Fuel prices are up again –back in the summer a litre of unleaded could be bought, if you shopped around, for £1.05 or so. Today, the cheapest anywhere is £1.20 and you need to hunt to find it for that – most outlets are £1.22-£1.24 or more.
However, if we look at the figures in a bit more detail, things aren’t as bad as the headlines might suggest. For starters, although £1.22 is more than we were paying back in the spring, it’s been much dearer in the recent past – in May 2013 we were paying £1.33 a litre. And if we look back to the classic era; when the writer started buying petrol in 1976 and it was sold in gallons, a gallon of two-star cost around 75p – four star was 1-2p more. 77p in 1976 is equal to £5.78 today, and if we divide that by 4.54 to convert the gallons into litres, we get a price of £1.27 a litre – actually slightly more than we pay today.
So in real terms fuel is, despite recent increases, now cheaper than it was in the 1970s – hard to believe I know, but the figures don’t lie.
Denne historien er fra January 17, 2018-utgaven av Classic Car Buyer.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Denne historien er fra January 17, 2018-utgaven av Classic Car Buyer.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Staff Classics
REPORTING ON: Alfa Romeo GTV
Rootes Group - The Golden Years
The Rootes Group’s finest years commenced immediately after the end of the Second World War with the launch of a handful of brand-new models and lasted until the company was absorbed into the Chrysler empire in the middle of the following decade
MG ZT
The MG ZT was more than a Rover 75 in sports shoes. Much, much more. It was a performance saloon par excellence and today makes for a superb classic sporting bargain
MG Display Controversy
A classic vehicle insurer met with a mixed response at the Classic Motor Show when its display stand depicted a 1998 MGF apparently crushed by a WW2 Hellcat tank. But was this a sacrilegious act against a classic car, or an inspired promotional display?
Extra Ordinary
Exotics are usually the go-to classic investments, but a recent trend in everyday cars means more common street sights could be the way to go
Alternative Go
As the internal combustion engine’s fate seems in question, we look back at its past challengers
Death Of The Sports Car?
Another manufacturer belies its heritage to switch to SUVs
Cool Coupes
Every manufacturer was in on the ’90s coupe trend, stylish two-doors in abundance. But nearly three decades on, which are worth investing in?
Classic Scenes
Writing this as news reports bring us images of Sheffield residents trapped overnight in shopping centers by floods, we were struck by this image from October 1987.
500 Not Out
We identify some modern classics in danger of extinction... and the older cars which massively outnumber them
