£20,000 free fuel causes chaos
64 Comments | Add Comment | Blog entry posted 5th September, 2008
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A clever marketing ploy by a computer games company has lead to queues and chaos as motorists attempt to get their hands on free fuel.
The Last Stop garage on Stapleton Hall Road, Finsbury Park, London, had seen over 150 customers keen to get their share of free fuel by 7.30am. Drivers have been queuing out of the station and up the street for their turn to fill up with up to £40 worth of petrol.
The giveaway is part of a promotion by Electronic Games for a new game, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. Instead of putting a tab behind the bar at a flashy launch party the company has taken over the north London petrol station and pledged to give away £20,000 worth of fuel instead.
Although many drivers happily took advantage of the promotion, other motorists beeped their horns as they were caught up in the ensuing traffic, and residents in the area complained about traffic and noise.
Louise Marchant, from Electronic Arts, said the scenes of queuing mimicked aspects of the game. She explained: “It’s set in Venezuela, you play a mercenary and fuel is used as a currency.”
She denied the promotion was irresponsible, saying: “We’ve got security on hand to make sure that traffic is going one way. Petrol prices are very relevant at the moment so we are hoping to start everyone’s weekend in a positive way.”
Would free fuel encourage you to buy a computer game? Have you filled up for free at the Last Stop today? Or do you think it’s an irresponsible gimmick? Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment on the blog below.
Replies to £20,000 free fuel causes chaos
Gary Mcintyre January 20, 2009
1.would you buy a second hand car ,with a hydrogen cell ,???
2.would you buy a second hand electric car at twice the price of a petrol,???
3.what would a garage charge for a sevice
4.what garage would service
5 .Free petrol sounds good,not such a great marketing plan,NEVER heard a thing about it in scotland
Mike S November 25, 2008
No doubt my previous comment will get removed. And Peak Oil's spam in every single bloody thread will still be there. Fine. Another good site down the drain from spammers.
Mike S November 25, 2008
Jesus christ everytime i come on here (which is rarely) bloody useless piece of horse manure over there called Peak Oil is always cutting and pasting the same piece of utter drivel into every single thread. Surely spamming is against the policy of this site?
What kind of freak needs to sit there and just cut and paste a speech all day?
Go and get a life you f***ing idiot. People are never going to take you seriously if you keep doing this. Stupid fool.
Ben Dingley October 23, 2008
I think this advertisment was a good way of helping lots of people save money with there fuel bills whilist times are tough, whilist advertising a new product. I think the company acted in a responsible way and helped people out. I would welcome the offer from more companies of free fuel, anyone stuck in the queue should have taken a different route and besides wasnt like they where doing it in the height of rush hour and they could have got free fuel too. As for electric cars what rubbish, they cost a fortune and the range is poor, this has no relation to free fuel.
Bring on more free fuel and price drops!
Chris October 15, 2008
Can anyone explain why there is regional variations in fuel prices? My Asda & morisons are still above £1 a litre for unleaded.
What qualifies some areas to have cheaper fuel than others? Anyone??
Richard October 15, 2008
asda and morrisons to drop petrol to 99.9p.
Steve M October 14, 2008
re 57
Forget all the maths, science, all the 22's over 7's, exchange rates, economists, ecologists, any other 'ologists, ministers, rulers, Arabs, Americans, graphs, plots and plans.
The facts are so simple..
WE ARE BEING RIPPED OFF !!!!
lobby your MP's, refuse to buy dearer petrol/diesel, travel the extra 5 or 10 miles if its cheaper elsewhere.
Refuse to buy dearer fuel then between us WE can make a difference.
Tim Mcewan October 11, 2008
The oil price is tumbling but this is to some degree offset by the falling pound against the dollar. Oil companies are quick to tell us how the oil price does not have an immediate effect on the pump price as there is stock in the system purchased at the higher value. This makes logical sense, however what hasn't been discussed is the fact that the oil companies hold significant amounts of currency as dollars in forward hedging and when the pound was $2.07 they would have extended their position heavily. So comapring the spot dollar price agianst the oil dollar value is not exactly fair as the supply will most certainly not purchased with dollars bought at 1.76.
The other factor to consider is margins, if the industry maintains the same margin as it did in Nov 2007 then the petrol price of £1.089 per litre is about right if the oil and currency are purchased at spot prices. Contrary to this the diesel marin has increased by some 11p per litre. This is an increase in industry margin from 12p per litre to 23p per litre. This is exclusive of VAT.
I would be interested if anyone could explain why this margin has extended to this level as far as I am aware the raw materials are the same and processing costs have not increased since November; at least not in any proportion over petrol processing.
Dazza October 7, 2008
who gives a
monekys $$ss it should drop they put it up when it raises up so i dont buy that balls at all anything to make a fast £ or $
Realist October 7, 2008
RE 54
Yes it did.
If the pound was as weak as it is now then fuel would have been 7 pence a litre dearer at its peak.
Martin October 7, 2008
An the price of oil falls further now less that $90 per barrel same as November 2007 but prices are still high - don't blame the fact that the £ is weaker against the $ as that didn't drop the price when it was strong
Richard September 26, 2008
all the time the cost per barrel was dropping my local garage never changed the price per litre, as soon as the price increased the pump price has gone up. the garages are taking us for muggs. keeping the prices high maximising their profits whilst raw cost is low and then have the cheek to put the price up straight away. i understand that the cost should be for the cost of replacing the product so when the price was coming down why wasn't the pump price?
ripoff britian!!
Steve M September 24, 2008
YES YES YES!!!!!!!!
Diesel is below 1.20 ltr, what am I going to do with all the money I save?
I can almost afford a ticket to park my car in the city centre now, or save enough to get it back from from the pound when it's towed away while getting change.
The possibilities are endless.
Happy motoring.
Dazza September 23, 2008
Could not agree more post 50
greedy little F.... basically trying to get as high as they can and we all suffer
post 49 you either trying to be funny fair enough but if not get a life trade you brain if you have one
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