Apr 13, 2006 07:40 PM
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(Updated Apr 13, 2006 07:40 PM)
When you go for fuel in your vehicle, what do you think about? The latest clothes? The smart guy in the vehicle next to yours? What are you going to cook for dinner? The sports news? the sensex? or the fuel which you are going to utilize?
Every outlet is out to make a fast buck. How? Mostly in 2 ways- the short measure and the mixture.
They calibrate the movement of the counters in such a way that for every 10 litrs of fuel, you will get between 9 and 9.5 litrs. It's much like how people tamper with electricity metres to make them run slowly. in the fuel station, they run fast.
Mixture is done very cleverly, especially with petrol. since petrol is so expensive, It's lucrative to add something to it. The best way to check for purity is to take some time out, and do the blotting paper test or the density test-with water. Ask someone good in chem how it's done- I've forgotten.
The worst offenders in the fuel companies are HP and BP. They do not have a good internal check system and their customer complaints department is something like the blue sky yonder- way beyond reach. Indianoil and Reliance have the best track records.
The retail outlet also makes a difference. The only way to know which is good is by trial and error, or by hearsay. In any case, wherever you go, be watchful and be insistent if you feel there's something wrong.
Have fun.
