Once hailed as the cheap alternative to petrol, the cost of diesel at the pumps has risen to a record high - wiping out savings, motoring organisations revealed yesterday.
And drivers of diesel-powered vehicles are also suffering from faster rises than those petrol-driven car owners, the AA said.
The average price of diesel in the UK is now 114.25p a litre - nearly 5p more than the average price a month ago.
Average petrol prices are now at 106.75p a litre - 2.74p more than a month ago.
A litre of diesel is now 7.49p more expensive than petrol, compared with 5.1p at the start of the year and the previous record of 5.67p in November 2006.
The AA said it usually takes a diesel car more than 45,000 miles before the savings from greater fuel efficiency recoup the average extra £1,400 cost of purchase compared to a petrol car.
The 2.39p-a-litre increase in the petrol-diesel price gap since the beginning of the year has added on average a further 1,243 miles to the break-even distance - 14 per cent of the average annual car mileage.
For petrol car owners, a litre of petrol is now 17.73p more expensive than a year ago - adding £8.62 to the cost of filling up the typical 50-litre petrol tank.
Families with two cars are now dealing with a £36.93 hole in their monthly budgets from the extra cost of petrol compared with the same period in 2007.
The cheapest petrol at present is to be found in Yorkshire and Humberside (106.7p a litre on average), while the dearest is in London (107.6p).
Wales has the highest-priced diesel (115.1p) while the least expensive is to be found in the North-West (113.6p).
The AA said those filling up with diesel this Easter would do well to go to supermarkets, where the average price is 111.64p a litre. Supermarket petrol averages 105.18p a litre at present.
AA president Edmund King said: “Diesel cars accounted for 40.2 per cent of the 2.4 million new cars sold in Britain last year, compared with just 13.8 per cent in 1999.
“The dash for diesel continues in the UK, with motorists primarily trying to reduce their fuel costs, but with the added benefit of reduced CO2 emissions.
“However, diesel is more expensive than petrol and the differential is growing. Consequently, buying a diesel is not an automatic switch to cut-price motoring - particularly at current prices.”
He went on: “For many low-mileage divers, buying a diesel is a false economy. The AA urges anyone considering the switch to a diesel car to research their motoring costs thoroughly, including start-up costs, fuel efficiency, tax disc band, annual mileage - and leeway in their calculations for petrol-diesel price changes.”
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