Diesel drivers

UK diesel drivers ­ including almost everyone who runs a van for a small business ­ are continuing to suffer from inflated prices at fuel pumps up and down the country and are seeing no benefit from plummeting lower wholesale costs, despite the Chancellor continuing the fuel duty freeze in the latest Budget, the RAC is warning.

Despite both crude oil and wholesale diesel costs (the prices retailers pay for the fuel) reaching their lowest points in 15 months, major retailers are still refusing to cut pump prices in any meaningful way.

Looking at the last four weeks alone, wholesale prices have come down another 10p yet this has yielded just a 3p cut at the pumps (168.85p to 165.89p on March 22).

What’s more, the gap between the wholesale cost of petrol and diesel has been narrowing for many weeks and is currently just over 1.5p. Despite this, the difference drivers pay at the pumps remains stubbornly high at around 19p a litre.

The current average value of a used car is up 2.3 per cent year ­ onyear and 0.7 per cent month ­ on ­ month.

According to the latest data from the Auto Trader Retail Price Index, the current average retail price of a used car in March is £17,720, which is up 2.3 per cent on a year ­ on ­ year (YoY) and like ­ for ­ like basis.

Increasing from the 1.3 per cent YoY increase recorded in February, it marks the first acceleration in the rate of YoY price growth in 10 months, having gradually slowed from the all ­ time high of 32.2 per cent YoY in April 2022.

At a month ­ on ­ month (MoM) level, March to date is up 0.7 per cent on February’s average prices, marking the third consecutive MoM increase after the typical seasonal slowdown over the festive period.

It’s well ahead of the 0.1 per cent MoM growth recorded in both March 2022 and 2021, as well as the pre ­ pandemic average contraction of ­ 0.4 per cent MoM recorded in March between 2011 and 2019.

6 months to build a Rolls Royce, 13 hours to build a Toyota.