Which pump at the fuel station?
 

Its been several years since I have rented a car in Europe and will be doing so again next month. I remember that the fuel types were named differently from in the states and I want to avoid filling up with the wrong one. If I rent a car that uses gasoline, what is the pump name of such and conversely if I rent a car that uses diesel what is the pump name for that? I'm sure that the agent could tell me at the time of rental but I'm more confident with the information I receive here. Thanks for your help.

Hi fullcount,

Best to go by colour. Here in the UK unleaded is green and diesel is black (I think!) I think it's the same on the continent? There are also red pumps for lead replacement petrol, which you won't need to worry about.

unleaded is the higher price

Hi Meir,

Here in the US the gasoline is black and the diesel is green.

Petrol ('gas') is 'unleaded' here (green pump). There is also 'super-unleaded' which is more expensive but is better for the car apparently (which I don't think you would be too worried about as it is a rented car). So make sure you just used the UNLEADED pump rather than SUPER unleaded as it would be more costly.

Old fashioned '4 star' petrol, which is still sold, is for old or unconverted cars that still used leaded petrol.

Diesel is a black pump.

Fullcount:
I'd strongly suggest you rely on the rental agent. They have a vested interest in your not destroying their car, and will speak some English. Do NOT rely on the manual or on instructions inside the car, as they may be in a language you are unfamiliar with (we struggled a year ago with instructions written entirely in Danish)Posters on this site, on the other hand, are just trying to be helpful. Few of us know how fuel is designated in every country and language zone of Europe, and you've not told us which countries you're going to. Unleaded is not necessarily the higher price, for example.
Unleaded petrol is almost always in a green pump, and will mostly carry the word "unleaded" or "lead-free" in addition to the phrase in the local languages. Diesel, in my experience, is much more hit and miss - even in England, where it's still sometimes described as "DERV".
Trust your rental company on this.

Flanneruk - thanks for clarifying - I was only discussing the UK petrol situation - but I thought fullcount would see this as my name is 'EnglishOne!'. As you say, things will be different on the continent. :)

Where will you be driving? Diesel is called "gazole"in France and is much more readily available than in North America. Regular unleaded is "sans plomb" and super unleaded is "super."

Thank you for your responses. We will be traveling in France, Germany, Austria and Italy. I appreciate your help.

Just an added word of caution. My own experience still sends shivers down my back.Two years ago we rented a car in Germany and were traveling through several countries. On one stop we were in a small city near Prague on a Saturday afternoon. I needed gas and stopped to fill up. Just as I started a nozzle a man stopped me. He didn't speak English and I didn't speak Czech.
He got the message across to me though that I was using diesel. Yikes, it would have been my own fault but it still scares the hell out of me. By pure dumb luck I avoided a costly mistake. Message: Be very sure!!!

If you do a google for "buying gas in [country name]" you can find out where to look for gas stations, when they're likely to be open (or closed), and so on.

In Italy, unleaded gas, "senza piombo," is also called green gas, "benzina verde,"; diesel is called "gasolio."

In Germany unleaded gas is "benzin bleifrei"; diesel (not surprisingly) is "diesel."

In Germany there are the following indications:

Diesel - which is - you may be surprised- Diesel;-)

Normal- which is unleaded

Super- which is unleaded with 95 Octane

Super Plus - which is unleaded with 98 Octane.

Unless you rent a high power six cylinder engine car, you won't need Super Plus, though.

By the way no Super Plus at Shell stations. They have something called V- Power, which is unleaded at 100 Octane and sells at a ridiculously high surcharge on Super of 13 cents (Euro)
Have fun on the Autobahn!

Regards
hsv

IF at all possible try to rent a diesel engine car! We got back from Germany on Sunday. Rented a BMW 318i 5spd diesel. GOT great gas mileage and in Germany diesel was consistently about 20-30 cents CHEAPER than unleaded.

We had no problems determining what we needed at the pumps and never had problems finding diesel gas.

Our vehicle got around 1000KM per tank!!

AND that included HIGH SPEED autobahn driving and sitting in traffic!

Several times I tried to figure out options on the car with the German owner's guide. Sometimes I could figure it out and other times I was clueless.

It was awesome getting upgraded from our Opel Vectra to the BMW!

Have fun!

(Sortof fuel-in-Europe related....)

While traveling in Germany a few years ago, I ran out of gas on the autobahn. Got out of my car, walked to an SOS phone, told the person on the other end that I had run out of gas. He said they would send a touring car. Walked back to my car. While waiting for the touring car to bring me some gas, a member of the Polizei pulled up. The policeman got out of his car, walked up, started asking questions, asked for my ID, etc... Just as he was walking back to his car to do his check on me, the touring car pulled up. The driver poured gas in my car, and I paid him cash on the spot. As the touring car was driving away, the policeman came back, and said "I see you have things under control. Please drive carefully." and drove off.

No big deal, except....

When I got to my destination and told my friends what had happened, they were incredulous that I hadn't been issued a ticket from the policeman for running out of gas!! My friends said it's very common in Germany to get tickets for simple things like that.

Anyone else have an experience like this?

My first time in France in the countryside, we stopped for gas and did not know gazole was diesel and had to have it syphoned out of the tank, after waiting a few hours for lunch time to be over and a garage to reopen.

I have never been confused in Germany, France, or the UK about which fuel to buy. In Sweden, I wasn't 100% certain. The young man spoke very little English. He understood what I was asking. Sorry I forgot the spellings of what is diesel in Swedish. It's not "Diesel".

I think (not sure) that Diesel octane is different. Just buy 93, I think. Diesel is usually cheaper, a hint that it's Diesel. 98 is almost certain petrol.

I don't remember having a problem with gas in Britain or Italy. I did have a "Doh!" moment years ago when driving my motorcycle across the USA.

The gas station attendant said to me as I'm paying for the fill-up "I've never seen a diesel motorcycle before."

Fortunately, with a motorbike you can take the tank off with a wrench, pour it out (just over their property line, ha ha) and rinse and refill.

Super is for fancy cars. My BMW "recommends" super. If I buy an unauthorized tune-up chip, it will work only if I always use super. I have also heard super is a good idea at higher altitudes (Denver?) where overall total compression is less.