19 ms·

Why Some Cars Have Gas Tank Fillers on the Left or the Right

156 points by curtis 10y ago

Gustomaximus 10y ago
Not mentioned in article but I assumed car companies looked at what the majority went with and if any skew would swap to the other side. This would make filling potential quicker as most station have pumps that operate on both sides. This way if most cars had left side tanks then it would be advantageous to have a right side fill as slots are more likely to be open.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- thaumasiotes 10y ago
  > any skew would swap to the other side. This would make filling potential quicker as most station have pumps that operate on both sides. You're not bound by the orientation of the pump. Just point your car the other way.
  - TorKlingberg 10y ago
    At many gas stations, at least in Europe, you can only drive trough in one direction. There is just no space to turn your car in the other direction without getting blocked if the station is busy.
    - thaumasiotes 10y ago
      This is not the case in California, at least.
- Matthias247 10y ago
  I also always thought there was some kind of inofficial agreement between the various OEMs which one uses which side, so that it's about evenly spread in total. It would at least have made sense for maximizing gas station throughput.
yan 10y ago
Something that made filling rentals cars easier: there's a triangle on the dash that points to which side the cap is on next to the "fuel" symbol on all the cars I've been in.
- richev 10y ago
  Not just on rentals - I own a Subaru Forester and it has such a handy little triangle on the dash.
wrs 10y ago
I was expecting a mention of the little tank-and-arrow icon on the gas gauge that tells you what side the filler door is on. Years of renting cars and randomly switching directions at gas stations before someone told me about that...
- skookumchuck 10y ago
  That's why icons suck.
  - brokenmachine 10y ago
    You'd rather have words on everything? I would love to see what your desired car interior would look like, with little plaques everywhere for "A/C", "Headlights", "Turn Signal", "Hazard Lights", etc.
    - skookumchuck 10y ago
      Yes, I would. I have a car with dozens of icons on the buttons, and I still cannot figure out how to turn on the heat. I know I could read the 200 page manual, but I'm too lazy, so I just punch buttons and turn knobs more or less at random. I nearly drove of the road the other day trying to adjust the volume on the radio. It got stuck in some incomprehensible mode where the volume knob meant some other madness. I gave up and had to wait until I was stuck at a red light. What's wrong with the labels "heat", "fan", "defroster"? > I would love to see what your desired car interior would look like It's not hard to find out. Look at the dash on an older car, before the Mac came out.
    - skookumchuck 10y ago
      Take a look at a P-51 Mustang cockpit: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/25/99/be/2599bebe575437689ef4a616a6f7cfce.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/25/99/be/2599... The picture is a bit fuzzy, but the switches and knobs are clearly labeled with english words. Including words like "on" and "off". It's deadly to confuse pilots with what the latest trendy icon for "aileron trim" is.
silveira 10y ago
That's why I love the pumps at Costco. They can extend so it doesn't matter if you have left or right, they can reach it.
- mark-r 10y ago
  A friend noticed that people would pull up to the wrong side of the Costco pump, even if there was an open position on the more natural side. He was never able to figure out why someone would do that.
  - Declanomous 10y ago
    They want to open their door all the way, but they don't want to ding their door against the bollards/island protecting the pump from crappy drivers?
  - Johnny555 10y ago
    Maybe because they can't remember which side their wife's car fuel filler is on and know it doesn't matter at Costco (and they don't know about the arrow on the fuel gauge trick)
- kalleboo 10y ago
  You also have the stations in dense cities in Japan where the pumps hang down from above (they're all full-service though I think) https://inthebentobox.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/tp4-6-gas-station1.jpg https://inthebentobox.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/tp4-6-gas-...
- Trundle 10y ago
  Every petrol station I use has hoses that pull out enough to reach the other side. I didn't realise there were places that weren't like this. People still queue up for 'their' side resulting in the occasional free cut to the front for me.
- mathw 10y ago
  Almost every pump I've ever used in the UK can reach to the far side of my car, so I don't even think about which side to go anymore. Lots of people do though, and many petrol stations have big signs to try to educate people that the hose will reach if your filler cap is on the other side of the car. Of course, if you're driving a big van that's not going to work out (and lorries have their own pumps and their own problems), but most cars is fine.
js2 10y ago
Chevy Volt: charging port is on the driver-side front fender; fueling port on the passenger-side rear fender. I guess I'd prefer the driver side. Seems a bit easier to pull up to the pump and you don't have to walk around to fuel.
- BuckRogers 10y ago
  One of my cars has the tank on the driver's side and the other on the passenger. I didn't think I cared till reading this thread. Now I prefer the passenger side because I can open my car door all the way to get out at the pump and if refilling with a gas can on the side of the road I'm further from traffic. But ya, the convenience of easily getting out an not walking around the car is nice too and more useful. I think I'm back to not caring.
- gpawl 10y ago
  do you usually have electric pumps on the side not front of your car?
- lostlogin 10y ago
  I wonder if future electric ones will have multiple charge points? seems like ti would be easier than multiple liquid fuel filling points.
