Petrol prices vary by up to £11
The variety in petrol prices across London is revealed today.
As BP and Shell announce record profits of up to £18,000 a minute, an Evening Standard survey shows some petrol outlets are hitting motorists by charging nearly 20p extra for a litre of unleaded fuel.
The most expensive unleaded petrol is 99.9p per litre, on sale at the Total service station in Chelsea Cloisters.
In contrast, the Tesco store at Hoe Street, Walthamstow, is selling the fuel at 19p per litre less, with a pump price of 80.9p.
The difference means the average motorist could save more than ?11 on one tankful - or £600 over the course of a year. That is enough to buy petrol for an extra 6,000 miles of motoring, an airline ticket to Australia or 120 days' congestion charge.
The national average price for unleaded petrol is 84.4p. Of 20 garages we surveyed in London, half sold fuel at below the "benchmark" price.
It is a similar story with diesel.
The most expensive in the capital is also on sale at Total in Chelsea, where the diesel price is the same as for unleaded: 99.9p. The cheapest was again at the Walthamstow Tesco, at 81.9p per litre.
Rebecca Rees at the AA said: "Motorists should be aware of the discrepancies revealed by this survey, and shop around. Unfortunately there could be worse to come.
"Although more than 70 per cent of the price of a litre is tax, the Chancellor is still preparing to raise duty by a further 2p a litre in November."
Our survey results came as it was revealed that two out of three cars deliver far fewer miles to the gallon than their sales brochures claim.
One Ford model is more than 20 per cent less efficient, according to Auto Express. Owners of the Focus C-Max 2.0 diesel manual are led to believe they will get 47.6mpg but it achieves only 37.2mpg, a shortfall of 22.1 per cent, the magazine says.
Others in the bottom 20 include three Peugeots, three Renaults, the Audi TT and the Mini Cooper. The makers insist official figures are meant only to provide buyers with a comparison to help them choose.
