One thing that there is no shortage of in Mexico is gas stations. Unlike NOB, here there are new stations opening up all the time. Outside of Patzcuaro, on the road to Morelia, there have been working on a new station for the last 2 years at least. What it seems is that they work on it, run out of money, work a little more, run out of money, then finish it. Then wait to open it.
I never said they were put up fast, did I?
Anyway, the new station on the Hiway is huge, it opened up in November, about the same time they started working working on a new small station close to our house.
We use to go to the station on the way to Opopeo which was closer than going all the way into town to fill up. Now we have a station between the autopista and Codallos to fill up at.
In our travels around Mexico we see lots of new stations under construction. Talking with friends, the station business is a pretty decent business. So if you have 3/4 of a million bucks you can open one up down here.
They say the payback on the investment is between 4 and 5 years, or sooner depending on the tweaking of the dials which seem to be prevalent from location to location.
While on the road a few times, it has not been unusual to have some of these stations put in quite a few more liters of gas than the car seems to hold.
With the electronic age, there are lots of ways to manipulate things......not saying that any locations do that, but I do notice that some stations seem to be more stingy that others.
We will still go to Opopeo when ever we can, simply because both stations in that small town are owned by the residents. Each resident gets a check at the end of the year to their portion of the profits from the two stations in the city limit. We have always had great service at both of those locations, unlike some other places in the area.
5 comments:
3/4 of a million eh? What are those places like? Similar to NOB with convenience store as part of the deal? You make more on lottery tickets than gasoline in Texas, however everything is self-serv.
The gas stations in our area really vary on their filling standards. I simply consider it another variable in my life in Mexico.
I have learned to shun the stations the locals avoid. Just like restaurants.
We always make sure the meter is dialed down to zero before they start and I always ask for a specific amount of liters or pesos - never just fill it up (this in part because they often will take a lot of time to squeeze in the last drop.
Of course there is no sure way of being positive that you got what you paid for. But, I have tripped them up on supposedly filling with more liters than could have been space for.
Not as many Pemex stations down here on the southern coast of Mexico - you actually have to be careful when traveling to not come up short. up in Veracruz and further north - as you suggest many stations.
I often wondered the quality of the measurements at the gas stations while visiting in GDL. Sometimes it seemed that the tank would take more than the could hold, now I am convinced that I wasn't crazy.
I would always watch to see where the cab drivers would go.
Sometimes it wasn't just a matter of which station but you would see that they would go to a certain station but avoid a particular pump like the plague.
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