£80 to fill up!

Howard · 31 Aug 2011 at 12:48

paradigm said:
yes I'm looking at you, people who fill up £10 at a time.

I wish I knew the mentality behind this, I really do. People roll up and put bang-on £10 or £20 in as I'm standing there brimming the tank, then walk in, pay cash, and walk out. WHY?!?! Why not brim it?? I don't understand humanity

[TW]Fox · 31 Aug 2011 at 12:50

Howard said:
I wish I knew the mentality behind this, I really do. People roll up and put bang-on £10 or £20 in as I'm standing there brimming the tank, then walk in, pay cash, and walk out. WHY?!?! Why not brim it?? I don't understand humanity

Mostly because they don't have the money to fill it right up.

paradigm · 31 Aug 2011 at 12:51

Howard said:
I wish I knew the mentality behind this, I really do. People roll up and put bang-on £10 or £20 in as I'm standing there brimming the tank, then walk in, pay cash, and walk out. WHY?!?! Why not brim it?? I don't understand humanity

People tend to use the argument that "they haven't got any more money", but surely if you were to fill it from the day you got it, then save that £10 a week, you could brim it each month, rather than waste petrol driving to and from the petrol station every week to "ration" yourself another £10.

EDIT: And as if like clockwork, there's the "money" argument.

minimadmotorman · 31 Aug 2011 at 12:52

When I got my car it cost £52 to fill it from stone empty. It costs nearly £85 now!

DRZ · 31 Aug 2011 at 12:55

ng93 said:
How can people run so close to running out of fuel? I always chicken out at 1/4 tank

Amleto said:
lazyness

In my case I didn't want to fill up at motorway service station prices, especially when I knew that driving another 10-15 miles would probably save me 10p or more per litre, which is a decent amount when you have an 88L tank!

I will normally fill up when I am down to about 5 gallons or so because I like to be able to get into the car and know that within reason I can get anywhere I'd need to get to without having to stop to fill up. 5 gallons gives me about that balance and it feels "right" to fill up at that point.

Gaygle · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:04

paradigm said:
People tend to use the argument that "they haven't got any more money", but surely if you were to fill it from the day you got it, then save that £10 a week, you could brim it each month, rather than waste petrol driving to and from the petrol station every week to "ration" yourself another £10.

EDIT: And as if like clockwork, there's the "money" argument.

I choose to only fill up my tank with £30-£40 because it helps me keep track of how much petrol i use each month when i look on my credit card statement. That and the fact there's the added weight of the extra 30l of fuel and if i was ever in a nasty accident i'd rather not have 63l of flammable liquid under me.

Weak reasons? I don't think so. I drive past a petrol station every day and it takes me 3-4 minutes to fill up with half a tank of petrol once a week, rather than a full tank every 2 weeks. I'm willing to sacrifice those 3-4 minutes a week for the reasons outlined above.

Howard · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:06

I track my petrol use by... Keeping the receipts, and inputting it all into Fuelly

Amleto · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:07

I didn't mean that laziness was the answer.

I don't fill up if I don't have to - saves driving extra weight of petrol around when not necessary.

I also cut it a bit closer by ignoring expensive stations and waiting 'til I go past a better priced on (ie off the motorway or away from the back-water village).

Sometimes I just cba so cut it really fine

Jonnycoupe · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:08

Howard said:
I wish I knew the mentality behind this, I really do. People roll up and put bang-on £10 or £20 in as I'm standing there brimming the tank, then walk in, pay cash, and walk out. WHY?!?! Why not brim it?? I don't understand humanity

Cash is the clue. Some people live on cashflow in the literal sense. Each week getting cash, or taking it out of the banks knowing its then all they have for that week.

DRZ · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:09

The added weight of 30L of fuel? What?! What difference is that going to make to your 1.4 tonne BMW?

Also, the accident thing is pretty laughable too IMO.

Jonnycoupe · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:09

Gaygle said:
Ihat and the fact there's the added weight of the extra 30l of fuel and if i was ever in a nasty accident i'd rather not have 63l of flammable liquid under me.

The 30L of extra flammable petrol vapour is far more of an issue even with that pedantic hat on.

