I don’t know about you but every time I heard oil prices falling, I grin from ear to ear. I like free markets if they are operating in a healthy economic environment (which means I’m cool with the bailout of banks, but I’m not cool with talks on bailing out GM, though I understand why) but those OPEC nations were taking it too far. I wrote about how OPEC hates us and how they were decreasing supply to “cope” with sagging demand. They got used to the high prices and now that demand is falling, they want to keep the high prices. That’s just mean.

So, what can we do? Hit them where they want to hit us, in the money sack. We must use less gas.

The lesson here, which we should’ve learned in the 70’s, is that OPEC should control our destiny. Say what you want about offshore drilling or alternative fuels, that’s for the pundits and the policy makers to figure out for 2015… I’m going to continue to do what I can today - use less gas.

Five Ways to Screw OPEC

1. Regularly maintain your car. Getting regular checkups, regular tune ups, and regular oil changes will improve your fuel mileage and increase the lifespan of your car. The myth about the 3,000 oil change is a myth, you can follow whatever your car manual says for your type of usage, but you still need to get that changed. As for the 30,000 and 60,000 checkups? Do them. Tune ups? Wonderful for gas mileage as you replace things that have been worn down. Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish with your car because the day you take it for granted is the day it reminds you that you shouldn’t.

2. Check your tires regularly and rotate them. Rotating the tires maximizes their lifespan. Keeping them properly inflated maximizes your fuel efficiency and maximizes their lifespan. Those two simple things will reduce how much gasoline your car consumes and how much oil is used to produce the rubber for your tires. Use less, OPEC complains.

3. Carpool to reduce driving. I feel like a broken record (can I even use that analogy anymore?) but carpooling and efficient trip planning has to be the easiest way to save gas. My wife and I try to plan our trips such that we minimize how much driving we do and it makes for a fun mental exercise.

Did you know that if two separate people are meeting at a point between them, it’s always better for one person to pick up the other person first as long as they return to the same place? If my wife is leaving work and I’m at home, it’s better for her to pick me up if we plan to go out for dinner than for us to meet each other at the restaurant. I didn’t think it was intuitive but if you draw it out it makes very obvious sense. (if the meeting point is equidistant to both then it’s equal)

4. Learn how to hypermile. Hypermiling is changing your driving behavior so that you maximize your car’s fuel efficiency. The basics are quite simple, you want to brake as little as possible, accelerate as slowly as possible, and travel as slowly as reasonably possible. Realistic hypermiling are a few suggestions I feel are both effective and realistic in our current driving environment.

5. Buy a bike. My wife and I bought bikes earlier this year and we use it to get around our area fairly easily. This may or may not be feasible for you given your neighborhood but it’s something you should consider. If not a bike, then investigate how you can best utilize mass transportation in our area. The key here is to ditch the car and try something fun and different.

Now say it with me, “Down with OPEC! Down with OPEC!”

(Photo: jfabra)

As oil prices soared from less than $20 a barrel at the beginning of the decade to its peak at almost $150, OPEC cashed in. They made overtures saying they’d increase production to increase supply (and increase their revenue) because they were our friends. In reality, OPEC couldn’t do much to ease prices because there simply wasn’t enough refining capacity. But they were nice about it, they said they’d look into it and try to help us out.

Here’s a chart of the price per oil (in black) vs crude oil production in OPEC nations (1973 to 2007, not inflation adjusted):

Oil was less than $70 as recently as 2007. Now that demand for oil is falling, along with the price (which is in the $70s), it seems as though OPEC is quick to reduce supply in an attempt to boost up the price per barrel of oil. What was once called “too high” was now normal, once they saw we could afford $100 a barrel oil.

Iran’s Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said “on October 4 that oil producers were pumping too much oil and that a price under $100 per barrel was too low.”

On OPEC cutting oil production: “OPEC president Chakib Khelil told reporters last weekend that any production cut could be “substantial,” adding that the organization would try to stabilize prices between $70 and $90 a barrel.”

You don’t have to believe that we contribute to global warming or believe in peak oil, just believe your purses and wallets. OPEC, which controls 40% of the world’s oil (Venezuela and Russia, hardly our two best friends control a lot of the rest), has us by the throat. You can bet that some of our own dollars are going to Iran, who gives some to Islamic fundamentalists, who use them to buy weapons with which they try to kill Americans.

With gas prices falling, you might be tempted to revert to your old ways (like we did after the oil crisis in the 70s), please don’t. I think sending our money overseas to buy a product from someone who despises us is a terrible idea and one we should limit.

