Petrol and diesel set to be the new bog roll. Road Warriors unite! 🚙

Got to pick the in-laws up in the morning and I guarantee the wife’s car is running on fumes. In fact shortage or not I always seem to top it up with fuel 😂

I wonder how many people filling up are still working from home? I couldn’t give a monkeys about how much petrol is in my car as it barely moves nowadays anyway

This – we just had our MOT done. I checked the certificate thing and we did about 3,000 miles in between the two MOTs.

I reckon by this evening there *will* be a fuel crisis…!

Yes thanks to the government and the media wanting a nice headline. Going to be a awkward few days for anyone who actually needs to drive and were running low plus whether any idiots are going to kill themselves with unsafe fuel storage.

I filled up yesterday, but I needed to/was going to anyway.

We were out and about and needed some, our local garage is closed until next month being refurbished so…

Fuel pump makes an unpleasant noise though

In a modern diesel doesn’t the fuel lubricate the pump? I think I’d be filling up a bit sooner.

Have you got an EV then Drac?

Only I don’t think you’ve mentioned it before.

Why yes I have I can’t believe you didn’t know. I’m sure I mentioned it when some on here said you never hear of fuel shortages at garages.

I’m sure I mentioned it when some on here said you never hear of fuel shortages at garages.

I must have missed that one occasion. You’re clearly not the sort of chap who’d bang on endlessly about his EV at the slightest excuse.

So, is it good then?

Check out the EV thread where I mention it.

Just checked on Google maps, all the local roads that have fuel stations on are dark red

Down to fumes in the car this morning, all three petrol stations in town all had massive queues at them, people are mornons. I couldn’t wait as I had to go to work.

I checked the certificate thing and we did about 3,000 miles in between the two MOTs.

Pfft, <800 miles here.

11,400 miles since November in my EV.

I checked the certificate thing and we did about 3,000 miles in between the two MOTs.

I did about the same in 2020. MOT runs January – January so I got a month or so of use before full lockdown in March 2020 then almost nothing until it eased slightly.

Reporting on panic buying only helps create more panic buying, explains why Shell was rammed this morning though. I did give the car a £30 splash and dash but only cos the missus runs it on fumes all the bloody time!

Unfortunately I’m not WFH and I kind of need to use the car this weekend (and probably on Monday), Trip computer says ~80 miles left, planned use just about matches that, I’d normally be putting half a tank in on the way home to cover the coming week…

Should I run it down to zero by Sunday or go an d sit in a pointless queue to lob £30 in the tank just to be “safe”?

I’d love a leccy car…

ordered a e-nero last week….arrives next Friday \o/
Chrispy finally lands on the right side of a government made crisis.

I woke up this am to find mine had been fully fuelled overnight

Have an electric car now. Was smug when it snowed and I had winter tyres fitted but this is new level of smugness.

Keep us updated on how brilliant it is when you renew your tarrifs or supplier goes bust, yeah?

Down to fumes in the car this morning, all three petrol stations in town all had massive queues at them, people are mornons. I couldn’t wait as I had to go to work.

Not quite that low but I’m not totally sure I have enough to get home. On the way in one petrol station had a massive queue, the other had sold out. Bit annoying as we only fill up about once a month, it just happens to be due this weekend.

Keep us updated on how brilliant it is when you renew your tarrifs or supplier goes bust, yeah?

Will do as I will still get electricity so I can post.

Keep us updated on how brilliant it is when you renew your tarrifs or supplier goes bust, yeah?

They’ll just pay a bit more. Not us much as those of us still buying petrol and diesel will be though.

Shirley, whilst everyone is queuing for fuel, it is the best time to go and buy all the bog rolls 🧐

Keep us updated on how brilliant it is when you renew your tarrifs or supplier goes bust, yeah?

You do realise that the electricity stays connected when a supplier goes bust, don’t you? It’s not like someone comes out with a pair of wire cutters.

It’s not like someone comes out with a pair of wire cutters.

Well that would be just silly wouldn’t it? Unless there’s an RCD fitted then it won’t be a problem. I wouldn’t recommend the same approach with the gas supply though.

As someone without a car now who rides everywhere on my bike, I can report a degree of schadenfreude on this matter. 😀

In a modern diesel doesn’t the fuel lubricate the pump? I think I’d be filling up a bit sooner.

The modern common rail diesels do run at very high pressures so yes, you don’t want to have that pump unlubricated even if for a moment by running out of fuel.

To what extend different models of car offer any protection (in case of running dry) I’m not sure, however.

There’s a low pressure pump to suck fuel out of the tank and a high pressure one to make the super high pressure. It might end up cutting out when it detects low pressure in the supply, but as soon as there’s any air in the high pressure system it’ll probably stop anyway. I wouldn’t imagine it runs completely dry.

You’re probably right @molgrips but it’s not something I would advise testing. I imagine it would be very expensive to offer absolute protection, for example. This isn’t aviation.

Surely won’t this just play out in the same way as the ‘great toilet roll crisis of 2020’ and the ‘COVID fuelled Past shortage’ of the same epoch? That is a load of selfish nutters strip the pumps dry for a day or 2, then consumption of said product drops as no-ones going anywhere, stocks are re-plenished and everythign goes back to normal?

