Oil, often called ‘black gold’, appears to be the life and blood of the global economy today. With our energy needs increasing year after year and the oil supply not showing signs of catching up, it is but obvious that we are seeing increasing energy costs. It is due to the mismatch in supply and demand of oil that we have recently seen the price of a barrel of oil cross the $100 mark. Every global economist and his brother is making predictions about how much the price of oil is going to go up or down in the coming years. I don’t blame them - that’s how they make their living. Whatever happens in the future, the current price of oil is a concern that is certainly causing a great deal of pain in our daily lives. So until we can find an alternative to oil for our energy needs, we need to be smarter about using our existing oil resources. And since most of the oil is used to derive gasoline, what better place to start with than your very own car.
Start first with paying the lowest price for gas
Before I start talking about fuel additives, one smart way to save on gas itself is to pay the lowest price possible for it. And there’s a great website out there to help you do just that:
All you need to do is to enter your zip code and it gives you a list of the gas stations in your area offering the lowest gas prices. All that is left for you to do is to make a stop at one of these gas stations when you need to fill up next.
Once you’ve got the best gas price, work on making that fuel do more for you:
One of the key metrics that we use to measure the fuel efficiency of our cars is their mileage. Mileage is usually calculated as MPG (Miles per Gallon) in the US and KPL (Kilometers per Liter) in most other countries. This effectively measures how far your car will travel in miles on one gallon of gas (for MPG). So in order to get the most out of our fuel, we obviously need to try and bump up the MPG on our cars. One way to do so is by using fuel additives. There are two types of fuel additives: those that work by increasing the fuel’s octane rating, and those that simply act as corrosion inhibitors or lubricators within the piston-cylinder mechanism. In this article, we will focus mainly on the latter type because they are generically applicable to most types of car engines. Fuel additives that increase the octane rating may not always make sense for lower-performance engines.
The fuel additives that act by inhibiting corrosion and lubricating mainly decrease the resistance to motion of the various moving parts of the engine assembly. They also help by cleaning any blockages that may have developed in the fuel delivery system, like the fuel injectors, carburetor, intake valves, etc. The fuel additive that I recommend using is the Lucas Oil Upper Cylinder Lubricant and Injector cleaner. I have tested this product and based on the cost of the fuel additive and the amount of fuel that it can treat, I highly recommend it. Here’s how the calculation behind my recommendation works:
Test Car: 1999 Nissan Maxima
Cost of fuel additive = $30 (good for 25 uses)
Cost of fuel additive per use (completely filling the tank from almost empty state): $30/25 = $1.2/use
Average number of gallons of gas filled in each use: 16 gallons/use (approximately the tank capacity of my car)
Therefore, cost of fuel additive per gallon of gas filled: ($1.2/use)/(16 gallons/use) = $0.075 per gallon
Test Results:
Mileage without using fuel additive: 24 mpg (highway)
Average cost of gas during testing: $3.70 per gallon
Therefore, number of miles that I get per dollar (without using fuel additive)= (24mpg)/($3.7 per gallon) = 6.5 miles per dollar
Mileage with using fuel additive: 28 mpg (highway)
Average cost of gas+fuel additive during testing: $3.70 per gallon (for gas) + $0.075 per gallon (for fuel additive) = $3.775 per gallon
Therefore, number of miles that I get per dollar (with using fuel additive)= (28mpg)/($3.775 per gallon) = 7.4 miles per dollar
As you can see from the calculations, I almost get an extra mile per dollar by using the fuel additive. Furthermore, without going into details of the calculation, I would always end up getting more miles per dollar using the fuel additive as long as the price of gas is above $0.45 per gallon. And with the way things are going, I seriously doubt that we will ever get close to those kinds of fuel prices again. So as you can see, the numbers have spoken! It always makes more sense to use the fuel additive to get those extra miles per dollar. Keep in mind that the mileage you get on your own car may vary from my test results. If you still want to test this out yourself before you take my word for it, you can always first buy the smaller bottle of this fuel additive, test it with you car and see what results you get. Click on the image below of the 5.25oz. size bottle of the fuel additive from Partsamerica.com (also operates as Advance Auto Parts)
If you are ready to get the bigger container of the Lucas Oil fuel additive, click on its image below:
The good thing about purchasing this from Partsamerica.com is that you can also search whether the product is available at an Advance Auto Parts store near you, and pick it up from that location directly (without paying any shipping charges).
If you would rather buy the product from Amazon, click on the Amazon image for product below. Be sure to check out reviews from other customers who bought this product on Amazon as well. A lot of them have also experienced a boost in vehicle acceleration after using this product.
Below is an Amazon link for a small sized bottle:
Another product that I briefly tested and saw good results with is the STP Fuel Injector and Carburettor Cleaner. This product is a little more expensive, but if you prefer to go with a brand name, then you can give this a shot. Click on the product image below for a link to Partsamerica:
Always remember that fuel additives are only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to getting better gas mileage from your vehicle. In conjunction with this, you must always make sure that your vehicle undergoes routine maintenance tasks like oil changes, tire rotation, tire pressure, wheel alignment, etc. For details on these other methods of increasing the mileage of your vehicle, check out the following links:
http://www.ehow.com/how_6193_gas-mileage-with.html
http://financialplan.about.com/cs/cars/a/SaveGas.htm
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt064.shtm
http://www.savingadvice.com/forums/money-saving-tips/39923-how-save-money-gas.html?highlight=mileage
If you do decide to purchase the fuel additives that I have suggested in this article, I request you to purchase them by clicking on the appropriate PartsAmerica or Amazon links in this article. They are affiliate links and so with every purchase that is made, the commission earned will help pay for the maintenance expenses of this blog.
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Using regularly, fuel injectors, reduces deposits, removes water in the fuel system, and fights rust in the fuel system. Zelm Vehicle