DEAR CAR TALK: I'm from the U.S. but live in Argentina. I have a friend and co-worker with whom I frequently travel, and who always drives under the speed limit in the fast lane. People honk and make creative gestures, but he refuses to change his ways.
I have told him that the fast lane is only for passing, but I think he believes that's an American idea that doesn't apply here. How can I convince him that fast lane etiquette is global?
-- Ben
DEAR BEN:I don't know how you can convince him. If the old ladies with the blue hair screaming rare Argentinian curses at him aren't having any effect, he might be too far gone.
You're absolutely right. The left lane is traditionally for passing, not cruising. If you want to bop along at 53 miles per hour, you should be using the right lane or the center lane at a minimum.
It's actually a much bigger social faux pas to block the passing lane in Europe, where drivers take these things very seriously. In fact, in the summer of 1938, a young Adolf Hitler got stuck behind a guy doing 40 in the left lane when he was coming home from Warsaw, and a year later he was still so steamed about it that he invaded Poland. Little known historical fact, Ben.
And I always thought that Argentina had a somewhat European influenced culture, so I would think this would be a well-established norm there, too. The honking and cursing from the old ladies is my other hint.
It's the rule in America, too. Unfortunately, over the past few decades, the traffic has gotten so bad that etiquette has fallen by the wayside, and drivers simply use whatever lane looks less crowded at that moment. In order for there to be a "passing lane," there has to be enough capacity in the other lanes for people who are not passing. And that's not always the case. Still, it's unfortunate to get stuck behind someone poking along in the passing lane who is either oblivious, inconsiderate, or both.
If you're driving in the left lane, you should constantly stay aware of who is in your rear-view mirror, and if someone is coming up on you, and traveling faster than you, be polite and get out of the way as quickly and as safely as you can.
In terms of your friend, Ben, I don't know what else to tell you. You can try telling him that he's making you uncomfortable and stressed out by creating all that havoc on the road. And ask him, as a friend, if he'll help you feel better by driving in the right lane. If he still refuses, then he's just inconsiderate, and those old ladies are right in what they're shouting about him, whatever those words mean.
DEAR CAR TALK: Weatherperson says storm's coming. I was fully prepared. Generator was ready to go, with two cans of fuel. My pickup had a full tank, and my refrigerator was fully stocked with plenty of 12-ounce bottles of "anti-Coronavirus." Power goes out for longer than expected. No problem! I get my "Oklahoma Credit Card" (hose) to siphon fuel from my pickup. But try as I might, I can't get the hose all the way into the tank.
Have the engineers at Dodge done something to prevent people from getting a hose all the way in the gas tank? Are they trying to thwart young sons' ability to "borrow" fuel from their old mans' pickup for a Friday night on the town? Is there another way to get fuel out of the tank for such emergencies?
Sitting in the dark, crying in my warm anti-Coronavirus.
-- Ben
DEAR BEN: My heart goes out to you. You have been thwarted. But it has nothing to do with kids stealing their fathers' gasoline. It has everything to do with modern fuel system design. If you remember the first big "gasoline crisis" in the 1970s, you know that siphoning practically became a national sport. That was when T. Boone Pickens tried to corner the market on locking gas caps.
It's very hard to siphon gas out of modern cars. Most cars have a valve in the filler neck to prevent gasoline from spilling out -- like if you rolled over in an accident. In your Dodge, I think it's a plastic ball that is easily pushed down and out of the way by the flowing gasoline when you're refueling, but blocks any fuel coming the other way. So siphoning from your truck won't work.
Your next best option is to check and see if your truck has a drain plug on the fuel tank. Not that many vehicles do anymore, but maybe you're one of the lucky ones. It's great to have if you need repair work. For instance, if we had to replace your fuel pump, which is inside the tank, we could use the drain plug to remove the gasoline from your tank first, so it didn't spill all over the floor of our garage. After this, Crusty would inevitably sit down for a break on a nearby tire and light up one of his stogies.
So if your truck has a drain plug, you can remove gas that way. Just be prepared to remove all of it. It's like opening a gallon jug of milk, upside down, over your head. It's hard to get the cap back on once the stuff is flowing. And make sure you're prepared to capture all of it. If you have a 5-gallon bucket and a 22-gallon tank, after about 30 seconds, you'll have gasoline running down your arm and pooling in your boxer shorts. No bueno.
If your truck doesn't have a fuel tank drain plug, then you'll have to resort to the ice pick. Actually, if you're really desperate -- and handy -- you could use a wiring diagram and figure out how to power the fuel pump with jumper cables, remove the fuel hose and then collect the gas that gets pumped out of the tank at the fuel rail.
But before you go through all that trouble, do what any red-blooded American boy would do, Ben: Go see if your father's pickup has a drain plug.
Ray Magliozzi dispenses advice about cars in Car Talk every Saturday.
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