Florida gas station charges almost $6 per gallon

[cpzilliacus]

NBC News Today Show [video]: Florida gas station charges almost $6 per gallon

Two gas stations near the airport in Orlando, Florida, are accused of exploiting tourists, charging $4.89 and $5.95 per gallon and posting the prices inconspicuously. NBC national investigative correspondent Jeff Rossen reports.

[WashuOtaku]

Yea, this happens very regularly and seen news stories about it many times.  This is nothing new nor illegal.

[Alex]

Cue post from roadman65 in 3, 2, 1...

[cpzilliacus]

Yea, this happens very regularly and seen news stories about it many times.  This is nothing new nor illegal.

The way that the one gas station hides its prices does seem, well, a little unethical or dishonest, even if not unlawful.

But tourists headed to and from Florida have long been targeted by scammers - consider the case of highly unethical traffic law enforcement that went on for years in Ludowici, Georgia, targeting north-south drivers on U.S. 301 and other roads.

[Henry]

And I used to think this only happened in CA...

[cpzilliacus]

And I used to think this only happened in CA...

I do not believe it is as extreme as the case in Orlando, but someone returning a car to Washington Dulles Airport (IAD) in Northern Virginia has exactly one on-airport choice (most rental car returns are on-airport) - an Exxon that generally charges pretty steep prices for gasoline. 

Keep in mind that many (probably most) travelers will take the toll-free Dulles Access Road to reach the airport, which means they cannot exit until they get to the airport itself.

[Sykotyk]

Supply and demand. Want a better deal, stop for gas before the last possible location before returning your vehicle. Or, probably just return it empty and pay the premium price for the rental agency to refill it.

As long as the pump price and any sign price are the same and visible while fueling, there shouldn't be an issue.

The worst I had was I pull up to a pump in PA that said "SELF SERV" and assumed that meant both sides of the pump, a guy came out to pump my gas from the building. Thinking this place was cool, he pumped the gas, and then found out the ONE half of ONE pump was full-service, and I was charged 30c more per gallon for the privilege.

[lordsutch]

In the Dulles case, and most others, usually you can fudge full by filling up within 20 miles or so of your drop-off point and avoid getting nailed by the on-airport provider. I don't think I've seen a (properly working) gas gauge that registers less-than-full before you've consumed at least a couple of gallons in a long time.

It might be a stretch if you got on I-66 in DC and were doing the bee-line for Dulles using the "I'm going to Dulles" HOV restriction loophole though. But if you're doing that, you probably should have just flown into DCA anyway.

[Sykotyk]

Most every time I've ever rented a car, I never had to bring it back 'full', just bring it back where it was when I rented it. I've rented cars with 1/4 tank and only had to bring it back with 1/4 tank. For those (Enterprise, primarily), they give you the tank size, so you have a rough approximation. I've been a tad over or a tad under before, and never had to pay the ridiculous charge for them to fill it. And I don't think I once ever rented a car with a full tank at the start.

[mrsman]

Most every time I've ever rented a car, I never had to bring it back 'full', just bring it back where it was when I rented it. I've rented cars with 1/4 tank and only had to bring it back with 1/4 tank. For those (Enterprise, primarily), they give you the tank size, so you have a rough approximation. I've been a tad over or a tad under before, and never had to pay the ridiculous charge for them to fill it. And I don't think I once ever rented a car with a full tank at the start.

In the old days, they gave you a car with a full tank and expected a full tank in return.

Todays' system as employed by Enterprise is much more reasonable.  You fill it to where it came in from, so from a gas tank perspective, it's as though you never even rented the car.

They probably give you at least a quarter tank to start with.

This also generally saves them the trouble of actually taking hte time to fill up the car.

One thing I like about Enterprise is they have a lot of locations to rent cars from, i.e. not just airports.  This was very useful for a number of trips where we were able to borrow a car from friends for part, and then rent our own car for other parts.

[dfwmapper]

I've never encountered an airport location that doesn't provide a full(ish) tank and require it be returned the same way (or pay an exorbitant fee for them to fill it). Since most major airports now use combined rental facilities, it isn't a big deal for them to get fuel delivery in there to serve every agency from a shared pump. Non-airport locations are off on their own without their own pump and so they don't want to have to send employees out to a regular station to fill it, and thus require that people return it in whatever condition it was provided in.

[SP Cook]

There are three basic "gas options" with rental cars.  Depending on geography, rental location, and over time, you will see each one.  All have issues.

- Get full, return full (with a confiscatory price should you fail to do so).  This used to be standard.  The issue is that, if you are flying, you have to add a gas stop in on your departure day, and, as this thread started upon, many places have a ridiculous priced station that is the last before the airport.  The way to beat it is to fill up the day before at a low price station.  Maybe you need to top it off on turn in day, but, as noted, most gas gages are not that sensitive and you can go quite a ways and still be on full.

