Why would car makers care about that? It’s not their problem.
As I said, it’s just what my parents told me and I don’t know where they heard it.
A '60s Ford pickup would be more convenient since the tank is already in the passenger compartment - behind the seat. Interesting to drive one of those and listen to the gas slosh around.
And yes, they did occasionally rupture and ignite in a crash.
Obligatory on topic comment. Left side right behind driver’s door.
I just don’t understand what kind of design differences would dictate the placement of the caps on different sides. Wouldn’t it make sense for each car company to just pick one side and stick with it? What type of design problems could that possibly cause?
Well, you don’t want to route the exhaust system too close to the tank, or it’ll burst into flames, and certain vehicle characteristics (dual exhausts, for example) could dictate the placement. Also, if a car maker (like Ford, for example) decided to put all the openings on the right side, they may want to keep it on the left for certain models (like the Mustang) where they want to ape racing characteristics.
Umm, Rick, didn’t the pinto have the gas cap on the left rear corner panel?
IMHO “license plate” fill tubes sucked and were dirtier than “side fill”…had one in my dads 70’something Continental.:dubious:
The Honda Fit’s gas tank is under the front seat. I’ll have to ask my friend if she can hear the fuel sloshing around.
On the dual fuel tank, dual gas cap front, remember the XJs? Odd arrangement for a luxury car.
Yes indeed. I owned one and that’s what I remembered, and I found a diagram. Not a bad car really - no one tailgated me.
We had a Pontiac Grand Am with the cap on the right - a former rental car, so maybe they did it to the rental car fleet to mess with renters’ minds. At work we had these Ford Tempos as rent a cars for trips - not only did they have the tank on the right, the button to open to gas cap door was located in the glove box. We were supposed to fill it up before returning it if it got reasonably empty, so it was funny letting new people drive and watch them try to get the cap open. There was a little label saying where the button was, but it was easy to miss.
Our Pontiac didn’t have a locking gas cap door. How do other cars with the cap on the right do it?
None whatsoever.
I used to like the cars that had the cap under the rear license plate.
He’s probably thinking of the Maverick which had the same tail lights as the Pinto but with a rear gas filler. After awhile, the rust makes it hard to tell the 2 cars apart.
I HATED that as a pump jockey (in the mid nineties) was rare enough that always wondered for a second where it was, had to bend down, the plate always wanted to flip up and I was always scared I was gonna break it…
Gas tank location and axle control rod (rear rear axle models) are about the only 2 items I can think of that would dictate a non-symmetrical arrangement.
Most gas tanks I’ve worked on (a verrrry limited number) were symmetrical in nature so it’s a matter of shifting them left or right to accommodate the exhaust. Dual exhaust can be handled with a dual muffler so that shouldn’t be much of a factor.
There is a logical reason to place the filler on the left because it is easier to see if the filler door is open in the side mirror. It’s also more convenient for self serve to fill it from the driver’s side.
Even worse is the oil dipstick. I worked at a station about 20 years ago that still had full service, and some of those women drivers especially thought we were idiots because it took several minutes sometimes to find the dipstick. Of course, they’d never even looked for it ever, so they had no idea that it was black (like everything else) and hidden under two hoses on the back side of the engine block (or whatever). I hated that.
I only ran out of gas twice, when I was 16 and 17. Both times, I was able to push my car to the gas station. That’s because I was driving a 1971 VW Bug, and they’re light and airy, and easy to push. And neither time required more than a half mile of pushing, nor was it uphill.
One additional time I actually ran out while exiting from the fwy, and was able to coast down the hill from the fwy offramp into the gas station parking lot, about 1/2 mile. No pushing required (except for about 10 feet inside the gas station parking lot).
I made a conscious decision to not run out of gas anymore, and haven’t since. That does, in fact, seem the wiser course of action.
Well, it is their problem if they care about their customers. People don’t pay for something they don’t like, or is inconvenient for them.
Gas caps behind the license plate disappeared at the same time that they became very inconvenient for the drivers–i.e. 1973. That’s when the price of gas skyrocketed, and a wild,radically new idea appeared on the market: self-serve pumps (with cheaper prices). So they stopped putting the gas cap in an inconvient location where you have to bend down on one knee to open it.
Before then, it was rare (for men), or totally unheard of (for women) to pump your own gas. You pulled into the gas station, ran over a little wire that activated the bell,* and a uniformed attendant ran up to you car to offer you service–pump the gas, wipe your windshield, and check your oil, while you never moved from the driver’s seat.
*I remember one chain of gas stations where the bell also activated a clock, which rotated a huge second hand, like a stop watch. They promised that the attendant would be at your car within 30 seconds.
Another station ran an advertizing campaign that they didnt use a trip-wire system to ring a bell : the slogan was “We don’t give a ding!”—our attendants are so efficient that they are always ready to serve you instantly.
That would be really useful to know, except that it’s even harder to see the tailpipe from the driver’s seat than it is to see the gas-cap flap… 
The reason, that Click and Clack offered in a puzzler years ago was that the gas cap was always on the opposite side from the tail pipe, unless you had dual exhaust, then it was where ever the single exhaust model had the gas cap. 
I remember when I was a kid, my dad brought home a new car and challenged us kids to find the gas cap. We never did find it, so he showed us: behind the rear license plate. That was so cool!
Okay, so WHY is the tailpipe on the left on some models, and on the right on others?
Somewhat surprisingly, no there isn’t any convention on this. I believe Germany mandates gas caps on the passenger side, but for everyone else the placement of the gas cap tends to be an afterthought. It seems to me that gas caps on the driver’s side are the majority, but not an overwhelming one. I prefer the gas cap on the driver’s side. It helps those of us who are not good parallel parkers