Old Gas Stations Charging By The Half Gallon

from the not-quite-the-bargain-you-thought dept

At the beginning of May, we mentioned that a bunch of gas stations were discovering that their older pumps couldn't handle prices over $4. They ticked up to $3.99 9/10 / gallon and that was it. For now, it appears that some regulators are allowing such gas stations to start selling gas by the half gallon -- or, rather charging half-price and doubling it at the register. They're only allowed to do this if they can show that they've ordered new parts that will handle up to $9.99 -- though, of course the folks who make such parts are running out of them quickly as a bunch of stations are rushing to upgrade. Any bets on how long until we'll be writing about the gas stations running into problems when the price of gas reaches $10/gallon? What's scary is that even at the half price ($2.03/half gallon), it wasn't that long ago when that seemed really high for a full gallon.

Filed Under: gas pumps, technology

Older Gas Pumps Don't Go Above $4; But Don't Expect To Get Cheap Gas Out Of Them

from the oops dept

With gas prices across the country soaring to over $4/gallon, you may want to track down one of those (now mostly rural) gas stations that still uses really old gas pumps. It turns out that many of them were not designed to handle prices over $4. They go right up to $3.99 9/10... and that's it. While there aren't that many gas stations left that still have these pumps, it's causing a bit of a mess for them. The article highlights one station that has huge signs everywhere explaining that the price on the pump is inaccurate, and the station will apply a multiplier to the final amount to get the price right. While operating a gas pump with the incorrect price being shown is illegal, it sounds like (at least in Washington, where the story was written), state officials are making exceptions -- though it wants the stations to have plans in place to upgrade the pumps. I guess this is sort of the gas station industry's version of Y2K.

Filed Under: $4 gas, gas pumps, old technology