That reference reminded me of a couple of families that lived near me in the late '60s. Both families were close and often socialized together often. The Dad in one of the families bought a new VW and he bragged all the time about how great his gas mileage was… Admittedly, it was getting a bit irritating, as most of us really did not really care about mileage… Strange thinking in that time, we would drive a mile or two further to get a penny off, but the actual mileage was not much of a concern, only the price…
However, I digress, back to the VW… I was friendly with the son of the other family’s Dad. And that Dad decided to “drive” his friend crazy… So, my friend and his Dad would sneak over to the VW and add a gallon or two of gas to the VW… The VW Dad started bragging how his VW was getting gas mileage of 30 to 35 MPG now that the engine was getting “broke-in…”
Well, that lasted for about a month or so and when VW Dad was his worse bragging big-head; my friend and his Dad stopped adding gas, allowing the mileage to drop to its normal 20 to 25 MPG…
And boy, did that ever deflate VW Dad’s bragging… Well, for a couple of weeks anyway…
Then friend and his Dad started siphoning out a gallon or two and that brought the mileage down to about 12 to 15 MPG…
VW Dad just could not understand it. He would fill the tank, spend the whole day driving the VW city only, then spend all day driving it highway only and the mileage went up to what one would expect, 20 to 25 MPG, but when he drove it normally, in day to day driving, the mileage dropped (because my friend and his Dad had time to siphon some gas out…).
VW Dad even brought the VW in for service and the dealership, would also perform the same mileage test driving in city and highway and found it was getting “factory Specs…”
That went on until the fall season as it was getting cold and there was now some snow at night and it would show the footprints so my friend and his Dad stopped and VW Dad settled on getting only its regular gas mileage…
However, for Christmas (they swapped presents…), friend’s Dad gave VW Dad some Polaroid photos of them with a gas can putting gas in the VW and Polaroid photos of them siphoning gas out…
VW Dad was pissed, but VW Mom quieted him down because his bragging got insufferable and friend’s Mom probably let VW Mom in on the joke…
I always used a locking gas cap, even back then…