Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 16:14:47 -0500
Reply-To: "John P. Flaherty" <jflahert@MAINE.RR.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "John P. Flaherty" <jflahert@MAINE.RR.COM>
Subject: Re: Gas in Oil fill
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
A few years ago I was getting gas in New Jersey, where they still don't have
self serve. I jumped out and got to the attendant just as he was unscrewing
the oil fill cap. The dipstick on my '84 doesn't go through the cap, but
you'd think the idiot would have noticed that theres an engine back there
when he pulled down the plate. There truly are no limits to stupidity.
BTW, I've used full serve in other places, no one else did that.
John Flaherty
Portland, Maine
'84 GL
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tobin Copley" <tobin.copley@UBC.CA>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, February 18, 2002 10:59 AM
Subject: Re: Gas in Oil fill
> At 5:23 AM -0800 2/18/02, scott bumpus wrote:
> >I recently allowed someone to test drive my '90 gl. The guy took my
> >van down to the gas station and decided to put in a couple bucks...
> >Turns out he filled the oil fill with gas.
>
> Okay, I gotta ask: how could anyone *possibly* do this? We hear
> about this happening from time to time on the list, and it blows me
> away every time. I just don't get it.
>
> I mean, picture it: Someone is used to American cars with the
> gasoline fill tube behind the license plate, so pulls back the plate
> and finds a tube with a cap on it there and starts to go at it
> thinking it's where the gas goes. Okay, I can follow it to that
> point. BUT:
>
> 1) The "gas cap" is marked "oil" (although it may not be legible if
> it's really dirty);
> 2) It's got an OIL DIP STICK right through the centre of the cap (the
> one marked "oil," remember?)
> 3) The dip stick has to be pulled out before the cap can be unscrewed
> (unless they demonstrate impressive dexterity);
> 4) The dip stick will have OIL on it.
>
> COME ON!!! Isn't a light supposed to go on inside the head of anyone
> smarter than a bag of hammers when what we are observing is so
> horribly at odds with our expectations? Or what would make sense?
> Is there not even an inkling that something is going right off the
> rails, and fast? Do people *really* not think critically at all
> about what is going on around them? Am I the only one scratching my
> head here? Think about it: these are the same people hurtling
> several thousand pounds of metal down the highway every day.
> Hilarious? Frightening?
>
> Maybe I should be surprised we don't hear about this sort of thing
> more. After all, we've seen that huge portions of a population can
> blithely -- no enthusiastically -- follow political leaders down the
> equivalent of putting gasoline in the oil filler tube...
>
> Wow, what a world!
>
> T.
>
> (Hope your engine comes out of this okay, Scott)
>
> --
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Tobin Copley Bowen Island, BC, Canada 49deg 23'N-123deg 19'W
>
> '82 Westfalia 1.6L NA diesel ("Stinky")
> '97 son Russell =============
> '99 daughter Margaret /_| |_L| |__|:| clatter
> SPEED KILLS! {. .| clatter!
> Drive a Vanagon diesel ~-()-==----()-~
>
| 