- Buge 10y ago
  Which do you do more frequently though, charging or fueling?
  - js2 10y ago
    Charging by far. Over 1,300 miles and it's still on its first tank of gas. Just a curious decision I thought that GM put them on different sides.
BurningFrog 10y ago
When I bought my Subaru, the salesperson said the filler is on the right so you never have stand in traffic to fill up with a reserve tank.
- Declanomous 10y ago
  I'd believe this if the filler door was on the left side in the Japanese domestic version. As such, I believe it is still on the right side of the car. The article says Toyota switches the filler side for JDM and the American market, but Subaru tends to reuse as many parts as possible between markets due to markedly smaller market share.
  - caf 10y ago
    I can confirm my right hand drive Subaru has the filler on the right.
  - amerkhalid 10y ago
    I was told same thing, I thought that was ingenious. Now I now it was just to save money.
ar15saveslives 10y ago
I'll save you a click: > So the truth is, nobody really has any idea. Once the cheapest, most convenient solution, the middle, was made illegal, everything became a nightmare of relativism and equally rational justifications. Both sides have their advantages and disadvantages, and we’re left, wandering, alone, confused.
- nether 10y ago
  I actually enjoyed the research bits, and the partial justifications from various manufacturers. Their rationale was interesting even if inconsistent. I'm also against these sort of "click saving" summaries. What's next? Two star-crossed lovers commit suicide, someone climbs mountain and makes it down ok ... Sometimes the journey or narrative is interesting even if the outcome is not extraordinary.
  - thaumasiotes 10y ago
    > Two star-crossed lovers commit suicide, someone climbs mountain and makes it down ok ... Sometimes the journey or narrative is interesting even if the outcome is not extraordinary. I like to think double suicides are extraordinary no matter how they occurred. And frankly, I think it's pretty unlikely that anyone would bother to tell the "someone climbs a mountain and makes it down ok" story unless the odds of not making it down were good enough to make the story interesting. There are plenty of stories consisting mostly or entirely of dialogue in banal surroundings, but those are usually set "at home" or similar.
  - SilasX 10y ago
    And sometimes -- nay, always -- I want to know whether I'm wasting my time before I start that journey.
- jhoechtl 10y ago
  I heard that German manufacturers but the gas inlet on the right side whereas manufacturers from the east put it on the left side. For the many types of cars I drove that was right. Don't know about the habits of US cars.
repsilat 10y ago
I'm really surprised no jurisdiction (California, probably...) has said, "by 2020 all new cars must fill on insert side for insert reason." The problem would be quickly and cheaply resolved as a result. Related: https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dictatorship-of-the-small-minority-3f1f83ce4e15 https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dict...
- askvictor 10y ago
  Why is it a good thing to standardise? Given that most petrol stations have equal access for both sides, you'd start losing efficiency once the number of standardised cars reached a certain proportion. I figure that by that point, electric cars will have rendered this obsolete. If the entire nature of transportation hasn't changed by that point. And civilisation as we know it still exists.
  - tyingq 10y ago
    There's also usually a good distribution of cars approaching the pumps from opposite directions.
    - askvictor 10y ago
      I'm seeing most stations attempting to have a single directional flow. Doesn't stop people going against it, mind you, but the intention is there.
  - yes_or_gnome 10y ago
    In California (at least), the pumps work regardless of which side the car is parked on. The hoses are longer and the hands free mechanism is very different from the east coast. Actually, I prefer to extend the hose over the car as it feels more sturdy. So, dictating which side the fuel door is on doesn't necessarily create gas pump asymmetry.
    - Broken_Hippo 10y ago
caf 10y ago
Imagine, the lazy joy of Jaguar owners who could fill up either way! Well, considering how frequently Jaguar owners have to fill up, it seems only reasonable that the cars are optimised for the convenience of doing so.
Theodores 10y ago
When heroin hit the streets back in the 1980's and burglary/theft became a thing, cars in the UK, built for the UK market with the fuel filler cap on the left would be the ones targeted by thieves. So the filler cap might have been in a great position for when stranded on the motorway due to lack of fuel but it was also in a position convenient for thieves. The first scenario can be avoided by looking at the fuel gauge, the second scenario couldn't really be avoided if junkies roamed the streets every night. You could park the other way round to make the fuel filler cap be road side, but that might not be practical. I remember when my boss's 'Transit' van was raided for fuel during these high crime times, all the thieves had to do was pull a tube from under the bonnet. I don't think they even had to siphon anything and the filler cap made no difference. Before this crime wave the idea of locking a petrol tank seemed a bit excessive, who would want to steal petrol, particularly if they had to siphon it and could get caught for stealing? Much more convenient (and affordable) to buy one's own. But then this crime wave of heroin addicts happened so common sense no longer mattered, things had to be zombie-proofed and the idea of an unlocked fuel filler cap now started to seem crazy. Who would invite the world to steal their petrol? This crime wave also came at a time when people started being truly mobile for work, driving everywhere. No longer did you have the community of normal people walking the streets to make it difficult for thieves, we started to hide inside behind burglar alarms and CCTV. I preferred the former security model where everyone knew everyone else's movements and gossip with strangers duly noted, but such is progress. Note lead was in fuel back then too. So in the UK it was the natively built Ford and Vauxhall models that were ripe for being raided and the hidden location of the fuel tank made matters worse. Fancier targets, e.g. BMW, would not get attacked even though they contained fuel too, it was the lock on the cap security plus the location that made the difference.
