Easy way to save 1 to 4 mpg in your car or truck!

Yes, that's right, how would you like an easy idea or way to save an extra 1 to 4 mpg in your car or truck? Well, lets see - 1 to 4 mpg extra may not sound like much, but at todays gas prices its a huge savings and step towards saving at the pump. How is that you might ask? Well, let's say the average vehicle gets 25 mpg. A 1 to 4 mpg savings would calculate to about 4 to over 10% better fuel economy. Let's see, at $4 per gallon 4% equals $.16 and 10% equals $.40. That's per gallon! So, if you follow this one tip you can save at least $.16 to $.40 or more per gallon at every fillup because you will get that much more mileage from your car.

Now, this is where you start to realize the savings - if the average vehicle takes 15 gallons to fill it up then at $.16 per gallon savings you would save (.16 X 15) = $2.40. That is using the lowest numbers of only 1 mpg savings. If you use the slightly higher numbers of $.40 per gallon savings (which is very likely as that is actually just a little over the median figures) you would have (.40 X 15) = $6 per fill up in savings. That's a lot. And it quickly adds up to savings of hundreds of dollars fast. So, now that you can see how this idea works, what is it? Is it some scammy device that applies magnetic power or creates a supposed vortex effect in the air intake? No, these items were all proven as scams by the FTC and EPA.

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No, I am not trying to sell you a gas saving device. It's actually really simple - the next time you get your oil changed go with pure synthetic oil (not a synthetic mix as synthetic mixes only contain 10 to 25% synthetic oil and so your results will be much lower - it is a much better deal to use the full synthetics only). Yes, it will probably cost twice the price of a regular oil change, but you will definitely see big results in your fuel economy which will far outweigh the added costs of the synthetic oil. I never really thought much about using anything but the cheapest oil available and discount oil changes, but all that changed when I found out that pure synthetic oil had this big a change in fuel economy across the board on all vehicle types even to include work trucks and service vehicles.

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This is not to mention that using full synthetic oil will greatly reduce wear on your key engine components and make your car run better and longer for less money. You can't beat that, now can you? For the complete research on synthetic oil and resultant fuel savings:
iea.org/Textbase/work/2005/EnerEffTyre/calwell2.pdf

Slight relief at the pump as national average gas prices drop below $4 a gallon

Yes, after the drop in per barrel prices of crude oil from the $140's to the $120's, it was inevitable that the gas prices would recede soon. And they should have come down to the $3.70 or so sent range to reflect the same percentage drop as crude oil experienced. But this did not happen. Gas prices only dropped marginally from a national average of $4.07 to about $3.97 or so now. What does this mean?

Well, the reserves of refined gasoline are lower than they should be and even though demand has lowered considerably, politics and growing tensions along with economic problems and such in third world countries has kept gas prices high. This along with Iran's nuclear ambitions (it's quite obvious that Iran is up to no good as usual and wants to have nuclear weapons) and the fact that some of the world's largest reserves are starting to run out - why else would the middle east be investing so much money as it has in areas other than oil (banks like Citicorp, real estate, etc...) in such turbulent times with no clear rally on the horizon? Because they know something that you don't - the world has less oil than it thinks and it is slowly running out.

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All these items mean that the current drop in the price of oil was and will be very short lived. I know, you can see Jim Cramer scurying around, ranting and raving like a lunatic that oil is going to go to 100, but you have to understand, Cramer is like a weatherman - he is only right 50% of the time. Oil and gas will only go up because they have to. China, INdia and other large countries with billions of citizens will be using more oil every year and supplies will go down. It's simple supply and demand.

Now, the quick drop in oil prices over the past 2 weeks or so dropped too much and so will bounce back and probably to the $130's range for now. Yes, it may rally and then drop and then rally and so on. And maybe it will drop and touch 100 so Jim Cramer can say, "I told you so" only to immediately bounce to $148 or even a new high at $150 per barrel. So this quaint little drop in current gas prices means that soon gas and oil prices will go back up. Airlines will return to figuring out odd fees and pricing structures and more to try and help make ends meet (I think that they should cut the executives pay for losing money - whom ever heard of a company that was losing money left and right paying umpteen millions of dollars in compensation to executives that basically suck - if they were any good and the airline industry were so bad, they would use their resources and start investing OUTSIDE of the airline industry - look at Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway - it no longer is in the business it originally was and look at how it flourished).

