Auto Makers And Gas Companies Profit 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.

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 refineries and fuel retailers aren't the only ones that get an advantage using high octane fuel. Vehicle makers use high octane fuel to increase their bottom line also. The car makers use high octane fuel to increase the perceived value of their vehicles.

They use this type of thought pattern:if a car can only use premium gasoline it must have a more expensive engine and since it has a more expensive engine naturally the vehicle must cost more. By using that logic, auto manufacturers can convince you that you should be spending extra dollars on their car.

Another benefit of premium gas that auto makers capitalize on is to take advantage of the anti-knock properties of premium gas. By designing engines to be optimized for that property of premium gas they can create engines that in fact do get more horsepower out of premium then out of regular.

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.

Premium gas does not increase fuel economy. Regular gas can be run in a so called premium engine without any noticeable effect. In the end it all comes down to money. By convincing you that you need to use premium gas they are able to take more money out of your pocket and put it in theirs.

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

Scott Siegel has written a 143 page manual of 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.
Don't reprint this article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated