‘CHEAP PHASE’ FUELLING LITTLE RELIEF FOR DRIVERS
DESPERATE drivers are doing all they can to avoid the city’s petrol price crush with the Coast’s “cheap phase” of the price cycle still choking motorists.
Hundreds lined up around the block at a Southport servo yesterday to take advantage of a little relief at the bowser as the price of fuel dropped to 99 cents per litre (cpl) for an hour.
There was traffic chaos as drivers leapt at the chance to save a few dollars on their E10 at Freedom St Clair’s.
The servo sold around 12,000 litres of fuel at cut price during the hour long blitz.
Coomera mum Allysha Kinchin arrived an hour early to score her place in the line and said usually it cost around $130 a week to fill up the car.
“I usually pay about $1.56 a litre for 91 at my local, so this makes a huge difference,” she said. “The kids have extra curriculars – my daughter does dance and my son does martial arts – so we’re constantly up and down the Coast.”
The discount also attracted Carrara pensioner Tony Farry who said he intentionally chooses independent petrol stations in order to save money.
“I go to the independents, we should be patronising them more,” he said.
“I do a lot of volunteer work so I use a fair bit of petrol each week.
“I wouldn’t walk past $15 on the street and that’s about the saving I’ll get today so I think it’s worth it,” he said.
It was a similar story for Natasha Tuitama from Coomera who was the first to fill up. “The prices are going down, but it’s happening slowly, petrol is always expensive,” she said.
Ms Tuitama said she had recently downsized from a “fuel guzzling” larger car in order to save fuel, and now pays around $70 a week.
While savings were aplenty yesterday, there was little good news for drivers, with the RACQ warning the Gold Coast is in the “cheap phase” of the petrol price cycle as prices average around 136cpl for 91.
Yesterday the highest price for 91 on the Coast was 156.9 cpl on the southern Gold Coast, while the cheapest was spotted at Pimpama for 134.6 cpl.