This Karnataka MLA paid a price when diesel was accidentally filled instead of petrol

The Rs 1.65 crore Volvo was purchased only on Saturday.

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If you're looking for ultra-modern luxury, you could do little better than the Volvo XC90 T9 Excellence -- with its 410 BHP engine, its ultra-luxe interiors complete with personal massagers and more. Too bad, as Mangaluru City North MLA Mohiudeen Bava found out, cutting-edge technology can go all too wrong when confronted with an old-fashioned goof-up.

Daiji World reported that Bava, who became the first Indian to buy the newly launched Volvo XC 90 T9 Excellence for Rs 1. 65 crore on Saturday has to send his car back to the service centre.

When Bava’s son went to the fuel station, the attendant erroneously put diesel into the petrol hybrid vehicle, Daiji World reported.

Reacting to the incident, the Congress MLA was quoted as saying, “As I was in Bengaluru for the Assembly session, my son had taken the new car to the fuel station. Though my son had instructed him (the attendant) clearly to fill petrol, when my son went to pay, he found that the staff had filled diesel.”

Most SUV cars in India run on diesel which may have been the reason for the attendant’s blunder.

However, Bava handled the situation rather maturely saying, “As the saying goes 'to err is human', it is common to make mistakes and we respect humans more than machines." He added that the attendant apologised for his mistake and the dealer was contacted to repair the car.

Bava is the chairman and Managing Director of Bava group of companies, a group that is largely into mining in Mangaluru. In 2013, he had declared in his election affidavit that he had assets worth Rs 15 crores.

Media reports suggest that putting wrong fuel in a car is not that uncommon as it might seem. As many as 150, 000 people in the UK accidentally filled the wrong fuel in their car every year. The damage and repair cost varies on a case to case basis.

Experts suggest the damage can be nominal if the mistake can be spotted at the fuelling station itself, then it can be rectified by drawing out the wrong fuel from the car.

But if one turns on the ignition, the repair costs can be very expensive and the car should be stopped as soon as possible if the engine is turned on.

A petrol engine running on diesel can break the injection pump and the overheating caused by the unburnt diesel can also result in overheating of the catalyst. An earlier report by Daiji World said that the hybrid luxury car was bought from a Bengaluru showroom and the MLA was looking for a fancy number for the car.