Looking At The Petrol Price Rises Over The Last 10 Years - Can You Still Afford Fuel?

Each month, the AA produces a report showing the average cost of fuel in the UK

, making them available for the general public on their official website. Detailing costs in both garages and supermarkets, the reports provide a great insight into one of the main costs involved in running any vehicle that uses unleaded petrol or diesel fuel.

However, not only does the report prove to be interesting and allow any new vehicle owner to predict how much fuel costs they are going to have to pay, it is also extremely alarming just how much fuel has increased in cost in the UK over the past 10 years.

Today, according to the most recent AA report (April 2010), the average cost of unleaded petrol in garages is at an all time high, currently standing at 120.5 pence per litre - an increase of one pence per litre over the previous record high (119.7 pence in July 2008).

It must be noted that the cost does drop slightly if using supermarket garages, but it still stands at an average of 118.8 pence per litre should you head to a supermarket.

Whilst these figures can be difficult to digest as they are, they prove to cause more headaches when looking at the same prices 10 years ago in 2000.

The report produced by the AA in April 2000 shows that for garages, unleaded petrol in the UK cost, on average, 79.9 pence per litre, with the highest price being 84.9 pence per litre.

These figures show that in 10 years, the cost of unleaded petrol - the type of fuel that the majority of vehicles run on in the UK - has risen a staggering 40.6 pence per litre. In terms of costs, this means that to fill up a vehicle with 40 litres of unleaded petrol will cost around 50 pounds - approximately 20 pounds more than it would have done a decade ago.

20 pounds in itself might not seem like a vast amount of money, but if you're filling up 40 litres every 2 weeks, that's an extra cost of around 520 pounds a year compared to what it would have cost at the turn of the millennium.

There is no doubting that running a vehicle today is more expensive than it was 10 years ago - or even 5 years ago. For example, originally, owning a bike was seen as a relatively cheap form of transport, with bike insurance being the largest cost (outside of the initial purchase of the bike). Today, however, this has changed completely and in comparison to fuel costs, bike insurance can seem relatively cheap.

There are lots of points that you can take into consideration if you're struggling to afford fuel for your vehicle - most people can increase their miles per gallon ratio considerably with a small change in their driving style, for instance. Keep this in mind, look at other ways of getting from A to B and you should continue to be able to afford fuel and enjoy your vehicle as you always have done.

by: Christopher Reinhold

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