Full Tank or Not

[LenT]

29 minutes ago, Malc said:

... and they say us oldies have underspent / over saved....

Malc

Personally, saving was no problem until interest rates disappeared up their own fundament. Great if you had a mortgage to repay.  Otherwise, if you are retired, then not so much!

Tank wise, I try to keep them half full. (Or is it no less than half empty?)

Partially due to considerations regarding condensation and evaporation of the volatiles - especially in current low mileage situation - but more to do with vague concerns about ever running out or picking up water and residues in the tank.

[Phil xxkr]

On 3/12/2021 at 10:18 PM, Spacewagon52 said:

I always fill my tanks! I do not wish to get condensation in the tank causing issues. That is my take on  it. If you can't afford to fill the tank, then possibly you are running a car that is too expensive for your income.

Interesting comment but slightly flawed logic! If it was a one-off purchase your argument has merit but buying petrol (a distress purchase) is a continuous process so depending on your usage it makes no difference. Unless of course you do 50 miles a week and are happy to have your cash invested in your tank and not elsewhere .Avoiding condensation is a real must do if you live in say Canada where a low temperature is brutal and often but here in the UK? Be intrigued to know if any members have experienced such a condition in other than cars standing for years

[Malc]

21 minutes ago, Phil xxkr said:

Unless of course you do 50 miles a week and are happy to have your cash invested in your tank and not elsewhere

with interest rates approaching a staggering 0.01% and with fuel prices seemingly increasing at least 20% pa ( or so it seems ) I'd say " investing " in a tank of fuel isn't a bad way to go 

Malc

[Kevin Williams]

3 hours ago, Spacewagon52 said:

I apologise unreservedly for upsetting anyone with my comment. It was somewhat insensitive of me to make that comment considering the circumstances many people are living in with COVID. When people face temporary financial hardship, then it does make sense not to spend money on filling a petrol tank.

There is a huge range of incomes and car values on this forum. I consider myself to be in the lower value bracket for owning a Lexus. If you wish to own a premium car on a tight budget, then a Lexus is the obvious choice, as ongoing expenditure will usually be far less than other premium brands. The Lexus forum is usually very good natured and free from Keyboard Warriors. Opinions differ and there is nothing wrong in that. To suggest that I am a snob, when you don’t know me, is a little harsh. I have given my reasons for filling my tank, as others have.

I still stand by my assertion that if someone runs a car that they can’t afford to put petrol in, then they are running a car that they can’t really afford. A relation of mine, many years ago, bought an old Jaguar. He took up running ……… to keep fit? No, it was because he could not afford to take the Jag to work every day! Was he a snob? I don’t know. What I do know was that he was running a car he could not really afford.

I am sure we all know examples of people who own an expensive car or motorbike (usually on PCP) and their wife is struggling to make ends meet. It is about priorities in life, that was the point I was trying to make, but rather poorly – I apologise once again for upsetting anyone. It was not my intention.

I personally think ALL Forum members will fully appreciate the salient points in your very well written post. And respect you for writing it...

John does know you well...!

Well done... 

[Kevin Williams]

10 minutes ago, Kevin Williams said:

I personally think ALL Forum members will fully appreciate the salient points in your very well written post. And respect you for writing it...

John does know you well...!

Well done... 

PS I always fill my tank up, which isn't often. I only drive once or twice a week... I always fill it up because I am able to afford to, but the main reason is because of the difficulties I have, getting in and out of my car, because of my helicopter accident in 2011...

[Phil xxkr]

22 minutes ago, Malc said:

with interest rates approaching a staggering 0.01% and with fuel prices seemingly increasing at least 20% pa ( or so it seems ) I'd say " investing " in a tank of fuel isn't a bad way to go 

Malc

0.01% 🤑🤑🤑see a financial adviser quick Malc. I agree about petrol price hikes, no reason for it) using the RX not the XKR means my mpg has doubled so happy there. As to having a full tank well the RX is such a beautiful ride it would be like having a full tin of McVities chocolate digestives, you can't resist keep dipping in😋

As it happens I live 5 miles from the nearest petrol station so yes, I tend to keep more than my immediate needs, its enough of a distress purchase as it is! 

[Linas.P]

On 3/12/2021 at 10:18 PM, Spacewagon52 said:

I always fill my tanks! I do not wish to get condensation in the tank causing issues. That is my take on  it. If you can't afford to fill the tank, then possibly you are running a car that is too expensive for your income.

Just to put it out there - I have no issue with your statement. It may be the case that people need to read it carefully, but statement in itself is fine. One thing is snobbism (looking down on poor people - which is not at all the case in your post) and completely another - breaking down facts, making logical conclusion and giving sound financial advise.

Not filling-up tank in full could be case of personal preference or reasoning - and that is fine, but if person is literally unable to afford the tank of petrol, then your point is absolutely valid. I would even argue - owning a car overall should be questioned. And there is nothing "insensitive" about it, just pure logical reasoning and sound financial advise. Petrol in the car ownership is the cheapest expense we have in UK. So if one cannot afford even that, I am sorry. People may get offended about it, but it is nothing snobbish about it.

