Hi all. Since the hurricanes, and relaxed gas requirements, I have noticed a substantial drop in MPG. The worst I have seen is the tank I am currently running (less than 1/4 tank and 260 miles:banghead:). It's bad enough that we have no option but ethanol, but with relaxed standards... It's abysmal. The only person I have talked to that actually tracks their mileage too, said that they had noticed a significant drop as well (100-150mi/tank fewer). The bad tank was purchased at Safeway BTW.

 

If anyone knows of GOOD gas out here, please post. TIA.

try , shell, bp, sunoco , around here gas is 2.42 for the 85 octine, 2.52 for the 87 octine

i hear you on the ethanol. my old volvos ran like crap on that stuff when i lived in Denver. i would use an additive occasionally to help.

here in the Bay Area since we have refineries in Richmond. I have lost about 1 mpg.

here in the Bay Area since we have refineries in Richmond. I have lost about 1 mpg.

 

I thought the refineries were in Rodeo. . . the tank farm is indeed in Richmond, however. . .

 

I do not seem to be loosing any milage however. CA standards being different from Federal, we refine our own gas. The last real problem we had with gas that I can remember was MTBE, which not only ate your FI components, but you would loose several MPG when running it, and have higher emissions to boot.

I never heard anything about MTBE eating engine parts, but they here in New York they stopped using it because the EPA noticed it showing up pretty much everywhere in the environment that they tested. Methyl tertiary-butyl ether kind of causes plant life to die, accumulates in fish and causes cancer in lab animals, so they told the refiners that if they wanted to sell fuel here, they'd have to drop the MTBE. As I understand it, they replaced the MTBE with one of the two major alcohols. The AKI stayed the same on the gas, but everyone in the state saw a 2-5% drop in milage practically overnight. My old car even got pissed. I had to reset its computer to get it acclimated to the different gas.

I ate at Taco Bell last night, so at least for now, we have bad gas in upstate New York...

 

 

matt

Hmmmm. I haven't bought gasoline in several months. But I just got my subaru back from my friend who was borrowing it, and I'll see if it's getting the same mileage as before. I keep rather anal records about stuff like that. I did notice yesterday that gasoline is now up to the same price as biodiesel. When I switched to driving the truck earlier this summer biodiesel was a dollar more a gallon.

Stock up on affordable quality motor oil now.

 

Very shortly, prices will be half again as high as they are now ...oh yeah, one other little thing, motor oil is currently heading towards the shelves which has been "allowed" to not neccessarily meet the labeled specs.

 

Hang on tight folks, looks we'll be embarking on a magical mystery tour very soon.

Stock up on affordable quality motor oil now.

 

Very shortly, prices will be half again as high as they are now ...oh yeah, one other little thing, motor oil is currently heading towards the shelves which has been "allowed" to not neccessarily meet the labeled specs.

 

Hang on tight folks, looks we'll be embarking on a magical mystery tour very soon.

 

Allowed to not necessarily meet the labeled specs? Uh, false advertising? Guess I'd better switch to Mobil 1 soon.

Allowed to not necessarily meet the labeled specs? Uh, false advertising? Guess I'd better switch to Mobil 1 soon.

I wish I still had the link. It was a news item on a petroleum industry website and was worded in a way that kinda made it difficult to understand. After 3 readings I sorta got it.

 

In a nutshell, it allows refiners/blenders a lot of temporary leeway to do whatever they decide "prudently necessary" to meet volume. I don't think the article mentioned any cutoff date associated with the "temporary" nature of the plan. That's a large detail missing right there.

 

My sceptical nature suggests greed. e.g. Charge more to build a crappier product more or less indefinitely. Just another "coincidence" in a string of about a hundred over the last few years I 'spose.

In a nutshell, it allows refiners/blenders a lot of temporary leeway to do whatever they decide "prudently necessary" to meet volume.

 

So, in order to keep the prices from going sky high from people buying so much gas, they sell crappy gas, for a high, but perhaps not sky high price. This in turn destroys people's engines, which reduces demand for gas, and the prices will come back down. Makes sense to me.... I think I'll start selling washwater from my bathtub as fuel. Sure, it's lousy fuel, but it only costs $2/gallon guys.....

is looking more cost effective with extended drain periods every day. With all our busses and trains we have been doing this for years.

I wish I still had the link.

Found it:

 

http://www.imakenews.com/lng/e_article000463013.cfm?x=bK2ryfS,bK2ryfS,w

 

Give this a read if you get a chance, maybe you can make more sense out of it than I can. I swear it basically sez: a higher price-tag stuck on motor oil of possible dubious spec. Let's just call it "licensing relief".

I'm up in Loveland and I think my O2 sensors are getting sketchy, but otherwise, I still gas up at either Safeway or Sam's Club. My mileage has been down, but then, my bike racks were mounted up. They're off now that it's getting cooler out (though today was almost 70 here!! WICKED!!) so my mileage should pick back up.

 

I keep an eye on it and will post back if I notice any significant changes.