I remember ...

[messerschmitt owner]

… the Old DaysI remember the days when cars were already rusting before they left the showroom, when cars ended up in scrapyards through corrosion, not the failure of an electronic part that cost £3 to make but £500 to buy from the dealer. I remember the days when a VW Golf weighed 880kg and the GTi model was a sporty car that also did 45mpg.I remember the days when cars came in colours other than silver or black.I remember the days when cars looked different and you could tell a BMW from a Ford.I remember the days when petrol was under a pound a gallon.I remember the days when people could work on their car and repair it themselves.I remember the days when you didn’t need a computer degree to determine that a part was faulty.I remember the days of bodges and fixes.I remember the days when scrapyards were full of interesting cars and you could go take the bits off yourself.I remember the days before speed bumps, speed cameras and speed cushions.I remember the days when air conditioning was a luxury and not deemed to be a necessity.I remember the days when cars had wind up windows.I remember the days when we had a British-owned car manufacturing industry.I remember the days when people thought beige was a stylish colour for cars.I remember the days when it was rare to see a two-car family.I remember the days when you could cram two adults and four kids in a mini and it was considered normal.I remember the Green Cross Code Man

[VWPowered]

i remember the day all my tools were in their bloody place grrrr

[rocco1504]

I remember my Dad moaning about having to pay 40p for a Gallon of petrol, Criminal pricing.Is this an "We used to live 'int cardboard box 'int middle of road, an eat gravel ft Breakfast, dad used 't beat us 't death every night, an dance on our graves" sort of post ?.

[Station]

I'd vote for the party that reduced petrol. It's gone up from 104.9p to 114.9p in the past couple of weeks. There is no oil crisis on as far as I'm aware. What the fuck is going on, I cannot afford to drive!!!

[VWPowered]

petrol at my local bar has been €1.57 for the last year supermarket is €1.35 diesel around €1.08

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Whats going on, is that our currency is worth jack due to it becoming apparent to the rest of the world, that much of the UK's 'prosperity' is bollocks numbers made up on the spot. Petrol costs at least £1.35 a litre in France.

[retrogeezer]

116.9 here now - bloody criminal along with utility companies rip off charges.Excuse this time is the £1 falling in value......next week it will be because clocks have changed.

[Rocket88]

Lack of refining capability world wide. Newly "discovered" oil is of not such good quality, needing more and more refinery processes to turn it into good old 95 RON.

[Cavcraft]

Lack of refining capability world wide. Newly "discovered" oil is of not such good quality, needing more and more refinery processes to turn it into good old 95 RON.

Down to modern refineries having crackers which are not able to cope so well with crude. Older crackers can refine better.

[Guest]

I can't say I even notice petrol prices going up and will never fully understand why people (outside of haulage firms) get so furious about it, yeah it's a bind but only like anything else going up, look at cans of pop, they've been steadily creeping up for years! I do about average mileage per year, earn a modest wage and drive around in cars with pretty poor mpg to boot. I just stick a tenner in every so often, if the price goes up by 10% it just means I have to stick a tenner in slightly more frequently than I did before.My dad is one of these people who keeps a keen eye on fuel prices so he can go mental about it every so often, maybe if he didn't spend nearly every weekend making a "quick trip down the motorway" to go to some far-flung garden centre/discount outlet/clog factory it wouldn't be on his mind as much.

[M'coli]

116.9 here now - bloody criminal along with utility companies rip off charges.

That's a free market economy for you, companies are legally obliged to make a profit for their shareholders...

[dollywobbler]

Isn't petrol actually cheaper in real terms than it was in the Seventies?

[Alpineandy]

I'm not so fussed about petrol (not happy but not that p155ed off), but what really gets me is the price of diesel, which effects everything I buy (including utilities as they use diesel vans, even if they don't actually deliver the product anywhere with them). Plus a small diesel is undoubtedly the best 'green' option, so why the hell is it so expensive...

[Mash]

Isn't petrol actually cheaper in real terms than it was in the Seventies?

I've done this comparison before and I reckon it certainly is. Based on average wages and so on you can actually buy almost twice as much petrol now as you could 30 years ago with your full salary. What has to be remembered is Hirst's comment about his dad and everyone else making more non-essential use of their cars (and also more cars in the family, less use of public transport for commuting) so it seems like we're paying more. I suspect most people's cars are more fuel efficient than 30 years ago too.

[AXrescuer]

I don't drink beer anymore, but if I did, I'm sure that I would be pissed off if I had to pay my local £3.85 per pint or almost for £31 a gallon of Fosters!Put like that, the cost of petrol is still quite good!

[VWPowered]

£31 a gallon of Fosters!

blimey we are only just getting used to pint glasses

[mnde]

I can't say I even notice petrol prices going up and will never fully understand why people (outside of haulage firms) get so furious about it, yeah it's a bind but only like anything else going up, look at cans of pop, they've been steadily creeping up for years! I do about average mileage per year, earn a modest wage and drive around in cars with pretty poor mpg to boot. I just stick a tenner in every so often, if the price goes up by 10% it just means I have to stick a tenner in slightly more frequently than I did before.My dad is one of these people who keeps a keen eye on fuel prices so he can go mental about it every so often, maybe if he didn't spend nearly every weekend making a "quick trip down the motorway" to go to some far-flung garden centre/discount outlet/clog factory it wouldn't be on his mind as much.

I admit it is a bind when £20 barely gets my GSA fuel gauge to half-way....Mark.

[retrogeezer]

116.9 here now - bloody criminal along with utility companies rip off charges.

That's a free market economy for you, companies are legally obliged to make a profit for their shareholders...

