Gassing up around the world

The secrets of the road: Differing gas prices in Europe make it worthwhile for drivers living near some frontiers to go abroad to fill up. British haulers complain they are being undercut by French truckers who fill specially enlarged tanks at home, drive through the Channel tunnel on Monday morning, and work in England until they nearly run out of gas and go home to buy more.

British motorists, paying the world's highest prices, have been encouraged to boycott petrol stations in a "Dump the Pump" campaign that blocked roads all over the country last September. But most have gotten used to paying through the nose.

- Peter Ford

INDIA

New Delhi

The price: Roughly $2.43 per gallon. Prices spiked upward over the past year as the global oil supply tightened.

The service: No self-serve or long lines; an attendant fills your tank. Some metro-area stations have minimarts, selling flowers, cards, and assorted junk food. You can pay by credit card, but you still have to hand the attendant your credit card and sign the bill. (No do-it-yourself paying at the pump.)

The secrets of the road: With one of the worst air-pollution problems in the world, New Delhi recently required all commercial vehicles and public transport to switch to the latest pollution-free fuel - compressed natural gas - but private autos can continue to use unleaded gasoline for the foreseeable future.

On the road, the roundish Indian-made Ambassador, a knock-off of a 1950s British design, remains the most popular car. But the Daewoo Cielo and the Japanese-designed Maruti Zen are catching on fast.

A final word about driving in India: Don't. In most cities you will have to maneuver around cows, honk at human-pulled hand carts in the fast lane, and scratch your head in astonishment, as six lanes of cars magically fit into three painted lanes of road. Nearly six people die on Delhi's roads each day. Take a cab; it's cheaper.

- Scott Baldauf

MEXICO

Mexico City

The price: About $2.20 a gallon for regular unleaded. It's a national price set by the nationalized PEMEX petroleum company. Under current regulation, the price rises 22 cents a gallon each year.

The service: Anyone who thinks Mexico is less than civilized need only visit a gasoline station to disabuse himself of such thinking. Here attendants fill your tank, wash your windshield, check your "levels," and do their best to sell you additives and other products you probably don't need (all for a small tip, up to 50 cents). There's never a need to hop out of the car and pump your own gas in a torrential rain or the blistering sun.

The secrets of the road: People here say that gasoline in Mexico is of a lower quality than gas in the United States - which explains why many Mexicans who live along the northern border prefer to "fill 'er up" in America. The irony is that oil-producing Mexico still has much of its gasoline refined in the US.

In Mexico City, you're much better off driving a late-model car that meets government emission standards. It's a way to legally avoid the city's day-without-a-car program, which seeks to lower the capital's high pollution level by keeping the average fume-spewer off the streets one day a week. The most popular cars: VW Jettas and Chrysler vans. The most-feared cars: window-tinted sedans driven by private bodyguards and carrying scary-looking "goat horns" or ramming bars across the front bumper.

- Howard LaFranchi

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Monitor

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