true 50% saving.

[rich r]

I have thought of some radical surgery to the CRV to increase tankage size. If I cut the spare wheel well out, which has nasty tapered sides limiting the internal tank size, fabricate a flat plate that sits up into the boot space where the picnic table used to sit, weld that across the gap then sling an external under the back I'd get a 720 x 300 under and still have vertical spce for a couple of bars to go under to hold it.

On my CRV, I've built up the boot floor by about 2" so the picnic table sits level with the door frame (mainly because the previous owner just had the carpet over the tank, and the picnic table not in the car, so the boot was useless). Without the lip down into the boot it actually makes it slightly nicer when you're sliding in big things. That allows for a tank that holds about 45 litres of LPG. Can't remove the picnic table, it wouldn't be a CRV!

[E46CoupeM3]

My cheapest local place is 56.0p a litre http://www.boltonsbottlegas.co.uk/contact.php
Not open late night is the only downer

[kbs]

Countrywide got there in the end...

As prices tumbled I found myself paying way over the local garage prices for a CountryWide autogas account.

Last year they did reduce the price but it was still well above local garages.
After asking again, I was told it could not be reduced further.

So, I didn't use the account for 6 weeks. I got a phone call a few days ago offering a new price 45p (+vat)

Would like to think this is due to falling prices rather than me not buying for 6 weeks but I'm too sceptical for that.

So, filling up in the rain again.

Welcome back CountryWide.