The price of petrol keeps plunging but the savings are yet to ignite discounts for consumers elsewhere in the economy.
The price of 91 Octane fell nine cents a litre in three days at most urban outlets and major service stations, down to 172.9c per litre yesterday afternoon.
Diesel dropped four cents a litre and was yesterday selling for 107.9c a litre at most locations, according to the Automobile Association (AA).
It's the seventh significant price cut in a fortnight, the AA said, but not all motorists were enjoying the benefits.
AA Petrolwatch said fuel company margins were "so high that fuel companies can still afford to cut pump prices by 5c a litre or more."
Although fuel in some inaccessible or rural areas was always more expensive than in cities, the AA said people in some of those locations could be forking out for excessively high premiums.
Prices were still well above $2 per litre of 91 in some areas such as the alpine South Island and Waiheke Island where there are supply issues. Areas with a small customer base were most likely to miss out on price cuts.
"What a lot of people forget is the price we pay is a function of volume," AA senior policy analyst Mark Stockdale said. "So the more fuel you sell, the lower the price can be, because your overheads are spread over a larger volume.
"The best prices were usually at busy stations close to major transport routes, where the cost of bringing in fuel was lowest.
"When you go to remote locations, not only do you have higher transport costs to get fuel to those remote locations, they also tend to have small populations," Mr Stockdale said.
Nonetheless, Mr Stockdale said people in these areas should not be paying 30c a litre more than their urban compatriots.
In Wellington, regular motorists told NZME they were loving the price drop but some public transport users said they were unfairly missing out, and businesses who used a lot if fuel should pass savings onto their customers.
Emily Cranfield, territory manger for a distribution company, said the petrol price had a big impact on her role as a salesperson.
She said the cost of filling up her Toyota RAV4 had plunged. She spent around $80 when she filled up most recently, and only a few weeks earlier it cost around $100.
"It's quite a bit cheaper," Ms Cranfield said. "My work monitors how expensive I am to run as a salesperson so in that sense I'll be saving the company money, which is a good thing."
She also noticed a difference in fuel expenses over the Christmas holidays.
Her friend Jess Molloy, a graphic designer, owned her own car but didn't drive often. Instead, she often used public transport, and was still waiting to see plunging prices have an impact on fares.
"Public transport prices have been going up and up and up," Ms Molloy said.
With most urban service stations offering similar petrol and diesel prices, Ms Molloy and Ms Cranfield said the quality of customer service was also important when choosing where to buy fuel.
Wellington resident Lauren Fayen said she didn't drive enough for lower petrol prices to make a big impact on her personal income but a friend who drove frequently was always talking about his savings.
"He was stoked because he drives a lot and he always keeps an eye on the prices. He was commenting on how rapidly and how much [prices] have come down by."
Ms Fayen said it was "very rare" for retailers to drop prices in response to lower transport and fuel costs but she hoped savings at the pump would flow onto other consumer goods.
Fellow Wellingtonian Joseph Chan-Goldstein, a public servant, owned his own vehicle and had been driving for about seven years but now mostly used public transport. He was also waiting to see a drop in the cost of public transport, or the lower cost of petrol passed on to other consumer goods.
His friend, fellow public servant Daniel Tuaoi, said the falling petrol price should be reflected in lower prices at the supermarket, given the impact of fuel and transport costs on retailers' bottom lines.
By John Weekes of the NZME. News Service