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So, for the near term look for gas prices to creep back up to $4 per gallon or so and for oil per barrel to return to the $130's to $140's. I am sorry, but until the democrats in congress get together and release the laws against off shore drilling and drilling in national parks, the price of oil and gas just won't get much better (it would also help if more effort was made to use natural gas (CNG) and other alternatives to foreign oil). And this is supposed to be a very active hurricane season - all it takes is one major hurricane half the size of Katrina to bring about $5 per gallon gas or even worse (depending on where it goes). Throw in Iran and the fact that Israel wants to bomb their nuclear refining plants before President Bush is out of the office so they have his backing and you could get another steep jump in the price of gas. To say the least energy and especially oil is a very volatile market in a crazy market and down economy. I wish I had good news on this, but I just tell it like it is.



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Pep Boys and Caroffer.com want to pay cash for your car - is it a good deal?

Well, I was passing through the Sunday newspaper and came upon the weekly PepBoys insert. It was full of the usual - some deals on oil, car wash soap, air filters and brake pads - and then I noticed a little 2 inch square box that read' "Sell your car now for cash! Receive a cash offer online at caroffer's website and schedule your vehicle drop off at PepBoys.


Being that I have spent the last 15+ years of my life in the automotive business and have current wholesalers and retailers licenses in North Carolina, I thought it would be interesting to see how realistic their numbers would be. So I went online and entered in my car's information. The next day I got an email with their offer in it. I was appalled - it was less than 1/2 the wholesale (not retail) price of the car. If I wanted to I could easily run my car through a WHOLESALE, dealer only auction and get twice what they were offering me.

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This is a rip off and is bad for consumers as even used car managers at used car dealerships aren't that bad. These guys at caroffer are trying using PepBoys to try and get customers cars at half of their wholesale value. At these prices, you are far better off selling your car quickly for its wholesale value or waiting a little and getting some more. There is no reason to sell a car for 1/2 of its wholesale value, ever. In my opinion caroffer is a scam and is trying to scam or take advantage of people that are usually in financial trouble (who else would accept their offers at these prices).


To top it off, they have the balls to state that these numbers are contingent upon PepBoys checking the car in and if its condition is worse than near creme puff status that they will deduct further an mail you a check for the difference. This is just like those gold commercials we see on tv where they tell you to mail in your gold in these non insured brown envelopes, "oh we are honest and will give you more for your money then anyone else" - right, and they will sell you the Brooklyn Bridge too, if you let them. I wasn't really out to sell my car, I just wanted to see what kind of a deal they were offering and see if it was fair like CarMax is. It was not even close.

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In my experience I have actually told many people to take their cars to CarMax because they actually got more for their trades than most car dealers were willing to give them. I found this to be true every time (you have to be careful of what is the real trade in figure and what the car dealer is floating over from the new car's profit into your trade). CarMax really does give the true, wholesale value of your car and doesn't try to play games with you. Caroffer, wants to give you half of what you would get at CarMax. That is just ridiculous for anyone to even consider. Just rule out Caroffer and if you must sell your car fast, go to CarMax - you'll get a lot more for your car, truck or SUV. I think PepBoys should rethink their alliance with a shady business like Caroffer especially in todays internet and blogging saavy world.

Using Craigslist to effectively sell your car or truck

Do you have a car or truck to sell or know someone that does? How were you thinking of going about selling it? Were you going to use the newspaper classifieds like so many people have done in the past? Well, for one, the newspaper classifieds are expensive and the results are horrible. I have done that myself and found that only a few people ever called and usually they were wholesalers and such and they wanted to get my vehicle for a lot less than its worth. They tried to offer me a lot less than the car was worth and tried to use high pressure tactics and such to get me to take their ridiculous offers.

Wholesalers really are bottom feeders and are out there purely to take advantage of people. They scoure the newspaper ads trying to find people in bad financial situations so they can take advantage of them. Instead of dealing with the riff raff and people that aren't serious and want to come and drive your car and waste your time, there is another way. You can use Craigslist! Craigslist was started within the past 10 years and has grown to be one of the top 10 or so websites in the world.

Craigslist FSBO For Sale By Owner and how it works.

Craigslist is basically a grassroots version of your local newspaper classifieds with a few extra perks or bonuses that really make it shine -

1) Almost all ads are free (except for posting job ads).

2) Unlimited words. This is a big bonus. With the newspaper classifieds you were paying per word and had to keep your description small and basically useless - this is why newspaper ads generate mostly unserious inquiries - the callers don't know a whole lot about your used car for sale. With Craigslist you can tell them all about the extensive service history, that you are the original owner, the owner is at war in Iraq and you don't have room for the vehicle or he needs the money, etc... (P.S. If you are a soldier or have a loved one in Iraq or know someone over there, give them our thumbs up - we support our troops wherever they may be stationed!)

