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Petrol Pump Rip Off
Q. When is a bargain not a bargain?
A. When you buy fuel in NSW.
The NSW Government insists that filling stations sell at least 2 percent of ethanol in fuel in NSW.
So most fuel outlets sell ‘E10’, that’s fuel with a ten percent ethanol component.
But it is usually 3 cents cheaper than 91 octane regular unleaded fuel, so looks like a bargain and well worth using.
Wrong!
Last year the Sydney Morning Herald undertook a comparison test of the economies of using E10 versus normal 91 octane unleaded.
They drove three identical Toyota Camrys more than 2000kms in a convoy and under a range of conditions to compare the actual costs of each type of fuel.
In their test the E10 fuel returned 9.81 litres/100kms.
The regular unleaded returned 9.4L/100kms.
So over the whole journey the Ethanol fuel cost a total of $276.55 whilst the regular fuel cost $271.56.
Their conclusion was that a bargain wasn’t a bargain at all.
We were intrigued by this so we thought we’d put it to the test with a couple of our staff cars.
Car number one was an eight cylinder Holden that had recorded an average of 12.9 L/100kms over the previous 9,000 kms. on regular fuel, much of the driving on freeways.
So we put E10 in it exclusively from January to mid March and did much the same driving and reset the computer.
Guess what? Our consumption went up to 13.7L/100 kms.
But to be fair we then reverted back to regular unleaded and tested again from mid March to mid May where we did another 3000 kms. and, yes, we went right back to 12.9L/100kms.
So in this case our 3c per litre saving evaporated into an extra cost over 3000 kms of $35.27
We encountered similar results with our Suburu.
Our base reading for the Imprezza 8.0L/100 with plenty of city driving.
We changed to ethanol exclusively in January but did pretty much the same type of driving, only to find our consumption had risen to 8.9L/100kms by the middle of March after re-setting the computer.
We set it back to zero again and reverted to regular unleaded.
You are probably well ahead of us when we say we went back to 8.0L/100 kms over the next 1700kms.
It also meant that over 1700kms. we spent $15 more on the ‘bargain’ fuel than on the 3c more expensive brew.
So on a purely simple conclusion on a cost basis both tests came firmly down in favour of regular unleaded.
Whilst that’s good enough for us the debate still rages on regarding the possible advantages of ethanol based fuel on greenhouse gas emissions. But that’s also subject to huge controversy between governments, fuel distributors and other interested parties.So for the moment we’ll leave that to them.
In the meantime we’re steering away from the E10 fuel pumps and saving some money.
Big Budget Bonus For Small Business
Amongst the handouts announced in the Swan budget on 12th May was an increased bonus tax deduction of 50 percent for eligible assets purchased before 31st December 2009 for small business.
That’s great news for a small business contemplating buying a new company vehicle.
The example given in the tax documents refers to a vehicle costing $30,000. The current tax deduction under the 30% tax break is $9000. But the additional amount announced in the budget is a further $6000 resulting in a total deduction to small business of $15,000.
Good news… and bad news.
OK let’s get the bad news out of the way.
Yet again it’s the official car sales figures – this time for February. New vehicle sales were down a whopping 22% in February. This equates to just under 20,000 less vehicles sold compared with the month of February 2008.
However this is positively mild news when compared with the US. The equivalent statistic stateside for the same month was that sales were down an incredible 41% (General Motors down 53% alone!). It’s actually the lowest monthly sales figures seen in the US for 28 years.
So whilst the local news has to be considered ‘bad news’ – it could have been a lot worse.
So, the Good News?
Well it’s good news for those who are looking to purchase a car for business use. After some uncertainty, it has now been confirmed that motor vehicles will fall into the right asset category to claim a 30% tax break on the purchase this financial year. There are a ton of details as you’d expect but in layman’s terms if you are running a business and have had any plans to purchase a car in the next 18 months or so, you should consider ordering now, or at least before June 30.
Mazda 3 the top selling car in January
The small car segment continues to make inroads into traditional large car territory as the Japanese built Mazda 3 knocks the Holden Commodore off the top spot for sales in the moth of January.
This not only reflects a general shift towards smaller and more fuel efficient cars but also demonstrates how when fleet buyers are taken out of the market (many businesses close for a time over the Xmas period), overall sales figures can move around quite significantly.
Whilst this was good news for Mazda (in fact this is the first time that a wholly imported brand (Mazda) has taken the top spot from manufacturers that still build in Australia) the overall market suffered a 18% drop in sales compared to January 2008.
So it’s tough times ahead for the Australia auto industry – especially the local manufacturers. January was also significant as it was the first time Mazda sold more units than Ford.
Let’s hope buyers can see through the doom & gloom, recognise some of the fantastic value available in Australia & give themselves a treat – especially if it’s made locally!
Level 2, 9 Help Street