Variation in the price of Fuel

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darylblake

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#195729 1-May-2016 20:14

So I took a tiki tour today. From Auckland down to Hamilton, checked out Punnet cafe (which I was very impressed with by the way) then on to Matamata for a kids party. And then finally home tonight.

What I was trying to do is find out how far my new car would go on a full tank of Diesel. I had reset the trip ODO last time I filled it up, and it had about half a tank left. So as I was driving around I was looking at the variation in Diesel prices, in Auckland it was about $0.82 cpl through to about $1.10 per litre, thats a pretty big gap in my opinion, but I kept my eyes open and found some good deals on my trip.

In Hamilton I found Gull doing 0.769 cents per litre. I was pretty tempted to fill up since I only had about quarter of a tank but I powered on determined to find out how many kms on a tank my car would do. Now I have to say that the first 1/2 of the tank was spent driving around Auckland City over the last week and when I left I had about 1/2 a tank so I guess I got a good mix of round the city driving and some open road. I ended up driving back into Auckland with the fuel light on and got to Greenlane before I had to get some Diesel. I ended up paying the most expensive $1.10 at Z but I needed to get home and was in a rush so only put a little bit in.

The whole point of this was for me to find out the estimated cents per km for this particular car, taking into account road user charges etc.

I did two calculations, one with the upper costings and most tax on the road user charges. (Paying $1.109 per litre and Road user charges purchased in 1000km blocks) and the lower using the cheapest price I saw today ($0.769 and paying road tax in 10000km blocks $63 per 1000kms)

My upper and lower came out to this.

$0.12608 c/km ~ lower

$0.16141 c/km ~ upper

Now obviously I understand there is more costs involved with running a car such as servicing, wear & tear, oils, fluids etc... but was interested to compare. But it got me thinking about the price differences are these days when comparing it to what it was like 10-15 years ago when most gas stations sold it withing a few cents of each other.

What are your thoughts / costs?

FYI Car is a 2014 Mazda 6 S/W and I got 720kms out of a full tank of diesel. I probably could have pushed another 10-20kms, but I got the idea by then.

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#1545014 1-May-2016 20:33

You don't know how much diesel you used unless you filled it again.

Aredwood

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#1545017 1-May-2016 20:35

Most diesel gets sold via fuel cards. If you have a fuel card you normally pay the "national price" Which is almost always lower than the pump price. This allows the fuel companies to rort low users. While not drive away their large customers. I don't have a fuel card myself. So I just make sure I fill up whenever I goto west or south Auckland.

Cheap stations for Diesel I have found:

Mobil Mt Wellington

G.A.S. on Station rd Penrose.

Mobil corner Lincoln rd and Central park drive.

Mobil Hill rd Manurewa.

Also the Mobil's sometimes do a "spend $40 on fuel and get 10c per L off" or "buy 2 drinks and get 10c per L off". So a good bonus if the price is already less than 90c per L.

The Prepay Gull stations. Although I dont like gull diesel as much as it foams alot more than Mobil and Caltex diesel. This makes it more difficult to completely fill your tank. and can stuff fuel economy calculations if you are only going on the basis of Km per tankful.

Jase2985

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#1545018 1-May-2016 20:36

What is the km/L or the L/100km on the Mazda?

My 07 Jazz Sport is sitting at $0.129/km (6.5L/100km or 15.4km/L) over the 43,000km we have owned it. and the average price per L for petrol has been $1.98

My 07 Accord Euro is sitting at $0.162/km (8.5L/100km or 11.8km/L) over the 16,000km we have owned it.and the average price per L for petrol has been $1.92

Its petrol so that only includes the price of petrol no servicing but we have all those figures in the accounting software so ould extract that reasonably easily (well the wife could).

We always try and full up at the cheapest place possible and here in Auckland it can be 16c/L difference in price, then add a 6c/L AA discount and it can/does save you a bit per year.

alasta

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#1545022 1-May-2016 20:42

It's $1.13 at most stations in Wellington at the moment, but from experience it will be about 10c cheaper in Paraparaumu and Masterton and at least 15c cheaper in Levin. Masterton and Levin have Gull stations, but I'm not sure why Paraparaumu is cheaper than Wellington.

Most of the South Island seems to roughly match the pricing in Wellington.

darylblake

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#1545023 1-May-2016 20:49

1eStar: You don't know how much diesel you used unless you filled it again.

This is a fair point. I was close enough to feel content with what I wanted to know. I was really comparing it to my other car as well which is close to 20c/km.

This is my first diesel. Its a car, not a truck so I don't use an awful lot of diesel no business or fleet. I do use an AA Smartfuel card at BP/Caltex when I can though.

Dairyxox

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#1545032 1-May-2016 21:15

Where I work pay several million $$ a year for diesel. They get a pretty hefty discount...somewhere about 30-40% off the 'pump price'.
Not sure if petrol sees the same benefit.

scuwp

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#1545039 1-May-2016 21:27

Supply and demand. Free market at work I guess. What was your L/100km? Surely a new Mazda has the fuel usage on the dash? How accurate was that compared to your calculations?