Thoughts?

After college, my wife took a job in New Jersey and spent a year living is Piscataway, a little town in Middlesex County that is thirty-five miles away from New York City. That put it about two and a half hours away from me, a quaint 180 miles through about every single highway bottleneck and toll between Washington D.C. and New York City. I once estimated that the round trip cost of each drive, after fuel and tolls, was easily like $60-70 and we each made this trip nearly every weekend (either me driving up to NJ or her driving down here). So, when put to the decision of whether I’d ever drive home, home being out about mid-way on Long Island, I always chose to fly Southwest from BWI to Islip (MacArthur Airport) and that ticket could be found for only $80 (not anymore though!)

Having that as a baseline, isn’t it amazing that Chinatown buses sell tickets for practically nothing to essentially make that trip? DC/Baltimore to NYC for often less than twenty bucks each way? Some places offer them for less than ten if you take low demand rides (or even $1 if you’re the first ticket!). I’d always known about them but when Megabus started offering free Wi-Fi (reports are that it’s a little slow and depends on how many people are using the bandwidth with you), it really started to catch people’s attention.

The three most popular ones, based on my empirical evidence driving around I-95 and the NJ Turnpike, are:

• Megabus
• ApexBus
• BoltBus

I’m glad that their gaining in popularity because mass transportation is something that needs to be more established in this country. The first thought should always be to try rail or bus, rather than jumping into a car. I always try to find a rail or bus option because I like the flexibility of being able to do something else, rather than just drive.

Has anyone ever taken one and care to share their experiences? I’ve never tried them but they are really tempting given the price (and the trip time isn’t that much longer than driving yourself). My only concern about them is what happens if they break down?

This week’s Week in Numbers requires a bit of an introduction. One of my new favorite blogs is Ecomodder, a site all about modifying your car to make it more efficient and environmentally friendly. This week Ben wrote an article about gas mileage monitors that are, for the most part, easy to install.

MPGUINO

The MPGUINO is an entirely DIY monitor that you’ll have to sodder and wire into your car, it’s what Ben uses and the only option for cars made before 1996 because the rest of the gauges rely on hooking into the ODB-II system (On-Board Diagnostic System).

It’s also one of the cheapest at between $30-$40 plus the tools needed to install it.

ScanGuage 2

The ScanGauge II 3-in-1 Compact Multifunction Vehicle Computer runs a little pricier at around $160 but is one of the most popular gauges and one of the easiest to install (hooks into the ODB-II port underneath the dash, which means you have to have a ODB-II car). In addition to offering up gauge-type information, it lets you check engine codes and helps with other diagnostic function.

• Programmable 3-in-1 automotive trip computer, diagnostic scan tool, and up to 37 digital gauges in one (vehicle dependent)
• Watch fuel consumption, cost-per-mile, coolant temperature, engine speed, horsepower, and much more in real time
• Works on all 1996 or newer OBDII cars, including gas, diesel, propane and hybrid vehicles
• Checks for Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs), clears the codes, and can turn off the “Check Engine” light

PLX Kiwi

The PLX Kiwi, at a pricier three hundred bones that offers more than a gauge. It can monitor your driving behavior and “teach” you how to become a better driver through ratings and suggestions.

• Named after the green fruit, the Kiwi is a green driving device that helps users monitor their driving behavior and increase fuel efficiency. With Kiwi users can save up to 33% on their fuel consumption while also reducing their carbon footprint by 2 tons per year!
• Monitors driving behavoir over four parameters Smoothness, Drag, Acceleration, Deceleration. Also comes equiped with an Instantaneous MPG readout
• Drive Green mode is a series of lessons designed to optimize user’s driving behavoir
• Check engine feature can diagnose and fix engine code errors
• Compatible with all vehicles 1996+ including hybrids.

Dashhawk

The MSD Ignition 13100 DashHawk Vehicle Information Display is another unit that runs around three hundred bucks and looks crazy slick, though it’s not clear what you get (that you would need) over the ScanGauge II besides a more polished looking unit (and backlighting!).

4 Ways to Add a Gas Mileage Display to Any Car [EcoModder Blog]

I’m surprised it took this long for someone to produce a list of the top ten cars in price per miles per gallon but Consumer Reports finally came through. We all know that hybrid vehicles are great fuel efficient cars but we also know that there is a waiting list for the Prius, hybrid vehicles are expensive (with many of the hybrid vehicle tax breaks expiring), and take nearly a decade to break-even on gas prices. It turns out that the most fuel efficient car, dollar for dollar in price, is the manual transmission Honda Fit Sport at $464 per MPG, edging out its base-model non-sport sibling and the base Toyota Prius.