- ThrustVectoring 10y ago
  Parking the other way around is a parking violation in most jurisdictions, IIRC.
  - alexfoo 10y ago
    In the UK it's "You MUST NOT park on a road at night facing against the direction of the traffic flow unless in a recognised parking space." Source: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/waiting-and-parking-238-to-252 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/waiting-and-par... It's all to do with visibility. The rear light clusters have reflectors built in to them, the front light clusters do not.
skookumchuck 10y ago
The 1968 VW bus infamously had the filler on the right side, where someone inside the bus can open the sliding door and bust off the filler nozzle.
- r00fus 10y ago
  This still is possible if you manual override on minivans like the Toyota sienna. Makes fillups tense if your kids are impatient, strong and use the wrong door.
Girlang 10y ago
It's too bad we can't get it in the rear anymore. That looks like something everyone would like!
CalChris 10y ago
Similar design problems with EVs. The Leaf is front middle which makes a lot of sense. Volt is right side rear. Not much sense. What makes no sense is that EVs don't have a standard charge progress/completion signaling pattern.
zachrose 10y ago
It's like the tabs vs spaces of car design.
phkahler 10y ago
Since electricity isn't flammable, I'd like to see charging ports in the front center. That means a charger can be on either side, and a home charger might be located at the front of the garage so it can reach either car in a 2-car setup.
- thecodemonkey 10y ago
  The Nissan Leaf has a front center charge point, it's pretty convenient.
wazoox 10y ago
Some cars (but not all) have an arrow that show which side the filler is (Honda, Ford...). Some cars (but not all) have the pump icon with the handle on the filler side (Volvo, Renault...). Some car have neither and it's pretty maddening really.
- ygra 10y ago
  But on your own car you'll know once you've had to fill it once. And for other cars it's probably rather irrelevant as the hoses on filling stations are long enough to reach over/around the car. Seems like something pointless to be mad about, actually.
bryanlarsen 10y ago
No mention of my now discredited theory: Traditional luxury brands have the filler on the right because rich people use full-service gas stations, and traditional budget brands have it on the left because poor people use self-service gas stations.
- chrisseaton 10y ago
  I don't understand - why is full-service on the right and self-service on the left?
  - bryanlarsen 10y ago
    Sorry for the Americentrism. Driver side is more convenient for filling at self-service station. Passenger side filling at full-service keeps the mess & stink away from the driver, who is presumably the only one that opens their window.
    - c3833174 10y ago
      >Driver side is more convenient for filling at self-service station But it isn't, you have the curb and pumps that prevent you from fully opening the door. >the mess & stink away from the driver Not really
- Matthias247 10y ago
  However in Germany (where a lot of the higher priced brands come from) all normal gas stations are self serviced, which makes it less likely that they have thought about this during the design process. However thats only my current point of view, probably gas stations looked completely different mid of last century and they just kept the inlet position from back then.
- madcaptenor 10y ago
  Then explain why my Ford Focus has the gas tank on the right, while my wife's Ford Escape has the gas tank on the left.
stefs 10y ago
i was told the fillers are on the passenger side because if it were otherwise it might get hard to get out of the car if you park too close to the pump.
- jclardy 10y ago
  Hmm, that is an interesting thought, but at most gas stations I've been to the pumps have about three car widths between them, at worst, two and a half. Also being on the driver side judging distance to the pump right next to you is a lot easier than doing so from the far side of the car. I have a Mazda so I've got a driver side gas door. Personally I like it as I just step out, swipe my card, plug in the line and wait. No walking around the car necessary. It seems to me driver side is for gas station convenience, passenger side is for road-side safety. Both are fairly minor conveniences so it seems manufacturers just pick a side and stick to it.
  - brusch64 10y ago
    I am exactly the opposite. I preferred the placement on German cars. I try to park pretty close to the pump. With the filler on the same side as the driver door I have to be careful not to bang the door into the structure around the pump. That's much easier when it is on the other side. I don't care at all to walk around the car to pump the petrol. After driving German cars for some years it was a disadvantage of my new Japanese car for me. But I've never filled my car on the side of a road, so this argument didn't work for me at all.
timc3 10y ago
In the operating manual for my BMW it says it’s on the right side to make it safer when filling up on the side of a road.
cptskippy 10y ago
They need to standardize many characteristics of the filler port beyond which side of the car it's located so that they can have an automatic fill station robots. When my self driving car shows up, I'll be damned if it's going to have to drive me to the gas station so that I can fill it up.
vinceguidry 10y ago
