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Subscribe to RSSWith gas prices on the rise, NBC's Chris Clackum gets secrets of fuel-efficient drivers from Philip Reed of Edmunds.com.
When will it end? The nationwide average for regular gasoline is now $3.75 a gallon, up 4 cents a gallon from a week ago, according to AAA. That’s 36 cents more per gallon than a month ago.
Soaring prices are driving people to actively search for cheaper gasoline. How far would you go to save a few cents per gallon?
Hundreds of drivers across the country were asked that question as part of a survey done for the National Association of Convenience Stores released a few weeks ago.
• 68 percent would make a left-hand turn across a busy street to save five cents per gallon
• 68 percent would drive 5 minutes out of their way to save 5 cents per gallon
• 36 percent would drive 10 minutes out of their way to save 10 cents a gallon
• 68 percent would drive 5 minutes out of their way to save 5 cents per gallon
• 36 percent would drive 10 minutes out of their way to save 10 cents a gallon
Of course, if you drive too far out of you way, you’ll waste time and spend more on gas to get there than you’ll save.
“Driving around aimlessly doesn’t make a lot of sense,” said Jason Toews, co-founder of GasBuddy.com. “We always tell people to work it into their daily commute. Most of the time you can find cheaper gas somewhere along your route.”
I asked Gas Buddy to look at my 13 mile commute. The highest price that day was in Seattle near my office: $4.23 for regular. If I filled at a gas station near my home in Bellevue, I would pay $3.85 a gallon, that’s 38 cents a gallon less. And if I drove as little as a mile out of my way, I could save even more at the station that was charging just $3.65 a gallon.
It turns out, that is the gas station run by Safeway. And because I had points in my Club Card account, I got a 40-cent a gallon discount for that fill-up. My final price was $3.20 a gallon.
In many parts of the country, supermarkets offer gas discounts. Why not take advantage of them. I’ve found that the gasoline at Costco is normally lower than most stations in the area.
You can use the fuel cost calculator at Gas Buddy or Bankrate.com to see if that extra drive for cheaper gas saves money or not.
By punching in the numbers, I found that driving 10 miles to save 10 cents a gallon ($3.89 vs. $3.79) would cost me 45 cents more for that fill-up. Driving only a mile to save 2 cents a gallon ($3.89 vs. $3.87) would only save me 11 cents.
Is cheaper off-brand gasoline bad for your engine?
Auto experts say there’s nothing to worry about. Your car’s onboard computer can adjust for the variations in the fuel you use.
“Buying off-brand gasoline is not going to hurt your engine or affect the performance of your car in the short term,” said Phillip Reed, senior consumer advice editor at Edmunds.com. “Over time though, you may benefit from top-tier gasoline because it may have more additives.”
Don’t waste money pumping premium fuel unless your car needs it. You may be able to safely switch to regular and save 30 cents or more a gallon. It all depends on what it says in your owner’s manual.
“If high octane is required you must use it because in the long run it might hurt the performance of your car,” Reed advised. “But if it’s merely recommended, you can experiment with a lower octane. Most people will find that their car performs just fine on a lower-grade of gasoline.”
You can always give it a try and if there’s a change in performance or a drop in fuel economy, switch back to the higher-octane fuel.
Other ways to save on gas
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It’s no secret that the way you drive can significantly help or hurt your car’s fuel economy.
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Jack rabbit starts burn up fuel. Using cruise control when possible boosts fuel economy.
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Make sure your tires are properly inflated. You can improve gas mileage by up to 3.3 percent by doing that, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Check your tires at least once a month.
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Mike Quincy at Consumer Reports Autos had this tip: get rid of any unnecessary weight – golf clubs or big containers of kitty litter in the trunk – and remove any roof rack or bike rack that you’re not using regularly. “The added weight of excess cargo or the extra aerodynamic drag caused by those racks will really reduce fuel economy,” he said.
More information
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Consumer Reports: Debunking Fuel-Economy Myths
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Edmunds: Is Cheap Gas Bad for Your Car?
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FTC: Save Money on Gas
Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter or visit The ConsumerMan website.
Leave a Comment:
if you already spent a ton on premium brand car like BMW, Lexus, Infiniti, Audi, Acura or god forbid Maserati it would be the stupidest of you to fuel up with non-premium grade. they all have high compression engines that would hurt with lower octane. so after spending 20K upwards premium on the luxury brand you'd go out of your way to destroy your investment for a 15c discount in gas? if you're that smart you deserve what's coming for you.
It makes no sense to drive anywhere. All the gas stations I go by on my commute are at $3.79 a gallon except for two. One is $3.69 and the other is $3.75.
No price fixing here!!
