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

Vehicle manufacturers and oil companies love to make extra profits so they love it when they are able to persuade you to purchase premium fuel. They like it so much they continue to perpetuate inaccuracies about premium fuel. Inaccuracies such as premium fuel will provide better fuel economy. Inaccuracies such as high octane fuel can enhance your engine's performance. Actually these aren't inaccuracies they are complete 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 oil refineries make a few cents per gallon more on premium gasoline over what they make on regular when selling it to distributors. The small extra profit per gallon is multiplied by the tens of thousand of gallons of gas that refineries sell, and ends up adding thousands and thousands of dollars to their 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.

They convince you that if a vehicle can only use high octane fuel it must have a premium engine and since it has a premium engine naturally the vehicle must have a higher price. Auto manufacturers can persuade you that their "premium engine" is worth more dollars by stating that it can only run on premium gas.

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.

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.

Regular gasoline can be used in a "premium engine" without any noticeable difference. Premium gasoline does not enhance fuel economy. In the end it all comes down to this: By making you believe you need to use premium gasoline, the oil companies and auto makers are able to put more money in their pockets by taking more out of yours.

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

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 learn how you can get better gas mileage. Find out how to increase gas mileage.
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