Warning about petrol loss

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32568, 30 March 1971, Page 2

Warning about petrol loss

(New Zealand Prett Association) WELLINGTON, March 29. Motorists who ask for “two dollars’ worth” of petrol are advised not to do so. Instead, they should ask for four gallons, says the Consumers’ Institute.

Some motorists are losing 3.4 c when they buy $2 worth of petrol, the institute says. The new price of super grade petrol throughout New Zealand is 46c a gallon. This means that $2 worth is 4.348 gallons. But most petrol pumps are marked only in tenths (a few are marked in twentieths). The motorist should be given 43 gallons and then “an extra squirt” to make it up to 4.348. If the extra squirt is not given, the short measure costs the motorist 2.2 c. With a $1 purchase the customer should get just on 2.174 gallons. Only 2.1 gallons is supplied, and the loss to the customer is 3.4 c. There are losses also if an extra squirt is not given when the motorist buys standard grade petrol in $1 or $2 lots. The Consumers’ Institute

made 33 purchases at 26 Wellington garages, and found that short measure was given in every case but one. The institute calculates that a motorist who clocks up 8000 miles a year and who always buys in $1 or $2 lots could lose $2.50 over 12 months. The remedy is to ask for two gallons instead of $1 worth, and four gallons instead of $2 worth.