Using lower test fuel in modern high performance cars won't "hurt" the engine. Using lower octane fuel in high compression engine cars will cause the fuel to pre-detonate (go off before reaching the optimum piston position) which blows the cylinder valves open prematurely causing the once familiar knocking sound. However, practically every car produced since the late 1980s has a knock sensor in the engine which senses this condition and feeds this info to the engine computer. The computer then adjusts the "timing" of the engine accordingly to prevent the pre-detonation. The performance one has "paid for" goes to crap but the engine is protected.
So, Obama's cronies waited until after the election to start raising prices again... Surprise!
It's not even summer yet. $6 gas on the way. I like it because the people who will feel the pain the most are the Obama voters. With the war on coal, I like to see electric bills go up, too.
Obama cronies? You mean the oil companies? These are Obama's cronies?
You are so right Rachel. Nobama need to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rachel--BALONEY !!! You Republicans always said that George W. Bush never had anything to do with gas prices and now you accuse President Obama of doing the same thing. YOU ARE RIDICULOUS. President Obama cannot control the prices. He can allow the oil reserve to let some oil out on the market but he has no control over prices . Maybe you should check the reasons for the rise that the experts claim for the rise, shutdowns of refineries for yearly maintenance, higher crude prices, market speculators but not the President. Stop listening to Fox news and maybe you can get the real picture. BTW- prices here in eastern Iowa dropped yesterday by 4 cents in some stations .
I will repeat again, why do you Republican Obama haters come to a Liberal website to spread your hate. We wouldn't be caught dead on FAUX NEWS with all the liars. Go back to your cesspool on FAUX NEWS.
No, the democrats said Bush DID have everything to do with high gas prices, so doesn't it stand to reason the same standard applies today? I don't blame Obama DIRECTLY for high gas prices, but INdirectly?? Oh, the economy is really booming and that's why gas prices are high??? Really? I can name several million first time welfare and UE benefit applicants within the last year who would beg to differ.
The EPA under direction and urging of the Obama administration is responsible for most of the unusual increases we're seeing today.
I'll tell you why the same standards (and responsibility) don't apply to Obama as they did to Bush. Obama doesn't come from an oil rich state, he doesn't have past and present connections to oil companies and their executives, and he doesn't have a VP who is directly linked to someone like Halliburton. In short, there's no incentive for Obama to have higher fuel prices... unlike Bush.
For those new to our country, the President does not set commodity prices. Thanks.
Now I'LL tell you why the same standards (and responsibility) don't apply to Obama as they did to Bush.
Obama's not white.
The government can always take control of anything that infringes on the peoples freedoms, health care being the most recent. Energy will be regulated by government, it's inevitable as long as the industry remains hell bent on siphoning off the wealth of everyone the robber baron can.
When packing for Hell, you might want to bring a warm overcoat, just in case.
I already go to Costco and it's less than a mile off my commute. I carpool to work two days a week (my employer staggered our work schedules to fit demand, such that even though I have 200+ coworkers, there is nobody who is consistently on a shift within an hour of mine more than three days a week), and even though my employer provides a free bus pass, my work schedule makes it impossible to use the bus for my commute.
So... basically I'm already doing everything possible. And my fuel cost has jumped by $5/week since Christmas. Nice!
Unfortunately, Gas Buddy is not always accurate.
true
true, but its a good start.
frankly, i can figure out which is likely to be cheaper simply by eliminating the ones which are usually higher, like shell. ----- but that's on the west coast --- might be different elsewhere. ------- when i'm traveling, my gps is great for that - telling me which stations are in my vicinity, and how far to each. ------ out west, in some areas, truck stops may be your best option. ----- this tends to be true in the ogden/salt lake city area.
Fuel prices typically go up in February because refineries start changing over to summer blends. Lower supplies = higher prices.
here on the west coast, AZ, and NV ..... arco is usually the lowest priced gas. ------ contrary to this article, costco, is not always the cheapest. ----- and supermarket gas stations usually only give you that discount if you have purchased a certain amount of groceries in the past 4 weeks. ------ as a single older person, i do not usually shop enough at any one grocery store to qualify for that discount.
I live in San Diego, and my observation has been that Arco tends to be pretty much equal to Costco and most independent places, while all the other brand names tend to be higher. HOWEVER most of our Arco stations have closed or changed to other brands within the last two years; they are now rather difficult to find.
interesting ----- i don't get to SD very often - mostly go thru ontario, then head east, and arcos are plentiful around ontario, and the rest of california, oregon and washington..
I buy gas like I buy stocks. Buy low, burn high. I refuse to fill my tank when the prices are high. The higher the price, the less I put in. When the price dips, I put more in. If the prices falls dramatically, I fill it up.
Yes, filling up once a week makes more sense from a time standpoint. But if you're empty when the prices are highest, you can pay quite a bit more for the tank. It makes more financial sense to put in only $10 - $20 dollars worth at a time. It's like dollar cost averaging when you buy stocks.
true ----- i tend to do that when i'm at home ---- when i'm traveling, however, i'm stuck with whatever prices i encounter. ------- that being said, when possible, i am flexible enough in my travels that i may wait until i see prices dropping before i leave.
When your commute is long enough that a full tank of gas in your car only provides for seven round trips (as in my case), or less, in the cases of some people I know.... you don't necessarily have that kind of flexibility.
Since the invasion from the north hit NC, the gas prices here went from among the cheapest in the country to one of the most expensive. Taxes are through the roof. I live on the TN line, so I do all my fill-ups in TN, never in NC.
Here in Spartanburg, SC, gas prices run from $3.63 to $3.30 (Costco). Even though we're a lot lower than some places, it's still pretty high. Might be time to look at a Volt if the commute is short enough.
If you drive, say, 30 miles per day round trip to work and work 20 days per month, you would drive 7,200 miles per year. At 20 mpg that comes to around 360 gallons per year or $1,260 at $3.50 per gallon. Not enough savings by itself to justify running out to buy a Volt, but if you're considering a new car anyway, it might be worth keeping in mind.
Or ride a bicycle.
there are also plenty of gasoline cars which get 40mpg ---- also something to consider. ------ for most people, i would imagine it depends on how much out-of-town traveling they do.
The gas prices are turning my trips to bluegrass festivals into a rather expensive hobby!
I still love to pick and share it, grin and bear it!
(Not to reveal my age or anything like that) but when I started going to bluegrass festivals gas was only $.48 a gallon!
ronpal - Unfortunatly a 40 Mile per gallon car will not pull my Moomba boat.
true, and neither will any hybrid or electric car.
Oil companies send their gas that is off spec to the Why Pay More stations. Most European cars say only use the Top Tier Gas (see toptiergas dot com). Herb, please provide the estimate on how much the engine repairs from non-detergent gas might be. Penny wise, pound foolish. This silly "cheap is better mentality" is the reason that all consumer goods from China, Home Depot, whatever are such low quality.
The average price here is $4.09. It is ridiculous. The cheapest I found was up north crossing into Fort Lauderdale, at $3.95. At this rate, we're looking at $5+ gas by the summer!
I got my first subcompact car with an onboard mpg calculator last month. So I've really gotten into checking on my mileage and I also have been calculating mileage by odometer and pump gallon readings. I've learned that tire pressure can easily affect mileage by 10%. But where I thought all the major gas stations were about the same, people on forums are reporting that it pays to stop at one station for several fillups to get a large enough sample for a valid comparison, then try another and that there are often major differences - possibly the owner cheating you on gas quality. Also, the Winter can take a few mpg off your car.
I have a 2013 Honda Fit base automatic that's rated 28 city, 35 hwy and is supposedly "famous" for beating the official numbers.
But I, with a little more city than hwy driving, was averaging only 28.4 mpg after 7 fillups. But after recently changing the tire pressure from 32 psi to 36 psi, I'm averaging 33 mpg (not enough data for a firm number, but clearly a few more mpg over the same short trips compared to before, based on the car's mpg calculator).
The tires are rated 40 psi but Honda stresses that they still recommend 32 psi - apparently to improve handling. But forums say that increasing to 36 psi increases mileage without causing the tires to wear more in the center or decrease handling noticeably. So I increased the pressure. If they get hot and hit 40 psi in the Summer - the TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) light will warn me. Fortunately, 36 psi does not trigger it unless different tires become too different from each other in pressures.
do you sychronize your odometer from time to time ??? ----- your odometer might be off a little if you change your inflation.
It is all OBAMA'S fault.
everything. Even the fact that people voted for G.W. Busch.
I see many well off people going nuts over 5 cents a gallon. On a 20 gallon tank, that equals ONE MEASLY DOLLAR. A dollar? Really?These same people routinely blow 5 times that on a coffee. I get that the price impacts some. My strong suspicion is that it doesn't impact many as much as they think it does. The problem is, the price - unlike nothing else I can think of - is plastered on every corner for us to focus and obsess over. Tell me, how much are you paying for a KWH of electricity? I have no idea either....and that's how I treat gas. Fill up tank, it costs what it costs, move on.
I pretty much agree with all this and would further add the following. Cheap gas is NOT the birth right of people in the US. Based on what it costs just about everywhere else in the world, gas here is ridiculously cheap. At the PUMP that is. But what is the REAL cost in terms of death and disease from crappy air and blood spilled in the middle east in order to maintain a spigot of cheap gas? I own a very high performance gas guzzling car but drive it only occasionally while commuting in a gas sipping four banger. I fully understand the cost of driving a guzzler and am willing to pay the price for it.
