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When I got out of the pump-jockey industry, I never again went through a full-service lane. I tend to not slop gas down the side of my own car better than most attendants will. Besides, around here in Western NC, full-service is almost $.10 more than self-serve.

I'll state this quietly, as my cars are sitting outside listening:

I have never had a problem in twenty years with any of my cars that I could not repair myself, A/C included. In fact, today I am doing a full brake-job on one of them.

I think that the full-service station lobby has a stranglehold on the governments of NJ, and OR. Thats why you cant pump it yourself.

BTW: Diesel pump islands are usually the nastiest places. I've seen people filling their Mercedes', pulling out the nozzle, and slopping diesel everywhere. Unlike gasoline, diesel fuel does not evaporate quickly.

I was giving one of the cashiers a lift home after work one night (very pretty girl, but a bit of an airhead). So i stopped at a garage on the way to fuel up. As i was pumping the fuel in, I noticed her door opening, then the lit cigarette she was smoking flew out, followed by her foot stamping it out. My jaw just DROPPED! Bear in mind this was right in front of the pump, not the other side!

I was a bit surprised to see in the report Brad cited that the fires tended to start as the result of a driver getting into her (usually) car while the petrol was pumping. Presumably this means that the pumps are designed so that the petrol will flow unattended, i.e. you just press a button and it pumps until the tank is full. This couldn't happen in the UK, because the pumps have a trigger mechanism which needs to be continually depressed in order for the petrol to flow - you can't be doing two things at once. Presumably this is in order to make it impossible to smoke, use a mobile 'phone or do anything else risky while petrol vapour is present in the atmosphere: if so, this strikes me as a very good idea.

The pumps also have a system which stops the flow when your tank is full, but in my experience they frequently don't work properly, splashing petrol on the ground, and sometimes on my shoe.

I would imagine they were originally invented so that full-serve attendants could check under the hood, clean the windows, etc. while the tank filled, thus speeding up operations.

<- got picked on, a lot, while still in school, for always being prepared for the wintry weather. i.e. hat, scarf, mittens (or gloves), warm jacket, boots ...

Apparently using common sense wasn't 'cool' or 'trendy'.

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It seems to be catching on that people walking away from their vehicles while it is being filled with gasoline is not a good thing.