VW’s safety/recall department just sent me these janky stickers for my 2011 Golf TDI. The accompanying notice wasn’t phrased as a recall, exactly, but given the return address, I can’t help but think they’re trying to avoid liability, and they must be having a larger than normal problem with people using the wrong fuel.

They specially called out loaning the car to friends or family; I haven’t had any problems with borrowers putting in the wrong fuel, but when I have loaned out the car I’ve reminded people 3 times that they shouldn’t refuel it but if they do they need to use diesel (the fact the car goes 500 miles between refueling helps a lot here).

So now my fuel filler area looks like this:

(Note how the stickers are wrinkly and poor-fitting, and this isn’t only because I applied them poorly.)

What I don’t understand is, why don’t they just use green plastic for the fuel cap itself? Not green as in tree hugger; green as in the color of the handle on almost all diesel fuel pumps in the US. (I realize the green handle isn’t a legal requirement or a universal convention, and notably BP doesn’t follow it, but it’s still pretty widely recognized.) That would be a much more obvious visual cue to remember which fuel to use. Doesn’t this make more sense and look both cleaner and more obvious?

I wondered this when I first bought the car; I wonder this every time I refuel it; I especially wonder this every time I see these stickers.