- March 23, 2009
- Gasoline
Driving to Savings: Car Tips to Save You Money
Although the most interesting method to save on car operating costs came from my chemistry teacher in high school (Buy your gasoline in the early morning or at night when it is cold outside.
The Chrysler Group Jumps on the E85 Ethanol Band Wagon
Well, it would appear that President Bush's plan for the future to wean the United States of America off its addiction to foreign oil may actually work. In fact General Motors and Ford are both building E85 Ethanol enabled or flex fueled vehicles.
Get Better Gas Mileage This Winter: Simple Tips You Can Use
Getting the best gas mileage is harder during the winter. Here are a few simple things you can do to improve your winter gas mileage.
Gasoline or petrol is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture, primarily used as fuel in internal combustion engines.
It consists mostly of aliphatic hydrocarbons, enhanced with iso-octane or the aromatic hydrocarbons toluene and benzene to increase its octane rating. Small quantities of various additives are common, for purposes such as tuning performance or reducing emissions. Some mixtures also contain significant quantities of ethanol as a partial alternative fuel.
Most current or former Commonwealth countries use the term "petrol", abbreviated from petroleum spirit. In North America, the word "gasoline" is the common term, where it is often shortened in colloquial usage to simply "gas", which nowadays causes confusion since many vehicles run on autogas. It is not a genuinely gaseous fuel (unlike, for example, liquefied petroleum gas, which is stored under pressure as a liquid, but returned to a gaseous state before combustion). The term petrogasoline is also used.
In aviation, mogas, short for motor gasoline, is used to distinguish automobile fuel from aviation gasoline, or avgas. In British English, "gasoline" can refer to a different petroleum derivative historically used in lamps, but this usage is relatively uncommon.
Fuel economy-maximizing behaviors describe techniques that drivers can use to optimize their automobile fuel economy. The energy in fuel consumed in driving is lost in many ways, including engine inefficiency, aerodynamic drag, rolling friction, and kinetic energy lost to braking (and to a lesser extent regenerative braking). Driver behavior can influence all of these. The city mileage of conventional cars is lower than highway mileage due to: 1) a high proportion of idling time, 2) operation mostly at very inefficient low-output engine operating points, and 3) more frequent braking (and more frequent resultant acceleration).