not to want to get my hands dirty putting petrol in?

[mumthemovie]

In the olden days, I used to drive my car into the petrol station and someone would come out, fill her up and wipe the windscreen. Plus if I said I was going on a long journey they would check my tyre pressure and water etc.

I would like to do this now, but it appears not to be an option anymore. I would pay a few extra on the gallon obviously, as I pay for many other services in life.

Am I alone in this?

Where I live the attendants still do all this. I love it!

Don't even have to get out of the car unless paying by card.

There were still garages that filled up for you in the part of Ireland my dad is from when my teens were small. It is fraught though when you're not sure of the system and whether you can start filling up yourself or not so I want one standard system preferably.

YANBU.

I live overseas and there are no self service garages here, someone does it for you. A total joy!

My sil can service her own car but it doesn't mean she wants to do herself that's why she pays someone else to do it (plus she doesn't have the time).
I can fill my own car up and have been filling my mums since I was 12 (she has very bad knees so I always jump out and do it for her) but I would much rather stay in my nice warm car and pay someone else to do it (my mum would too) plus I like the idea of my windshield being cleaned and my tires checked every time.

It is putting air in the tyres that I really hate, and I always buy petrol from the garage near my Mum's house when I am in the area because they will do it for you.

It's crying out for a JML style ad....

Woman at side of car, huffing and puffing, struggling to fit nozzle in car, looking to the heavens as petrol drips on her shoes.

But wait! There's more! And out pops a little man with a squeegee to wash the screen.

We live on the NI border with Donegal (ROI) so always scoot over the border for the much cheaper fuel, there's always an attendant there to fill it up / take cash in if not paying by card... no windscreen wash / tyre pressure etc though!

Definitely still lots of full-service ones in Canada (even out west) - I have relatives there, and they always get full service. (co-op). They go inside to pay, but you can also have the card machine given to you through the window. Very nice when it's utterly freezing. The gas attendants have loads of extra warm clothes and gloves provided as uniform. It's a typical part time job for a lot of students.

What I especially like is that they clean all the windows and the headlights for you (needed in sloppy slushy weather that they get a lot!). Here there doesn't seem to be the facilities at a lot of petrol stations, so often I just do it at home with Windex and a cloth, but it's absolutely standard there. I guess it doesn't need to be done quite as often here though because of the weather.

I don't remember to check my tyre pressures very often, unless I'm going on a big trip, and I should do it more often. I just had an MOT and service, though, so presumably it was done as part of that? I don't drive much!

There's a petrol station in Long Buckby, Northamptonshire, that still does this. I was rather taken aback by the fact. He does charge a good bit more per litre than the bigger garages, but he is also in a very rural area. My aunt has never had to use a self-service pump because she lives in the village and doesn't drive very far.

OP isn't being feeble and reliant, imo. She just doesn't want to do it. I don't want to deal with my toenails, so I pay for a pedicure. Doesn't mean I can't file and paint my own nails; I just choose not to.

My mother has never once put petrol in her car, in over 40 years of driving! She either gets me or my sister to do it (usually sister, I have to admit) or she goes into the shop and asks for someone to do it for her.

Our local garage (somewhere in West Yorkshire) still fills your car up for you, but you have to get out to pay unless you have the cash, as the card machine is inside, and you have to drive to the next garage along because their air hose is broken.

99% of the time I use pay at pump and dont mind it. But by God those forecourts attract an icy wind in the winter! I would pay between October and March.

I have never once got petrol on my hands. Am I doing it wrong?

I didn't for the first 7 years of driving petrol cars. Now that I have a diesel car I always come away with it on my hands. Slowly getting into the habit of using paper towels to hold the pump, but as I usually fill up first thing on my commute to work I'm in zombie mode...

We used to call it "Elf service" because the only local garage that was left that did it had this little old man in a woolly hat who popped out from behind the pumps.

I've half a feeling the garage was "Elf" or something similar enough for us to think it was.

Mind you, we had one up the road for a time that would give our Granville a run for his money. A favourite trick of his was to remove the petrol cap on the way in, express horror at it being missing, then say he happened to have one spare and sell it back to them.
And thinking about it, he had dp car in regularly for exhaust problems. I suspect he used to mend it enough to do a few months confident they'd bring it back to him.

But those things are simple. Ds is 8yo and he's been able to do all the checks and fill up with petrol for a couple of years. I didn't realise for ages he wasn't meant to fill up, and he enjoyed doing it, and is perfectly safe. I did it for my disabled granddad since I was about that age and it didn't occur to me that it might not be allowed now. It should have really perhaps, as I used to get his cigarettes when I paid for the petrol too.

Crazycanuck - there used to be a few in West Vancouver, anywhere near you?

In South Africa they fill up your car, check the oil, wash the windscreen and generally make things much easier for you. You tip them directly. Brilliant system.

Yes - I can fill up with petrol and I'm capable of checking the type pressure. But I'd much rather someone else did it for me. Much like DIY (where I pay for a handyman to come and sort stuff out). Ditto cleaner.