After another mini-traffic jam at the local self-serve gas station, the question occurs to me: Why don’t they design cars to the gas cap and access to the gas tank, is on the same side?
My fate keeps getting in the way of my destiny.
Good question!
I remember car modes from the 60’s that had gas tank access in the back, so you didn’t have to remember which side was which. But I think there was some sort of danger in case of rear-end accidents, so they were move to one side or the other.
One car we had had the gas cap hidden behind the license plate, which was mounted on a spring-loaded frame. It was a bitch to keep it open and wrestle a pump handle into place.
I think, though, that if they were all, say, on the driver’s side that there’d be more traffic snarls at the gas station, since everyone would want the same side. So by some arbitrary process, half of models have it on the left, half on the right.
You must unlearn what you have learned. – Yoda
Shell Oil Co. unveiled a robot gas pumper in this area recently. The robot finds a doodad you’ve placed on the gas door, opens that and the tank, pumps what its memory says is your favorite flavor of gas, buttons everything back up, and charges your account, all without you getting out of the car. I’m not sure I need that level of automation in my life.
AskNott
"Measure twice, cut once. Dang! Measure again, cut again.
Actually most gas stations I see have access to the pumps from either side and have driveways from either direction. For a moment pretend all access to tank is on driver’s side. Say you’re traveling east and pull up to the gas pump all the traffic pulling in from the west pulls up to the other side of the pump. Of course this only works if the pumps are laid out parallel to the road, which seems to be the typical layout these days (at least in my neck of the woods).
I’ve driven fairly small cars for most of my life. As a result, I don’t really care what side my gas tank is on. With a little practice, you can snug the car up fairly close to the pump, and the hose is usually long enough to drape over the back of the car and reach the tank on the far side. Sometimes it means holding the pump upside down, but it usually works.
Granted, if you drive an SUV, this little trick won’t work, but then again, if you drive an SUV, you deserve to sit at the gas station and wait until the right pump becomes available.
I’d prefer the fuel fill to be on the driver’s side for maneuvering purposes, but coupes with long doors make it hard for the driver to exit when parked near the pump. Our Forester’s got 4 short doors, but the fuel fill is on the passenger (starboard) side anyway. Either one is better than under the plate, I agree.
It would be interesting to see if all nationalities of a given vehicle have the fuel fill on the same side or if they swap it like the steering wheel.
I lead a boring life of relative unimportance. Really.
Well, I drive a Chevy Impala SS with the gas tank in the back directly behind the hinged plate and I love it. I used to drive a Thunderbird, and for some reason, I could NEVER keep it straight in my mind which side the tank was on, yet I ALWAYS managed to pull up on the wrong side, and at some gas stations, the hose wouldn’t stretch. Now I don’t have that problem. Incidentally, I ALSO don’t have this other problem you are all talking about with the pain of having to manuever the license plate and gas cap when it’s in the back. It’s really not that big of a deal.
There was a time, not so long ago, when hoses were long enough to stretch across the body of most cars - prior to vapor recovery. You didn’t have to really think about which side of the car your gas cap was on.
I WAG that the expense of the vapor recovery system and such modifications at the pump, it was deemed to be an economical choice to shorten the hoses, perhaps?
“They’re coming to take me away ha-ha, ho-ho, hee-hee, to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time… :)” - Napoleon IV
I can’t speak for all nationalities or even all cars, but I can you you that both the Honda CRV and the BMW 318i have the fuel doors on the same side of the car in both the UK and the US (I also happen to know that the BMW 318i has the fuel door on the same side in Germany).
My MG has the filler on the back right, as does our Mercedes, so it doesn’t matter. Our van has the filler on the driver side, and the other 3 cars have it on the passenger side.
Does this make me filler ambidextrous? 
VB
I’ve performed a complete diagnosis of your car. It’s broken.
- A Wally original!
Joey - cool, thanks. Been wondering about that (in my spare time) for quite a while now. Of course, it still sheds no light on the actual motivation behind placement. Most cars are basically symmetrical, so it’s hard to imagine an aesthetic reason for choosing one side over the other.
Jinx - I too have noticed that fuel hoses are shorter lately, even in states without vapor recovery (which is most of them). Replacing even regular fuel hoses after they’ve been run over and flattened gets to be expensive.