"No turn is a wrong turn"

bill@billsbackroads.com

Petrol stations in Europe vs. the U.S.

(Otherwise known as “Ooops!”)

I still find it hard to believe this edition of Bill’s Backroads!

Ever wonder what happens when you put “Benzin” (regular gasoline) into your diesel engine rental car?

In September we flew into Frankfurt a week before our planned Ben’s Bauernhof Stammtisch meeting on the Mosel River in Germany. At the Avis car rental counter, the reserved and paid for (thru those great folks at Gemütlichkeit) Avis Intermediate Car -VW Passat diesel preferred - was not available! (This is not an unusual occurrence, for benefit of those who are new to renting cars.) Avis offered me a “comparable” made-in-Spain SEAT (been fooled by that very unequal comparison before!) which I turned down. After some long drawn out haggling at the counter, the Avis agent finally told me, “All we have left is a Volvo V-50 wagon diesel. It is a 6 speed manual transmission. Same intermediate class.” So I took it.

We drove out of the Frankfurt airport, found our autobahn and headed toward the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) and Alsace (F) areas. Suzie and I had decided a couple of months earlier to run over to the Loire area of France and see some of their magnificent castles, palaces, and other sites. We planned to zigzag through the Alsace (F) and Schwarzwald areas until reaching Colmar (F) and then head almost directly west to the Loire area.

As we motored down the autobahn, the autobahn was as rough as a cob, and that Volvo wagon bounced worse than a Monday-made Cadillac going through a west Texas railroad yard. Road noise was unacceptably loud inside the car, too. In fact, it was so loud we had a problem hearing each other’s shouts – with normal conversation impossible. Not acceptable at all, but as we turned off the extremely rough autobahn and onto a smooth backroad, the Volvo quieted down and drove very smoothly and surprisingly quietly. Since historically we drive more Backroads (smooth) than autobahns, we now decided to keep the car and continue on our way.

By now, those of you who have read the column know our travel plans are subject to change on a whim. And change they did this first day out. As we crossed into Strasbourg (F) at the top of the Alsace area, Suzie asked, “What would you think of putting off France and heading into Switzerland instead?” I told her I’d been thinking about just that for a week, so we turned that Volvo back into the Schwarzwald and headed south to Basel (S), Bern (S), and on to the Swiss Berner Oberland and our favorite Lauterbrunnen, just 13 clicks up in the Alps and south of Interlaken.

Five days later, after some much needed R&R, fresh air, good food, quiet mountain serenity, and our nerves once again intact, we headed back to Germany. As we motored in and out across numerous Swiss, Deutsch borders east of Schaffhausen (S), I decided to fill up the car with lesser expensive Swiss fuel before finally crossing over into Germany. This was the third fill up this trip for the Volvo diesel, and we seemed to be getting great mileage (as diesels should).

A short note about diesels in Europe: From our 16 trip experience over the past 11 years, we choose diesels whenever we can because we like their fuel consumption mileage, usually 44 to 48 miles per gallon (73 to 80 kilometers per gallon) which is a great help to our budget!

Now pay attention here because I’m about to tell you what happened to me… NOT what you’re supposed to do (which comes later).

We pulled into the petrol station and I got out of the car. As I was reaching for the pump, I was distracted. Then half thinking with my AMERICAN MIND, I thought “let’s see… green handle for diesel” and grabbed the green handle that says “Benzin” and stuffed it into the car fuel inlet. Then I thought, “Double check now…” and my crazy American logic made the same mistake, i.e. “green handle is for diesel and the black handle pump is for gasoline”…. so I thought “black is gas… nope I want the green and besides the nozzle fits into the tank so I must be right” and began pumping, still distracted and in too big a hurry for my own good. Even when Suzie asked me, “Do you have the right gas pump?” I assured her I did and kept fueling! Well, a fool and his fuel are soon parted!

After paying for the fuel, I hopped in the car and took off… for about 3 km. All of a sudden, the engine began sputtering like someone shut off the fuel line. My mind immediately clicked to reality and I thought, “D___! I filled this thing up with GASOLINE instead of Diesel fuel!” We were then passing a Ford dealership, so I immediately turned into the parking lot and shut off the engine.

Friday afternoon. The Ford dealership was closed, but there was another auto repair facility across the road. So I had them tow the car into their shop in hopes of simply draining the bad fuel in the tank and lines, and getting me back on the road. We surely did not want to spend the weekend in this small town. Nope – they did not have the proper manuals or parts for a Volvo, and the town was too small for a Volvo dealership.

We then called Avis. The Avis representative was nice, and told us that he would send a Volvo truck designed to transport our car back to the Volvo dealership for repair. He also said that to get a replacement Avis car, we would have to take a taxi 60 km to Singen (Germany) the next town with an Avis location up the road. He also told us this Avis rental site would close for the weekend in less than 2 hours. So, we called the local taxi (probably the only one in this town – Neuhausen, if memory serves me) and for 55 €, she spirited us to Singen, oft at speeds approaching 170 kmph (100 miles per hour).

In Singen, the Avis people were expecting us and were very pleasant to us. I explained my careless act of putting gas into the diesel car, and they explained that – for the same “green handled” reasons – many Americans do the same thing more often than we realized! They put us into their only available car, a little Mitsubishi Colt, and we headed to Stuttgart.

While this mini-car economy class was underpowered and very limited, it was our only “ticket to somewhere” and its low power easily handled the 4 hour Stau we encountered south of Stuttgart! Besides, I was still fuming at myself. I continued to be extremely upset at my carelessness and lack of attention to my fueling fiasco. In fact, Suzie was trying to calm me be quoting my own words back to me, i.e. “What’s done is done. You’ve admitted your error and taken full responsibility. Accept it. Put it behind you and don’t even think about it again until the bill comes.”

