Thanks for the warning. I'll make sure I fill the car up this afternoon.

Given that the prices have fluctuated by around 50c a litre over here in the last 6 months, 2.3p doesn't sound that much...

That's 2.3p tax that will never go away again. They've been doing it year after year. It soon adds up.

And they will keep doing it year after year. HMG have a policy of increasing fuel duty every year to fund their pet projects and "encourage" use of public transport.

Lord almighty.

I had forgotten about the tax rise - it'll add about 60p a week to my fuel bill so in reality I don't give a monkey's - but I got to the petrol station to fill up (i was on vapours) to find an enormous queue. A lot of people do seem to think that 60p is really important. Quite a few of them are apparently really, really stupid people.

Am I think only person who knows that you can fill a car up from both sides if you manage to park within decent range of the petrol pump? There was queue out onto the road because at least three people were waiting for a pump on the 'correct' side while pumps on the 'wrong' side remained unused. As soon as there was a gap I drove in and used one of the 'wrong' pumps, jumping about 4 spots in the queue in the process.

Jon

I hate trying to do that. I managed to scratch one of my cars by stretching the hose over the roof, so generally I don't do it. If I had a smaller car, then maybe I would but I don't, so I don't. On occasion, I will swing the car around and reverse in instead. This confuses people, but makes a lot more sense to me.

In fact, if there's a queue I'll usually just drive on to the next station.

That's a perfectly valid solution too IMO. It just bugs me when people queue rather than using available pumps. Especially if, in the process of doing so, they stop other people who could use those pumps from doing so.

Jon

You can if you don't mind damaging the paintwork of the car (most people don't). I however do mind and therefore don't do this.


I did think about doing that but have never actually done it.

The other thing I hate is the way people park next to the pump. Often a pump at the front is free but you can't drive between the parked cars because they've parked so far away from the pump. So sometimes I drive all the way round and then reverse into that free space. Really annoying to have to do though.

Oh boy, there was one woman I seriously wanted to slap for doing that. She had a tiny car, but managed to park it right in the middle blocking 4 pumps.

That wasn't the end of it; she went on to spend over 20 minutes in the shop pottering about while there was a queue half way down the street. She was already in the shop when I arrived. I queued for 10 minutes, filled up at another pump, paid and was just driving off when she finally came out. Thankfully, I was in no hurry. I suspect many of the dozen or so people she made needlessly wait were rather more annoyed.

Unusually, folk are queueing 2 deep at the pumps where I am.

40 minutes to go . Will the pumps automagically update the prices at midnight?

Jon

I've never had a problem with this because I'm careful. Oddly, the only thing that has scratched my car is a peacock. B!stard thing climbed over my car and it's claws did a fearsome amount of damage.

Jon

What car do you have? It's obviously a lot easier with some than others. I imagine with something like a TT it would be a piece of cake.

Cars have different paints and thus different grades of 'hardness'. Some cars, I forget which, are known for their 'softness' which makes it easy to scratch but also easier (or more difficult depending on your POV) to polish out light scratches.