- Get whatever, turn in same.  The issue here is you have to fill the car before turning it in not full, but to whatever level you got it.  So you know how much gas to put in a car model you are not familiar with to get it back from 1/4th to 3/4ths?  Good for you, because I can't.  Thus most people end up over filling and that is giving free gas to the rental company.

- Get full, return empty.  Also called "pre-paid gas".  This can be a good deal, if two factors are both present.  First, you must have a trip that uses at least a full tank (which is rare in the typical airport rental situation).  And the pre-paid price must be fair.  Rarely is it.  If you leave gas in the tank, you are giving gas to the rental company.  If you pay $4/gallon and the local price is $3, you are getting cheated.

[hotdogPi]

There are three basic "gas options" with rental cars.  Depending on geography, rental location, and over time, you will see each one.  All have issues.

- Get full, return full (with a confiscatory price should you fail to do so).  This used to be standard.  The issue is that, if you are flying, you have to add a gas stop in on your departure day, and, as this thread started upon, many places have a ridiculous priced station that is the last before the airport.  The way to beat it is to fill up the day before at a low price station.  Maybe you need to top it off on turn in day, but, as noted, most gas gages are not that sensitive and you can go quite a ways and still be on full.

- Get whatever, turn in same.  The issue here is you have to fill the car before turning it in not full, but to whatever level you got it.  So you know how much gas to put in a car model you are not familiar with to get it back from 1/4th to 3/4ths?  Good for you, because I can't.  Thus most people end up over filling and that is giving free gas to the rental company.

- Get full, return empty.  Also called "pre-paid gas".  This can be a good deal, if two factors are both present.  First, you must have a trip that uses at least a full tank (which is rare in the typical airport rental situation).  And the pre-paid price must be fair.  Rarely is it.  If you leave gas in the tank, you are giving gas to the rental company.  If you pay $4/gallon and the local price is $3, you are getting cheated.

(made 7 size font to reduce size)

I have seen all three options at the same place. You could choose any one of the three.

[jeffandnicole]

There are three basic "gas options" with rental cars.  Depending on geography, rental location, and over time, you will see each one.  All have issues.

- Get full, return full (with a confiscatory price should you fail to do so).  This used to be standard.  The issue is that, if you are flying, you have to add a gas stop in on your departure day, and, as this thread started upon, many places have a ridiculous priced station that is the last before the airport.  The way to beat it is to fill up the day before at a low price station.  Maybe you need to top it off on turn in day, but, as noted, most gas gages are not that sensitive and you can go quite a ways and still be on full.

And many people don't leave first thing in the morning, but rather than any point during the day, so they're going to be driving around as is.  One can easily fill up within 20 - 25 miles of the rental location and still have it on Full when they return the car.

- Get full, return empty.  Also called "pre-paid gas".  This can be a good deal, if two factors are both present.  First, you must have a trip that uses at least a full tank (which is rare in the typical airport rental situation).  And the pre-paid price must be fair.  Rarely is it.  If you leave gas in the tank, you are giving gas to the rental company.  If you pay $4/gallon and the local price is $3, you are getting cheated.

In many cases (at least with Dollar), they discount the gas if you prepay.  They'll show a chart at the rental desk that say gas in the area is $2.75 a gallon on average (and note...on *average*).  But if you prepay, they'll give it to you at $2.65 a gallon. 

What a deal, right?  Wrong, in almost every case. 

Let's say you have a 20 gallon tank.  You do your best to run it down to nearly empty, but you return it with 19 gallons.

If you bought the 19 gallons yourself, it would be $2.75 * 19 = $52.25.

Instead, you had purchased 20 gallons upfront, at $2.65.  $2.65 * 20 = $53.00.  Since you paid $53 but only needed 19 gallons, you actually paid $2.79 a gallon.

It's not that much difference, if you were able to run the tank that low.  But you still paid too much.    I don't know about you, but I'm skittish whenever I'm near E on my car.  And when I have been, and I filled it up, it shows that I filled 18 gallons of gas into a 20 gallon tank, so I still had 2 gallons left.  And a rental car is generally unfamiliar to the user, so they won't know how much gas they really have when the needle is at E.

Thus, the majority of people returning their car left it low, but not very low.  Let's say they returned it with a quarter tank - 5 gallons left.  $2.75 * 15 = $41.25.  If they prepaid, they paid over $10 too much for that gas!  And you paid the equivalent of over $3.53 a gallon!!!

When gas is more expensive (in the $3 and $4 range), the differences are even more dramatic!

[Wayward Memphian]

Supply and demand. Want a better deal, stop for gas before the last possible location before returning your vehicle. Or, probably just return it empty and pay the premium price for the rental agency to refill it.

As long as the pump price and any sign price are the same and visible while fueling, there shouldn't be an issue.

The worst I had was I pull up to a pump in PA that said "SELF SERV" and assumed that meant both sides of the pump, a guy came out to pump my gas from the building. Thinking this place was cool, he pumped the gas, and then found out the ONE half of ONE pump was full-service, and I was charged 30c more per gallon for the privilege.