Oh, I know - but the country is in a bad way, people can't afford to heat their homes and in many cases eat properly. And the government just stand by and watch these energy companies rake in excessive profits - probably because they all own shares in the very same companies.As for fuel, week on week it's not that big a deal as I/we don't do a huge amount of mileage.What it does do however is stop us taking days out, spending money at seaside places or theme parks/zoos etc etc. When we sit and work out it will cost us £40 or £50 quid on fuel just to get there and back we don't bother going. Same with car shows, I used to go to quite a few but I'm not spending nearly a weeks shopping money on driving to Santa Pod and back. So, as I've said before, expensive fuel doesn't stop people making their 'essential' work journeys etc as often it's company cars with fuel cards but it does stop the working class man from taking his family out.See also London Congestion charge - people that work there still drive in every day but people that want to visit museums etc just won't bother.I can't see how that helps the economy or the environment really.

[retrogeezer]

Plus of course it pushes up the price of EVERYTHING else (cans of pop) due to the increased haulage costs/railway travel/taxis/service engineers etc etc...

[Justin Case]

I'd vote for the party that reduced petrol. It's gone up from 104.9p to 114.9p in the past couple of weeks. There is no oil crisis on as far as I'm aware. What the fuck is going on, I cannot afford to drive!!!

That nice Mr Brown gave the banks gazillions of pounds so that they could lend to companies hard-pressed to balance their cash flow and us so we could buy more houses and cars and plasma tvs, but instead they lent it to their commodity speculator mates to buy up all the oil and metals and so force up the price. Since last year the balance of supply and demand for oil and its products has barely changed, but the amount traded has multiplied (check US financial blogs for the exact figures) The only politician with the slightest grasp of what is going on is Vince Cable; try and vote LibDem if you are in a marginal, if they hold the balance of power then we might stand a chance of fighting back.

[VWPowered]

more of you lot should stand up to authority

[M'coli]

The only politician with the slightest grasp of what is going on is Vince Cable; try and vote LibDem if you are in a marginal, if they hold the balance of power then we might stand a chance of fighting back.

Sometimes you just need an old head on old shoulders.

[barrett]

We decided Vince Cable would probably be leader of our theoretical political party... Paddy Ashdown would be involved too but I think he's retitred from politics now? Annoyignly i dont think i'm gonna be around for the next election, might have to do a postal ballot... exciting times.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Paddy Ashdown is a qualified interpreter and translator of Mandarin Chinese, pretty impressive eh? I find the idea of a westerner chatting away in Chinese, to be totally mind boggling.

[Mr H Sceptre]

I'd vote for the party that reduced petrol. It's gone up from 104.9p to 114.9p in the past couple of weeks. There is no oil crisis on as far as I'm aware. What the fuck is going on, I cannot afford to drive!!!

That nice Mr Brown gave the banks gazillions of pounds so that they could lend to companies hard-pressed to balance their cash flow and us so we could buy more houses and cars and plasma tvs, but instead they lent it to their commodity speculator mates to buy up all the oil and metals and so force up the price. Since last year the balance of supply and demand for oil and its products has barely changed, but the amount traded has multiplied (check US financial blogs for the exact figures) The only politician with the slightest grasp of what is going on is Vince Cable; try and vote LibDem if you are in a marginal, if they hold the balance of power then we might stand a chance of fighting back.

COMPLETELY agree re. Vince Cable. The only poitician who talks sense. And he's got one hell of a cool name.

[meggersdog]

One pound twenty a litre for both petrol and diesel in Wisbech today.I have been toying with the idea of buying one of those bio-diesel machines but don't know what to do with the waste product afterwards.Seems alot of messing about to save a few quid too so whilst Tesco's finest cooking oil is still 83p a litre I will carry on running 50/50 diesel and veg oil.

[Parky]

I reckon I will vote for the Libs this time as I have no faith in the big two. Has anyone got a single idea of any of their actual policies? I remember as a kid I would watch the political broadcasts and build up an idea of policy on education, housing, environment, etc (yeah I was well precocious innit). Nowadays its all american style smiles and baby-kissing. Yeah, nice suit and thats a fantastic bit of work by your stylist but WHAT THE F*CK DO YOU ACTUALLY STAND FOR?I dont think they know anymore to be honest.

[FredTransit]

more of you lot should stand up to authority

Erm,

Fiscal depute Elaine Lynch said: "The accused got to his feet and was standing over the police officer exposing his penis and thrusting it in her face, forcing her to take evasive action to avoid getting struck."

WTF? How short was the copper?

[barrett]

I reckon I will vote for the Libs this time as I have no faith in the big two. Has anyone got a single idea of any of their actual policies? I remember as a kid I would watch the political broadcasts and build up an idea of policy on education, housing, environment, etc (yeah I was well precocious innit). Nowadays its all american style smiles and baby-kissing. Yeah, nice suit and thats a fantastic bit of work by your stylist but WHAT THE F*CK DO YOU ACTUALLY STAND FOR?I dont think they know anymore to be honest.

Without turning autoshite into a political discussion page, I dont think either party has actual 'policies' anymore. They both have the 'policy' that what ever the other party says is stupid, and they obviously will do the opposite. Like you say, it's all baby-kissing and the cult of personality. People moan about Brown being 'boring' but frankly I want politicians to be boring, if it means they are too involved in, ya know, politics, to discuss what's on their ipods or what thier favourite type of curry is. Not that I suport Brown of course.

[VWPowered]

more of you lot should stand up to authority

Erm,

Fiscal depute Elaine Lynch said: "The accused got to his feet and was standing over the police officer exposing his penis and thrusting it in her face, forcing her to take evasive action to avoid getting struck."

WTF? How short was the copper?

*snigger*