how big is a gallon!

[jacksdad1963]

Hi from rainy Manchester, England :riding:
Simple question for you guys outside of blighty....just how big is a gallon where you are!
Here, 1 gallon is 8 pints, or 4.54 litres. For standard petrol we pay around £1.31 litre or 5.94 per 8 pint gallon :mbird
Shell Optimax style higher octane/power stuff is around £1.50 litre....over 70% is tax...
What are you paying?  Be interesting to see what prices I find: places like Dubai and UAE pay 12 pence litre!

[WayneDW]

Four quarts to a gallon, about 3.8 liters.  Been running about $3.50/gallon +- a nickel for low octane this spring.  Not bad considering.
Don't know what high octane costs 'cause I never buy it.

[bocutter Ed]

....just how big is a gallon where you are!

Simple answer: US gal is 4/5 Imperial gallon.

[grant71]

In 1961 i was a petrol jockey for a while in London. low octane petrol cost 4/11 d for a gallon

[jacksdad1963]

Can you guys post the price you pay?
I reckon most of Europe is similar to what we pay, or is it?
We are taxed to death here, then have to pay road fund licence aka 'tax disc' for every vehicle we own, plus they have to be insured even if not used: you have to declare the vehicle 'off the road' say over winter, and return any unused tax disc, then re-apply when you want to get back on the road!
Its a real PITA but is changing again in October, lets see what happens then....
And the roads are all fooked, every single one needs major repairs yet the councils say they have no money  :nono

[Scott_]

Sounds like you are here is the continental U.S.
Road fund taxed quite a lot, yet roads are in crap condition and govmn't says 'not enough money'........

[Zipster]

Yet the politicians can award themselves an 11% pay rise while nurses and police officers are expected to be thankful for a 1% rise - the first in 3 or 4 years. No wonder there's no money!!

[grant71]

Here in Capetown the price of petrol is R13.61 per litre for leaded and unleaded. now a US Dollar= 10.72 SA Rands and 1 Br Pound = 18 SA Rands.

[jacksdad1963]

Capetown fuel works out to 76 pence per litre...almost half what we pay!
Do you have to pay tax/road fund on every vehicle you own, like we do?

[bocutter Ed]

CDN$1.55/litre Shell 91

[grant71]

Yes. We pay  a fuel levy plus motor vehicle licence fee annually. Toll roads are now coming into the picture so that the gangsters who run the country can steal more money from the public

[wmax351]

Yes. We pay  a fuel levy plus motor vehicle licence fee annually. Toll roads are now coming into the picture so that the gangsters who run the country can steal more money from the public

Sounds an awful lot like parts of Texas and Southern California. They're privatizing the roads we paid for with taxes.


In the San Francisco Bay area, I pay about $4.10 for brand name regular (for the cage), and about $4.30 for brand name premium for the bikes. A lot of the price difference is not tax, the oil companies just charge california more.

[grant71]

Here in South Africa the price of fuel is controlled by govt. people living inland pay more because of pipeline charges. As i mentioned in a previous post  A supermarket group tried to get in on the act with discounted prices. They were shown the door very quickly.Also the petrol is very clean. Caltex use an additive in their product__ Chevron.

[pdg]

We are taxed to death here, then have to pay road fund licence aka 'tax disc' for every vehicle we own, plus they have to be insured even if not used: you have to declare the vehicle 'off the road' say over winter, and return any unused tax disc, then re-apply when you want to get back on the road!
Its a real PITA but is changing again in October, lets see what happens then....

It's not 'road fund licence' anymore - that is now an incorrect term as since 1936 it wasn't intended to pay for the roads. It's 'vehicle excise duty' nowadays. Whichever way you slice it, it's a tax.

The 'continuous insurance' thing is also widely misunderstood - you only have to keep the vehicle insured if it's parked on the road, or it's taxed. If it's SORNed you don't need insurance (if it's SORNed it shouldn't be parked on the road either).

As for the changes in October, all that's happening is they are stopping the paper tax discs (so no more looking for somewhere to bolt a holder and no more disc thefts) and introducing payment by monthly direct debit for a 5% annual surcharge. That's it.

What you need to do is choose vehicles carefully - my 1972 land rover is free to tax and it costs me £63/year to insure comprehensive for my business :2thumbup:

[Turkus]

Sounds an awful lot like parts of Texas and Southern California..... :bang-head:

In the San Francisco Bay area, I pay about $4.10 for brand name regular (for the cage), and about $4.30 for brand name premium for the bikes. A lot of the price difference is not tax, the oil companies just charge california more.

Look to your surrounding counties that have different sales tax rates and you'll see the difference in the price of a gallon of gas.