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

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PhantomNVD

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#1545101 2-May-2016 00:25

Anyone interested in the various regional variations in Diesel price would do well to read or keep an eye on this thread in the motorhomer forum, as MH travel the nation and see LARGE variations, and with my 120L tank doing around 500km (6L Cummings engine driving a 10 ton bus conversion) it matters much!

http://www.nzmotorhome.co.nz/NZMotorhomeForum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=10001&hilit=Price+of+diesel&start=256

Edit* and for what it's worth, far north fuels do 12c/l off pump or national prices on all the major brands including Mobil, but not Gull.

UHD

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#1545103 2-May-2016 01:54

I normally keep an eye out for places that have a BP or Caltex near a Gull station. They often compete/match the Gull on price but also offer AA Smartfuel.

Jase2985

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#1545105 2-May-2016 05:39

@darylblake What is the km/L or the L/100km on the Mazda?

darylblake

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#1545110 2-May-2016 07:09

The tech specs on the car rate it at 4.9 litres/100 km which is slightly better than what I actually got.

But I was putting my foot flat a bit to do some overtaking. And my driving was a mix of stop start and open road. That 4.9/100km looks more like dumping it in 5th or 6th and shooting down the mway. Nah I have not got the stats off the car itself. I am pretty happy with the car itself. Its definitely more fuel efficient that my old car (2005). Probably by about 30%.

What I was more interested in is how the retail price of fuel is so different around the place. Z I have found to be quite expensive but not at all stations. I personally rekon their service is better. The last couple of times I have used them I have been greeted with an attendant. Fly buys/Airpoints is a nice little extra to have. They do sometimes run a promo when if you use your flybuys card you get xcents off per litre too.

I have found some mobil station to be a bit cheaper. They don't usually offer a discount unless you spend about $5 in store. Or buy some disgusting energy drink or chocolate bar. So unless I am after something, I don't usually get anything extra.

Gull usually tend to be cheaper, but not always. As I mentioned in my original post, the cheapest price I found on Sunday was at Gull.

Caltex and BP tend to be priced somewhere in the middle, but you do get the 6c+ off if you purchase a min of $40 with the smartfuel card.

Obviously I understand that business' which use large quantities of fuel will negotiate a hefty discount with a supplier in exchange for loyalty.

alasta

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#1545114 2-May-2016 07:30

darylblake:

The tech specs on the car rate it at 4.9 litres/100 km which is slightly better than what I actually got.

But I was putting my foot flat a bit to do some overtaking. And my driving was a mix of stop start and open road. That 4.9/100km looks more like dumping it in 5th or 6th and shooting down the mway. Nah I have not got the stats off the car itself. I am pretty happy with the car itself. Its definitely more fuel efficient that my old car (2005). Probably by about 30%.

If you got anywhere near 4.9 then you are doing well. I have a Mazda 3 with the same engine and I'm averaging 6.2 l/100km with the vast majority of using being open road, albeit with some steep inclines on the Rimutaka/Nelson/Kaikoura ranges etc.

I calculate my consumption using my logbook rather than using the electronic display in the car, because I have doubts about the accuracy of the latter.

darylblake

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#1545115 2-May-2016 07:43

alasta:

darylblake:

The tech specs on the car rate it at 4.9 litres/100 km which is slightly better than what I actually got.

But I was putting my foot flat a bit to do some overtaking. And my driving was a mix of stop start and open road. That 4.9/100km looks more like dumping it in 5th or 6th and shooting down the mway. Nah I have not got the stats off the car itself. I am pretty happy with the car itself. Its definitely more fuel efficient that my old car (2005). Probably by about 30%.

If you got anywhere near 4.9 then you are doing well. I have a Mazda 3 with the same engine and I'm averaging 6.2 l/100km with the vast majority of using being open road, albeit with some steep inclines on the Rimutaka/Nelson/Kaikoura ranges etc.

I calculate my consumption using my logbook rather than using the electronic display in the car, because I have doubts about the accuracy of the latter.

Im not getting 4.9. From real world experience its closer to 8L /100kms. My car has 6 gears. The only way I would probably get close to 4.9 is if I measured accurately all the fuel I put into an empty tank, then I drive down a long straight flat road for 100km in 6th. Stop the car, take all the fuel out and measure the difference. I shouldn't have said slightly better Ill eat pie on that one. Its a lot better than what I actually got. But I guess depending on how you drive it changes that a lot as well. I wanted a real world test which was a mix of driving round the city, to work a bit, to the shops etc with i-stop on and taking a trip around some of NZ's roads.

timmmay

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#1545121 2-May-2016 08:03

Petrol can be 30c/L cheaper in Rotorua than Wellington.

Jase2985

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#1545191 2-May-2016 09:49

full the tank as full as you can get it, ie the pump click off 3-4 times (this ensure the tank is going to be at pretty much the same level every time)
Reset the trip meter
Drive the car x distance, doesn't really matter but the further is generally better, record the distance
full the tank as full as you can get it, ie the pump click off 3-4 times

then do the calculations, ive found that is the best way to do it and ends up being the most accurate

I use an App called fuely as my logbook so I can track heaps of things.

I think you would struggle to find many vehicles that would do the fuel figures that the manufactures claim, due to how they actually test them.

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