For example I do not fill full tanks, as I said in current circumstances I am trying to keep the tank around 25%... but that is far far away from me not being able to afford it and that is completely different. It is just based on my experience with keeping the car parked for long time.

For example when I sold my IS250 it sat on new owners drive for nearly a year. I sold it with nearly full tank, but thankfully the new owner used most of it before parking the car-up (it was ~10L remaining). When I helped him to bring the car back to life the petrol was way off... we even had discussion and I said I will bring tank with 5L of E98 and maybe some cleaner/octane booster, he said no petrol should be fine. I brought it anyway and I am glad I did. Car would start on old petrol but would just sputter and shut off, but once we added 5L of fresh E98 into the mix with octane booster - car cranked and it ran just fine. Now imagine if it would have been full tank - we would have been screwed. Probably would have to call specialist who can pump the old petrol out and paid £300 for that + expense of wasting all that fuel and refilling it again. Whereas I just got £10 worth of fresh petrol and some supermarket petrol additive.

Now another argument could be - maybe if the petrol tank would have been full the fuel would not have gone off... maybe, but who want's to risk it to find out?!

Finally, one thing I have realised when I was 16 and actually rather poor (as a car owner) - assuming you always driving and consume petrol anyway filling full tank does not cost you any more money, it could even save some. So where my friends would fill-up for £5 I would always have full tank and when we looked at it I actually saved money. Because I would plan my refuel and I would go to the station where fuel was cheapest. They would run for a bit, run out of fuel and go to nearest station and fill up for much more money + extra detour 5-10 times per each tank. Not to mention few times they had to call me to bring them fuel because they ran out and then had to buy me beers for my help and pay for not only their fuel, but my fuel as well. So - filling-up full is actually cheaper if you planning to use it in near future. 

[Sundance]

34 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

Finally, one thing I have realised when I was 16 and actually rather poor (as a car owner) -

Interesting but questionable. 🤔  Just a thought but if you were able to afford a car aged 16 you were certainly not poor!  Also difficult to get a licence to drive it at that age if I recall, but I may be wrong. 😕  As for insurance, wow ... so you most certainly were not poor!! 😳  Or maybe it was actually Daddy's ... ?!?   Or a 3-wheeler perhaps? 😄

But we digress ... 😉

[Linas.P]

33 minutes ago, Sundance said:

Interesting but questionable. 🤔  Just a thought but if you were able to afford a car aged 16 you were certainly not poor!  Also difficult to get a licence to drive it at that age if I recall, but I may be wrong. 😕  As for insurance, wow ... so you most certainly were not poor!! 😳  Or maybe it was actually Daddy's ... ?!?   Or a 3-wheeler perhaps? 😄

But we digress ... 😉

It is not UK we talking about so it is little bit different. I had so called B1 license from 16 - exactly same license, training and test as B, but at the time I believe it was limited to 1.3L engine and 1200kg (now is probably even lower) and I got actual B license from 18. I was working from age of 13 and I bought my first car when I was 14. I could not drive it on the road (I would be lying if I say I didn't try), so I just quickly flipped it for profit, did it several times as well before I turned 16. My first car at 16 which I could actually legally drive was Mazda MX3 (which was compliant), but soon I have transitioned to E34 BMW 525 (which was very certainly not compliant), but I was little bit into drifting so... it had to have more power and be RWD. Police would not have approved and if I would have crashed I doubt insurance would have covered it.

Insurance as well is quite significantly different, when I was 3 month away from 18, I got 525 engine swapped for M60B40 4L V8 (drifting remember!) - I fully declare engine mods to insurance and because I was 3 month away from 18 it didn't make sense to insure for full year as insurance price would have dropped once I turned 18. So I only insured for 3 months and paid the staggering price (or so I thought at the time) of £15  per month, in comparison with £60 a year for 525 it was expensive. When I turned 18, the cost of full year insurance which again in my opinion was very high was £89. As it is completely legal in the country only the car has to be insured, not the driver, so it was legal for example for my father to insure it and for me (or anyone really) to drive it. Insurance cost for my father would have been like £35, but I wanted to be independent so I paid much higher price myself. To be honest I am not sure my father would have approved me driving engine swapped BMW anyway.

Just one thing which still amazes me to this day is that insurance didn't see any problem insuring me on the cars which were clearly and obviously illegal for me to drive. Besides insuring my current RC would cost me ~£600 (kasko ~fully comprehensive cover) or ~£250 (mandatory insurance ~ Third party only cover). So I guess nobody should be surprised when I am not pleased at all with punitive insurance costs in UK.

[Phil xxkr]

19 hours ago, Spacewagon52 said:

If we are all different then there can only be one of us?

 

If that is the case we are singular not plural!

 

And if it that were so there would be no collective nouns? I think it was the Australians who coined the term "piddle" as the collective noun for a group of pedants 😅😅😅

[Sundance]

1 hour ago, Linas.P said:

It is not UK we talking about so it is little bit different.

