An axiom in the electric car community holds that Americans hate to pump gas. Even men. That includes me, though I’m only beginning to realize how much. My latest revelation came with the advent of Ford’s capless fuel filler in our test fleet, most recently appreciated on the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner. Its benefits were best appreciated in frigid winter, with gas station slush and filthy, salt-coated sheet metal surrounding the filler ready to dirty my coat.
When I first heard about the capless filler, it sounded like a gimmick. After all, it looks like it would save Ford money, since it would no longer have to provide gas caps on new cars.
But it’s funny how some features that seem trivial at first can make a huge difference day to day. Especially around here, when we find ourselves splashing a few gallons of gas in the tank almost daily, before handing off the car to another driver. (The last time I felt like this was after I got my Mobil Speedpass, despite reservations about its security.
Among the Fords we’ve driven recently with the capless fuel filler are the new F-150 pickup, Flex, and three versions of the revised Escape small SUV. Here’s what it now takes me to fill up one of these cars:
Simple.
I realize that it only saves me two steps and a few seconds, but on a daily basis, I’ve learned to really like it. After all, we fill up almost daily here, and the winter cold and spring showers dampen our refueling spirits.
Now as my colleague Jim Travers points out, it would be great to have a capless filler in a diesel, so you don’t have to touch the greasy cap while you’re standing in a smelly pool of diesel oil at the pump. We checked with Ford, and they indicate such a system may be on the way in their heavy-duty trucks.
In the meantime, now that the capless filler has saved me a couple seconds a day, the Mobil stations in my area have started requiring a ZIP Code before the pump will turn on. I guess I’ll just have to keep budgeting those few extra (wasted) seconds for each fill up. At least I can be entertained by a stream of commercials on the TV screens that have become increasingly prevalent at our local gas pumps.
—Eric Evarts
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