There's something about cars that leads people who write about them to adopt a wonderfully refreshing and engaging tone. It's like they all listened to Car Talk way back when and took copious notes. You don't see this with other topics.
- js2 10y ago
  Not just cars. Also (especially) ships. I think vessels of any sort actually. Don't forget that we name boats and some people name their cars too. See also: Christine (Stephen King)
  - hfsktr 10y ago
    People name lots of other things. My violin teacher names all her instruments. She is a bit eccentric though. :)
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- JBReefer 10y ago
  I don't love cars, but I _love_ Top Gear. It's got that tone you describe, sort of breezy and light but about something real. Like the sister comment said, maybe it's vessels, because aviation news can be similar. I don't know why, but it's one of the last things untainted by politics and division.
  - vinceguidry 10y ago
    At first I had it worked back to America's tinkering past. I don't make that association, so I find the tone really interesting, but I can see how it would be easy to get a sense of Wilbur and Orville Wright building their first aircraft and feeling the joy of moving in a manner you've never moved before. But the vessel angle is interesting too.
nottorp 10y ago
Ideally, you want to have the filler on the side opposed to the majority of cars in your area. This way you're less likely to wait in line to refill.
- rootusrootus 10y ago
  I'm not sure that would make any difference. At most gas stations I go to, people jam themselves in whichever way they fit. And at Costco, where queuing is enforced, people just ignore the filling side and take the shortest queue, and let the attendant drag the hose over/behind their car as necessary.
  - nottorp 10y ago
    When there's a real queue, all bets are off indeed. In semi busy situations though (say 1-2 cars at each pump), i stand by my statement.
  - delinka 10y ago
    At the local membership warehouse with enforced queueing, the pumps are accessible from either side and drivers tend to line up with the pump on the correct side.
- post_break 10y ago
  Makes it a real pain in the ass when there is a huge line and you need to come in from the opposite way instead of the "queue" Had a japanese car with filler on the right side. It was even more of a PITA when only a few pumps had E85 and I had to go against the stream to get in there.
ranger207 10y ago
It seems in my area at least most fillers are on the driver's side. My car has its filler on the passenger's side, and I've had to wait out of the way a few times because every single pump had people filling on the driver's side.
turc1656 10y ago
"Passenger’s side—and by that I mean the right side here—proponents generally include most continental European carmakers, and many American ones, while the biggest driver’s side—the left side—advocates seem to be from Japan." Not sure this is true. Anecdotal observation of any gas station where I live has damn near every vehicle with the tank on the left side, regardless of make or model. All of my vehicles (the Japanese brands as well as the American brands) have always had the tank on the left/driver's side.
- nradov 10y ago
  Both of my Japanese Subarus have their gas tank fillers on the right side.
tucaz 10y ago
The article is kinda empty, but the video showing the lady trying to fill her tank made me laugh a lot. Here's the direct link to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vupgBykQnko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vupgBykQnko
cr0sh 10y ago
Skimmed thru the article, and didn't read the comments - so maybe I missed it somewhere - but I once read a story in an old issue of Popular Science (1940s or 50s), probably "The Model Garage" (my favorite part of that era's magazine) - where the explanation given as to which side the filler was on seemed logical enough (perhaps for the time - but it still seems to hold on most vehicles today): The filler is always on the opposite side of where the exhaust pipe is routed. Granted, this doesn't help if you have dual tailpipes (though usually the pipe is y-split just before the output), or if you have dual straight-pipes (I don't believe any production vehicles have this as an option - it is usually an aftermarket performance mod). But ultimately - the explanation was with the filler opposite that of the exhaust pipe, you decrease the issue of the heat from the pipe, or leaks from the filler, becoming a dangerous combination. That said - now that I think about it (I guess I'll need to crawl back under), my Isuzu VehiCROSS has the exhaust running down the passenger side, and the filler is on that same side. However, the exhaust is routed out the left (driver) side - I'm not sure how the filler pipe and everything else fits in there. Knowing the VX, though - given its "odd-duck" and somewhat hand-built "custom" status in the car world (rumor has it that with so few built, an assembly line wasn't created for them, and they were all hand assembled; it's known that a ton of parts for them are the same between the VX and Rodeo/Trooper/Hombre) - there's a good chance the routing isn't "optimal" (I just had a custom heat shield made to fit between the exhaust and a connector for the TOD module - owners have had it melt and water intrude into the connector - burning it and sometimes the module out - and given that they aren't exactly easy to obtain...well, I wanted to protect it from that possibility).
Avernar 10y ago
Simple solution to the danger of filling up on the side of the road: Don't run out of gas. How many times have you run out of gas where the reason was not "I'll skip this station and hit the next one since I still have 1/8th of a tank"?
- brokenmachine 10y ago
  I found out the hard way that even though the dash still says it has 80km to go until empty, my car will not start if parked on a steep incline. I live on a hill of course. Unfortunately I ended up learning this lesson twice because I'm a dummy who needs to test boundaries. But at least I had the jerry can from the first time on the second occasion.

