Thread: Petrol is still cheap

Everyone loves to whinge about fuel prices. Me included

You should also add that back then you didn't have monthly bills for
Internet use
Mobile phones (multiple)
Multiple vehicles
Whatever else advertisers say we need whether we realise it or not.

Your house probably covered your needs too and wasn't a brand new, 5 bedroom, no yard, cinema room monstrosity.

I understand what you're saying though. Which is why I don't buy new cars. So no attacking from me. Sorry to disappoint

No attack from me... makes quite reasonable sense.

Are there any stats on the average income for 1969 and today available for comparison?

Yes fuel is expensive, but I want to drive so I pay the price. I waste more money on more trivial things that I don't need. That, and my girlfriend has a bad habit of sneaking custard tarts and cakes and all sorts of sugar loaded delights into the basket when we go shopping, and I only realise when we get home that our shoping has cost an extra $20 thanks to all the rubbish she's hidden under the loaf of bread... it's like shopping with a toddler...

I agree with you of the false economy of owning new cars, but it's hard not too once they start failing and costing a fortune after the warrantee period expires and not having the ability to repair them.

As you are aware most modern automobiles are that reliant on the manufacturers specific equipment that upon purchase of the vehicle you are effectivally married to that company or it's specific brands specialists to thouroughly maintain the vehicle passed it's warrantee period. This is just not

I can see why folk trade up vehicles for newer models, to get out of this scenerio is the main reason I bought an old County.

Houses well, you pay what you have to, if you want to keep up with the Jones', you pay for it.

Where the hell were you paying 20c/litre for petrol in 1969? Super petrol was 42c./gallon or 9.25c./litre then. My old log books record paying 13.9c./l. in March 1977 and 18.c/l in 1978. In 1972 my wife bought a new Ford Escort and you could not get $5 of super petrol into it.

Just for interest sake, old records from our family's transport business record paying 3s6d per gallon for standard petrol and 3s9d for super in July-August 1958. In 1959 these prices fell to 3s4 1/2d and 3s7 1/2d respectively. Kerosene was 2s3d and distillate 2s7 1/2d.

Of course I can't find the article now that I need it, but I am sure I read an article once that argued that the most economical form of motoring was to buy a 3 year old car and keep it until it was 7 years old.

Using the Falcon again as an example, depreciation in the first year is $13,000 but after 3 years it drops to $2,000.
The first 3 years cost $21,000 in depreciation.
Years 4 to 6 cost about $6,000
You would have to be pretty unlucky to have to spend an extra $15,000 in repairs during those 3 years. In that time it would still only have done about 150,000 km.

I don't think there are very many people who buy a new car because it makes economic sense. It's usually done for other reasons.

I am not a whiner when it comes to the price of things because I always figure it costs what it costs but I do wonder is how much longer people can sustain paying for things. Me very much included in this. And in my line of work I see people falling out of homes etc. because they can't sustain their payments of rent or mortgage.

I have to say that when it comes to things like houses a lot of people won't be able to buy them unless they move right out of areas they may of been able to of bought in back in the 60's (just a date picked because that's what seemed to be used as an example before).

As Utemad said though we now have other costs such as the net which I would infact need over a vehicle for work and that is costing me 200ish per month as I need to have a phone line to use it-which I never use. Then a mobile telephone and the cost of maintenance on vehicles has gone up a hell of a lot too I suspect.

I take your point on fuel though and it is rather valid of course so I guess in general it is a holistic money problem with living in our society more then it is a fuel problem.

Xav

Originally Posted by Shonky

Are there any stats on the average income for 1969 and today available for comparison?

The Bureau of Stats probably has the info you want.
Page 31 of Chapter 10 form this site:
1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 1970
Average weekly income excluding overtime for adult males was $58.80 and $69 including overtime. Today's figure is about $1,100. It is available from the ABS site.
6302.0 - Average Weekly Earnings, Australia, Nov 2007

Originally Posted by Shonky

That, and my girlfriend has a bad habit of sneaking custard tarts and cakes and all sorts of sugar loaded delights into the basket when we go shopping, and I only realise when we get home that our shoping has cost an extra $20 thanks to all the rubbish she's hidden under the loaf of bread... it's like shopping with a toddler...

LOL My sympathies

Originally Posted by Xavie

I am not a whiner when it comes to the price of things because I always figure it costs what it costs but I do wonder is how much longer people can sustain paying for things. Me very much included in this. And in my line of work I see people falling out of homes etc. because they can't sustain their payments of rent or mortgage.

I have to say that when it comes to things like houses a lot of people won't be able to buy them unless they move right out of areas they may of been able to of bought in back in the 60's (just a date picked because that's what seemed to be used as an example before).

As Utemad said though we now have other costs such as the net which I would infact need over a vehicle for work and that is costing me 200ish per month as I need to have a phone line to use it-which I never use. Then a mobile telephone and the cost of maintenance on vehicles has gone up a hell of a lot too I suspect.

I take your point on fuel though and it is rather valid of course so I guess in general it is a holistic money problem with living in our society more then it is a fuel problem.

Xav

I'm sure you have put your finger on the problem.
It does hurt to have to pay what we do for fuel, but that is not because fuel is expensive.
It is because we have so many other expenses.
Some of those expenses are an unavoidable consequence of the way society has changed and some of them are self inflicted.