Drove past the gas guzzlers, in our EV, queueing at the petrol station- hard not to be just a little bit smug really 😜

Well a quick drive out over lunch to run a few errands I drove past a few petrol stations around me and I can report that reports of mass queuing and panic buying are much exaggerated. Hopefully things wont escalate, but for now at least things seem to be ticking over fairly normally. Certainly across all the main radio stations they were appealing for calm and for people not to panic buy which probably wont influence anything.

Thankfully I the wife has half a tank in her super efficient SUV (yes such things do exist) so that will do us for a good week and a half, and I have a full tank in my no so efficient small, but sporty mid-life crisis car. I’m sure we’ll ride out the storm just like we did the bog roll debacle.

If I must I’ll bob out at midnight or something to fill up when needed. I’m sure alot of the silly panic buyers will be tucked up in bed at that time.

There is nothing super-efficient about vehicles the size and weight of SUVs.

Drove past gas guzzlers – shouldn’t you be cycling past them. No smugness points having an EV – you only get them if you are on your bike.

Off to Wales next week, but not planning on riding the MTB 150 miles round trip, we did that on road bikes last weekend.

If I must I’ll bob out at midnight or something to fill up when needed. I’m sure alot of the silly panic buyers will be tucked up in bed at that time

They’ll probably all be drink driving back from the pub

It seems that press coverage has made a non-story a real thing. My fuel light came on this morning so I ended up queuing for 5-10 mins to get to a pump today. I filled up (as I usually would) and it’ll last me 2 weeks or so, it’ll either have blown over by then, or a fancy I’ll be back to WFH.

Mrs is more worried, she’s a community nurse and they don’t give them bicycles with baskets anymore.

There is nothing super-efficient about vehicles the size and weight of SUVs.

I dunno, I can comfortably get 50+ mpg on a run and around 35mpg around town out of mine despite it being 250bhp so whilst it’s not exactly a Nissan Leaf, it’s certainly better than many smaller cars and infinitely better than our 15 year old Mazda 3 that has never, ever got over 40mpg on a run and normally gets around 22mpg around town.

So I’d say that’s pretty efficient for the size and weight of the vehicle.

super efficient SUV (yes such things do exist)

No they don’t. Whatever efficient technolgoy is in an SUV, it’d be more efficient still if it were in a car shaped vehicle.

We don’t need petrol to make flames on STW do we? 🙂

I dunno, I can comfortably get 50+ mpg on a run and around 35mpg around town

That’s crap though! It makes me laugh when people say “oh my SUV’s really efficient” and then they quote rubbish figures. It’s as if they don’t know what an efficient car actually is.

So I’d say that’s pretty efficient for the size and weight of the vehicle.

Yes but thats the point. Now imagine it was the same tech but not hauling around the same size and weight.

I happened to be out moving some gear in my car today and it needed its bi-monthly fill up (I think I filled it up in July, maybe…). I wasn’t aware of this. They guy at the till said that supply’s basically the same as it has been for the last two months, but the media happen to have found out the supply is low and now he was expecting to run out of fuel by 3pm. Nice early finish for the lad but I don’t think there’s a problem.

I dunno, I can comfortably get 50+ mpg on a run and around 35mpg around town out of mine despite it being 250bhp so whilst it’s not exactly a Nissan Leaf, it’s certainly better than many smaller cars and infinitely better than our 15 year old Mazda 3 that has never, ever got over 40mpg on a run and normally gets around 22mpg around town.

A smaller car with the same engine will always be more efficient, and I can pretty much guarantee you don’t actually need a car that big. We went through all this in the “Why are people buying SUVs when there’s a climate crisis” thread last year. In addition, the bulk of your CO2 cost in any car is when it’s built. In SUVs that’s higher than cars with an equivalent load space because there’s more materials. So while you say your Mazda is worse, it isn’t really. Taking the figures from the Guardian yesterday, 13t of CO2 is used to make and SUV. 5.5t for a hatchback like a Mazda 3. So you’d have to do 55,000 miles in the Mazda just to match the SUV for CO2 footprint. Keeping the old Mazda going is the better thing to do for the environment, even if its CO2 g/km is worse. So, yeah, don’t buy SUVs.

Now imagine it was the same tech but not hauling around the same size and weight.

I agree that would be the case, but for a vehicle of that size and weight it’s very impressive and it’s not far away from most mid to large ICE cars and significantly better than lots.

I didn’t say “oh my SUV’s really efficient” , I said that’s pretty efficient for the size and weight of the vehicle. (A Mercedes GLC BTW)

How does it compare to your Merc?

I happened to be out moving some gear in my car today and it needed its bi-monthly fill up (I think I filled it up in July, maybe…)

it is an amazing co-incidence that literally everyone I have spoken to spoken to today was planning on filling up anyway and is definitely 100% not panic buying (that would be everybody else 🤣)

I have an EV and a 26 yr old diesel Toyota Hilux so I’m prepared for whichever way this latest apocalypse goes.