“They think I’m that dumb.”
A Los Angeles woman has turned eight seconds of pumping fuel into 1.1 million views by highlighting the reaction she says she gets every time she fills up her Volkswagen Beetle: even though the car takes diesel, men try to stop her pumping it on the assumption she doesn’t know what she is doing.
The video was posted on Monday by Olivia (@oliviapapanicolaou), a 20-year-old creator whose channel is mostly about beauty, travel, and fashion. The clip shows her unhook the pump, roll her eyes, and pan to the “Diesel only” sticker on her fuel door.
Her on-screen text reads, “When I start putting diesel in the beetle and the men come running to tell me to stop because they think I am that dumb.” Her caption added, “Like guys I know it’s weird the bug takes diesel but leave me alone.”
It may be surprising to find out Volkswagen has put diesel engines in small passenger cars for decades, and the Beetle was one of them.
The company’s own history of the New Beetle notes the “1.9 TDI” turbodiesel among the model’s engine options, and diesel models can post highway numbers north of 50 mpg.
If they’re rare now, it’s because of the company’s troubled history with regulators. Volkswagen’s U.S. diesel lineup was gutted by the 2015 emissions scandal known as Dieselgate.
In 2015, the EPA found that VW had installed “defeat devices”—software that switched emissions controls on during testing and off during normal driving—across roughly 590,000 model-year 2009 to 2016 diesels, and VW spent about $10 billion buying back and compensating owners of the 2.0-liter cars, with settlements that reached up to $14.7 billion.
The Beetle TDI was among the models pulled from sale.
Several commenters brought it up unprompted. “Look up dieselgate,” wrote erik.p, in one of a dozen replies pointing newcomers to the history.
Olivia’s reference to men trying to correct her at the gas pump resonated with other women in the comments section.
“I drive a diesel Jetta,” wrote Ashley. “I try to stop at gas stations with nobody there because it’s exhausting and embarrassing when men constantly argue with me about it.”
A commenter posting as Zia said her first car was a diesel Beetle, and “the amount of old men that felt comfortable approaching a 16 year old was staggering.”
Rodrigues Farm wrote that its female delivery driver “has been confronted multiple times going to put diesel in our delivery van, which takes diesel. None of the male drivers have ever been approached about it.”
Some men in the comments defended the impulse as helpfulness. “I’d rather someone check than a huge mistake be made,” wrote Joseph, noting that a diesel Beetle is an uncommon sight.
Others reported the same treatment regardless of gender. “As a 42yr old male with a Diesel Civic, I’ve had this too,” wrote one commenter, adding that fuel stations had shut the pump off on him mid-fill to check.
Ironically, the people rushing to correct Olivia and other diesel drivers are missing some information.
In the U.S., diesel pumps are commonly fitted with green handles and a wider nozzle, and per AAA, that medium-diameter diesel nozzle is “too large to fit through the unleaded fuel filler opening” on a gasoline car.
In other words, the expensive mistake the onlookers are picturing—diesel poured into a gas engine—is one the pump itself is built to prevent. AAA notes the misfueling risk actually runs the other way: a narrow unleaded nozzle slides easily into a diesel filler neck, which is how the far more common wrong-fuel error happens.
The color coding also trips up international viewers because the convention flips overseas. “In Europe the green hose means gasoline,” wrote Paloma Impopular, one of many commenters from outside North America who read the clip as Olivia grabbing the wrong pump before realizing U.S. stations mark diesel differently.
Apart from the diesel drama, the comments section featured Beetle affection and dad-grade puns.
“Aw a stink bug,” wrote Brook, in the most-liked comment. Others ran with the diesel-in-the-bug wordplay: “Well put diesel in my beetle and call me Theodor Geisel,” wrote isidro_olv, invoking Dr. Seuss’s real name. A recurring nickname stuck to the fuel itself. “Ah, yes, the Christmas gas,” wrote one commenter, riffing on the red-and-green pump handles.
Olivia leaned into it, telling one commenter who suggested she start insisting “the green handle is prettier” that she would be using the line. The sticker on her fuel door already makes the point in bold letters, but as her comments section demonstrated at length, the sticker has never once stopped the men from coming.
Motor1 reached out to Olivia and Volkswagen via email. We’ll be sure to update this if either responds.
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