[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by tweetiepooh

In South Africa price of petrol is set daily, nationally so people don't need to search around for best prices. I guess that when the next petrol could be 100's of km away you don't want to risk running out because it may be cheaper than the small station just ahead of you, even more true in places like Australia. Works though. (Don't know if this is still the case, last trip a few years back.)

During the petrol rationing in SA before Mandela, I had to drive from Cape Town to Joburg. Rationing was achieved by allowing the petrol stations to be open for 12 hours only between 06:00 and 18:00. The trick was to get to Bloemfontein before 18:00 to fill up for the dash to Joburg, which was exactly one tank full on a Ford Cortina.

You should have seen the ruckus when the poor dark skinned guy was sent to pull the master electric pumps switch in mid-fill for some poor buggers. He made a bolt for the garage office.

We coasted as much as possible on the Joburg road and running on fumes reached an open garage just outside Joburg at 06:00.

In those days if you were caught siphoning fuel from one car to another after 18:00, it was a 100 Rand fine.