156 points by curtis 10y ago

Not mentioned in article but I assumed car companies looked at what the majority went with and if any skew would swap to the other side. This would make filling potential quicker as most station have pumps that operate on both sides. This way if most cars had left side tanks then it would be advantageous to have a right side fill as slots are more likely to be open.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
thaumasiotes 10y ago
> any skew would swap to the other side. This would make filling potential quicker as most station have pumps that operate on both sides. You're not bound by the orientation of the pump. Just point your car the other way.
- TorKlingberg 10y ago
  At many gas stations, at least in Europe, you can only drive trough in one direction. There is just no space to turn your car in the other direction without getting blocked if the station is busy.
  - thaumasiotes 10y ago
    This is not the case in California, at least.
Matthias247 10y ago
I also always thought there was some kind of inofficial agreement between the various OEMs which one uses which side, so that it's about evenly spread in total. It would at least have made sense for maximizing gas station throughput.

yan 10y ago

Something that made filling rentals cars easier: there's a triangle on the dash that points to which side the cap is on next to the "fuel" symbol on all the cars I've been in.

richev 10y ago
Not just on rentals - I own a Subaru Forester and it has such a handy little triangle on the dash.

wrs 10y ago

I was expecting a mention of the little tank-and-arrow icon on the gas gauge that tells you what side the filler door is on. Years of renting cars and randomly switching directions at gas stations before someone told me about that...

skookumchuck 10y ago
That's why icons suck.
- brokenmachine 10y ago
  You'd rather have words on everything? I would love to see what your desired car interior would look like, with little plaques everywhere for "A/C", "Headlights", "Turn Signal", "Hazard Lights", etc.
  - skookumchuck 10y ago
    Yes, I would. I have a car with dozens of icons on the buttons, and I still cannot figure out how to turn on the heat. I know I could read the 200 page manual, but I'm too lazy, so I just punch buttons and turn knobs more or less at random. I nearly drove of the road the other day trying to adjust the volume on the radio. It got stuck in some incomprehensible mode where the volume knob meant some other madness. I gave up and had to wait until I was stuck at a red light. What's wrong with the labels "heat", "fan", "defroster"? > I would love to see what your desired car interior would look like It's not hard to find out. Look at the dash on an older car, before the Mac came out.
  - skookumchuck 10y ago
    Take a look at a P-51 Mustang cockpit: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/25/99/be/2599bebe575437689ef4a616a6f7cfce.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/25/99/be/2599... The picture is a bit fuzzy, but the switches and knobs are clearly labeled with english words. Including words like "on" and "off". It's deadly to confuse pilots with what the latest trendy icon for "aileron trim" is.

silveira 10y ago

That's why I love the pumps at Costco. They can extend so it doesn't matter if you have left or right, they can reach it.

mark-r 10y ago
A friend noticed that people would pull up to the wrong side of the Costco pump, even if there was an open position on the more natural side. He was never able to figure out why someone would do that.
- Declanomous 10y ago
  They want to open their door all the way, but they don't want to ding their door against the bollards/island protecting the pump from crappy drivers?
- Johnny555 10y ago
  Maybe because they can't remember which side their wife's car fuel filler is on and know it doesn't matter at Costco (and they don't know about the arrow on the fuel gauge trick)
kalleboo 10y ago
You also have the stations in dense cities in Japan where the pumps hang down from above (they're all full-service though I think) https://inthebentobox.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/tp4-6-gas-station1.jpg https://inthebentobox.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/tp4-6-gas-...
Trundle 10y ago
Every petrol station I use has hoses that pull out enough to reach the other side. I didn't realise there were places that weren't like this. People still queue up for 'their' side resulting in the occasional free cut to the front for me.
mathw 10y ago
Almost every pump I've ever used in the UK can reach to the far side of my car, so I don't even think about which side to go anymore. Lots of people do though, and many petrol stations have big signs to try to educate people that the hose will reach if your filler cap is on the other side of the car. Of course, if you're driving a big van that's not going to work out (and lorries have their own pumps and their own problems), but most cars is fine.

js2 10y ago

Chevy Volt: charging port is on the driver-side front fender; fueling port on the passenger-side rear fender. I guess I'd prefer the driver side. Seems a bit easier to pull up to the pump and you don't have to walk around to fuel.

BuckRogers 10y ago
One of my cars has the tank on the driver's side and the other on the passenger. I didn't think I cared till reading this thread. Now I prefer the passenger side because I can open my car door all the way to get out at the pump and if refilling with a gas can on the side of the road I'm further from traffic. But ya, the convenience of easily getting out an not walking around the car is nice too and more useful. I think I'm back to not caring.
gpawl 10y ago
do you usually have electric pumps on the side not front of your car?
lostlogin 10y ago
I wonder if future electric ones will have multiple charge points? seems like ti would be easier than multiple liquid fuel filling points.
Buge 10y ago
Which do you do more frequently though, charging or fueling?
- js2 10y ago
  Charging by far. Over 1,300 miles and it's still on its first tank of gas. Just a curious decision I thought that GM put them on different sides.