The Bill!

Then I started worrying again. Having never pulled this careless stunt, I had no idea the cost! Nor did the Avis counter agents. Our friends had no idea either as they had never made that mistake.

After a sleepless nite in a hotel outside of Stuttgart, the next morning we visited the Avis counter at the Stuttgart airport. We had one week of our trip left, and had hopes of getting back into a larger rental car (that we had paid for months earlier). As we explained our problem (my goof) to the Avis counter agent, she smiled and told us not to worry because it happens all the time to “Americans.” She put us into a Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan, 1.9T, with 6 speed manual transmission. She then cautioned me, “Its Gasoline – not diesel!”

This car was a dream to drive. In fact it’s the most fun driving, best handling, “road-owning” car I’ve had the pleasure to drive in over 15 years. Smooth, quiet, with a small, powerful supercharged engine that propels this jewel from 0 to 100 MPH so fast and so smoothly you’re there before you can imagine! (We’ll talk about my speeding ticket later.) If SAAB wants a glowing testimony, let me know!

From this point on, our trip was a wonderful experience. We visited long time friends in Dettelbach, over to Rothenburg, then up the Rhine to the Mosel River, and finally over to our Ben's Bauernhof Stammtisch group meeting in Brodenbach on the Mosel.

Our gathering was held at the Hotel Peifer, and although it was an outstanding view of the Mosel, clean rooms and reasonably good food, I do not consider it a repeat location and will not recommend it. This is due to the poor attitude of owner and his family, and their lack of caring and major lack of response. Although our reservations were made one year earlier with numerous phone calls and faxes by Stammtisch members during that year, they “forgot about it” as we learned on our arrival. Others from our attending group have covered this issue so we’ll move on…

As our Mosel gathering adjourned Thursday AM, we heard that a Hurricane RITA was bearing down on Houston, to our surprise as we had no internet, no cable TV etc at the Mosel location. So we quickly decided to cut our trip short - we thought we needed to get to our North Houston (Tomball) home - rushing back into a hurricane, for what reason I’ll never understand, thinking back on it. Our fast trip back to the Frankfurt airport is probably where the Polizei apparently took my zoom-zoom picture. Still haven’t heard from them on that matter.

Now, are you still curious how much it cost me to make this wrong-fuel mistake by putting regular gasoline into the diesel tank?

Well, after waiting over 2 months, I just received my credit card bill with the Avis charges. Putting benzene (gasoline) in my diesel Avis car cost me 600€. That converts to $800 US. The Avis credit card charge was not broken down, so I called the Avis customer service line for European rentals (it’s located in Tulsa, OK, the same as the Avis Reservation Center) and requested an itemization of the charge. The Avis representative assured me the breakdown was the full and final bill for my costly mistake. She also assured me that, “By now Avis must have a group rate or something, as so many Americans make that same mistake.”

Some club! And what an initiation fee!

Here’s some info to help you NOT make my mistake.

Germany (EU) filling stations vs. United States filling stations:

All grades of unleaded petrol, diesel and LPG are available as well as lead substitute additive. Leaded petrol (gasoline) no longer exists.

NOW let’s review the CORRECT petrol (gasoline) station procedures for fueling your car in Europe / Germany / Europe / EU.

Germany: Gasoline is called “benzin” and unleaded gas is called “bleifrei benzin.” Bleifrei (unleaded gas) comes in three categories, i.e. bleifrei (regular), super bleifrei (super unleaded) and super bleifrei plus (highest octane for big engine cars, i.e. Mercedes and Porsches). The benzin (gasoline) pump handle – regardless of regular, super, or super plus - is usually GREEN. G R E E N. Sometimes only a single GREEN pump handle is the main benzene / gasoline nozzle for the three various grades of benzin, i.e. regular, super plus, and super plus octane, and you push the button below your preferred type of petrol.

The benzin (gasoline) pump handle is usually GREEN. G R E E N.

YES, the GREEN bleifrei pump nozzle WILL fit into a diesel car gas port!

All the easier to put the bleifrei fuel in your diesel car!

Germany: Diesel was once called “gasoil” in some older stations, while many new stations now label the pumps / handles simply “diesel.”

The diesel pump handles are usually BLACK. B L A C K

In many newer service stations in Germany (Shell, etc), they have multiple handle pumps that include two (2) separate diesel pump handles which are located as one on the outside left and one on the outside right of the pump. Please read handle ID carefully as one appears to be a finer grade diesel (for cars) than the other (for commercial vehicles).

Both diesel pump handles are usually BLACK. B L A C K

That’s the end of the Germany part.

Want to compare this with the United States / North America?

US/CANADA: Gasoline is called “Gasoline.” The three grade choices are Regular, Plus and Super (or something similar) and the US gasoline pump handles are usually BLACK. B L A C K . But remember, even in the U.S., the smaller gasoline nozzle will fit into the larger hole of the diesel tank! You can still make the same mistake in the U.S. that I made in Germany!

US/CANADA: Diesel fuel is called “diesel.” The US diesel pump handle is usually GREEN. GREEN. More often than not, the diesel fuel nozzle is on a separate pump from the gasoline, and often it’s even on a separate driveway isle in the station. The diesel nozzle is too large to fit into the regular gasoline tank filler hole.

Hope this helps you understand how simple the procedure, but how easy to make my same mistake if you don’t keep your mind awake (and listen to your spouse).

Final wrap and update from last month -

The more you drive the Backroads, the more you'll consider this your favorite Autobahn sign:

Here’s wishing you Wise, Safe and Healthy travels on the Backroads of the World.

Earlier columns from Bill's Backroads

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