Gas Cap

what determines which side the gas cap is on?

All VW’s have the cap on the right side, except for the Routan because VW bought some Town and County vans and redesigned them. I have noticed that most Fords have the cap on the left side, but there is an handful that are on the right side. So I am thinking it has something to do with where the car was made. Is there an actual answer?

VW didn’t redesign anything the Routan is just an example of badge engineering.

More often than not the gas cap will be on the opposite side of the exhaust pipe, on vehicles with dual exhaust I’m guessing it’s just whatever side the engineers determined makes for easier production. Most VW’s share a common chassis, the Jetta, Golf, Eos, and Touran all share the same chassis, that could be the reason VW’s have the gas cap on the same side.

Generally the fuel fill is on the opposite side from the exhaust. If course if you have a really old car, it often was behind the back plate.

There is no reason behind the side the gas cap is on. It is a secondary design feature. If your car has a single exhaust pipe, the gas cap is on the opposite side, but if you have a dual exhaust, all bets are off.

Some people think it should always be on the right, so if you run out of gas, you can add fuel to the tank without standing on the side of the car facing traffic. Others think it should be on the left so you can always pull to the right side of the fuel pump. Personally, I think it doesn’t matter. I am more concerned with counting the days until the next Groundhog Day.

BMW puts the filler on the right side to counterbalance the driver, who’s often alone on the left side. Of course, they’re more focused on perfect handling than practically anyone else.

It must be really annoying to have less than optimal handling when there are passengers in the car.

Like the filler neck adds enough weight to counterbalance anything. After all the tank still spans the centerline of the car

There must be a joke in the BMW comment somewhere …

What does BMW do with the filler when the vehicle is a right hand drive?