For those that TRULY struggle with the price of gas, it's time to get off your ass and do the things that make you less dependent on the price. How about starting with getting rid of that ridiculous SUV? How about moving closer to work? I currently live about 12 miles from my work but could move to less than a mile if I really needed to. That doesn't work? Then change jobs, etc, etc. Any of those things are way better for all than bitching and moaning about gas prices.
If bending over, grabbing your ankles and taking it up the rump while keeping your mouth shut is your thing, be my guest. It's your American right.
I am BEYOND the point of angry with what this country is coming to.
The American people are getting screwed royally!
As I said many times before, the Dems, the Repugs, Conservatives, Liberals, Crapitalists, Communists and their ilk are ALL full of $#!+ !!!
I have an uncle who would go out of his way to save a PENNY on a gallon of gas.
That always made me laugh!
He replied: "I'm not gonna give the other guy the satisfaction to rob me!" "It's not about the money, it's the principle!"
RantingDallas,
WTF are you talking about? Did you read ANYTHING I even said? While you are the one apparently content to "grab ankles", I am talking about ACTIONS one can take to be less dependent on WTF gas prices are. You are doing EXACTLY what big oil wants: grabbing ankles while bitching and moaning. If more people did the things I am suggesting, that would hurt the oil companies right where they live and they would be FORCED to change their ways. Yeah, keep on mindlessly blowing smoke, like THAT is really helping things.
What planet are you living on? Don't you have any clue as to what most of the rest of the planet is paying for gas? In many cases, 100% more! We are paying HALF of what most of Europe pays. How is THAT getting "screwed?? The ones getting screwed are the residents of middle eastern countries getting their lands raped for YOUR ridiculously cheap oil while a handful of Sheiks get so rich it's obscene.
This kind of self-defeating behavior happens at any Wal-Mart parking lot in the U.S. A hundred empty parking spots in the back of the lot, and yet, in every aisle, there will always be someone with their blinker on, waiting for a spot right up next to store, where someone is loading groceries in the trunk. The person will just sit there, blocking the lane, burning their gas, for as long as it takes for the current occupant to load up, get in their vehicle and pull out. I've actually stood and watched this kind of thing, and the duration could be as long as 10 minutes.....I mean, WTH!!! Find a spot, pull in immediately, the walk will do you good!! And, you didn't have to block traffic and burn maybe a half gallon of gas just so you can save yourself a few steps!
At Christmas time, I l-o-v-e messing with these types of folks who flat refuse to go find an empty parking spot and walk like 99% of the rest of humanity must do. I'll leave the mall with bags of goodies, and it depends on how "prime" a spot I have parked in as to what I do to mess with these people. If I have found one of these cherished spots, I will, invariably, have someone follow me in their vehicle (they deduce from my having bags in my hand that I must be done shopping) and then, I see them wait for me to load up, and they have their blinker on to alert me and others of their intentions (like this is somehow going to speed me up...lol). When I see this, I intentionally will load my trunk very slowly, with my phone in my ear as I carry on talking to absolutely nobody. This always makes the person waiting for me lose their patience a little. I may even get a "friendly" reminder honk from them, to which I respond by closing my trunk after all is loaded, and instead of walking to my car door, I walk back toward the mall. Oh God, the reactions are f'ing hilarious!! I've been cursed at, been given the finger, and every time, I just smile, wave and wish these people Merry Christmas in the spirit of the season.
Idiots!!
To avoid the idiots who sit too close to my car when I try to back out, during the holidays I'll walk to my car in the adjacent aisle while they follow me from the store.
Then I walk through the cars to the very next aisle, where my car is parked and drive away. Some of the drivers act like they're going to have an aneurism.
LMAO at the loonies.
I never drive one foot to look for my gas--I drive an EV powered by my home solar.
Stick it Big Oil. Stick it.
Giz,
Bravo! While hoards of mindless oil junkies blow crap about "being screwed" by various nefarious powers and God knows what else, it's great to see someone say FU to big oil while refusing to be played like a fiddle by them. You are the oil companies worst nightmare. Good for you.
I did some simple math for my mid-size sedan with a 16-gallon tank.
If the difference is $0.10/gal, I would only save $1.60 if I go to the store with the cheaper gas. If I have to go through town (where I get poorer gas mileage) to get to that store, then I have wasted time and money for only a few cents worth of gas.
I think the big signs with their big numbers in bright colors lulls people into thinking that the next place is better than the last and so on, especially if the price of gas is noticeably lower (say 10 cents or more). Apparently many people can't do simple math in their head and figure out that time and fuel consumption used going out of their way can eat into their percieved savings.