Ah I see, that'll be it then, thanks for the short and concise answer! 🙂

[Linas.P]

17 minutes ago, Sundance said:

Ah I see, that'll be it then, thanks for the short and concise answer! 🙂

You welcome. I tried to make it as concise as possible! 🙂

[ALAW]

Full tank every time. Fill up Usually when I'm between quarter and half more usually near quarter mark. Then every now and again ill top it up with the super stuff.

[Las Palmas]

17 hours ago, Linas.P said:

Finally, one thing I have realised when I was 16 and actually rather poor (as a car owner)

Where I come from you need to be 18 to have a driver's license

[royoftherovers]

6 minutes ago, Las Palmas said:

Where I come from you need to be 18 to have a driver's license

Different Countries have different Rules as you know well John.

[Kevin Williams]

1 hour ago, Las Palmas said:

Where I come from you need to be 18 to have a driver's license

As a Forum member, I am confused.com...! Can I please ask where you both came from...!?

I was able to drive a Reliant Robin at 16, in Somerset...! ( But I don't tell many people...!)

[Las Palmas]

38 minutes ago, Kevin Williams said:

As a Forum member, I am confused.com...! Can I please ask where you both came from...!?

I was able to drive a Reliant Robin at 16, in Somerset...! ( But I don't tell many people...!)

I was born in Denmark. We have been living here in The Canary Islands since 2005. Just searched Reliant Robin and found out it is the 3 wheeler that Mr. Bean constantly is abusing.

[Kevin Williams]

2 hours ago, Las Palmas said:

I was born in Denmark. We have been living here in The Canary Islands since 2005. Just searched Reliant Robin and found out it is the 3 wheeler that Mr. Bean constantly is abusing.

I often watch Sky's UK Gold's, Only Fools and Horses, and Dell boy drives one...! If you can get it on your telly in The Canary Islands, its a good laugh...!

When I was 16, and passed my motorbike test. I thought I shouldn't buy a bigger motorbike, too dangerous!. So I bought a Reliant Robin, and drove it on my full motorbike licence...! In those days we didn't have many cameras, so I haven't any photos of it...

I passed my car test 1st time when I was 17...

I have had several lovely cars, and when I am talking to someone about cars, and my wife is listening, she always says... "don't forget to tell them what your first car was...!"

What was your first car...?

[Kevin Williams]

1 minute ago, Kevin Williams said:

I often watch Sky's UK Gold's, Only Fools and Horses, and Dell boy drives one...! If you can get it on your telly in The Canary Islands, its a good laugh...!

When I was 16, and passed my motorbike test. I thought I shouldn't buy a bigger motorbike, too dangerous!. So I bought a Reliant Robin, and drove it on my full motorbike licence...! In those days we didn't have many cameras, so I haven't any photos of it...

I passed my car test 1st time when I was 17...

I have had several lovely cars, and when I am talking to someone about cars, and my wife is listening, she always says... "don't forget to tell them what your first car was...!"

What was your first car...?

 

[Malc]

23 hours ago, Sundance said:

As for insurance, wow ... so you most certainly were not poor!!

same today methinks .............. my first car age 17 was an Austin Somerset or Devon ?  cost £5 .............. and the Co-Op car insurance was a staggering £25

not much changes for the youth of today 

Malc

[Linas.P]

3 minutes ago, Malc said:

same today methinks .............. my first car age 17 was an Austin Somerset or Devon ?  cost £5 .............. and the Co-Op car insurance was a staggering £25

not much changes for the youth of today 

Malc

Yeah, now insurance would be at least 5 times more than the car they driving + kidney! That is what happens when government outsources public policy to private companies.

When I came to UK at ~19... and I was very excited about how cheap the cars are here I was very quickly disappointed when I realised how much insurance would cost. My first ever quote was ~£36,000 (and no - number of 0's is correct).

[Las Palmas]

1 hour ago, Kevin Williams said:

I often watch Sky's UK Gold's, Only Fools and Horses, and Dell boy drives one...! If you can get it on your telly in The Canary Islands, its a good laugh...!

What was your first car...?

Only Fools and Horses are so old that I saw the shows while still in Denmark. Suppose I can get all the TV shows that are seen for free in various countries when VPN is adjusted to that country. Fools and Horses still running?

First car was a Morris Marina 1300. Looked like this as far as I remember:

I have had many cars also and now I try to run as environment friendly as I can to make up for all the pollution I have made in the past.

[Malc]

1 minute ago, Las Palmas said:

Morris Marina 1300. Looked like this as far as I remember:

nope, that's the Morris 1100 / 1300 ................ the Marina was a much more " racy " car 

Malc

[royoftherovers]

7 minutes ago, Malc said:

nope, that's the Morris 1100 / 1300 ................ the Marina was a much more " racy " car 

Malc

You are quite right Malc as regards the 1100/1300 but way off beam by describing the Marina as "racy"

[Linas.P]

3 minutes ago, royoftherovers said:

You are quite right Malc as regards the 1100/1300 but way off beam by describing the Marina as "racy"

Some had red stripes on the grill... isn't that racy?