Unguzzle

How Hot is Gas Where You Live?

Seyth Miersma — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:42:40 -0500

Think you’ve reached your personal breaking point because of high gas prices? Well GasBuddy.com is now thankfully on hand to lend a little bit of perspective to your fuel-bill fury, unless you live in one of those bright red areas anyway.

Using this rather clever Gas Temperature map, the fuel finding resource can tell you just how high or low your local prices are when compared to other counties in the nation. Ranging from green (cheap) to red (spendy), users can see which motorists are facing the worst of it.

Even better, the map allows you to zoom in to take a more detailed look at what’s happening in your area of the country, county, or even city block (check out the gallery above). In the closest view you can even find out what nearby stations are charging, so as to pick out the right one when you need to fill up. There’s even a Canadian version, though without any data for those prickly northern provinces.

+ GasBuddy.com

Running On Regular: Do Premium Vehicles Really Need Premium Gasoline?

Stan Baldwin — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:42:46 -0500

Long before gasoline rocketed through $4 a gallon many people were dismayed to see a significant percentage of their income disappearing into the tank of their car. Today, a wobbly economic outlook, increases in the cost of most other forms of energy, as well as the cost of life’s staples, have prompted folks to look for every possible way to cut back on spending. “Can I save money by running my car on Regular?” “Will it hurt the engine?” my friends ask. More than one person driving a car the manufacturer has spec’d for Premium has told me “I use Regular and my car runs fine.” Are there consequences of “down grading” your fuel? It is definitely a timely question, so we sent e-mail inquiries off to a half dozen manufacturers asking about their technology and their policy on the matter.

While waiting for their reply let’s review some internal combustion engine characteristics. Fuel does not truly explode in a cylinder, at least it isn’t supposed to. It burns smoothly, albeit very rapidly, across the cylinder. The octane rating is a measure of the propensity a given fuel has to burning, rather than exploding. Gasoline “exploding” in the cylinder is frequently called “detonation” or more colloquially, “knocking” or “pinging”. These explosions, because they happen as the piston is rising during the compression stroke and try to shove the piston back down the bore, can do damage over time. In the case of severely stressed motors, such as in race cars, a few seconds of serious detonation can destroy the engine. Two of the mechanical considerations affecting how smoothly a fuel burns are compression and cylinder head configuration. Two variable considerations of great importance are the temperature in the cylinder and the ignition timing. Every manufacturer designs and builds their engines to operate most efficiently for the application intended with a gasoline of a particular octane rating.

Not all that long ago, before the advent of engine management systems, the result of tanking up a high compression vehicle with standard grade fuel was immediately obvious. Providing the stereo wasn’t cranked up past 100 decibels, the pinging or knocking from the engine compartment let you know something was not right. Driving up a hill, towing a load or simply accelerating quickly produced an unnerving rattle from under the hood. It sounded very much like your carbureted V-8 had morphed into a diesel. Until the age of microprocessors enabled the creation of engine management systems, the consequence of a steady diet of low octane fuel could be fatal for a high performance engine.

General Motors, Honda, Toyota and BMW responded to our inquiry. Honda’s public relations representative declined to comment on the issue. Toyota noted that essentially all their current models are designed to run on 87 octane. I asked about using 85 octane, available in some markets, and Bill Kwong of Toyota corporate PR told me they would run fine, with maybe only a slight 2-3 percent decline in horsepower and fuel mileage. But 85 octane is usually only offered in markets at altitude (i.e. Denver, Colorado) where the reduced oxygen doesn’t allow an engine to reach full designed power in any event. If you drive a modern Toyota, the octane rating of your fuel isn’t much of an issue. But what about a brand aimed squarely at the performance market? What about BMW?

