View from a Brit Transplant ...

The Southern smile is becoming a faint memory – at least on local gas station forecourts. And that smile – or lack of – is not only directly proportional to the size of vehicle the gas-buying driver owns, it’s also a global phenomenon. Our British cousins are suffering from gas gloom too.

In a competition to work out who has it worse –  the Southener in the States or the Southerner on Britain’s South Coast – you have to do some maths. In the UK, gas is sold by the litre (presumably so as not to frighten the customer) and goes for around one pound ten Sterling. That’s around $2.20 in Lynchburg money. And there’s about 3.8 litres to the US gallon. So on the sunny coast of England, drivers are shelling out over $8 a gallon for gas. Diesel is even worse – at about $9 a gallon. And it’s getting worse for the Brits-there are reports in Scotland of the $11 gas gallon.

But there’s a major difference and that’s size. British cars are small by comparison, and drivers try to stay close to home. Kay Sexton, South Coast writer, reckons to drive her compact Kia about eighty miles a week – on a bad week – getting around 60mpg. . Plus, she says, the love affair with the 4x4 (or SUV) is an elite affair, pursued only by the wealthy or the reckless. Maybe every fourth car she sees on her local forecourt is a gas guzzler.

But the British stiff upper lip is quivering. Many of Sexton’s friends were seduced by the “bigger is better” myth and bought into the large-car deal. She says their pockets are hurting at the petrol stations and their second-hand trade-in values are dropping. In comparison, her compact’s trade-in value is holding firm and has even improved a little.

So as you drive around searching for the cheapest deal, consider the poor Brit. Not only do they suffer from sub-standard dentistry, bad weather, and a national ice shortage, they’re paying nearly four times the price for gas.