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3) Pictures. This is the best perk of all. How many times have you heard someone say a picture is worth a thousand words? Well with Craigslist it is worth even more and you can use as many pictures as necessary to describe your car or truck you are selling. This way, the people whom contact you have a very good idea of the condition, color, etc... and they will be dead serious buyers - you don't get this with your local newspaper classifieds - just call your local newspaper and ask them how much a quarter page ad with pictures would cost for 1 month. You better sit down before they tell you! It could easily be several thousand dollars or more especially if you ran it on the weekends!

With Craigslist you are getting this same amount of prime advertising space for free plus you get much more traffic and better yet - a higher percentage of serious buyers! It doesn't matter if you are located in Washington DC, Miami FL or Los Angeles, you will definitely want to check out Craigslist. If you want to see and track the traffic you will get at Craigslist you can just add a little snipit of html code for a traffic counter (these little ad counter widgets can be found free all over the internet). Just try doing this with your local newspaper!

These reasons are why Craigslist and it's similar free classifieds Backpage and Kijiji (Craigslist is still king and owns 80% or so of the free classifieds market on the internet) have grown at an astounding rate and people are constantly adding new automotive sales posts at the rate of millions per day. And not only is this a great resource for your car or truck, but also for boats, house items, etc... Are you a mechanic or do you have experience working on cars? You can even post your qualifications and find some additional work and income and even be your own boss! With the conomy being as bad as it is you will see more and more people advertising their skills and looking to supplement their incomes.

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Ethanol and is it really the best alternative to foreign oil

Ethanol has long been seen as a ready made in the U.S.A. fuel alternative to foreign oil. Now with gas prices creeping over $4 per gallon at the pump, more and more manufacturers are starting to make this ethanol from corn. The result? Not a dime in lower oil or gas prices and a rapid increase in corn and other expenses which could end up in a global famine as corn and its many related food products is going through the roof.

As corn goes up, so do other commodities. This drives the costs of living and virtually everything we do or need higher. There are better alternatives than diverting much of the corn production to ethanol. As T. Boone Pickens, one of the wealthiest and smartest investors, has said, "lets use our largest natural resource - natural gas." This is already offered by several manufacturers for governmental and work related vehicles. Even the Honda GX has it - except its referred to as CNG or Compressed Natural Gas). The reason for compression is that Natural Gas is just that a gas and takes up to 10 times or more space than gasoline. This would not be very effective in cars and trucks for consumers if you had to drive around with a 200 gallon tank attached to your car.

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So, CNG was found to be quite effective and, although it still takes about 2 times the space of gasoline, it is still quite doable and convenient. With a special compressor machine one could even tap into their home gas line and refill their car at tremendous savings. Now if enough vehicles were switched to CNG the extra demand would cause a price increase in natural gas which would be detrimental to homeowners with natural gas heating and other uses. To offset this we should employ wind power, nuclear power and solar power. All three of these are being used sporadically throughout the U.S. and the potential for 20% to even 80% of our power to come from these three sources is there - this would result in much lower driving costs, home heating and energy costs and, importantly, a huge reduction in green house gases.

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What does OEM really mean and is it really better?

If you have been inside a new car dealership and looked around in the service or waiting area you have probably seen at least one sign stating that you should ask for OEM parts and that they are far superior to non OEM parts (you can also see these ads in pretty much every automotive related magazine). Usually this is accompanied by a picture of a worn or broken part which they clearly state is an aftermarket part. Pretty convincing, Huh? Makes you really want to make sure you get that OEM (which stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer) part so that doesn't happen to you, doesn't it?

Well, what their not telling you in these advertisements is that in todays cars and trucks virtually all parts are built by companies other than the manufacturer. Many are made in Korea, Guam, Malaysia and China or Japan. They are made by other stand alone companies. These same manufacturers make products for several new car manufacturers and also sell their own brand items. Also, there are numerous manufacturers like Brembo brakes which manufacture brake rotors and callipers that far exceed OEM parts. So, this could actually be seen as false advertising.

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What made me write this today was that I saw an add in Motor magazine in which Nissan, true to form, showed a picture of a Nissan brake and rotor and a very poorly designed and built brake and rotor. Yes there are perts out there worse than OEM. But, notice that they said OEM was better than any aftermarket part and this is completely untrue. Just watch some TV shows like Horsepower and similar and they will show you how they are constantly upgrading and replacing OEM equipment and auto parts to make a car faster, stronger and better.

So, in the future, remember the fact that OEM parts aren't really OEM in the first place. There is always better parts and equipment out there and you can always get a better deal by using Google and searching for that part rather than paying a huge markup at your local new car dealer.