Buying a more Economic Car

Here are a few simple things to keep in mind if you’re looking for a cheaper form of fuel-efficient transportation:

Consider a newer used car, even if its fuel economy isn't quite as good as an older one's. The earlier subcompact cars' strength -- good gas mileage -- comes from small size, light weight and simplicity, all of which are weaknesses in terms of crashworthiness. Comparable small cars from the past several years are designed to be safer, and the field as a whole is more reliable than it was 10 years ago.

Do the math: Consider keeping your current car. The prospect of infrequent fill-ups and less money spent on gas is attractive, but it doesn't make replacing a car that's already paid for a better move in the long run. Four or five mpg looks like a big improvement, but it depends on how efficient your current car is. Calculate how much money you're likely to save with a more efficient car versus the cost and possible sacrifice of giving up your current ride and buying a different one. Demand is high for efficient cars and low for guzzlers, so you might see a significant loss before you realize a gain -- if you do at all. (from cars.com)

New Oregon Ethanol Law

A new Oregon law in 2008 requires gas stations to sell blended fuel that's ten percent ethanol. It's called E-10.

The ethanol-content requirement takes effect in three phases.
Beginning Jan. 15, it began at stations on the west side of the Cascades from Marion and Polk counties north.
On April 15 it extended to all stations west of the Cascades from Linn County south which includes Lane County. Then on Sept. 16 it will include all counties east of the Cascades.

E10 can be used in any car, there is no conversion needed and shouldn't cause problems with normal driving in most cars. If you've been using discount gasolines in the past you've already used E10 and won't notice any difference.

Ethanol is a strong solvent and will clean rust and scale out of the fuel system and run it through the fuel filter, so on older cars you'll have to change your fuel filter a little more frequently.

Some other differences are:
Although ethanol has a higher octane and will boost octane slightly it has less energy than straight gasoline so a mileage drop of at least 2% to 5% can be expected.

In regular gasoline, water sinks to the bottom of the tank, with ethanol, it tends to blend in. That could cause corosion, gum, varnish, and carbon deposit formation problems with vehicles that sit a lot.

Ethanol produces more water during combustion than regular gasoline which can cause more oil sludging during short trip driving. Oil changes may need to be done more often.

Something you will want to avoid is adding any treatments for removing water in your tank, as they contain alcohol and will raise your alcohol content above 10% and can cause breakdown of the fuel systems on cars not designed for ethanol.

Because of the energy required to produce ethanol and the resulting higher food prices from farmers switching to ethanol instead of food production we are trading one problem for a worse one, especially as increased demand for ethanol creates food shortages in many parts of the world. We have already seen what has started to do to food prices.

Now a study published in a recent issue of Science finds that corn-based ethanol, a type of biofuel pushed heavily in the U.S., will nearly double the output of greenhouse-gas emissions.

Gas Saving Gadgets

Extinct Term

The most often used search terms that bring people to our website from Yahoo or Google concern tune-ups, what they cost or what it includes. The phrase "tune up” should have gone out with the 20th century, as it doesn't apply to today's cars.

With cars sold in the US since the mid 1990’s the computer does most all of the adjustments and monitors component failures. On many cars, spark plugs are replaced only 2 or 3 times in the cars lifetime.

Spark plug replacement costs also vary enormously because of all of the different types of spark plugs now used, which can vary from around $4.00 to $20.00 each. On some applications it can take 20 minutes to replace the spark plugs and the next car may take 4 hours because of where the plugs are located.

Check your owner's manual for a guideline on spark plug replacement intervals and use original equipment spark plugs for best performance. If you do a lot of city driving, reduce that recommended mileage by 10 - 15%.
Fuel filters, distributor caps and rotors and PCV valves should be replaced every 30,000 to 50,000 miles. Spark plug wires should be replaced every 60,000 miles.

Many new cars do not have distributor caps or spark plug wires. On some vehicles, fuel filters are part of the fuel pump and are only changed when they plug up and ruin the fuel pump

Ignoring that Check Engine Light   

When the first GM cars with onboard computers and diagnostic capabilities came out in the early 80’s, they could recognize a limited amount of problems and could store less than 20 trouble codes. It’s not unusual for an average car today to recognize and set 125 codes or more just for the engine and transmission.

Then there is ABS, Air Bag, suspension and other systems that have their own codes. 

Some of these engine and transmission codes are for problems that usually won’t cause problems we notice while driving. We often hear, "that light has been on for years, I don’t worry about it anymore" or "Since this is a minor  problem can I continue driving it and not fix it right now?"
Unfortunately you only have one check engine light. If you ignore the light because of a problem that doesn't seem to affect the way the car drives, something else might crop up that will cause big problems and you may not know until it's too late because the light is already on.

Some problems that the light can come on to warn you about can cause poor mileage or be a warning that you may be left by the side of the road soon. Other warnings can be about things that can cause catalytic converter, transmission or engine failure.