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Gas Companies and Auto Makers Love it When You Buy Premium Gas!

By: Scott Siegel 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.

Gas retailers and oil refiners love high octane fuel because it is so profitable. 20 cents more per gallon is what you pay on average for high octane fuel but the retailer only pays 8 cents more on average. The retailer has 12 cents more profit on every gallon of high octane fuel 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 oil refineries and fuel retailers aren't the only companies that profit from premium gas. Car makers use premium gasoline to increase their bottom line too. They do that by using premium gasoline to increase the perceived value of 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 vehicle manufacturers capitalize on high octane fuel is by designing engines to be specially tuned to take advantage of the anti-knock properties of high octane fuel. By doing that they can create "high octane engines" that actually do get a little more horsepower out of high octane fuel then they do from regular fuel.

Since there is some horsepower gain it allows the car makers to advertise higher horsepower ratings for their engines. Again, higher horsepower ratings means more expensive car which means more profit for the auto makers.

High octane engines do output a small horsepower advantage when running on high octane fuel. It is so small though that most engineers and vehicle experts agree that you can use low octane fuel in a high octane 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.

Article Source: http://www.lifeweightloss.com

Scott Siegel has written a 143 page book of 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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