Gas station versus service station

I use "gas station".. To me a "service station" offered a variety of services, including attendant pumped gasoline, oil, window clean, sweep out carpets, and a mechanic (?) available or on duty. This type of service station is rare, if it exists at all anymore.

I normally use "gas station" because most gas stations don't actually do service any more. It's difficult to find one around here that is. Most of them are convenience stores that happen to sell gas on the side.

--scott

Gas stations.I think Service stations are as rare as hens teeth nowadays.Of course there is always Auto repair shops, I don't think they sell gas though. cuhulin

I dunno. I suspect it is just easier to say "Gas station."

Decades ago I worked at a "gas station." It (Chevron) just happened to do clutch jobs and even automatic transmissions along with whatever other work short of body work. Never heard it called a "service station," even by the boss or corporate. Heard it called the "Chevron station," or just the "Chevron," as was the "Mobile" across the street.

Now the newest seem to be called "mini-markets" or "short stops," or just the local "Fast-Strip" or "Texaco.'

B~

Don Stauffer wrote in news:49199d79$0$48225 $ snipped-for-privacy@news.qwest.net:

Gas station.

In my opinion, if the station lacks service bays, then it is not a service station. The name "service" meant "auto service", something that was essential back when cars needed simple stuff like ignition points, chassis lube and brake adjustments done every few thousand miles.

To me, a gas station is better known by the term "filling station". These days you fill up both your car and your tummy there, but you can't do much else.

Yes, I realized just after I posted the message that I had forgotten the term "filling station".

I am wondering if there is a regional preference.

While there are few stations actually providing service these days, I am thinking of the era when it was common.

So, back in those days, did you call it "gas", "service", or "filling" station? And what state do/did you live in?

This is more than a simple curiosity- I am working on a car book, and there will be a chapter on gas/filling/service stations.

I used to read Gus Wilson's Model Garage stories in Popular Science magazines many years ago.They were the very first articles/stories I always read first in those magazines.

From eastern Texas, they were commonly called "filling stations" in the old days.

Don Stauffer wrote in news:491af003$0$33220$ snipped-for-privacy@news.qwest.net:

As I recall, when I was a kid we generally called them "gas stations". Or they were identified by the brand of gas they sold (i.e.: "the BP", or "the Gulf station". This would have been in Ontario, Canada.

I don't recall hearing the term "service station" much, and "filling station" never. The first time I ever encountered the term "filling station" was in a British car magazine.

Gus and Joe are real live men.

Or, look on the web for, Gus Wilson Model Garage cuhulin

Don Stauffer wrote in news:491af003$0$33220$ snipped-for-privacy@news.qwest.net:

Now that I think about it, I also remember my dad talking about taking the car in to "the garage" for work. "The garage" in this case was a gas station that also had service bays.