BurningFrog 10y ago

When I bought my Subaru, the salesperson said the filler is on the right so you never have stand in traffic to fill up with a reserve tank.

Declanomous 10y ago
I'd believe this if the filler door was on the left side in the Japanese domestic version. As such, I believe it is still on the right side of the car. The article says Toyota switches the filler side for JDM and the American market, but Subaru tends to reuse as many parts as possible between markets due to markedly smaller market share.
- caf 10y ago
  I can confirm my right hand drive Subaru has the filler on the right.
- amerkhalid 10y ago
  I was told same thing, I thought that was ingenious. Now I now it was just to save money.

ar15saveslives 10y ago

I'll save you a click: > So the truth is, nobody really has any idea. Once the cheapest, most convenient solution, the middle, was made illegal, everything became a nightmare of relativism and equally rational justifications. Both sides have their advantages and disadvantages, and we’re left, wandering, alone, confused.

nether 10y ago
I actually enjoyed the research bits, and the partial justifications from various manufacturers. Their rationale was interesting even if inconsistent. I'm also against these sort of "click saving" summaries. What's next? Two star-crossed lovers commit suicide, someone climbs mountain and makes it down ok ... Sometimes the journey or narrative is interesting even if the outcome is not extraordinary.
- thaumasiotes 10y ago
  > Two star-crossed lovers commit suicide, someone climbs mountain and makes it down ok ... Sometimes the journey or narrative is interesting even if the outcome is not extraordinary. I like to think double suicides are extraordinary no matter how they occurred. And frankly, I think it's pretty unlikely that anyone would bother to tell the "someone climbs a mountain and makes it down ok" story unless the odds of not making it down were good enough to make the story interesting. There are plenty of stories consisting mostly or entirely of dialogue in banal surroundings, but those are usually set "at home" or similar.
- SilasX 10y ago
  And sometimes -- nay, always -- I want to know whether I'm wasting my time before I start that journey.
jhoechtl 10y ago
I heard that German manufacturers but the gas inlet on the right side whereas manufacturers from the east put it on the left side. For the many types of cars I drove that was right. Don't know about the habits of US cars.

repsilat 10y ago

I'm really surprised no jurisdiction (California, probably...) has said, "by 2020 all new cars must fill on insert side for insert reason." The problem would be quickly and cheaply resolved as a result. Related: https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dictatorship-of-the-small-minority-3f1f83ce4e15 https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dict...

askvictor 10y ago
Why is it a good thing to standardise? Given that most petrol stations have equal access for both sides, you'd start losing efficiency once the number of standardised cars reached a certain proportion. I figure that by that point, electric cars will have rendered this obsolete. If the entire nature of transportation hasn't changed by that point. And civilisation as we know it still exists.
- tyingq 10y ago
  There's also usually a good distribution of cars approaching the pumps from opposite directions.
  - askvictor 10y ago
    I'm seeing most stations attempting to have a single directional flow. Doesn't stop people going against it, mind you, but the intention is there.
- yes_or_gnome 10y ago
  In California (at least), the pumps work regardless of which side the car is parked on. The hoses are longer and the hands free mechanism is very different from the east coast. Actually, I prefer to extend the hose over the car as it feels more sturdy. So, dictating which side the fuel door is on doesn't necessarily create gas pump asymmetry.
  - Broken_Hippo 10y ago

caf 10y ago

Imagine, the lazy joy of Jaguar owners who could fill up either way! Well, considering how frequently Jaguar owners have to fill up, it seems only reasonable that the cars are optimised for the convenience of doing so.

Theodores 10y ago

When heroin hit the streets back in the 1980's and burglary/theft became a thing, cars in the UK, built for the UK market with the fuel filler cap on the left would be the ones targeted by thieves. So the filler cap might have been in a great position for when stranded on the motorway due to lack of fuel but it was also in a position convenient for thieves. The first scenario can be avoided by looking at the fuel gauge, the second scenario couldn't really be avoided if junkies roamed the streets every night. You could park the other way round to make the fuel filler cap be road side, but that might not be practical. I remember when my boss's 'Transit' van was raided for fuel during these high crime times, all the thieves had to do was pull a tube from under the bonnet. I don't think they even had to siphon anything and the filler cap made no difference. Before this crime wave the idea of locking a petrol tank seemed a bit excessive, who would want to steal petrol, particularly if they had to siphon it and could get caught for stealing? Much more convenient (and affordable) to buy one's own. But then this crime wave of heroin addicts happened so common sense no longer mattered, things had to be zombie-proofed and the idea of an unlocked fuel filler cap now started to seem crazy. Who would invite the world to steal their petrol? This crime wave also came at a time when people started being truly mobile for work, driving everywhere. No longer did you have the community of normal people walking the streets to make it difficult for thieves, we started to hide inside behind burglar alarms and CCTV. I preferred the former security model where everyone knew everyone else's movements and gossip with strangers duly noted, but such is progress. Note lead was in fuel back then too. So in the UK it was the natively built Ford and Vauxhall models that were ripe for being raided and the hidden location of the fuel tank made matters worse. Fancier targets, e.g. BMW, would not get attacked even though they contained fuel too, it was the lock on the cap security plus the location that made the difference.

