One thing I always look at in post-apocalyptic literature is how they treat transportation: notably, are people still driving cars and how long can they do so and under what conditions?
Entering our current oil crunch, I think it’s obvious how fragile the ecosystem around cars are, but just letting the car sit unused and untreated for as little as a month can start to introduce\ problems. The idea that you can just pop into a car that’s been abandoned for 3 years, pull the keys out from behind the visor, and start driving is unrealistic.
-
Best: The Postman. We’re back to walking and riding horses.
-
Good: The Last of Us, Season 1. People walk or ride horses, when our heroes DO find a working truck, it is treated as the jackpot it is–and I think it even had a spare gas tank in the back to maximize distance traveled to harvest gasoline. Realistically, gas as a fuel for fires would be a valuable enough commodity that it would have been scavenged, but they need to do some traveling and high speed dragons are not available in this genre (Reign of Fire aside).
-
Worst: Jericho. Nuclear explosions in the US pretty much wreck everything and despite the town of Jericho being completely isolated, people just drive their pickup trucks around all seasons long without comment. Horses and bicycles are maddeningly present but rarely used. I think the show thought American audiences could accept a premise where the federal government collapses after multiple nuclear strikes, but not where people in Kansas got off oil dependency–that would be too out there.
Worst, Honorable Mention: I didn’t watch past Season 2, but I understand the Walking Dead was product-placing current model cars every new season.
Cars made sense in the beginning, but after two or three seasons, finding gas that hasn’t gone bad would be next to impossible.
Eh, gasoline going bad isn’t quite the on-off switch a lot of the show’s critics think it is. I’ve personally revived cars with years-old gas in the tanks before - sure, they run like shit, but they can still be driven, in an emergency anyway. Or post-apocalypse.
Personally, what grinds my gears, is every abandoned car’s battery still having enough juice to start the engine. Nobody ever needs a jump start.
Although, timeline-wise, most of the show takes place over the course of less than two years. It’s not until the middle of season 9, the third-to-last season, that there’s a time skip of more than a few months.
Does petrol go bad!? Lol I didn’t know that, does it evaporate if poorly stored or something?
Not sure what happens to it chemically, but it doesnt evaporate. They sell fuel preservatives that make it last longer. But as a rule, shouldn’t really use multiple years old fuel, unless you have some old bulletproof engine. New engines with their fancy fuel management systems and whatnot will just throw a hissy fit and die.