Thomas Plucinsky, BMW Product and Technology Communications Manager told us all BMW engines are designed to run on 91 octane. All performance testing, including EPA emissions and fuel mileage, is done with 91 octane. However, though BMW is all about performance, their motors will run on 89 or 87 octane without damage. The knock sensors pull the ignition timing back and eliminate detonation. There will be a loss of power and a decrease in fuel mileage, but the size of the horsepower loss and the increase in fuel consumption depends upon many factors, such as ambient temperature, exact formulation of the fuel and driving technique, so BMW does not offer any estimates for operation on lower grade fuels. One not so obvious concern, Mr. Plucinsky noted, is the type and quality of additives the gasoline companies include in the fuel. Premium gasolines may have better additive packages which are more effective keeping fuel systems (particularly injectors) clean and working efficiently, than those in regular grade fuels or off-brand products. Using lower octane or off-brand fuel could be degrading the fuel system over time, setting you up for a repair bill down the line.

Dave Muscaro, Director of Engine Development/Calibration for GM power trains explained GM has “three flavors” of fuel specification for their offerings: Regular (87 octane) Recommended, Premium (91) Recommended, and Premium Required. Again, we are more concerned with the last two categories where regular could be substituted for the specified Premium. All the engines have a knock sensing ability that retards the spark when detonation occurs. For the premium recommended vehicles the spark advance will be pulled back enough to eliminate the detected knocking. The typical driver will not notice a performance decrease, except under load, and mileage will decline slightly. The engines intended for performance, such as the LS7 or the supercharged small block V-8, are Premium Required powertrains. The customers clearly were not primarily concerned with economy when they chose a performance vehicle and GM optimizes the engine management system to deliver the highest possible power output at all times. To this end the detonation control system does not retard the spark to the point required to prevent all knocking. It would seem a determined deranged drag racer could run Regular in his Corvette and, over time, he might manage to melt a piston or two.

If burning 87 octane in your car, when 91 octane is specified, will not harm the engine, and the performance degradation is not noticeable in typical driving, how much money can you save? The Energy Information Administration, U.S. Government Department of Energy, offers some figures for US gasoline retail prices (these are averages, all areas, all formulations). A year ago Regular was going for $2.982 a gallon and Premium was commanding $3.196 a gallon. The 21.4 cent difference delivered a 6.7 percent saving over Premium. This June 23, 2008, Regular extracted $4.079 from your wallet while Premium sucked up $4.312 for every gallon. The differential (23.3 cents) has grown slightly since 2007 but buying Regular is now only 5.4 percent cheaper than Premium. Since 5 percent is roughly the typical percentage of mileage decrease to be expected with the 87 octane fuel in a 91 octane engine, is there any savings at all?

Bottom Line: Most modern engines are fuel injected and controlled by sophisticated engine management systems which can rapidly and accurately compensate for lower octane fuel by retarding the ignition. Running these cars on 87 octane will not hurt them. However, the immediate savings at the pump may be wiped out by the subsequent drop in fuel mileage and performance, not to mention the possibility of damage over time.

The Top 5 Hybrid Vehicles As Rated By Their Fuel Cost Recovery

Reilly Brennan — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:33:41 -0500

As car buyers research fuel-efficient vehicles in the wake of sky-high gas prices, more and more are asking if the price premium for a hybrid is worth the savings they'll realize in fuel costs. A recent study from NADAGuides finds "that only a handful of hybrid vehicles make financial sense." The group looked at ten different cities and a number of different driver mileage profiles to determine the true dollar value of hybrid savings.

Not surprisingly, hybrids pay for themselves faster when gas is more expensive. That being said, if you live in an area such as California, a hybrid makes more financial sense than if you lived in, say, Missouri, which has the lowest gas prices in the country as of today. But even given the local cost of fuel where you live, your commute distances should be taken into account.

"Drivers near major cities often have a wide range of commute distances, which means that the break-even point can be dramatically different from one person to the next," said NADA's Tara Baukus Mello, senior writer and lead market analyst for NADAguides.com. "For example, if a Houston-area commuter travels 12 miles one way to work, driving 10,000 total miles annually, while a Los Angeles-area commuter travels 25 miles one way, driving 15,000 total miles annually, the Los Angeles commuter recoups his investment almost 80 percent faster."

