Diesel also continued to drop with a further 5p shaved off a litre last month, taking the average cost down to 110.40p,

Motorists are now paying £2 less to fill up an average family-sized petrol car than they were at the start of August and £2.60 less for a diesel car.

The fall in pump prices has been driven by a dramatic reduction in the price of oil. In the run-up to August, oil was at a consistent $60 a barrel, but dipped below $50 a barrel at the start of the month and stayed below $50 for the whole month, reaching a low point of $41.87 on 24 August.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: “We thought July had been a good month for motorists but August proved to be better still due to world oil prices reaching their lowest since February 2009. In January we saw oil go down to $45 but then recover to around the $60-a-barrel mark where it stayed for several months until this new level of over-production in August led to a dramatic reduction.”

However, the good times at the pump may be coming to an end, RAC warns, as OPEC – the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries which produces 40% of the world’s oil – has said it is willing to meet with other oil producers to discuss a ‘fair’ price for oil.

“The barrel price has already rebounded and is continuing to trade up around $48 so we may not see a low of $41 a barrel again,” said Williams.

“Due to the global oil over-supply situation we are in, pump prices look unlikely to return to the all-time high levels of 142p for petrol and 147p for diesel experienced in April 2012 so the cost of driving should continue to be cheaper for some time to come.”

HMRC oil duty statistics for July show fuel sales were 1.6% down on June with a 2.4% drop in the number of litres of diesel sold from 2.494bn to 2.433bn. Petrol sales were static at 1.472bn litres, however, compared to July 2014 combined fuel sales were 3.5% up – 2.3% for petrol and 4.3% for diesel.

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