I live in Riverside County and the gyppo gas is $3.85-$3.95/gal for regular (last nite anyway).....go north 25+ miles into LA County and it's (at least) a nickel more - all sales tax, as Riverside is less than LA County and certain cities within the LA County area have an even higher tax rate  :yow
(and don't buy near a freeway on/off-ramp...drive at least 3 signals away for a significant price drop  :yes)

[jacksdad1963]

pdg, you forget to mention:
When you buy a used vehicle, the tax does not come with it, you have to tax it yourself, from the start of the month. The fact that the seller will have paid up until the end of the month means that every time a sale goes through the Gov will get a double payment.
If I sell a car now with tax on it, it goes with the car, so I can add this amount to the car value, whereas under the new system the seller and the buyer will lose out!
Are the Gov going to refund the seller for any unused tax, say I had 6 months tax on the car when I sell it? IF they are going to issue refunds, their workload will increase, the system will be much more complicated, not simpler!
I am a motor trader, I buy and sell several vehicles a week, and this new system is going to be a monumental cock up  :nono

[pdg]

Yes, 'unused' tax will be refunded in much the same fashion as it can be now.

In fact, there are 'plans' to make it so you can have part months refunded too, as well as start the new tax period part way through the month - thereby getting rid of that 'double payment'.

I used to be in the motor trade as well (I have had so many jobs....) and I see it as a much simpler way of doing things. Buy (or take in trade) second hand car without tax (because no choice) - whack on your trade plates to move it around, then sell it and new buyer taxes online on their phone at point of sale. So much easier than having to keep track of paper discs and expiry dates on each vehicle - no more thinking "well I've 'lost' money on that tax disc because that car has taken 5 weeks to sell, maybe I should have got a refund when I got it". The only traders who would be at a disadvantage are the ones who leave all their stock randomly distributed on the streets near their house and/or the ones who don't actually have valid MT insurance.

[jacksdad1963]

Well thats good news: how did you find out about getting part month refunds?
Can you send me a link please  :2thumbup:

[pdg]

Sorry, I don't have a link - I did a fair bit of reading on it when I heard about it first and committed the 'important' parts to memory!

To be fair, how much turns out to actually happen remains to be seen - but given the way the system will be set up (monthly payments, non-transferable etc.) it would cause a bit of hassle for them to not include such a facility seeing how easy it would be to implement it.

I'm quite sure they'll manage to mess it up quite well in the first few months though....

[jacksdad1963]

I'm sure there will be no refunds....thats why the Gov have been very quiet on the subject, keeping schtum as long as possible.
Issuing  licence on a car and then refunding licence on the same car, but to a different person....for the same time period...won't happen!

[Damun]

In Texas, a gallon is about 1/10 of this hat.

[pdg]

Issuing  licence on a car and then refunding licence on the same car, but to a different person....for the same time period...won't happen!

I recall the refund only being issued to the same person, not to a different person. So from a trader's perspective they'll get a car with no tax, keep a car with no tax, then sell a car with no tax. The original private seller gets refund of any 'unused' tax (if they apply for it, either online or at post office) and the new private buyer taxes their 'new' car. That's as I understand it anyway and I'm fully prepared to be proved wrong!

[jacksdad1963]

I meant that the original owner (not a trader) will apply for a refund, at the same time the buyer will apply to buy, hence my concerns that the workload will be greater.
I always say that the duty should be added to fuel: those who use the roads most pay most, and those with green cars save money by not wasting fuel....but thats too simple for our Gov!  :hehehe
How does it work in other lands?

[Scott_]

They get us on both ends of the spectrum here.
It may vary from state to state, but here in Iowa, you pay a registration renewal tag "fee"(i call it a tax) every year, plus fed,state,local taxes on the fuel you put in it.

Some states also have annual "inspection" fees that they pay, plus fuel taxes....

Farmers(here in Iowa anyway) can apply for a fuel tax exemption for fuel purchased for the tractors on the farm. Side note.... this "tax exempted" farm off road use fuel is dyed a special color(I'm thinking Red) so you better not get caught with it in your on road vehicle........

[pdg]

The whole point of the 'new' system is that there is no workload - it's all computerised... You're not going to give it a headache by one person requesting a refund and then another buying new tax... In fact, for quite some time now the only people involved in vehicle taxation has been the owner and the woman at the post office with her stamp - even buying it online direct has been automated, hence the printed discs.

And yes, we have red diesel here too with no road duty paid - I use it in my chipper and generator. There's no application involved, just buy it in certain places and don't use it in a road vehicle.

Adding car tax to fuel is a silly idea as I've thought for years - if it was even pretended that the money was used for roads then just possibly, but it isn't...