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Now I don't know, but always thought it might matter as to the country of the sales point and if that country was right hand drive or left.
Some older English cars made for right hand drive, were simply converted by moving the steering and adding throttle linkage for left hand drive to the USA. The MGA was such a car, and sitting in the passanger seat you could indeed step on the throttle linkage and make the car go.
Mac, check out my post #15. It gives the reasons as explained to me by industry folks. It has to do with the country of origin on imports and is dictated by the ease of mounting in domestic built cars. Please note that import and domestic in this case refers to primary country of origin, not where the manufacturers based and whether or not the model is "global" or North American only.
With foreign makes, a general rule of thumb is that whatever side of the road they drive on in the car's primary market, the filler cap will be on the same side. So most European cars will have it on the right side, most Japanese cars have it on the left side, though Japanese makes will often put it on the right side for cars intended primarily for export. For American cars, it often comes down to packaging: if it's easier to put it on the left side, they do. If it's easier to put it on the right side, they do.
Having all of the fuel doors on one side would halve the efficiency of any fuel station which requires cars to pull in facing the same direction (unless they put in twice the amount of fuel pumps, which no station would ever do). Something to think about.
In all honesty, it never bothered me too much. However, I do find it a bit funny that many folks don't know what that little arrow next to the fuel icon on their dash means. Not all cars have it, but for those that do, it's pointing to the side of the car that the fuel door is on.
Mike
Of those that don't, you can usually tell by which side the pump nozzle is on in the little gas pump illustration. Whichever side the nozzle is on, so is the fuel cap.
At Costco it doesn't matter on which side the filler is, as the hose is so long (with a retractable cord) you can fill from either side. My full size truck has it on the left, but I usually go to a right side pump as the line is usually shorter.
I actually thought about this last night. I like having the filler on the driver side. Although I have never left the pump in the filler I think it is a good thing to have it there b/c for someone who does they would see it before they got back in their vehicle.
Whoever thought about putting it on the passenger side, obviously never pulled into a filling station, in a blinding blizzard, and had to get out and walk all the way around the vehicle to put fuel in it.
Whoever thought about putting it on the passenger side, obviously never pulled into a filling station, in a blinding blizzard, and had to get out and walk all the way around the vehicle to put fuel in it.
But they did think about putting gas in it on a rainy night along side a busy road, where you'd be in danger on the driver's side, rather than merely uncomfortable in your scenario.
NJGOAT, I read that, but you didn't say it like "I KNOW", so i took it as opinion. Evidently you "KNOW"
Still it's fun to step on the throttle linkage on a MGA when somebody else thinks their doin' all the driving
Well, I'm not 100% sure that I KNOW. It's what I've been told by the folks who build the things. Though it makes sense when you think about it. The real answer would of course be, it is located on whatever side of the car is least convenient to you in a given situation.
Why should it matter at all? Really it just depends on the engineering of the car and what works best. Weight distribution is the thing that you should be concerned with not where the filler car is located. I would bet that if you drive the same car everyday it won't take too long before you figure it out anyway. I for one prefer to hide it. Had a 76 GMC with a short bed that had everything shaved off including the fuel filler. Clean lines are best anyway.
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