Good job we've sorted out a deal with Libya then.

Diesel was 5c a litre cheaper last night...

My "super cheap" place near work was 102.9p this morning, my local station near home was 107.9p What a rip-off fuel is, and has been for such a long time. Taking public transport to work would take me 9 hours a day, taxing me for something I have no choice over is a joke.

I have always filled up my cars from either side, never had a scratching problem, you just have to be careful, pull the pump out all the way before you lay it against the car, most are long enough you can even run it under the bumper instead of against your paintwork. I now have a Saab 900 in lovely black and it's easy to fill up from either side.

For anyone who might be interested (and I suspect it's probably nobody), just because you can't see a scratch from the hose, doesn't mean it hasn't marked your clear coat. Clear coat paint can be scratched very easily by any number of things from fuel hoses to leaves in hedges. The resultant micro-scratches can only be seen under direct light (from a flashlight to, street lamps, to the sun) but collectively they interrupt the smooth reflective surface of your paint and therefore dull the shine. This is especially evident on metallic and pearlescent paint and is worse on dark colours. Silver cars can get away with a little, but you can still see it if you look.

Well, it's of interest, but ultimately what can you do? The streets are tough, and if manufacturers still haven't managed to come up with a paint finish that can resist microabrasions, then that's just the way it is. Wear and tear is a fact of car ownership - being careful can alleviate the worst, but eventually you get scratches in paintwork.

My little red Fiat now has all manner of chips and scratches. I don't know where most of them came from (could be trolleys, random idiots, pushchairs, random idiots with pushchairs and trolleys), though the most recent set came from a couple of bits of clag thrown from the back of a badly loaded truck: I missed the biggest bit, but one chunk cartwheeled along the carriageway and dinged the driver's door in spite of my swerve....

I'm now getting to the point where I've ceased worrying. Short of a complete respray, I can't see me spending any time (or money) correcting the issue. In fact, it would probably make it more obvious, with lots of bright red spots over where the paint has faded anyway!

When it comes down to it, my car is not a status symbol. It cost me fourteen hungered squids to buy, I'm the third or fourth owner, and it's a personal transport module. If it was an Aston Martin Vanquish S, I may well take a bit more pride in its appearance.

Very light scratches can be polished out. Random deep scratches (only in the clear coat) can be reduced in severity. Anything breaching the clearcoat will need a respray.

Wear and tear, is a fact of car ownership. My point was that I see no need to assist the process by dragging hoses across your paint. I'm not anal about my car, but I do my best to look after it and a big part of that is its appearance.

I just don't want to scratch it because it's expensive to repair. If it was my own car I might care less, but it's not so I have a responsibility to look after it properly.


Strictly speaking, you do have a choice. It's not an easy choice, but it's a choice none the less.

To be honest, I would never consider commuting the distance you do even for a job that paid twice as much.

Apathy will let them get away with it I know I could theoretically organise and join a large protest but I just can't be bothered and so many buses go past my house directly to work.