Mike,

On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 14:55:30 -0600, Mike Hord wrote:

> >My car costs about 12p/mile for petrol in normal use, down to about 10.5p
> >on long journeys.
>
> What exactly is a long journey in the UK?

Well in the context I was using it there (improved fuel economy compared with normal driving around) I notice
it on journeys of 100 miles or so.

> I routinely drive 200-300 miles, and I only consider that to be a middling
> distance.  During college I would routinely drive 200 miles home to get
> something and then 200 miles back that same day.

Well I live just North of London, and it's about 300 miles from here to the border with Scotland, about 70
miles to the South Coast, so that's the "length" of England.    My car does about 350 miles on a full tank, so
I can get anywhere in England or Wales, and into the lowlands of Scotland without refuelling.  My sister lives
about 270 miles North of here, and I do that journey once or twice a year, and it can take just under 4 hours
on a good day, up to 7.5 hours on Christmas Eve!  Further than that, though, it tends to slow down because
there's not much Motorway and the Borders region is all narrow twisty roads, and beyond there is a forest of
speed-cameras!  Driving to my brother's in Edinburgh (about 400 miles) is basically a day of driving, so I
wouldn't do it unless I was staying at least a week.  Less than that, as long as I have nothing bulky to
carry, I'd fly, because that's cheaper then the fuel to drive, even including the car parking charges at Luton
airport, which is less than 20 miles from here.

In an average year I do about 15,000 miles, but it's been as high as 25,000.  Overall since I got my licence
(at 17) I've driven way over half a million miles, or to the Moon and back!

> Gas these days (around here at least) is around $1.60/gallon, or .82 UKP.
> At a little more than 4 liters per gallon, we get a pretty good deal.

Indeed!  Our government (of whatever political tendency) seem to see drivers as an easy way to collect money,
and the tax on fuel is an example of this.  Diesel used to be half the price (half the tax) of petrol, but
when the number of diesel cars started increasing they upped it to just above the price of petrol.  The only
"cheap" fuel is LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) which is half the price of petrol, but isn't available very
widely, and of course you have to pay for the conversion and find space in the car for an extra tank, so not
many cars use it.  Quite a few busses do these days, though.

Cheers,

Howard Winter
St.Albans, England

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