A chat with the boss of a breakdown specialist last week revealed that despite massive nationwide awareness campaigns and better availability of aftermarket prevention devices, the problem of misfuelling is getting worse not better.
Misfuelling is the common name for what’s clearly a common problem – putting the wrong fuel in your car. It's overwhelmingly petrol into diesel vehicles because the shape of the pump nozzle means it's much harder to do it the other way. You might think only a handful of not-very-bright drivers would do this, but you’d be wrong. Tens of thousands fall victim every year, and in the first six months of 2010 there was a 5.8 per cent rise on the same period in 2009.
“We can’t provide an explanation for the rise, there’s no reason in the industry for this to have happened,” explained the firm’s boss.
Not all were breakdowns; some drivers realised what they had done before pulling away from the pump and rang for help. This is absolutely the best thing to do, because your tank can be syphoned at a relatively low cost. The experts at www.startrescue.co.uk agree 100 per cent. Every breakdown policy they sell includes cover to get you to a local repairer as standard. After that, a tank drain and flush will probably cost around £160.
It’s still a lot of money to most of us, but get the wrong fuel actually into your engine by turning the key and you’re looking at a bill running into thousands of pounds.
Of course, various gadgets are on sale to prevent this happening, and modern Fords have a system built in. But how hard can it be for the automotive and petroleum industries to come up with a technology that wipes this costly issue out overnight?
Breakdown Cover from 
