FuelClub Discount

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has flown into Japan to try to turn the tension with his Japanese counterpart Yasuo Fukuda into a new partnership to tackle climate change, broaden security ties and “apply the blowtorch” to oil cartel OPEC to force it to increase production.

Mr Rudd urged the coming G8 meeting - which Mr Fukuda will chair next month in northern Hokkaido - to pressure OPEC to increase oil supplies and drive down prices. Prices for oil futures hit a new record of $US138.54 on Friday, up $US16.50 in two days and prompting warnings that petrol prices in Australia could reach $A1.70 a litre within days.

Interviewed on television before leaving Australia, Mr Rudd dodged a question on the potential impact of emissions trading on petrol prices, but promised that the Government would provide support to “families under financial pressure” to offset the additional costs they will face from higher energy prices.
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With the expiry of the provisional gasoline tax rate at midnight Monday, people flocked to gas stations to buy cheaper gasoline across the country Tuesday.

In Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, which is known for its high concentration of gas stations, Ichigo-hausu SS reduced its price of a liter of gasoline by 20 yen–1 yen more than it had originally planned–after the station’s manager checked the prices of other gas stations in the neighborhood.

After the gas station opened at 7 a.m., the manager said, “We’ve had about three times more customers than we do on ordinary weekdays.”

A 42-year-old woman who went there to fill up her car said: “I held off putting gas in our family’s car until today. [The discount] really helps out our family budget.”

Yoshida Shoji’s Kodaira SS in Kodaira, Tokyo, also reduced its gasoline price by 22 yen to 126 yen per liter. Immediately after a sign advertising the discounted price was put up, all six pumps were occupied. Several cars waited to refuel on the road in front of the gas station.
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Sales of new vehicles in Japan slumped to the lowest level in 33 years in the year ended March 31 as higher gasoline prices turned off prospective buyers, according to data released by an industry group on Tuesday.

It was the fifth straight year of decline.

Sales of new cars, trucks and buses, excluding minivehicles, fell 4.5 percent to 3.43 million

units, the lowest since the year to March 1975 when sales stood at 3.34 million, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said.

Car sales dropped 2.1 percent to 2.96 million, down for the fourth straight year, while sales of buses declined 10.1 percent to 15,315 and truck sales dropped 17.7 percent to 446,669 units.

Sales of trucks and buses were down for the second consecutive year.

Sales fell despite aggressive efforts by Japanese automakers to launch new models.
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