This blew my mind as an American kid visiting England a couple decades ago. I was only ever aware of putting in a credit card and filling up a gas tank all the way, and my uncle took out a 5 or 10 quid note to go pay before filing petrol and he said why should I pay to haul around extra fuel if I pass by the petrol station everyday and I only use half a tank every 2 weeks.

Somebody should do the math of pulling out to the gas station vs. driving with a full tank.

With US engine sizes, fuel efficiency, and number of miles driven, I would guess it makes no difference for most people.

Much fewer proportion of people are driving those peugots or other tiny cars where the weight of fuel would be material relative to the time it would take to fill up fuel more often.

Another British thing that amazed me was their auto insurance prices were based on engine size, and they were fretting about the insurance cost between 2L and 3L cars, and all the vehicles we had in America were 4L+.

No normal person needs a 4l car. You just don't. Heck, 3l is huge and not required with modern engine sizes; between 1 and 2l is plenty for the vast majority of people who are not farmers routinely getting stuck in mud whilst towing heavy equipment.

In 2019, the average new petrol ("gas") car in the UK requires 5.7 l of fuel per 100 km (49.2 mpg) [1].

The corresponding figure for the US is ~9.44 l/100km (24.9 mpg [2,3]).

We really, really need to decarbonise our economy worldwide and in many ways this fuel scare may be the catalyst required, with UK autotrader saying it was driving people to e-car retailers [4].

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/energy-a...

[2] https://www.iea.org/reports/fuel-consumption-of-cars-and-van...

[3] https://www.epa.gov/automotive-trends/highlights-automotive-...

[4] https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2021/sep/27/uk-pet...

I know. My neighbor just upgraded from a mini SUV to a 5.7L pickup truck to commute to his office job.

The spoils of a government that does not have a high fossil fuel tax.

4L!? Are you towing an aeroplane?

My most recent car was 1.1L and was fine for anything I used it for...

I do agree that basing insurance on engine capacity is odd though. Why not power to weight ratio or something?

Fuel is/was a lot more expensive in UK.

Yes, that is also a factor I forgot to mention.

>an extra 40kgs of weight in the car which costs a bit.

Do European cars have gigantic fuel tanks?

40kgs is 40 / 0.71kg/L = 56.3L ~= 14.9 gallons.

14.9 gallons is as much, or more than any car I own carries. And I've never put more than 13 gallons into any vehicle ever during a single fill up.

To have that kind of "spare" capacity beyond what would be necessary for my daily commute, I'd need to be driving a large SUV or pickup truck.

I looked up a 3 Series BMW, and they have 40L or 57L tanks in the new models. Down from 60 or so 10 years ago.

I feel like 20kgs is a more accurate number. And that's really the difference between a small woman and a medium sized man driving the same vehicle.

I have a BMW 1 Series and always fill to the brim, highest I've got is 48L so I expect full to be 50L.

Ok 20kg :)

I guess the question is how much does moving 20kg extra cost you over 20k km?