CUTTING CABLE TIES

NO PLUGGING IN REQUIRED, YET THIS PAIR OF HYBRIDS WILL SPARE YOU SOME PAIN AGAINST SPIRALLING FUEL PRICES

- DANIEL GARDNER

I HAVE NO idea, by the time you read this, what Australians will be paying per litre at the pumps. When the figure hit $2.20 earlier this year, the only thing that narrowly avoided a conflict on our own turf was a hastily implemented temporary tax cut to offset the inflation. A few months later, unfortunately, any price correction had long since been overtaken by an ongoing energy crisis, and when I rolled onto a forecourt recently I simply couldn’t believe what the retailer was asking. An inanimate fuel bowser cannot be haggled with and no amount of tapping would convince the price gauge to reconsider and drop below $2.50. You definitely don’t need me to put that into perspective but if petrol sat alongside milk on supermarket shelves, it would be cheaper to pick up a litre of cow juice. If the current trajectory continues, before we know it, the same will apply to shiraz.

But despite the recent global events and what the headlines may lead you to believe, someone is making a lot of cash every time you fill up and, while I won’t waste words speculating on whose coffers are ringing the loudest, what I can tell you with confidence is that the price is not about to go into remission – high fuel prices are here to stay.

With that in mind, its possible your list of new-car priorities has shifted a bit. Where performance, practicality and design might have once featured fairly high up, you’re likely to be one of the many Australians now putting L/100km before 0-100km/h. We certainly can’t blame you. As car people, we will always place a big chunk of value on how beautiful a car is to behold and how great it is to drive, but all of that amounts to not much if the damn thing is too expensive to run.