If there’s one car fact or Easter Egg or detail (or whatever you want to call it) that seems to delight non-car-obsessed people more than any other one, I think it has to be this one: fuel gauges tend to have a little arrow on them that points to what side the fuel filler is on.
People absolutely love this little detail, and they’re right to do so! It’s really a design triumph, a tiny bit of extra graphics on a dashboard that makes life quantifiably better. And it was the idea of one man, a man named Jim Moylan, and I’m sad to inform you that Mr. Moylan passed away on December 11, at the age of 80.
Moylan was a senior interior designer in the Plastics, Paint, and Vinyl division at Ford, and once, when he was borrowing a car to go from one building to another for a meeting in 1986 on a miserable, rainy day, he had to put some gas in the car. So he stopped at a gas station.
As Moylan explained to the Every Little Thing podcast in 2018, an episode which, by the way, I was a guest on and helped the hosts find out who was responsible for the little fuel gauge arrow, this is what happened:
“I had to go to a meeting in another building on a rainy day. When I went to get the pool car, I started it and noticed the gas gauge was empty. I pulled up to the gas pump on the wrong side, so I had to move it.”
Moylan, wet and irritated, decided to make it his mission to prevent humanity from having to deal with such an indignity ever again. He took action:
“I got back to my office after the meeting, and without even taking my coat off, I sat down and started writing the first draft of this proposal. I typed it up and turned it in and forgot completely about it.”
Here’s what that memo looked like:
…and if you want to hear Moylan tell you the story himself, here’s the whole episode:
You may notice that in Moylan’s tidy little sketch on the memo, he doesn’t suggest an arrow; rather, he has a little overhead view of a car, with a tiny little fuel door open:
During the design process, this seems to have been decided to be too complicated, and when Ford started producing cars with Moylan’s clever idea, it had been simplified to the arrow we all know. Here’s a dash cluster from a 1989 Thunderbird:
When it comes to a ratio of simplicity to benefit, Moylan’s arrow may be one of the best automotive innovations ever. It’s a little thing, sure, but a very clever and useful little thing, and I hope Moylan was proud of his achievement. I’m sure there’s so much else he’ll be remembered for by the people who knew him, but I think this is a pretty big deal.
While I believe that Moylan came up with this idea independently and Ford was the first to widely deploy it, I also think the concept pre-dates Moylan’s wet fill-up by about a decade or so. That’s because it seems that Mercedes-Benz utilized a very similar concept, executed in a different manner, on the fuel gauges for their W123-series cars, built between 1975 and 1986.
On the W123 fuel gauges, there was a small red low-fuel warning light set into the gauge. This light was shaped like a triangle/arrowhead, an arrowhead that pointed to the right, where the car’s fuel filler was.
I think this is deliberate; Mercedes-Benz wasn’t in the habit of making warning lights triangular at random. Here’s an earlier fuel gauge with another style of integrated low-fuel warning light, one that is decidedly non-directional:
I think the design of the arrowhead low-fuel light, pointing to the side where you refuel, was intentional.
I should mention I did talk about this on that same 2018 podcast, where the hosts of the show reached out to Mercedes-Benz, only to find they had no idea about this and no formal records of its design – so, I think the credit should still go to Moylan, who has documentation and proof of intent.
So, rest in peace, Mr.Moylan. You made a small but important difference in so many people’s lives.
Top graphic image: Vermeulen-Sajewski Funeral Home
“On the W123 fuel gauges, there was a small red low-fuel warning light set into the gauge. This light was shaped like a triangle/arrowhead, an arrowhead that pointed to the right, where the car’s fuel filler was.”
Yes, but the triangle was on the left so it’s unclear what the light means, it’s even confusing.
And Torch has already complained about cars where a light on the left has an arrow pointing to the right : https://www.jalopnik.com/congratulations-mini-you-made-the-stupidest-turn-sign-1847727385/
I can’t believe that Tesla hasn’t embedded the arrow deep in the fuel control section on the center screen.
I have 6 cars, so I get the filler side mixed up pretty regularly. Sadly, only a few of my cars even have this feature!
Thank you Mr Moylan. Having cars with doors on different sides, you’ve saved my bacon at many gas station. Rest in peace.
I remember when and where I was when I learned of this feature. I was in my early 40s, driving to work one morning, and one of the hosts of the local morning show on the the radio mentioned it. I don’t remember how it came up on the morning show, but I was floored. I immediately looked ath the dash and realized they were right, at least for that car. When I got home, I checked my other car and it was true there too.
Such a little thing, but finally knowing has changed my life for the better. Rest in peace, Mr. Moylan.
Good idea, from a man who grew up with fuel fillers in the rear, sometimes behind the license plate.
Now, we need a deep-dive Torch piece on fuel door arrows and how they’ve been implemented over the years. So deep we get lost.
Thank you, Mr. Moylan. May your funeral have a convenient arrow pointing people the correct direction in which to walk up and pay their respects.
Also, reminder that if anyone shares that meme about how the graphic of a fuel pump on your gauge has the hose on the side where your fuel door is… show them the gauge cluster in an NA Miata, where there is no arrow and that hose is on the wrong side. Because that meme is stupid.
Anyway, on a more legit, serious note, we shouldn’t just be thanking him for this – we should be learning an important lesson. See something you can improve? SPEAK UP. RIP to a hero.
Good design is rarely recognized. Thank you, Mr. Moylan.
I showed that arrow to my mother and it was like I was Prometheus giving mortals fire. She, a woman not easily impressed, was impressed.
Having currently 5 vehicles in the fleet, having that little arrow by the fuel gauge is a wonderful thing. Now I only have to remember where in each vehicle the windshield wiper controls are!