Listing our expenses for our trip. What should be my estimate for gas? We are renting a car for about 8 days in England. We will drive from Bath, around the Cotswolds (maybe Oxford), to and around the Lake District and to York. For France, Rick Steves estimates $250 a week for gas and tolls. But in England, I don't think there are a lot of tolls. Thanks.
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
I alway thought gas costs were by mile, not by week - - but I'm not the host. I was averaging about eight bucks a gallon last month and getting around forty per in a small car. Call that twenty cents a mile. Figure your computed road mileage and add ten percent for dorking around in towns, wrong turns, etc and you should be pretty close. The only toll road I can picture is the M6 up around Birmingham which is less than ten bucks. I don't think you'll hit any toll bridges along your route, but the most expensive bridge/tunnel toll I can think of is also about ten dollars.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33861 posts
The price varies from town to town but is always higher in the countryside and in London. Unleaded petrol - green coloured hoses and nozzles - is less expensive than diesel but gets significantly lower mileage. Petrol tends to be around 3 to 6 pence per litre cheaper. Diesel is available everywhere, and is distinguished by the black hoses and black nozzles. Because it can be slightly messy sometimes, most people use the free plastic gloves by most all diesel pumps. Diesel cars, from small to large, get fantastic mileage and are easy to drive. My Honda Accord regularly gets 600 miles to a tank. At the moment, many places are selling unleaded petrol for around 1.33 per litre, diesel at around £1.36. 3.79 litres make a US gallon. That means, for those figures above, £5.04 petrol and £5.15 per gallon or in American about $7.60 and $7.77 a gallon. Figure on at least £2.50 an hour to park in Oxford, probably less but not free in Bath. The M6 Toll can be avoided by staying on the extremely over capacity and very slow original M6. How does France enter into the question?
Posted by
OP
Somewhere in California
107 posts
We are visiting France, too.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33861 posts
I never buy unleaded in France but often buy diesel. I do notice that diesel is lower in France than unleaded, and diesel is lower than in the UK. Many of the lower priced French stations are unattended so will be very difficult without a real Chip and Pin card. The super cheap places I tend to use in France - the Intermarché, the Auchun, the Carrefour, and the small independents, tend not to have the cleanest pumps and hoses, along with occasional puddles. Be careful where you put your feet, and if pumping diesel take a few extra plastic gloves along because not all pumps have them.