A lot has changed with both vehicles and fuel over the past century. Photo credit: Jan Klaver/ Creative commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
Buy a small car with a manual transmission, only fill it with premium gas, and only go to the filling station early in the morning when it is cooler outside, and keep your car in neutral at stop lights or in traffic – do all these things and you improve your MPG by exactly nothing – 0 percent. That’s right; the above run on sentence has nothing but myths about improving gas mileage.
The number of myths circulating among car owners is legion. Let’s dismember them for good, E3 Spark Plugs fans…
- Small cars are more fuel-efficient: Not so, according to FuelEconomy.gov. Advances in diesel technology, turbochargers, low-rolling resistance tires and hybrid drive trains put full-size cars directly into the mix of fuel-efficient cars.
- Manual transmissions are more fuel-efficient than automatics: For cars five years of age and older, this is true. Today, however, advances in automatic transmission technology bring us the continuously variable transmission. This type of automatic transmissions offers more useable power, a smoother ride and better MPG than older types of automatics. In fact, the same model car equipped with a CVT and a manual sometimes gets better mileage with the CVT. In 2013, according to Autoguide.com the Nissan Altima with a CVT was the most fuel-efficient mid-size. Included in the competition were several cars equipped with stick shifts.
- Premium fuel gives better mileage: Unless you have a high-performance engine for which your owner’s manual says you need premium gas, buying it for your car is a waste of money. Most cars manufactured today run just fine on regular unleaded gas.
- Buy your gas at the coolest time of day: The theory here is that gas is denser when pumped at the coolest time of day – early morning and late evening. Dense material is heavy, so a cold gallon of gas weighs more than a warm gallon. This idea almost makes sense. However, gas storage is underground where it maintains a constant temperature. Whether you pump it at 6am, 6pm or high noon, the temperature is the same. At most, you might find it less congested at those hours and not have to wait. The density of the gas is the same no matter what time you fill up.
One tip that WILL help boost your fuel economy – install a set of E3 Spark Plugs, designed, tested and proven to give you a stronger, faster, cleaner burn than conventional spark plugs. Find the right set for your ride in our online catalog.
