Featured What octane gas are you really putting in your car

Am I right in thinking that diesel passenger cars are really quite unusual in the US?

They were very common here and in Europe until Dieselgate. With larger SUVs - things like BMW X5s or Hyundai Santa Fes or Kia Sorrentos - almost all of them are diesel.

 

Diesel passenger cars and SUVs are pretty rare in the USA. They were mostly sold by the German brands but they all stopped selling diesels after Dieselgate. Diesels are very popular for pickup trucks and of course commercial vehicles.

However, it is getting to the point where diesel just doesn't make sense economically. I got my first VW diesel wagon in 2003 and back then diesel was less than regular gasoline. Ever since we switched to 15 PPM sulfur diesel in 2007 diesel has been the same or more than regular gasoline. I sold my 2014 VW diesel earlier this year because VW wasn't honoring the dieselgate warranty and it simply wasn't saving me any money to drive a diesel. Right now near me diesel is $5.50 a gallon while regular gasoline is $3.70 and then I have to add DEF too.

You asked about preauthorization before pumping earlier. Yes, that is normal and a year ago the normal amount that would be authorized was $75 to $100. When gas prices went up in the USA this year that was raised to $150 and now my card authorizes $200. My Ambulance has a 6.6L V8 Duramax diesel engine and a 57 gallon fuel tank. Today it takes about $300 to fill the tank so I have to swipe my card twice.

 

USA sales (at least until the Biden administration) really turn on which state they are being sold in, yet they still are relatively popular, as a modern diesel can be around 30% more efficient than non hybrid gassers.



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definitely. vw probably did the best job marketing them. mercedes sold quite a few, but i don't know the numbers.
i got tipped off by my mechanic. he told me the 300 series could go a million miles without engine repairs.
i thought it was pretty cool, but i wasn't thinking about emissions back then

 

Yes, I can see that would be the case in the US.

Yes. I have a 67 litre (17.7 US gallon) tank in my diesel, and I can do 1200km (about 750 miles) on a tank without really trying. If I were brave / stupid enough to drive through the desert on a near-empty tank, I could do my regular Sydney to Broken Hill run on one tank.

 

It's all very foreign to us. We just pay after we've filled up.

 

The W123s - the late 70s / early 80s ones - go on forever. They are absolutely indestructible. A million miles and you've just about run it in.

I got a W123 taxi in Penang a few years ago that was getting close to a million km (600,000 miles), and the driver said he'd never broken down or needed a serious repair.

 

How does that work for pay at the pump - or don't you have pay at the pump?

In the USA, we swipe our card at the pump, it does a preauthorization to verify we can afford to pay, and then we pump gas. After we are done pumping it charges the credit card for the amount actually pumped and the preauthorization goes away. It is very convenient and we never have to go inside and wait in line to pay. (Inside it always seems there is a line for people buying cigarettes and lotto tickets.) The only downside is if you are using a debit card and the preauthorization is more money than you have in your account. In that case most debit cards will authorize the payment but charge a $20 fee for overdrawing the account.


When I have purchased gas in Europe or Latin America there is usually an attendant that pumps the gas and then does the credit card transaction after on a handheld card reader. That is the biggest thing that is odd about credit card payment to me in the USA.

Here handheld card readers are relatively rare. It is still very common for us to hand our credit card to a waiter, that waiter then takes the card over to a dark corner of the restaurant, and then returns with a receipt to sign. Travelling outside of the USA that would be considered crazy. The waiter brings a card reader to the table and you swipe your card and put in a PIN - you would never just hand someone your credit card. In the USA the most common form of credit card theft is from restaurants. The waiter can just take a picture of your card and they have everything they need to start using it.

 

I've noticed a considerable uptick in food service processes where the card never leaves my hands. Counter-top, table, and portable readers.

I don't believe that is true anymore. Electronic intrusions and data breaches are a very large source.

Pictures are sufficient only for using them the old fashioned manual imprint reader way, which I haven't seen for a long time, unless one also buys additional ID victim info from the dark web. A magnetic reader is needed to read additional information to clone a usable magnetic card. The weak security of magnetic cards is what drove the chip and RF-tap cards (very tardy to reach the U.S.), which are much more difficult to clone.

But there is still plenty of stolen information to buy on the dark web, taken from a myriad of data breaches. Even open new credit accounts too.

 

A credit card has all the information required to use it online printed on the credit card:

• Name
• CC #
• Expiration Date
• Security Code

With that info you can order just about anything. I've had my work credit card info stolen 3 times now. Every time they do a small test buy and then try to buy a bunch of electronics online. Knock on wood - never had my personal CC info stolen.

Data breaches and online methods get all the press but a lot of fraud still happens the old fashion way. Phishing is another big source - just call someone up and tell them you are from VISA and their card has been frozen. Please confirm your info....

 

All my on-line credit card transactions demand a bit more information than that.

 

Everytime my credit card was stolen I hadn’t used it in a while.

a credit card that never left my house or got used was stolen several times.

 

Some credit cards put all that info on one side now.

The only extra I've had to deal with was the "I'm not a robot" bits.

 

I'm always having to enter my home address or phone number, neither of which are printed on the card.

At gas pumps, at unusual locations or when using a different card than normal, I'm often quizzed for my zip code, also not printed on the card.

 

Only had to enter the zip code at a gas pump. It was normal procedure for some time. Then the pumps got chip readers, and that stopped. Now I have had it asked a couple times recently. All with the same card.

 

Pay at the pump is an option at some pumps, but most people don't use it, partly because it's quicker and easier to pay afterwards in person than to go through the pre-auth rigmarole, and partly because people are usually going to go in and get a drink or a pie or something so they'll pay for everything at once, and partly because people here do prefer person-to-person interactions.

Gosh, that's quite the downside.

In Britain and Australia, attendants are vanishingly rare. You pump the fuel yourself, and then go into the shop to pay (and buy a pie).

I didn't know that. That's weird. The idea of someone wandering off to a darkened room with your card is kind of alarming.

 

I have never understood why the humans didn't use this system to identify Cylons disguised as humans in Battlestar Galactica. Rather than torturing them and stuff, they could have just said "Which of these windows has traffic lights in it?"

 

I've those picture tests are for training AI at identifying things. Could just be a conspiracy theory, like new Coke Zero actually being Tab.

 

I've heard that too. The other thing I've heard is that robots can identify traffic lights or buses or whatever (self-driving cars would be pretty alarming if they couldn't), but they can't mimic the inconsistent way we move our mouse to highlight the relevant pictures.

I liked Tab. If that comes back I will be cool with that.

Coke No Sugar can bugger off, however. If I want something that tastes like 98-octane Coke (see, I'm getting back to topic), I'll buy that. I like Diet Coke precisely because it doesn't taste like full-sugar Coke.

 

I use 83 or 85 octane in my gasoline cars.

The 1985 VW diesel with something like 700,000 miles on it (just a guess after the odometer quit at over 400,000 miles on it) is still running.