Davidc
Guru
- Location
- Somerset UK
If you were running them and they overran you weren't controlling them adequately.
Cheap, innit?
- Thread starter theclaud
- Start date
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If you were running them and they overran you weren't controlling them adequately.
Archie_tect
De Skieven Architek... aka Penfold + Horace
- Location
- Northumberland
80p a pint... now that is good!
jonny jeez
Legendary Member
- Location
- Chislehurst, Kent, UK
And I agree, it is cheap to buy fuel.
Its what you put it in and how you use that thing, that make the difference.
jonny jeez
Legendary Member
- Location
- Chislehurst, Kent, UK
jonny jeez
Legendary Member
- Location
- Chislehurst, Kent, UK
"Fault"...try Job ...dont be so arrogant
U
User482
Guest
If it's part of your job then why aren't you claiming it back through expenses?
It's perfectly sensible that parking should cost more in areas where there's very little room for it and no need whatever for most people to bring a car. That's pretty cheap taking those things into consideration. Incidentally, I'm perfectly well aware that there are certain jobs which would be very difficult to do without a car, and it may be that you do one of those - I wasn't intending to pick a fight with the small group of people who fall into that category, whose whinging I am prepared to indulge to a limited degree, but it doesn't change the fact that fuel is presposterously cheap.
Ravenbait
Someone's imaginary friend
- Location
- The Seventh Level of Hell
Generally speaking I support the various anti-motorist rants that are posted on this site. Some of them I don't but indulge.
However. Some really bug me. I do not own a car because I want to, but because it is in my contract that I must provide a car for business purposes. I can't afford to spend 10k on some modern, fuel-efficient, tiny urban runabout, so I have to make do with the second hand Mondeo that was the best I could do on my salary at the time. It's all well and good saying that the savings in the long run make up for the initial outlay, but despite the bleatings of those complaining about how easy public servants have it, working in public service doesn't pay very much, and finding that initial outlay is not as easy as it is for those middle class folks who run off to the continent at the drop of a hat for a fab weekend cycling around stylish cafes.
Owning and running a car is expensive, despite the fact that I use it very little for personal reasons. The fuel allowance barely covers the cost of fuel, never mind insurance, VED, servicing, maintenance, repairs etc etc.
Cyclists get a lot of stick for being smug and superior. Most of the time that is entirely incorrect. But the threads that run to "stop whinging about the cost of fuel, it's not that expensive really, and anyway it's your choice to have a car" don't do us any favours. Some people are lucky enough to be able to do without -- wish I could go back to not having one, I really do. Some people find their circumstances are not readily open to change just like that.
Yes, some people whinge unnecessarily. They can afford it, or aren't already doing what they can to limit the expense, and they don't deserve sympathy. But blanket statements of "it's cheap really" are incredibly irrititating to those who find themselves unable, for whatever reason, to do without and struggling to pay the bills.
Sam
However. Some really bug me. I do not own a car because I want to, but because it is in my contract that I must provide a car for business purposes. I can't afford to spend 10k on some modern, fuel-efficient, tiny urban runabout, so I have to make do with the second hand Mondeo that was the best I could do on my salary at the time. It's all well and good saying that the savings in the long run make up for the initial outlay, but despite the bleatings of those complaining about how easy public servants have it, working in public service doesn't pay very much, and finding that initial outlay is not as easy as it is for those middle class folks who run off to the continent at the drop of a hat for a fab weekend cycling around stylish cafes.
Owning and running a car is expensive, despite the fact that I use it very little for personal reasons. The fuel allowance barely covers the cost of fuel, never mind insurance, VED, servicing, maintenance, repairs etc etc.
Cyclists get a lot of stick for being smug and superior. Most of the time that is entirely incorrect. But the threads that run to "stop whinging about the cost of fuel, it's not that expensive really, and anyway it's your choice to have a car" don't do us any favours. Some people are lucky enough to be able to do without -- wish I could go back to not having one, I really do. Some people find their circumstances are not readily open to change just like that.
Yes, some people whinge unnecessarily. They can afford it, or aren't already doing what they can to limit the expense, and they don't deserve sympathy. But blanket statements of "it's cheap really" are incredibly irrititating to those who find themselves unable, for whatever reason, to do without and struggling to pay the bills.
Sam
jonny jeez
Legendary Member
- Location
- Chislehurst, Kent, UK
jonny jeez
Legendary Member
- Location
- Chislehurst, Kent, UK
This is the point I should have made (Sam you are far more eloquent than I). Rather than bleating on about choice and charging costs to expenses (clearly many of you have you have never tried to start your own business or worked on capped expenses) better to accept that many people have no choice than to use a car, much at their own expense.
petrol is cheap, cycling is cheaper, but not everyone has the choice
This is a bit of a duplicate of a thread I started a long time ago after hiring a car to drive to Aberystwyth. These threads are deliberately provocative, of course, but they are born of an entirely genuine astonishment. I'm pretty resistant to motorists' habitual complaints, but even so I kept expecting to have to put more fuel in the tank to cover the extravagant amount of driving in which I was indulging, what with everyone telling me every day how they can barely afford to fill up. Impoverished relatives (both non-drivers) kept trying to ply me with cash for fuel that I couldn't use up, no matter how hard I tried. It's about how we've all fallen for a lie. It's not a thread about employers passing on the costs of work-related motoring to their employees, or about the supposedly extravagant pay of public servants - you will find me very much on your side on both of these topics.
The other way of looking at it is the relatively high price of train travel unless you are able to plan a long way ahead which is obviously not aleays possible.
I have to go to London today to pick up my daughter and it'll cost me £15 or so in fuel for me and my passenger but it would be twice that each by train/tube.
So for 2 going up and 3 returning in the car, the total cost will be a fraction of the train fare. That's the pity of it because I'd much rather go by train.
I have to go to London today to pick up my daughter and it'll cost me £15 or so in fuel for me and my passenger but it would be twice that each by train/tube.
So for 2 going up and 3 returning in the car, the total cost will be a fraction of the train fare. That's the pity of it because I'd much rather go by train.
U
User482
Guest
Come on Sam, that's a false dichotomy. Not long ago, I sold a Fiesta for £1300. It did 45-50 mpg and very little in repairs and maintenance.
Generally speaking - public servants either get an "essential user" allowance plus a fuel allowance, or they get paid at the standard rate (about 45p/ mile IIRC). That should be enough to cover your expenses. If you're not getting either, then that's a tough one, but I would suggest it's atypical.
I couldn't agree more [she says, whilst handing out 45p Bognor-London train tickets like candy].
I don't know where anything goes any more. There's loads of stuff in the Pub that might just as well have been in the Cafe. Anyway, I'm not finding the new boozer very inspiring, whereas at least there were already things I liked about the Cafe. Can one not discuss the price of fuel over a skinny decaff moccachino?
Besides, I'm working on a new concept. I call it Pervasive P&L. It's an experiment in the ontology of the text and the locus of genre in the age of the internet. If you see what I mean.
