Archive for 7 October, 2007
The most expensive fuel you’ll ever put in your car
I accidentally put petrol in my diesel car last week which was an a) stupid and b) very expensive thing to do. In my defence, I was tired and poorly and did realise what I’d done before I’d filled the tank and certainly (thankfully) before I drove off.
While I was frantically googling to find out just how huge a mistake I’d made, I came across some interesting facts & figures: according to The Telegraph in 2005, the problem is seriously disabling about 155,000 diesel cars a year. The RAC attended 50,000 cases last year, the AA 44,000 and Green Flag more than 6,000.
There have been loads of suggestions of ways to prevent this mix-up happening, like intelligent petrol pumps that recognise and refuse to serve diesel cars and triangular diesel pump nozzles, but the cost and logistics of implementing this across every diesel car and filling station is mind boggling.
If I’d done what some people apparently do and just driven on unawares until the car ground to a halt, according to my garage the damage would have been in the region of £5K. Not covered by my insurance.
