Extra Profit for Car and Gas Companies When You Buy Premium Gas!
Auto makers and Gas companies really like it when they are able to convince you to buy premium gasoline. They like it so much they continue to perpetuate half truths about premium gasoline. Half truths such as premium gasoline will provide better fuel economy. Half truths like premium gasoline can increase your engine's performance. Actually these aren't even half truths they are full blown myths.
Gasoline refiners and retailers like premium gas because it's a lot more profitable for them than regular gas. You pay 20 cents more for premium gas while the retailer only pays about 8 cents more for that same gallon. That means the retailer makes an extra 12 cents on every gallon of premium gas he sells.
The refineries take in a few cents per gallon more on premium than on regular when they sell to distributors. When you realize that the few cents per gallon is multiplied by the tens of thousand of gallons of gas that refineries sell, you can see that it adds up to a lot of extra profit.
The gas refineries and retailers are not the only ones that make more money from premium gas. Auto makers use premium gas to add to their profits too. One way they do that is by creating a higher perceived value for their cars.
If a car has to have premium gas it must have a more expensive engine therefore the car must cost more. Using that logic the car companies can get higher prices on some models by recommending only premium gas can be used in those models. This adds credibility to their contention that the car is worth more money.
Another way that car manufacturers capitalize on premium gas is by using to their advantage the anti-knock properties of premium gasoline. They do this by designing engines to be specially tuned for premium gas. By doing that they can create "premium engines" that actually do get a little more horsepower out of premium gasoline then they do from regular gasoline.
Because these engines do have some horsepower advantage it enables the car manufacturers to advertise more horsepower for their "high octane engines". Higher horsepower equates to higher cost autos which equates to higher cost for you and more profit for the vehicle manufacturers.
The optimized for premium engines do perform with a small increase in horsepower running on premium gas. Most engineers and car experts seem to agree that you can use regular in a premium engine and you probably can't tell the difference.
Since low octane regular fuel can be used in a "high octane engine" without any noticeable change in performance and high octane fuel does not improve fuel economy why do you need to use premium gas? It all comes down to profit! Making you believe you need to use high octane fuel, the oil companies and auto makers put more money in their pockets and as a result you have less money in yours.
Scott Siegel is the author of a 143 page manual of automotive industry insider information on saving gas and money at the pump. Visit us to discover how you can get better gas mileage. Find out how to increase gas mileage.
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