I wish petrol stations would change the way they advertise the price of petrol in this country. We have this system where it is shown as 130.9 when the price is 1 dollar and 30.9 cents. It made sense 40 or 50 years ago when petrol was 13.9 cents but not these days.
Makes a lot more sense if petrol stations advertised it as 1.309 as they do in Europe.
To me it doesnât really make a difference
I disagree. I think
90.9 or
100.9
looks better than
909
.909
0.909
1.009
The decimal stays whether its 1 cent or 1 dollar.
I agree with this too.
Easier to read in my opinion.
Given you almost never see fuel that isnât .9 at the end, just kill it and have it in whole cents. 1 cent off every 10 litres isnât worth itâŚ
My local United and another independent with a Caltex oposite are obsessed with xx.7¢/ litre and a BP which is usually xx.5¢/ litre.
Yeah, good point. Itâs like most items in the supermarket are rounded up or down to the nearest 5 or 10 cents. Theyâll mostly be priced at $1.35 or $1.30 and almost never $1.33.
Definitely not the case in Perth, id say only half of servos at any given time end their price with
.9.
Presumably in Perth theyâd all end in 7?
Whatâs interesting with petrol, is that unlike almost any other product, it is homogenous in nature. No one ever gets into your car and says âwow - I bet this is BP petrol as your car runs so smoothlyâ or âgeez that Caltex petrol sure gives you some powerâ. You may have a favourite store to buy your fruit as it is fresher (or you think it is fresher) from one outlet. But petrol is somewhat different.
Also, unless someone sees you fill up with petrol no one knows what brand of fuel is in your car. I can tell what other branded products you buy though - by the packaging or labelling.
This is why petrol is about the only product that is prices to the tenth of one cent. Petrol has almost total price elasticity of demand. Two petrol stations next door to each other, one sells fuel at 104.9c and the other sells it for 104.8c. The higher priced station may sell very little petrol.
Spending money developing petrol branding is thus so important. As is providing other items with your petrol like coffee. I notice that Ampol is really pushing the idea that itâs an Australian brand (of Saudi Arabian petrol).
Petrol is petrol is petrol. but with branding you may think there is better petrol out there - even though deep down you know itâs all the same.
I donât think it is⌠A mechanic or car enthusiast can explain the differences. A friend of mine who drives an Italian sports car, tells me that his car runs best on a certain type of Shell petrol. He really can feel and hear the difference and prefers it to all others.
I think thatâs a bit different - as youâre not as price sensitive if you care to that extent about the type - youâd probably need a significant price difference to use a different fuel.
Whereas if youâve got a generic car, you can just get generic fuel.
in Australia the truth of this can vary city by city. In some places thereâs a difference, others itâs purely placebo.
In Sydney and Melbourne you have a mixture of import terminals and refineries that provide fuel to various different providers, to the point where a difference in quality in the same grade of fuel is very much possible within the market because of the variation of sourcing.
In other parts of Australia (say Perth), a single refinery (BP) provides all grades of fuels for all retailers, which means they should all be theoretically the same with very little variation (some brands might have additives, but thereâs often no hard proof of what these can do, and all the major providers (Shell / BP / Caltex / Puma / Mobil) claim to include such additives into the fuel they sell.)
And this is just for Unleaded Petrol. Diesel is even more confusing as many retailers will often have âTruck Dieselâ and âPremium Dieselâ side by side, with significant ambiguity on the potential benefits of Premium Diesel.
Caltexâs Facebook has began promoting a upcoming announcement about the brand changeover through posting flashback photos:
Now I know they arenât exactly the same and have their differences, but the similarities between the old American Motors and new Ampol logo someone had pointed out within the same post is interestingâŚ
The Sydney Morning Herald have also posted a article about the rebrand:
Oops. Thatâs embarrassing. I guess whoever came up with that logo had probably seen the American Motors one in the past and subconsciously blocked it out, when they came up with the ânewâ Ampol one.
They probably mean 98 RON premium fuel (each retailer has their own name for it).
91 RON is fine for most cars, only turbos and European makes generally need 95 RON or higher,
Thatâs a bit too close
A report from Nine News Sydney has given us our first taste of the new-look Ampol servo branding:
It looks quite tacked on in my opinion, though perhaps the top portions are a temporary adjustment before they are completely reskinned.
The logo looks better when it is accompanied by Ampol. The problem is when itâs just the two lines on its own, it looks lost and meaningless.
It is just a test site to see which version they like best.
