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Also if you fill it up you have to tow it around with you; an extra 40kgs of weight in the car which costs a bit. The fill it up to the brim meme seems to come
by sgt101 5y ago
Also if you fill it up you have to tow it around with you; an extra 40kgs of weight in the car which costs a bit.
The fill it up to the brim meme seems to come from emergency preparedness folks like the police and the army where no vehicle goes to the parking space overnight without being 100% as ready as it can be for tomorrow.
- lotsofpulp 5y agoThis blew my mind as an American kid visiting England a couple decades ago. I was only ever aware of putting in a credit card and filling up a gas tank all the way, and my uncle took out a 5 or 10 quid note to go pay before filing petrol and he said why should I pay to haul around extra fuel if I pass by the petrol station everyday and I only use half a tank every 2 weeks.
- csomar 5y agoSomebody should do the math of pulling out to the gas station vs. driving with a full tank.
- lotsofpulp 5y agoWith US engine sizes, fuel efficiency, and number of miles driven, I would guess it makes no difference for most people. Much fewer proportion of people are driving those peugots or other tiny cars where the weight of fuel would be material relative to the time it would take to fill up fuel more often. Another British thing that amazed me was their auto insurance prices were based on engine size, and they were fretting about the insurance cost between 2L and 3L cars, and all the vehicles we had in America were 4L+.
- azalemeth 5y agoNo normal person needs a 4l car. You just don't. Heck, 3l is huge and not required with modern engine sizes; between 1 and 2l is plenty for the vast majority of people who are not farmers routinely getting stuck in mud whilst towing heavy equipment. In 2019, the average new petrol ("gas") car in the UK requires 5.7 l of fuel per 100 km (49.2 mpg) [1]. The corresponding figure for the US is ~9.44 l/100km (24.9 mpg [2,3]). We really, really need to decarbonise our economy worldwide and in many ways this fuel scare may be the catalyst required, with UK autotrader saying it was driving people to e-car retailers [4]. [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/energy-and-environment-data-tables-env https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/energy-a... [2] https://www.iea.org/reports/fuel-consumption-of-cars-and-vans https://www.iea.org/reports/fuel-consumption-of-cars-and-van... [3] https://www.epa.gov/automotive-trends/highlights-automotive-trends-report https://www.epa.gov/automotive-trends/highlights-automotive-... [4] https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2021/sep/27/uk-petrol-crisis-panic-buying-suspends-competition-law-oil-army-ftse-sterling-business-live?page=with:block-6151c86e8f08af1b22786c6e#block-6151c86e8f08af1b22786c6e https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2021/sep/27/uk-pet...
- lotsofpulp 5y agoI know. My neighbor just upgraded from a mini SUV to a 5.7L pickup truck to commute to his office job. The spoils of a government that does not have a high fossil fuel tax.
- cameronh90 5y ago4L!? Are you towing an aeroplane? My most recent car was 1.1L and was fine for anything I used it for... I do agree that basing insurance on engine capacity is odd though. Why not power to weight ratio or something?
- captaincaveman 5y agoFuel is/was a lot more expensive in UK.
- lotsofpulp 5y agoYes, that is also a factor I forgot to mention.
- mywittyname 5y ago>an extra 40kgs of weight in the car which costs a bit. Do European cars have gigantic fuel tanks? 40kgs is 40 / 0.71kg/L = 56.3L ~= 14.9 gallons. 14.9 gallons is as much, or more than any car I own carries. And I've never put more than 13 gallons into any vehicle ever during a single fill up. To have that kind of "spare" capacity beyond what would be necessary for my daily commute, I'd need to be driving a large SUV or pickup truck. I looked up a 3 Series BMW, and they have 40L or 57L tanks in the new models. Down from 60 or so 10 years ago. I feel like 20kgs is a more accurate number. And that's really the difference between a small woman and a medium sized man driving the same vehicle.