Men misfuel the most: research
40 per cent more put wrong fuel in, says Green Flag
Men get it wrong: research
More than one in ten accident-prone Brits have filled up their car with the wrong type of fuel according to new research. Half of those caused so much damage to their vehicle it took on average of £125 to repair after the cock-up.
And if we Brits aren’t putting in the wrong type of fuel – we aren’t putting any in at all – almost half of us have run out of petrol or diesel according the survey of 4,000 motorists by Green Flag.
But men are more likely to put diesel in a petrol car or vice versa, according to Green Flag. A preoccupied 14 per cent of blokes admitted to putting in the wrong fuel compared to only ten per cent of females.
Blokes are the worst culprits for not filling up in time too – 52 per cent have confessed to breaking down after running out of fuel compared to only 42 per cent of women. An incompetent nine per cent of male drivers have run out of petrol three or four times. And it’s no surprise why, when more than one in twenty Brits use every last drop of fuel in the tank and gamble on how far they can travel with the petrol light on.
At the other end of the scale – a paranoid nine per cent fill up as soon as the petrol gauge reads half a tank, just to be on the safe side.
Other spurious gender differences: two-thirds of women have been left embarrassed on the garage forecourt after struggling to get the petrol cap off, but to combat such problems a third of females leave re-fuelling to their other half.
A third of folk said they would hit the roof if their partner ran out of petrol and 86 per cent said they would be really embarrassed by the mistake.
Nigel Charlesworth of Green Flag said: "It’s surprising so many people are still running out of petrol, when most modern cars have indicators that warn we are running low. Filling up with the wrong fuel is more common than you would think, as this research shows. It’s a costly mistake so, even if we are in a rush, we should pay attention at the service station. More than 20,000 Green Flag call outs each year are down to motorists running out of fuel."
. . . unless you're drunk or doped.
So on average the Women are worse as less of them fill up the cars as the other half (ie Husband) does it.
More Men are filling cars up compared to the Women so by rights the percentage should be higher.
Its much the same as the old argument, that Women are safer drivers and claim less than men.................... No its because there are more policies done by Men than Women and in most families the Man has the policy and the Woman is a named driver, so any claims on the policy caused by the Women crashing or causing crashes goes against the Man.
See what I mean!!!!!!
I did it once ... years ago.
I forget the station, but I pulled up and picked up the black nozzle ... I'd put in about 6 litres when I realised it was very expensive for deisel, looked twice and found I was putting in some form of super unleaded. The deisel pumps that that station were yellow.
Cue AA call out ... drained system ... p*ssing about for 2 hours ...
(I don't think they needed to go to all that trouble, seeing as I never ran it after I realised ... we did have the debate as to whether filling it to the brim with deisel might work, but hey - better safe, and all that).
What does that mean? "more than one in ten", is that 2 out of 10, 6 out of 10, what the ffffffff does it mean?
Maybe the survey should try to identify why it happened, new car, strange car, hired care, wrong colour petrol nozzle as in post above, age group, day/night, well lit petrol forecourt, statistics alone prove not a lot.
Seems to me the vast majority do it RIGHT.
Have a nice day out there
In the US very few people drive diesel autos like me , I drive VW TDIs and older IDIs . We do have many 2 ton pickup trucks and larger with diesesl under the hood that fill up along side the gasoline pumps .
At most stations throughout the US a "Green" pump handle means diesel while "Gray or Black" means gasoline . This has been the given system for 30 + years .
Now in the last few years as prices at the pump have increased $3 a US gal currently the numbes of Pickup trucks and autos with diesels under the hood have increased . VW & MB have increased the auto segment of diesels on US roads as they are the only car makers selling diesel powereed autos in the US . Then throw BP into the mix over the last 10 years with "Green" on gasoline pumps and "Black" on diesel . What is up with them mucking with our set fueling system ?? A perfect mix to lead the what we have now we a rash of misfueling .
I have a 70 year old friend that I have had to rescue twice due to misfuleing his VW TDI Golf & Jetta . He was gotten by the old BP trick , change the color of the handle .
I have a good system now to deal with his misfueling now , an electric fuel pump , some hose & hose clamps , and three 6 gal plastic containers .
rotarykid said:This seems bloody typical of oil companies, you have had that system for over 30 years, we jump on the bandweagon, colour code our ones, and colour petrol ones GREEN, and diesel BLACK.
You think misfueling is a problem on your side of the pond ??At most stations throughout the US a "Green" pump handle means diesel while "Gray or Black" means gasoline . This has been the given system for 30 + years
Knowing how the EEC poke their noses into our business, wouldnt surprise me if they are to blame for that. If I am wrong, someone will correct me, tks.
For years, water fire extinguishers were RED, CO2 was BLACK, and foam CREAM, under EEC rules, they are ALL RED, with a little band on them where you can write whats in them. so whearas in the past you knew a CO2 one was BLACK, now its red, you have to make sure you read whats in it.
Another little rant, dont know about you, but I think we had calculators before push button phones, did the phone pushbuttons follow the same layout as calculators! no way.
Have a nice day out there
Yugguy said:Well if you read the first page, the survey says men are the worst!
Bollocks.
It's cos women don't know how to fill up cars. My missus doesn't anyway, I use her car every fortnight to give it a clearout run to work and it comes back magically filled up again.
Have a nice day
MrsV6 never ever so much as reads the fuel guage, let alone actually fill it up in a petrol station. Its so bad, in fact, that the one time she did it recently she made a point of phoning me at work to tell me so! Prior to that, I don't think she ever filled the Alfa, Ford or Vauxhall, so that's a good 7 or 8 years
I have to remember to ask her if there's any fuel in the car in case she gets stranded somewhere (the answer is always "dunno - didn't look"
). I've even taken to leaving the trip computer in the Volvo set to show 'range remaining' constantly but when I get back in the car its always set to something really useful like 'instantaneous mpg'
On the other hand Men don't give a shit if they make a misstake
Also Men on average drive more miles so should do this more often. How many women only dirve their own cars? I drive mine and hers. hers is diesel she never drives mine(doesnt like it) I automaticaly pick up the unleaded because I have to fill it up every 10 minutes but she would never have that dilema.
Just another pointelss piece of crap aimed at making men look stupid.
for this research to mean anything they should take the number of men V women drivers on the road. Then factor in anual miles. and to get the Data should use AA or RAC on actual cases of missfueling.
>> Edited by pesty on Tuesday 16th May 10:51
sambar said:No of course not, the colour is only a guide, BUT if a system has been in use for some time elswhere, and I dont mean deepest darkest Africa, but as stated earlier, in America, it would seem to me to be sensible to adopt the same colour code over here.
I filled my tr3 with £9.00 worth of diesel so i filled the tank with petrol it got me to my destination & back "pinking" i drained it all out the next day filled with petrol went for a drive & blew a head gasket removed head found that the wet liner figuer of 8 seals have had it replaced , whilst i was in that deep i replaced rings, glaze busted liners changed end float washers, shells found head had a crack.=== was this the fault of B.P for not using coded hoses & a green label for ultimate diesel==!!!!!!!!!!! kel
How long before the EC pokes their nose in and changes everything anyway, like they did with fire extinguishers.
I have a sneeky recolection many years ago, when diesel cars were becoming more popular, that when you pulled out the hose from the pump, a speaker in the pump used to say it was diesel, or do my grey cells lie to me, anybody else remember that all??
Havnt seen a TR3 for donks by the way.
Have a nice day
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