I hear reports that more and more drivers are eking out every last pennyworth of fuel at the moment, and this is causing more breakdown calls as penny-pinching motorists find themselves stranded at the roadside with no go-juice left in their cars.
Here’s the scenario: it’s three days before pay day, you’ve only got enough money in your bank account to buy saver pasta and sauce for your tea and suddenly your low fuel light comes on. What do you do?
Of course, you eat meatless spag bol and hope that by keeping your foot off the accelerator, you may be able to go without refuelling your car until your wages are paid.
But no – you’re on your way home on Wednesday, it’s dark, it’s raining, and finally your car just stops. So, you call out your recovery service, naturally.
According to recent newspaper reports, the AA reckons its operatives will be called out to at least 23,000 no-fuel breakdowns by the end of the year and the company has seen a 15% year-on-year increase in such scenarios from its customers. Greenflag also reports an increase, with a 14% rise in out-of-fuel callouts during the first half of 2011.
However, if you’ve saved money on your car insurance by going to a company like insurethebox you’ll be quids in, but at some point during your motoring career the temptation to see just how far you can go with the low-fuel light on, will probably be too much to bear.
The problem is you’ll never run out of fuel just as you pull in to work or just outside a petrol station and you can bet your bottom dollar the fuel will finally give up on the day of that important interview or when you’re running ten minutes late for a hot date.
So, the moral of this story is….let’s all hope that the price of fuel comes down soon, because it’s a hard choice whether to refuel your car or refuel you!
Image © Gordon M Robertson via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence