Apparently there's over £80 million spent on fixing engines that have had the wrong fuel put into them, in the UK alone. Why not have different shaped nozzles for the pumps that match the 'socket' in the car? Circular for plain unleaded, Triangular for diesel, square for super unleaded etc. A simple plastic/rubber adapter (or some compound that isn't melted by fuel)could be attached to the pump until all cars and pumps 'fit'.
-- gardnose, Mar 28 2002

Baked - try getting a leaded petrol nozzle into an unleaded socket.
-- mcscotland, Mar 28 2002


I say let them screw up. It's safe social Darwinism for drivers. I'd rather they wreck their engines than drive like an idiot.
-- rapid transit, May 20 2003


ditto
-- KLRico, Feb 16 2004


I recommend reading "The Design of Everyday Things" for an interesting critique of many, ordinary, badly designed things.
-- talldave, Jan 28 2008


No wiener shaped nozzles?
-- Antegrity, Jan 29 2008


// No wiener shaped nozzles? // That's exactly what I was wondering in my mind when I first read the description. Bun on that wiener!
-- Jscotty, Jan 30 2008


You would need an interim modifiable cap before it becomes a universal standard
-- DanDaMan, Jan 30 2008


What [Antegrity] said, obviously.
-- wagster, Jan 30 2008


I'd rather have car and truck engines that use a universal fuel. One pump, one nozzle, one fuel....it makes such perfect, simple, sense.
-- Blisterbob, Jan 30 2008


Wiener shaped nozzles with orifice shaped gas caps.
-- Antegrity, Feb 02 2008


//or some compound that isn't melted by fuel// Dissolved. You mean 'dissolved'. I don't know why, but it always annoys me when people talk about sugar 'melting' in water or plastic 'melting' in a solvent. The two processes - melting and dissolving - are only tangentially related.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 02 2008



random, halfbakery