Here are some thoughts I had about the list:

• If you’re trying to do any break-even comparisons between cars, you can use this list to help you. Look for a pricier car with a higher MPG and you can calculate the break-even versus a cheaper car. For example, the $23,780 Toyota Prius with 44 MPG will catch up to the Mazda3i ($17,290, 30 MPG) in terms of base cost + fuel when the odometer hits ~152,978 miles at $4/gallon gasoline. That’s a lot of miles huh?
• Four Hondas are on the list, including the Fit and Fit Sport taking the top spot. Three Toyotas (Scion is a subsidiary of Toyota) are on the list along with a Hyundai, Nissan, and the lone “American” car the Mazda3 (Mazda has Japanese origins but is now a Ford brand, hence the quotes).
• I’m surprised to see only three manual vehicles on the list because manuals often get great fuel mileage and because manual transmissions vehicles are usually cheaper than the automatic ones, usually resulting in lower vehicle costs. A great frugal tip on cars is that you can save a few hundred dollars to a grand on a car if you buy a manual.
• I’m not surprised to see that these are all small vehicles (you could argue that the Fit is smaller than small).
• The difference between #1 (Honda Fit Sport) and #10 (Scion tC) in price per MPG is pretty significant - $194 per MPG.

Full table after the jump.
(read full article…)

This story is one of those “one in a million” type of events but fortunately it worked out in the protagonist’s favor. What happened was that someone was accused of stealing gas, was pulled over 200 yards away from the gas station, but was let off because they had printed the receipt and proved the gas was paid for. The story appeared on the Consumerist today. While everything probably would’ve been OK otherwise, the receipt diffused the situation pretty quickly.

I never print out that receipt. My logic is that I won’t ever need the receipt because I’m not going to return the gas so why waste the paper? Recently I had been printing out receipts to track my gas mileage (I wanted to compare the performance of the car before and after a 60,000 mile tune-up I had done a few weeks ago) but normally I don’t even bother.

This story won’t change my mind about my approach (I still won’t print them out because this is one of those “freak accident” type scenarios) but it certainly gives one pause. You can always recycle it when you get home.

Always Print Your Gas Pump Receipt As Proof Of Purchase [Consumerist]

(Photo: riza)

The Consumerist posted some information about rental car insurances and credit cards with a great list of the coverages (based on whether it’s a Discover, American Express, MasterCard or Visa card). I thought that perhaps the individual issuers (like Citi, Capital One, Bank of America, etc.) might build off the base insurance so I did some more digging. It turns out that the auto rental insurances offered by your credit card is secondary coverage, not primary coverage.

When I looked at the list of auto rental insurance coverages for Citi cards, I saw that the basics matched the table on the Consumerist. However, this paragraph stood out for me:

Visa Auto Rental Insurance coverage is secondary coverage and underwritten by Indemnity Insurance Company of North America. Certain conditions, restrictions and exclusions apply. Not all vehicles and not all countries are covered. Details of coverage will be provided upon cardmembership. (emphasis mine)

The language under several of the other categories is the same… it’s secondary coverage.

Woah.

From what I understand, secondary insurance kicks in after primary insurance (your auto insurance) or when primary insurance doesn’t exist or doesn’t apply (such as on international trips). The auto insurance coverage provided by your credit card is not the same as the waivers offered by the rental car companies.

When you get the insurance from your rental car company, you’re absolved of all responsibility if something were to happen to the car (you’re still on the hook if you’re at fault and did damage to something else, but that’s a different issue). Your insurance is never called, your premium won’t go up, and it’s as if nothing happened. When you decline the insurance, damage to the car is still covered by your own auto insurance policy.

When you don’t get that insurance and rely on a credit card, when something happens the credit card company will point to the fine print that says “secondary insurance” and tell you to call your auto insurance underwriter. If the demands exceed your primary insurance, that’s when secondary insurance comes in. In other words, if you destroy a Lamborghini, your credit card insurance will kick in.

I think I read that right but for years the advice was to always decline this waiver because you have it covered between your credit card and your own insurance. Am I misunderstanding it?