During my last trip to Orlando, Alamo's price, if I agreed to it when I picked up the car, was about what it was over much of town.

[Sykotyk]

I rent almost exclusively through Enterprise (though I was looking at a one-way rental to CA from OH and nearly fainted when their price was almost 3x the price of the other places). Usually, though, Enterprise is fair to other locations when returning to where you rented it. Plus, Enterprise has local offices, while the other places are generally airports.

I've always just brought it back to the level I rented it at. Generally, they give you about 1/8th variance in that, so I tend to peg it pretty close. Almost all new cars (since the 90s) seem to have about one full gallon still at E, and about 1 full gallon when the peg just starts to touch E. And on the F side, you usually have 1-2 full gallons before the gauge moves from F (unless it's one of those cars where the peg can go above or below the F or E, respectively.

Then it's just math. 16g tank means to move between the E and F is 12 real gallons, so about 3 gallons per quarter, with a slight weighting toward the high side of the tank (the arm usually rotates down rather than sliding straight up and down on a shaft), so the sensor starts at parallel to the ground, and as it goes down to E the sensor is straight up and down from the pump. Because of the shape of the tank, the sensor picks up the dropping gas line quite well once you get below any odd upper shapes and right before the floater touches bottom but still has gas sloshing around.

Personal sidenote: My 1987 F-150 gets about 11mpg on average, and one tank gets you about 200 miles (just over 18g tank), but it doesn't even MOVE from F until you've driven about 100 miles. Then it drops from F to E in about 100 miles, which is rather infuriating. But that's because the fuel pump was replaced with one that's not from that particular tank and the sensor picks up the level differently than it should.

Anyways, back to the rental cars. I don't think I've ever driven a rental car where I didn't go through at least one tank of gas, so I always check out how it fills up before returning it.

[Pete from Boston]

The last time I was offered pre-pay, I was warned by the rental company that the going rate for gas in the area was (some overstated price that made theirs look more reasonable). Luckily my GasBuddy app showed this to be untrue. 

An educated consumer was not their best customer.

[realjd]

This gas station is so notorious, it's specifically mentioned in the UK government's travel advice for visitors to the USA:
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/usa/safety-and-security

[formulanone]

There was a Chevron station (although I'm not exactly sure of the brand) on Apopka-Vineland Road, right next to Walt Disney World property which charged at least a dollar more per gallon. However, it seems to have been demolished, after visiting WDW last month.

[RG407]

This has been going on for years.   A few years ago the county passed a law requiring all gas stations to post prices.  Before that, the two gas stations nearest the airport charged these crazy prices and motorists didn't know about it until they got to the pump.  Posted or not, people continue to pay it.  You just can't fix stupid.

[RG407]

There was a Chevron station (although I'm not exactly sure of the brand) on Apopka-Vineland Road, right next to Walt Disney World property which charged at least a dollar more per gallon. However, it seems to have been demolished, after visiting WDW last month.

Funny thing about it, the gas stations actually on Disney property are usually priced at or below normal market prices.  I would think they would be higher.   

[freebrickproductions]

Funny thing about it, the gas stations actually on Disney property are usually priced at or below normal market prices.  I would think they would be higher.   

It's so you can spend more money at their overpriced stored and restaurants.

[formulanone]

There was a Chevron station (although I'm not exactly sure of the brand) on Apopka-Vineland Road, right next to Walt Disney World property which charged at least a dollar more per gallon. However, it seems to have been demolished, after visiting WDW last month.

Funny thing about it, the gas stations actually on Disney property are usually priced at or below normal market prices.  I would think they would be higher.   

Compared to the prices we'd pay in Broward or Palm Beach counties, the WDW Hess Stations were actually a few cents per gallon cheaper.

Posted or not, people continue to pay it.  You just can't fix stupid.

While I haven't used the right-near-MCO gas stations, I do this sometimes near other airports (I paid $4.24/gallon last September near SFO!), since it's on the company's dime. They'll pay for high-priced gas, but not the insane $8-9/gallon the rental car companies charge for absent-mindedness. That said, [Rental Car Company] let me off the hook a few times, although probably on error.

[Rothman]

The last time I was offered pre-pay, I was warned by the rental company that the going rate for gas in the area was (some overstated price that made theirs look more reasonable). Luckily my GasBuddy app showed this to be untrue. 

An educated consumer was not their best customer.

I've had similar experiences.  Never fell for it and was glad I didn't when I saw how much gas off-airport really was.

[dfwmapper]

While I haven't used the right-near-MCO gas stations, I do this sometimes near other airports (I paid $4.24/gallon last September near SFO!), since it's on the company's dime. They'll pay for high-priced gas, but not the insane $8-9/gallon the rental car companies charge for absent-mindedness. That said, [Rental Car Company] let me off the hook a few times, although probably on error.

Best trick for SFO is being a Costco member. There's a Costco with gas station less than a mile from the rental car facility. It's typically 20-30c cheaper than anything in the area.