What gas station should you never go to, according to YouTube mechanic Scotty Kilmer? The one that’s ripping you off! The difficulty, of course, is figuring out whether a particular gas station is honest or whether it’s skimming you for extra cash.
What gas station does #savagescotty say you should never go to?
- Stations with too many fuel additives
- Stations with a history of theft
- Price gougers
- Gas gougers
- Stores that take the “convenience” out
It’s tough for the average layman to spot all of the different ways that an unethical gas station can shave a few extra pennies out of your wallet every time you fill your car up. Fortunately, Scotty Kilmer grew up working in gas stations and he’s learned to spot all the tricks.
You can watch the video for Scotty’s frenetic recommendations on gas stations to avoid. We’ll also summarize some of his main points in this article for you. Let’s get started.
What Gas Station Should You Never Frequent?
Avoid Brands With Too Many Additives
Here’s a dirty little secret that none of the service stations want you to know: They’re all getting their gas from the same three mega-storage facilities. The base ingredient in all gasoline is exactly the same.
Each brand then mixes fuel additives into the gas before selling it to you. The problem? They don’t tell anyone what their additives are. We do know, however, that fuel brands are allowed to add up to 10 percent corn-based ethanol as an additive.
While mixing gas with ethanol is a way to reduce the cost for consumers, ethanol provides significantly less power than gasoline. One method that #savagescotty recommends is monitoring your miles-per-gallon ratio.
If your car is getting 10 to 20 percent lower gas mileage than it should be, that’s a problem. It could be a sign that the gas station you’re using is putting too much ethanol or other mystery additives into the fuel.
Avoid Stations with a History of Theft
You’ve probably seen news reports of stations where customers get ripped off by credit card thieves. These crooks attach a reader to the pump that then steals your credit card number over a basic WiFi signal. This practice is known as “card skimming.” If a station has a history of being hit by these types of thefts, you might want to avoid it.
Avoid Price Gougers
When #savagescotty started working in service stations as a teenager, he used to have to open the pumps and manually adjust the price for gasoline with an Allen wrench. It was kind of a miserable chore, but it obviously prevented rapid price swings.
Today, the price on digital pumps can be changed with the push of a button inside the service station. This creates an opportunity for an unethical gas station to gouge customers.
Watch the price of gas at a service station carefully to see whether they’re actually gouging their customers. Does the price of fuel suddenly jump up a few cents when it starts raining? Does the price jump up a bit during rush-hour traffic at the end of a long day?
The cost that a service station paid for the fuel it’s selling you didn’t suddenly increase because it started raining. That’s price gouging, and you should avoid any station that does this.
Avoid Gas Gougers
This trick works similarly to price gouging, but it happens from the other direction. Just because you are paying for a gallon of gas doesn’t mean that the pump is delivering exactly one gallon of gas.
If you suspect a service station is gouging you, Scotty Kilmer recommends buying a one-gallon gas can with a visible fill line to test it. If you pay for 1.0 gallons of gas and it only fills the can up to 85 or 90 percent, that station has calibrated the pumps to rip off its customers. Don’t buy your gas there. (And feel free to turn them in to your state’s regulatory agency.)
Avoid Stores That Just Don’t Care
Just because you buy your gas from a convenience store doesn’t mean that customer service should be thrown out the window. The little things matter, and if a gas station doesn’t provide those things on a consistent basis, take your money elsewhere.
For example, if the pumps are always running out of receipt paper, you’re forced to go inside to get your receipt at the register. Kind of takes the “convenience” out of the “convenience store,” doesn’t it?
If a gas station doesn’t treat you right as a customer, they obviously don’t care if they have your business or not. Why frequent a station that doesn’t care one way or another?
Learn to Watch for Shady Gas Station Practices
It’s not always easy to spot the things you should look for to avoid being gouged at the gas station. Thanks to experienced internet mechanics like Scotty Kilmer, we’re all a little smarter on this issue! Keep coming back to Vehicle History for more tips on smart car ownership.
