{"id":6594,"date":"2025-05-22T08:39:02","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T07:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/?p=6594"},"modified":"2025-05-22T08:39:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T07:39:02","slug":"why-do-cars-have-gas-tanks-on-different-sides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/?p=6594","title":{"rendered":"Why Do Cars Have Gas Tanks on Different Sides?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Why Are Gas Tanks on Different Sides of Cars?\u00a0<\/strong>Ever pulled up to the wrong side of a gas pump? You\u2019re not alone\u2014and there\u2019s a reason for the confusion.\u00a0<strong>Engineering Comes First\u00a0<\/strong>Fuel door placement depends on the vehicle\u2019s internal structure.<\/p>\n<p>Designers choose the side that best fits the fuel system, making dual-sided access rare.\u00a0<strong>Regional Preferences Matter\u00a0<\/strong>In the U.S., drivers prefer left-side fuel doors for convenience. In countries with right-hand driving, like the UK or Japan, the opposite is true.\u00a0<strong>Is One Side Safer?\u00a0<\/strong>Some manufacturers once favored the passenger side, thinking it was safer during crashes. Later research found no significant difference.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reducing Pump Congestion\u00a0<\/strong>Having fuel doors on both sides helps distribute cars more evenly at gas stations, preventing bottlenecks.\u00a0<strong>Design Decisions Are Final\u00a0<\/strong>Fuel door placement is locked in early during car design. Changing it later would disrupt the vehicle\u2019s structure.\u00a0<strong>Pro Tip\u00a0<\/strong>Can\u2019t remember your fuel door\u2019s side? Check the arrow on your fuel gauge\u2014it points the way.\u00a0<strong>In Short:\u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s not random\u2014fuel door placement is a mix of engineering, safety, and convenience. Just another small detail with big reasoning behind it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why Are Gas Tanks on Different Sides of Cars?\u00a0Ever pulled up to the wrong side of a gas pump? You\u2019re not alone\u2014and there\u2019s a reason for the confusion.\u00a0Engineering Comes First\u00a0Fuel door placement depends on the vehicle\u2019s internal structure. Designers choose the side that best fits the fuel system, making dual-sided access rare.\u00a0Regional Preferences Matter\u00a0In the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2721,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-random-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6595,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6594\/revisions\/6595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}