ThrustVectoring 10y ago
Parking the other way around is a parking violation in most jurisdictions, IIRC.
- alexfoo 10y ago
  In the UK it's "You MUST NOT park on a road at night facing against the direction of the traffic flow unless in a recognised parking space." Source: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/waiting-and-parking-238-to-252 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/waiting-and-par... It's all to do with visibility. The rear light clusters have reflectors built in to them, the front light clusters do not.

skookumchuck 10y ago

The 1968 VW bus infamously had the filler on the right side, where someone inside the bus can open the sliding door and bust off the filler nozzle.

r00fus 10y ago
This still is possible if you manual override on minivans like the Toyota sienna. Makes fillups tense if your kids are impatient, strong and use the wrong door.

Girlang 10y ago

It's too bad we can't get it in the rear anymore. That looks like something everyone would like!

CalChris 10y ago

Similar design problems with EVs. The Leaf is front middle which makes a lot of sense. Volt is right side rear. Not much sense. What makes no sense is that EVs don't have a standard charge progress/completion signaling pattern.

zachrose 10y ago

It's like the tabs vs spaces of car design.

phkahler 10y ago

Since electricity isn't flammable, I'd like to see charging ports in the front center. That means a charger can be on either side, and a home charger might be located at the front of the garage so it can reach either car in a 2-car setup.

thecodemonkey 10y ago
The Nissan Leaf has a front center charge point, it's pretty convenient.

wazoox 10y ago

Some cars (but not all) have an arrow that show which side the filler is (Honda, Ford...). Some cars (but not all) have the pump icon with the handle on the filler side (Volvo, Renault...). Some car have neither and it's pretty maddening really.

ygra 10y ago
But on your own car you'll know once you've had to fill it once. And for other cars it's probably rather irrelevant as the hoses on filling stations are long enough to reach over/around the car. Seems like something pointless to be mad about, actually.

bryanlarsen 10y ago

No mention of my now discredited theory: Traditional luxury brands have the filler on the right because rich people use full-service gas stations, and traditional budget brands have it on the left because poor people use self-service gas stations.

chrisseaton 10y ago
I don't understand - why is full-service on the right and self-service on the left?
- bryanlarsen 10y ago
  Sorry for the Americentrism. Driver side is more convenient for filling at self-service station. Passenger side filling at full-service keeps the mess & stink away from the driver, who is presumably the only one that opens their window.
  - c3833174 10y ago
    >Driver side is more convenient for filling at self-service station But it isn't, you have the curb and pumps that prevent you from fully opening the door. >the mess & stink away from the driver Not really
Matthias247 10y ago
However in Germany (where a lot of the higher priced brands come from) all normal gas stations are self serviced, which makes it less likely that they have thought about this during the design process. However thats only my current point of view, probably gas stations looked completely different mid of last century and they just kept the inlet position from back then.
madcaptenor 10y ago
Then explain why my Ford Focus has the gas tank on the right, while my wife's Ford Escape has the gas tank on the left.

stefs 10y ago

i was told the fillers are on the passenger side because if it were otherwise it might get hard to get out of the car if you park too close to the pump.

jclardy 10y ago
Hmm, that is an interesting thought, but at most gas stations I've been to the pumps have about three car widths between them, at worst, two and a half. Also being on the driver side judging distance to the pump right next to you is a lot easier than doing so from the far side of the car. I have a Mazda so I've got a driver side gas door. Personally I like it as I just step out, swipe my card, plug in the line and wait. No walking around the car necessary. It seems to me driver side is for gas station convenience, passenger side is for road-side safety. Both are fairly minor conveniences so it seems manufacturers just pick a side and stick to it.
- brusch64 10y ago
  I am exactly the opposite. I preferred the placement on German cars. I try to park pretty close to the pump. With the filler on the same side as the driver door I have to be careful not to bang the door into the structure around the pump. That's much easier when it is on the other side. I don't care at all to walk around the car to pump the petrol. After driving German cars for some years it was a disadvantage of my new Japanese car for me. But I've never filled my car on the side of a road, so this argument didn't work for me at all.

timc3 10y ago

In the operating manual for my BMW it says it’s on the right side to make it safer when filling up on the side of a road.

cptskippy 10y ago

They need to standardize many characteristics of the filler port beyond which side of the car it's located so that they can have an automatic fill station robots. When my self driving car shows up, I'll be damned if it's going to have to drive me to the gas station so that I can fill it up.

vinceguidry 10y ago

There's something about cars that leads people who write about them to adopt a wonderfully refreshing and engaging tone. It's like they all listened to Car Talk way back when and took copious notes. You don't see this with other topics.

js2 10y ago
Not just cars. Also (especially) ships. I think vessels of any sort actually. Don't forget that we name boats and some people name their cars too. See also: Christine (Stephen King)
- hfsktr 10y ago
  People name lots of other things. My violin teacher names all her instruments. She is a bit eccentric though. :)
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
JBReefer 10y ago
I don't love cars, but I _love_ Top Gear. It's got that tone you describe, sort of breezy and light but about something real. Like the sister comment said, maybe it's vessels, because aviation news can be similar. I don't know why, but it's one of the last things untainted by politics and division.
- vinceguidry 10y ago
  At first I had it worked back to America's tinkering past. I don't make that association, so I find the tone really interesting, but I can see how it would be easy to get a sense of Wilbur and Orville Wright building their first aircraft and feeling the joy of moving in a manner you've never moved before. But the vessel angle is interesting too.

nottorp 10y ago

Ideally, you want to have the filler on the side opposed to the majority of cars in your area. This way you're less likely to wait in line to refill.

rootusrootus 10y ago
I'm not sure that would make any difference. At most gas stations I go to, people jam themselves in whichever way they fit. And at Costco, where queuing is enforced, people just ignore the filling side and take the shortest queue, and let the attendant drag the hose over/behind their car as necessary.
- nottorp 10y ago
  When there's a real queue, all bets are off indeed. In semi busy situations though (say 1-2 cars at each pump), i stand by my statement.
- delinka 10y ago
  At the local membership warehouse with enforced queueing, the pumps are accessible from either side and drivers tend to line up with the pump on the correct side.
post_break 10y ago
Makes it a real pain in the ass when there is a huge line and you need to come in from the opposite way instead of the "queue" Had a japanese car with filler on the right side. It was even more of a PITA when only a few pumps had E85 and I had to go against the stream to get in there.

ranger207 10y ago

It seems in my area at least most fillers are on the driver's side. My car has its filler on the passenger's side, and I've had to wait out of the way a few times because every single pump had people filling on the driver's side.

turc1656 10y ago

"Passenger’s side—and by that I mean the right side here—proponents generally include most continental European carmakers, and many American ones, while the biggest driver’s side—the left side—advocates seem to be from Japan." Not sure this is true. Anecdotal observation of any gas station where I live has damn near every vehicle with the tank on the left side, regardless of make or model. All of my vehicles (the Japanese brands as well as the American brands) have always had the tank on the left/driver's side.

nradov 10y ago
Both of my Japanese Subarus have their gas tank fillers on the right side.

tucaz 10y ago

The article is kinda empty, but the video showing the lady trying to fill her tank made me laugh a lot. Here's the direct link to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vupgBykQnko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vupgBykQnko

cr0sh 10y ago

Skimmed thru the article, and didn't read the comments - so maybe I missed it somewhere - but I once read a story in an old issue of Popular Science (1940s or 50s), probably "The Model Garage" (my favorite part of that era's magazine) - where the explanation given as to which side the filler was on seemed logical enough (perhaps for the time - but it still seems to hold on most vehicles today): The filler is always on the opposite side of where the exhaust pipe is routed. Granted, this doesn't help if you have dual tailpipes (though usually the pipe is y-split just before the output), or if you have dual straight-pipes (I don't believe any production vehicles have this as an option - it is usually an aftermarket performance mod). But ultimately - the explanation was with the filler opposite that of the exhaust pipe, you decrease the issue of the heat from the pipe, or leaks from the filler, becoming a dangerous combination. That said - now that I think about it (I guess I'll need to crawl back under), my Isuzu VehiCROSS has the exhaust running down the passenger side, and the filler is on that same side. However, the exhaust is routed out the left (driver) side - I'm not sure how the filler pipe and everything else fits in there. Knowing the VX, though - given its "odd-duck" and somewhat hand-built "custom" status in the car world (rumor has it that with so few built, an assembly line wasn't created for them, and they were all hand assembled; it's known that a ton of parts for them are the same between the VX and Rodeo/Trooper/Hombre) - there's a good chance the routing isn't "optimal" (I just had a custom heat shield made to fit between the exhaust and a connector for the TOD module - owners have had it melt and water intrude into the connector - burning it and sometimes the module out - and given that they aren't exactly easy to obtain...well, I wanted to protect it from that possibility).

Avernar 10y ago

Simple solution to the danger of filling up on the side of the road: Don't run out of gas. How many times have you run out of gas where the reason was not "I'll skip this station and hit the next one since I still have 1/8th of a tank"?

brokenmachine 10y ago
I found out the hard way that even though the dash still says it has 80km to go until empty, my car will not start if parked on a steep incline. I live on a hill of course. Unfortunately I ended up learning this lesson twice because I'm a dummy who needs to test boundaries. But at least I had the jerry can from the first time on the second occasion.