Even for the high-mileage California driver, however, only a few hybrids actually allow the driver to recoup the cost if they hold onto the vehicle for five years and track 15,000 miles a year.

The cars that have shortest time to break even are featured in the gallery above:

Toyota Camry Hybrid
Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid
Nissan Altima Hybrid
Toyota Prius
Honda Civic Hybrid

The Prius's spot at number four on NADA's list is somewhat debatable as they used the four-cylinder Toyota Camry LE as a comparison benchmark for fuel, whereas we'd probably compare it to a Toyota Corolla instead.

Out of the above choices, which one would you earmark if you were shopping on fuel savings alone?

+ Top Hybrids by Fuel Cost Recovery (NADA)

Guide to the best electric scooters

Reilly Brennan — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:17:00 -0500

Consumer Interest in Motorcycles Increases as Gas Prices Rise

Steven J. Ewing — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:43:02 -0500

It's no surprise that the rising cost of fuel has been a huge topic of conversation within the automotive industry as of late. Because of this, more and more consumers are looking to hybrids and small car offerings as an alternative to larger gas guzzlers. Our friends at Consumer Reports are also showing that there is a growing interest in motorcycles and scooters from consumers around the nation.

In a recent study, Consumer Reports shows that 26 percent of new car buyers have considered making the change from four wheels to two. More significantly, CR notes that scooter sales are up 24 percent for the first few months of 2008. CR points out that motorcycle ownership is one way to reduce fuel consumption and can provide a more entertaining driving experience than a four-wheeled auto.

Would you consider shopping a Yamaha or Honda bike? Is a Vespa more your style? Or do the compromises of motorcycle and scooter ownership (weather-related usage limitations, minimal seating/storage, safety hazards) outweigh the benefits? Let us know in comments.

+ Consumer Reports: Downsizing to two wheels - Motorcycle interest revs up

J.D. Power Says Large Pickup Sales Continue to Slump

Seyth Miersma — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:00:17 -0500

News remains rather dismal for the sales of large pickup trucks in the U.S., as February numbers marked yet another year-over-year slide in J.D. Power’s accounting. Deliveries of the trucks fell by 14.5 percent last month, totaling 153,857 units compared to 179,862 during the same period last year. In total, the large pickup share of the market fell from 13.5 percent to 12.7 percent over one year.

Toyota’s redesigned Tundra saw deliveries climb by 43 percent to 14,400 units, while that vehicle stood out as the only member of the segment to post an increase. Ford’s F-Series outperformed the market, but still saw sales fall by 5 percent to 50,551. Chevrolet’s Avalanche and Nissan’s Titan were the worst of the lot, both trucks saw total sales fall by more than one-third.

While Toyota’s news was the best of a bad group in this segment, even it isn’t coming close to its projected Tundra sales goals. The Japanese automaker has hoped to sell 200,000 Tundra’s this year, but so far has only managed 26,473 in the first two months of 2008. Those numbers put the truck on a pace to under-perform its goal by more than 40,000 sales.

+ J.D. Power

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Cup Holders More Important than Fuel Economy to Car Buyers

Dustin P. Walsh — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 10:00:00 -0600

According to Forbes, people care about fuel economy more than they did ten years ago. Ok, that’s obvious. However, CNW Marketing Research says while fuel efficiency is a growing concern, consumers still care more about interior features, like cup holders. Yup, cup holders.

Mike J. Jackson, chief executive of AutoNation, the country's largest public dealer network, says that consumers definitely care about fuel economy; they just don’t want to drop the money to pay for it. He said that while all the talk is over fuel economy and hybrids, people are ignoring it. He said, “And yet overall fuel economy improved by just half a mile per gallon on vehicles sold in the last 12 months.