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Originally Posted by janoskiss
I for one am HAPPY about the price of petrol skyrocketing! Fossil fuel use is out of control and its potential impact on our home planet can no longer be dismissed. All those people driving around in huge tanks that never go off road and are often used to transport just one person really make me mad. Hopefully the steep rise of petrol prices will put an end to the big 4WD buying frenzy of the past 5-10 years.:
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Fair point Steve, I saw on ACA a few months ago that 4X4 sales were falling quite steeply. I don't understand why people buy big thirsty 4X4's for doing the shopping and taking the kids to school. I've owned 2 modern 4X4's in the last 3 years and I actually used them for off-road, hunting, camping and other things that most 4X4 owners would never consider using theirs for. Apart from their designed use (off-road) they are horrible to drive. Try squeezing into shopping centre car parks, reversing out of driveways safely or overtaking a road train with ease, give me a normal car for half the price any day.
Another thing to consider with the current fuel price is the total cost of owning and running a car. I bought a new car 12 months ago. In that time I've done just over 18,000km. So in rough figures I've spent about $2,000 on petrol, but the value of the car has dropped about $10,000
, so while an extra 30c a litre adds up to a bit, it's not much in comparison to the depreciation of a new car. It's a different story with an older car of course. I'm lucky now with my new job that I only have to travel 45km a week so the price of petrol doesn't bother me at all, but it will be interesting to see what happens with freight costs etc.