1 Apr 2022 will always be remembered as the momentous day that the Singapore-Malaysia border reopened after more than 2 years.
After taking part in joyous scenes of people streaming across the Causeway, Singaporeans quickly went back to their old habits – one of which is pumping cheaper Malaysian petrol.
Some Singapore cars were even seen being jacked up as their owners pumped petrol, possibly on 1 Apr.
While netizens called this behaviour kiasu, some just remarked on how we’ve not had the chance to see this for 2 years.
In one of the photos being circulated online and shared by ROADS.sg on Friday (1 Apr), a car with a Singapore licence plate number was seen pumping petrol at a Caltex station.
From the Malay words on a sign in the background, the photo was likely taken in Malaysia.
The driver was also wearing a mask due to the pandemic.
He’d obviously used a car jack to tilt his car some distance above the ground while pumping petrol.
Another photo shared on Facebook on the same day showed another Singapore-registered car pumping petrol at Petron.
The company has a number of petrol stations in Johor Bahru (JB).
Instead of a car jack, this driver seems to have made use of a ramp to raise his car while it was being filled with petrol.
To those who don’t drive, these actions might be befuddling.
In fact, Singaporeans have actually been seen tilting and even shaking their cars for years while filling petrol.
The belief is that they can get their money’s worth of petrol this way – and with petrol prices going sky-high recently, every extra drop they can get counts.
After all, if you’re finally able to take advantage of the cheaper petrol in JB once again, why not make sure you can squeeze as much as you can into your tank?
However, car mechanics have said that this method won’t increase your car’s petrol intake, reported AsiaOne.
Worse still, the uneven weight distribution might even damage your car by loosening the screws and bolts underneath.
In its caption, ROADS.sg said they’d missed seeing such actions over the last 2 years, when Singapore motorists couldn’t enter JB.
However, some netizens slammed the practice as cheapskate and kiasu, and emblematic of typical Singaporeans.
Some were more forgiving, saying that since Singaporeans had been deprived of cheap Malaysian petrol for 2 years, we could perhaps indulge them.
The sight of Singaporeans doing strange things to their cars in JB might be amusing and even bizarre.
But for some reason, seeing us back to our old habits across the Causeway is also curiously heartwarming.
Maybe it’s because after the long 2-year separation, these quirks are proof that we’re finally getting back into our JB groove.
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Featured images adapted from Yong Jing on Singapore Incidents Facebook group.
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