Have just returned from a wonderful holiday in Turkey. I hired a car for a few days to get out and see some stuff more off the beaten track but was astonished at the price of petrol when I came to fill up. Even more so when I mentioned it to my Turkish friends and they told me what the average wage is in their region.
See what you make of this, certainly made my eyes water when I did the maths.
You can currently get YTL2.28 for £1.
A litre of unleaded is YTL3.69 = £1.62.
That's heavy enough but if you take into account the comparative wage levels between the two countries it makes you think.
UK average wage is £2100 per month.
Turkish average wage is about YTL1000 = £ 439.
UK average wage is therefore 2100/439 = 4.78 times the Turkish.
In comparative terms the Turkish driver therefore pays £1.62 x 4.78 = £7.74 per litre.
My friend has a car but also owns a small scooter, as do many of his friends, within town the scooter is used, the car only has a use for him for any journey outside the town for 8 kilometres or more and outside the range of the local dolmus service; at those petrol prices you can see why.
Incidentally the local dolmus, a 14-seater mini-bus, is a marvellous service, they have a timetable but they tend to be a little flexible they have a laid down fare table and tend to be driver owned although there are now co-operatives much in evidence. If a dolmus is full they will ring another driver and a second dolmus will be sent out to run the same route to pick up any stranded passengers. There also seems to be a dolmus service to the smallest of places at regular intervals. Could be a suggestion for replacing our non-existant rural bus services?
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Most people in Asia & Africa pay 10-50 times if you consider purchasing power parity.
Last edited by: movilogo on Mon 19 Jul 10 at 15:37
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But what has average wage got to do with it? I would guess that if you looked at the average income of the car owning population in Turkey, it would tell a different story.
Remember a large percentage of the population is running with a peasant economy - with no aspirations to car ownership.
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they have the aspiration, just not the opportunity.
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Fully accept your point, pmh, and of course they are two very different economies, with two very different peoples with very different attitudes and aspirations. The fact that there isn't that much comment in Turkey about it is due, I would suggest, to that very difference in aspiration; also they have a public transport system which fits their requirements and obviates the need for cars for a very large percentage of the population, the way it used to be here.
However, on a straight comparison, the price of £1.62 per litre is still 42% higher than I'm paying at the moment; I could just imagine the protests here if petrol went to that price tomorrow.
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Fuel is actuallty quite cheap in the UK these days compatred to a lot of other countries.
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I was in Holland recently, and saw Unleaded at €1.60 (£1.35 ish) a litre.
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Ultimately emissions and diminishing oil reserves will be dealt with by basic economics.
Forget Top Gear and their "hydrogen is the future" nonsense.
Fuel/Energy expensive = less used.
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I was pleasantly surprised, on a recent trip to Ireland, to find that petrol is marginally cheaper than the UK, and diesel considerably so.
Offsets the high cost of food and booze.
Swings and roundabouts.
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Cars and road tax are expensive in Ireland I gather. I'm sure someone with first hand knowledge will correct the detail but a friend in Dublin tells me it is noticeably more expensive to buy and run a car there than in the UK.
He has his own company. He runs a Hyundai Santa Fe as his business car and although he doesn't especially need a van it's just so much cheaper for him to have the van bodied version due to tax implications. His wife has an Audi A6 avant which cost him a much prettier penny than it would here in the first place and costs a fortune in road tax despite being a diesel.
I suppose we should feel lucky. Do you feel lucky.....?
:-)
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And we moan about the price of petrol.... - movilogo
