A Century of Motoring by Jon Pressnell

A Century of Motoring by Jon Pressnell

Author:Jon Pressnell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: A Century of Motoring
ISBN: 9781784420758
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-11-28T00:00:00+00:00


Branded petrol returns to Leatherhead garage

1953

Petrol retailing has come a long way since June 1945, when the basic petrol ration was reintroduced. The allocation was increased in 1946, but the following year withdrawn entirely, to save foreign exchange. After vigorous protests, in 1948 ‘basic’ was reintroduced, but with an entitlement to only a third as much as before; meanwhile petrol dyed red was available for commercial vehicles, it being an offence to use this for private motoring. Only in May 1950 did petrol come off-ration, but the fuel was still ‘Pool’ petrol of at best a 74-octane rating.

Branded petrol, in three grades, returned in 1953, and soon better-quality fuels became available, such as BP Super petrol – ‘for more energy per gallon’ – introduced in 1955. By 1960 98-octane petrol was available, and during the 1960s ‘five-star’ 101-octane fuel came onto the market. Publicity became slicker, and petrol companies vied with each other for the most preposterous or just plain fatuous adverts.

Until the 1960s you had an attendant pumping the petrol into your car. Shell opened its first self-service station in 1963, two years ahead of Mobil, and the idea was still a relative novelty at the beginning of the 1970s: in 1972 there were just 1,500 self-service stations in Britain, out of a total of 38,000 outlets. Apart from reducing staffing costs, self-service was also found to increase the value of the average fill, so by the 1980s it had, unsurprisingly, become the norm.



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