Japanese petrol Vs the world!

Here in the UK we often speculate about such things as RON levels, who is the best supplier of gas and why can't we be more like Japan who do not seem as encumbered by green issues like the rest of us. We all know that Japanese petrol is 99 RON (if not 101) and made by the great petrol Gods of mount speedy. Well lets take my perspective and get a British low down on any Skyline Owners second home.

I hate busy petrol stations! 

In the US and UK, whether or not there is a difference at all is actually up for debate. The general idea with cheap petrol in England, at least, is that it's used to attract customers to what is usually a supermarket (remember all the petrol stations we used to have?). In Japan, the cheap petrol is from "unnamed" standalone stations (i.e. not the big players like Shell etc). There doesn't seem to be any solid proof that anyone's gas is better or worse than anyone elses. However much like in the UK would you put an unknown in your tank? It is pretty universal in the UK that no one buys BP for instance and even though one hears many claims as to why, no one actually can definitely prove its terribly bad. Equally no one can prove Shell or Tesco are really good.

One day we will all be looking for a socket to plug in?

You've probably heard of the Japanese gas station attendants and their ridiculous over-courtesy. It's true, but there are also self-service stands which will save a couple of yen per litre. These stand out with the セルフ (serufu) sign. So, for the cheapest fuel find a city relatively close to a port (at least without mountains in the way) and go self-service.

The universal language of petrol cars

It's possible to also save a few yen with store discount cards, so when on holidays in Japan snap one up if you see them at your local Eneos or Cosmo etc.Now it this all sounds depressingly familiar consider those that do not live in the city it's much more expensive to fill your tank there than in other places. in the mountains, Petrol tankers aren't allowed to drive through tunnels because of the potentially devastating results of an accident, so to get to cities they need to do some massive detours. This results in an almost 10% markup.

Admit it, we have all been here! 

The current price of fuel in Japan sits at 120 to 124 yen per liter (about £0.88) compare that to the UK at £1.20+ for a high RON, so with purely this in mind I am starting to think that there is a bonus attached to Japanese petrol, the price!