MU of Newbury Park could have answered his own question had he looked at the price of fuel while he was in the USA. When we were in Colorado last September unleaded petrol was $4.59 a gallon. That equates to around £0.76 a litre, taking all the conversion factors into account including smaller US gallons. Currently, unleaded in the UK is around £1.40 a litre - give or take (mostly give). Of that, 58.7 pence is the cost of the fuel at the pump, 57.95 pence is the Fuel Duty and 23.35 pence is VAT - a total tax take of 81.3 pence on every litre.

The answer to MU's question is that the Americans can afford to run their 7-litre V8s because they haven't had a succession of greedy Chancellors of the Exchequer pursuing punitive policies of tax and waste against the motorist. As for saving the planet, it has been said that the methane produced by all the flatulent cattle in the USA makes a worse contribution to greenhouse gases than all the vehicle emissions put together.

American fuel prices did have an enjoyable side to them though: On a hot day, sitting under the trees in a pavement cafe near a cross-roads in the centre of Grand Junction, for an old petrol-head like me it was a treat to see and hear Mustangs, Camaros, Corvettes, Chargers and Challengers pass by with that glorious V8 rumble. Our second car is, unashamedly, a Ford Mustang, which we shall always make sure that we can afford to drive with, top down on (the few) sunny summer days.