I’ve yet to find a hill I wouldn’t be willing to die on to defend my stance, and the same holds true for this gorgeous and clear-cut hill. There is only one right answer for which side of the vehicle your fuel filler door should be, and it’s quite obviously the passenger side. I mean, the right answer is the middle of the car, so it doesn’t matter which side of the pump you pull up to, but that’s illegal, so I’m saying passenger’s side is the best solution. There’s a reason for that, and it’s safety.
People don’t run out of fuel very often anymore, as fuel economy has improved and dashboard warnings are a lot more accurate than they were decades ago. I have driven a bunch of old shitboxes, however, and I’m grateful for a fuel filler on the passenger’s side. If you ever run out of fuel on the side of a busy highway, you’d probably agree with me. After the hike to the gas station and the hike back, it would be a damn shame to stand traffic side to pour in your jerry can and get blasted by an inattentive Lexus driver.
YouTube science man and philanthropist Hank Green was curious about the data, so he ran an informal poll on Twitter to ask people about the cars they drove and which side the fuel door was mounted on. The data he got was impressive, and he took some time to break it down on his YouTube channel. I love this kind of in-the-weeds nerdy data analysis that doesn’t really mean anything or solve any problems. It’s a fun watch, and maybe you’ll learn something.
Of course we live in a global economy, so the Japanese and British brands will tend to err on the side of their home market, putting the filler on the left side of the car. I’ve had a handful of cars with the fuel door on the driver’s side in my lifetime, and while I will say it’s the wrong side for a fuel door to be, that’s no reason to completely disregard a car as good. It’s simply a mark against any car’s level of goodness.