The Journey Of Your New Car – getting pumped

The Journey Of Your New Car – getting pumped

So now, you have put your precious money into buying that dream car and the day that it arrives in Singapore has come!

It lands in our port, someone picks it up and it gets transported to our showrooms for collection. Have you ever wondered about the fuel that goes into the car? Does it come empty? How much fuel goes into it? What kind of fuel goes into it?

Well here is the story of two companies who choose a quaint little station in the West Coast to top up the fuel for their new arrivals.

Both Honda and Toyota use a small Shell station down South, close to the Pasir Panjang MRT, and everyday, rain or shine, more than a dozen car transporters stop here to fill up the cars they carry. If you do the maths, that's about a ten cars or so per transporter and more than 100 cars each day! It also gives you an idea of the sales volume of these bigger car companies.

The station has a total of eight pumps, and the two outermost pair are equipped with extra long hoses, which allow the driver to reach the second deck of his transporter truck, without having to move the long truck. And yes it's usually the driver who does the job, rather than the regular fuel attendants, but they do help out sometimes. It typically takes the driver around half an hour or more to refuel all the cars in one load.

So you get a full tank? Sadly no, they will give you 50 bucks worth of the golden liquid, and it's Ron 95 for these cars. Diesel cars obviously get a different oil, but it's still the same amount. Given current petrol prices, you will get around a quarter tank, depending on how large the fuel tank is.

Other car companies have tie ups with other stations, but the more premium marques may give you a full tank if you get their more expensive cars, but most car dealers only give you around a quarter tank. Enough for you to run about for a while, but with fuel prices so high, I guess unless you are a top valued customer, a quarter tank will have to do. Cars requiring a higher Ron do get a different grade of fuel, but whether that makes a difference is left to another story to answer….