PumpTalk - Petro-Canada

New Car Smell gone…and replaced with?

I spend way too much time in my car. With three teenagers in my household, I’m always driving someone somewhere – or picking up groceries because the fridge is empty at 10 pm. on a Wednesday. 

I came across an alarming statistic…did you know that we spend, on average, about three years of our life in our cars?  And, did you also know that that car is teeming with bacteria? Guess where the number one dirtiest spot is?  The gear shift – followed by the trunk! Check out this story about a microbiologist survey of 1,376 car owners and their cars in England. (The gear shift has 356 germs per square centimetre.)

The cars where children and pets frequently ride not only had the highest amount of bacteria, but also the greatest range of types of bacteria. Cars with higher mileage had more bacteria and worse fungal air quality. And 16 percent of the survey participants confessed they typically leave uneaten food inside the vehicle instead of throwing it in the trash. Ugh.

Hot & Spicy Topic

Discussion of a Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) is heating up in Ontario and British Columbia.  Many consumers have been wondering what will happen after July 1st of this year when these provinces roll out this change.

A year ago, Pumptalk gave you HST and Gas Prices 101 – Jon Hamilton did a fine job of outlining the issue in Ontario and providing some examples - this info still works well today.

We will be keeping an eye on this – we suggest that you do the same.

Vehicle and Pedestrian Safety

In the GTA we’ve been hearing far too often about accidents involving motor vehicles, and pedestrians.  One colleague event commented that he is nervous to just walk around downtown anymore.  (Thanks for the idea Dave!)

So, I went searching to see what’s available in the way of helpful hints to offer to you.  These are tips that we should all be following no matter where we live.  Here’s what the Ministry of Transportation suggests:

Gas Station Gifts without the Guilt

Have you ever been on the prowl for a last-minute Christmas gift?  At a time of night when there is nothing open but gas stations and drug stores?   I've been there before and the results weren't pretty.  And trust me fellas, individually wrapping each crummy little gift doesn't help.  When she's already simmering after opening wine gums and a magazine, you wish you could make the waiting stack of wrapped (and equally shoddy) gifts dissapear. 

Now the best thing to do is plan ahead, put lists and a budget together, etc...but who am I kidding?  Christmas is just about here and plenty of you probably haven't even ventured out yet.   Well don't fear, there is hope and it doesn't involve going into a packed mall (or advice from me).   

Pump Talk on Wordle

Just passing on a neat new application we found on mynameiskate.  It's called Wordle and it makes funky graphics like this.  And yes, I'll be sending a donation to help out this volunteer effort. 

Check gas prices...without getting out of your chair

My apologies for the delay between postings (especially to you Benny).  Been busy around here.  But while I was tending to other  matters, Petro-Canada has been piloting a cool new toy which is worth taking a look at.   If you live in or around Toronto or Vancouver, you can access up to the minute gas prices at Petro-Canada locations on our website.      

This game will pump you up.

Congratulations to the folks at Corner Gas for scoring big at the Gemini Awards this weekend...and for  making gas stations seem more interesting to millions of Canadians.  I found this game while looking for some info on the show.  It's fun, but hard.  Give it a try and see if you are cut out to pump gas in Dog River, Saskatchewan.  I clearly am not.

Photo Credit: Ben Lawson