Petrol prices

If only unleaded fuel was as easy to stockpile as toilet paper.

Australia's substandard premium fuel is set to ruin the chances of some of the best cars coming here.

Australia ranks amongst one of the top countries in the world for petrol affordability, outranking the likes of Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany

While the price pain of visiting the bowser has eased in recent months, many drivers are still unsure about whether it pays to fill up using premium petrol or a cheaper variation.Some will spend around 12 cents extra per litre for premium fuels, but is it worth it?A spokesperson from Australian Automobile Association's says there's no clear-cut answer to whether it does give you better value for the distance travelled."There is evidence to show you might get more from a tank of premium, but you need to do your research to see if you're saving any money," they say."You might go further in distance but the fuel itself will cost more, which means you may not be always be in front.""My advice is do a test tank with one fuel and then with the other," the spokesperson says.Australia's current fuel standard is 91 Research Octane Number, which most vehicles accept, but a growing number need 95 RON premium fuel, and some even require 98 RON. The octane rating is a standard measure of fuel performance.Experts say the golden rule is to always use the fuel that is recommended by the manufacturer - many European cars require the car to only run on premium unleaded.NRMA vehicle safety expert Jack Haley says there's a simple way to work out whether premium is worth it."The maximum improvement by using a higher octane fuel is about 1 per cent per octane number, so if you go from 91 to 95, the maximum reduction in fuel consumption is about 4 per cent," they say."If the price difference between 91 and 95 is less than 4 per cent and your vehicle does experience improvement...then it is worth switching to premium."But given 95 fuel is about 12 cents more a litre than 91, which is usually a lot more than 4 per cent, then there's no advantage in using premium fuel."A spokesperson from RACQ says driving conditions can significantly affect petrol consumption, and while premium fuel goes further, it does cost more and may not always leave you better off."We looked at a comparison of E10 fuels to premium unleaded and we compared that across two Holden Commodores over about eight days," they say."We found there was a fuel consumption penalty by using E10 of around 2 to 3 per cent, which correlates with the expected fuel consumption increase."Basically, E10 fuels will see a person experience higher fuel consumption when they are using an ethanol-based fuel."

We’ve all heard the term fuel-efficient bandied about and although it’s a very common term when talking about cars, what exactly does it mean?At the very basic level, fuel-efficiency refers to the distance you can travel on a amount of fuel. Let’s break it down.Even with a one-litre difference in fuel efficiency, the owner of Car B will need another 147 litres of fuel and spend an extra $183.75 than the owner of Car A. All that from an extra one-litre per 100km.What qualifies as fuel efficient, then?Anything that is listed as less than 6-litres/100km or more than 16.5km/1-litre is considered to be pretty good.Fuel efficiency measurements The first (and most common) reference is litres per 100km (litres/100km). This is how many litres of fuel the car needs in order to travel 100km. You’ll often see it referred to as ‘fuel economy’. Rule of thumb on this one: the lower the number of litres stated, the better the fuel economy.Not as frequently used in Australia, kilometres per litre (km/1-litre) is another way to look at a car’s fuel consumption. In this instance, the higher the number of kilometres travelled the more fuel-efficient.Petrol vs diesel?Petrol is the most widely-used fuel in Australia, however diesel is becoming more popular. In the last 10 years, diesel sales have almost doubled and the idea that diesel is reserved for dirty, smelly trucks has long gone.Generally speaking, diesel engines are more fuel efficient than petrol engines. They use compression ignition (instead of spark plugs), which results in a more efficient fuel-burn. This requires a more high-tech engine design, which is one of the reasons why diesel cars cost more than petrol.Modern diesel engines are often turbocharged and have a lot of pulling power (also known as torque). It can shift through gears more quickly than a petrol engine and runs at lower revs per minute. All of this means it uses less fuel at each stage than an equivalent petrol engine would.What about LPG?LPG presents many benefits, but strictly speaking, fuel economy is not one of them. In terms of cost, you’re getting a more economical deal with LPG but fuel consumption after an LPG conversion can increase by up to 40 per cent, so you’ll be filling up more often. However, LPG can be up to 60 per cent cheaper than petrol, litre for litre. So the consumption increase is more than covered by the cost savings.

So how are you being ripped off? It’s simple really – once, of course, you know the games that can be played by the big oil companies and Coles and Woolworths.Let’s begin at the retail level.Here the rip off can occur in two basic ways. First, there is the practice of geographic price discrimination. This is where, for example, the same oil company charges one price for unleaded petrol at location A and a higher price for the same petrol at location B.Why the higher price at some locations and lower prices at other locations?Quite simply because the oil company can get away with the higher prices at those locations where there is little or no competition. At these higher priced locations there is simply no incentive for the oil company to lower its prices. Motorists simply pay a higher price than they would have if there had been independents in the local market.Clearly, geographic price discrimination serves two purposes. To begin with, it allows the oil companies and Coles and Woolworths to gouge motorists in those locations where there is no competition from independents.This gouging is nothing more than profiteering as the failure of competition in the local market means that consumers are being forced to pay much more than they would have if the local market had been vigorously competitive.The profiteering gets larger as local competition fails in more and more areas.Conveniently for the oil companies and Coles and Woolworths the geographic price discrimination can facilitate the destruction of local competition as the practice allows independents to be ambushed.This can occur as the lower prices charged by the oil companies and Coles and Woolworths where there are independents can be subsidised by the higher prices in those areas where the big players don’t face any competition from independents.In this way geographic price discrimination can be used in a predatory manner to target independents through at times below cost pricing with the clear aim of driving those independents out of business. The big players can sustain this below cost pricing against the independents through their higher prices in those areas where independents have been driven out of the local market.Sadly for motorists the below cost pricing only lasts as long as the independents do, because once the independents are forced out of the local market prices will go up.Read more abour petrol prices 

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