Gaygle · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:12

Minstadave said:
If anyone wants to save a few quid on fuel you can buy Tesco vouchers off Ebay for next to nothing and use three with every fill up - 15p off a litre is over 10% off. I bought 12 for under a fiver and will make around a £45 saving. Tends to be the cheapest place for fuel and I usually treat myself to Momentum 99

Cheers for the heads up.

Kenai · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:14

Deep said:
Thanks, I never knew.

However, my point is that you manage to get really good mpg figures almost on par (if not above) with the manfacture quoted figures, and when I drove the Super 8 I was already doing the method that Jez mentioned I'd still get 20% less than quoted.

I don't expect it to be the same or as good as yours, but I expected the difference to be less than 20%

Bear in mind the 'extra urban' cycle isn't even remotely 'sat at 65mph'.

It actually spends most of the cycle at 45mph or below, with a very short blast at 75mph towards the end. The overall average speed is 38.9mph.

http://web.sakarya.edu.tr/~ssoylu/d...ar/Emissions test cycle_dosyalar/image003.gif

It bears absolutely no relation to being sat on a motorway or a dual carriage at a steady speed.

Gaygle · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:20

Howard said:
I track my petrol use by... Keeping the receipts, and inputting it all into Fuelly

How very organised of you!

DRZ said:
The added weight of 30L of fuel? What?! What difference is that going to make to your 1.4 tonne BMW?

About 23kg. I don't know how to do the maths to work out how much another 23kg of fuel over 2.5 years of driving will make a difference. But i imagine it does. I'm not saying it's going to make a massive difference, but even if it makes £50 of difference....why wouldn't I? People change every light bulb in their houses to energy saving ones to save less.

DRZ said:
Also, the accident thing is pretty laughable too IMO.

Why? Because the chance of it happening is very low? I agree, the chance is very low indeed. But for 3-4 minutes of my time a week? Coupled with the fact that I literally don't care how laughable you think it is - i'm happy carrying on doing it. Glad i made you laugh though.

Gaygle · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:21

Jonnycoupe said:
The 30L of extra flammable petrol vapour is far more of an issue even with that pedantic hat on.

I imagine that in the event of a fuel tank splitting, the petrol vapour would escape the immediate area far quicker than the fuel which would just be sitting on the road?

Scania · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:32

[TW]Fox;19958786 said:
Mine seems very accurate, the few times I've rolled in with a mile showing it's taken almost the full 70 litres.

The range in mine seems to have a mind of its own, drive 5 miles, the range drops by 12 or so!

That said, I found out - the hard way - that when the range reads zero, the tank is empty....

I usually fill it every two weeks, don't see the point in putting any less in. Any increase in consumption due to the weight of the fuel is offset by not running out when there are no garages for miles. (see above!)

minimadmotorman · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:32

I let mine run to near empty for a couple of reasons.

1. I have an account at the garage I fill up at so prefer not to go elsewhere
2. I'm lazy

minimadmotorman · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:34

R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
That said, I found out - the hard way - that when the range reads zero, the tank is empty....

I've found that when the range on mine reads zero there is at least 20 miles in it. However my car has a regular ECU induced cough that begins once the range hits zero to remind you that you are playing with fire (or potentially the lack of it)

Damien. · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:38

The second petrol prices started rising, I sold my Impreza and bought a MK4 Golf TDI.

Best move I made. I do a lot of driving but an average journey for me now I get 55MPG.

I love owning fast cars but at the rate of the fuel price increase, its just not viable at the moment to own one.

Vince · 31 Aug 2011 at 13:42

[TW]Fox;19959193 said:
Mostly because they don't have the money to fill it right up.

I don't know if I agree with this... I often do this and my reasoning is this, I take the car out at weekends and am going to be doing 50 miles, following that it will sit in the garage until the same time the following week where again I may do 50 or 100 miles. Why leave 100 quids worth of fuel sitting in the car when I can use what I need for the weekend and then forget about it until the next weekend or the next time I use the car.

Often when I fill up with £20 I will already have half a tank or a quarter of a tank and just put in what I need for the weekend. The only time I ever brim it is when I am working out my mpg or when me and the mrs head over to Europe for a few days etc. Generally I don't choose not to because I can't afford it but more because I don't need to put in the £90 odd that it will take. I must admit I have never judged anybody at the pumps for how much fuel they are putting in, £5, £10, £20... who gives a **** as long as they get where they need to go?