Regular oil changes, as defined by your owner’s manual, is one of the best ways to lengthen the life of your car and the efficiency of its engine. Don’t skip oil changes to save a few dollars, the thousands of miles you’ll add to the engine’s life will dwarf the cost. That being said, there really isn’t much difference in the product and service offered at a discount oil change place and your dealership, despite what your dealership may say! This PSA is anyone who uses discount oil change services like Wal-Mart or Jiffy Lube. After you get your $15-$20 oil change, double check their work before you leave or you might be in for a nasty surprise.

Wal-Mart Whoops!

A while back my wife took her 2004 Honda Civic to the local Wal-Mart for their famously economical oil change. With a price under twenty bucks for conventional oil, you couldn’t beat it. After the oil change, she drove home and it wasn’t until she left for work the next day did we see an oil stain in her parking spot. When we popped opened the hood, we saw the oil cap sitting on the engine. I should’ve taken a picture because my wife’s daily commute is about 40 minutes and it’s a miracle the cap was still sitting on top of the engine (it may have been wedged by the hood, we didn’t check but there wasn’t a dent).

Everything under the hood was covered in oil spray and she lost about a quart of oil. We couldn’t believe they forgot to put the oil cap back on (then we realized the technicians are probably pressured to do things as quickly as possible, so it’s not that surprising that they miss something once and a while).

Check Their Work…

So, the next time you get an oil change at those discount places, do a perfunctory check that everything is in order. Check that the oil cap is on (I know it sounds ridiculous but it happened to us), check the ground when you pull out for signs of oil leaks, check your oil level via the dipstick, and check the service work report for inconsistencies. You won’t be able to detect detect outright fraud but you can ensure there isn’t any carelessness.

… Or Do It Yourself

I change the oil in my own car because I prefer to use synthetic oil (mostly because you change it less frequently, but there are other benefits). You can get synthetic oil changes at the discount places but the price magically jumps up to $50-60 for the base oil change, a price point that makes it more economical to change it yourself. I also drive a car that offers very easy access to the filter (the filter was impossible to reach in my last car, an Acura Integra) so changing the oil is straightforward. The only downside is the mess, but you do get the satisfaction of doing it yourself.

But, if I forget to put on the oil cap or tighten the oil filter… I have no one to blame.

Last winter, I did a fair amount of driving in the outskirts of Washington D.C. and on one of those occasions, hit a pretty nasty pothole. I was only about a mile away from my destination so continued onward and then checked on the tire after I parked. I looked at it and, fortunately, no big deal. After my meeting, I drove back to my office. It was an uneventful, leisurely (stop & go traffic) thirty minute drive. After parking, I didn’t check the tire and just went inside. I didn’t notice I had a flat until I came back out, three hours later, at the end of the day to go home. Sonofa… fortunately, I had a spare and I had Costco tires, so I drove over to the local Costco and had the tire repaired for free (a great reason to get your tires from Costco if you can stand the wait).

One of my friends, he wasn’t so lucky. In fact, he saw the same pothole day after day after day (even calling it into the Virginia Department of Transportation, or whatever agency is in charge of roads in Virginia) on his commute and one day, by freak accident, caught the edge and it tore up his tire’s sidewall. He was furious. He saw that pothole every day, even reported it, and still it persisted and he wanted to know if he could get reimbursed for it.

Apparently it’s not a common problem. According to TRIP, a national transportation research group, “deteriorating urban pavement conditions cost the average driver more than $400 annually.” Four hundred dollars! The worst offenders are major metropolitan areas such as New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and even Baltimore, but TRIP estimates that 23% of major metropolitan roads are in poor condition.

Did you know that damage caused by a pothole may be reimbursable by the county, city, or state depending on the circumstances? Until my friend mentioned it, I didn’t.

Can You Win?

Governments aren’t as good at paying back money as they are about taking it in the first place, so you probably want to be pretty confident that you’ll win before going through the arduous process. The transportation authority is responsible for the damages if you suffered damage after they knew about the existence of the pothole. In some places, the transportation authority doesn’t even need to know about the existence of the pothole for you to be reimbursed. In those areas, it’s assumed that the responsibility of road maintenance falls on the transportation authority at all times. It’s pretty much a crapshoot.

How To File A Claim

First, you need to get your documents in order. You will need to provide repair bills, record of the location of the pothole, as well as the time and date of the accident.

Next, you need to determine who is responsible for the road. If it’s a city road, you’ll want the city’s Department of Transportation. If it’s a county road, you’ll want the county’s Department of Transportation. Lastly, if it’s a state road, then go to the state’s Department of Transportation. Some governments have online forms for you to fill out, otherwise require a phone call, but ultimately you might want go the route of the telephone so you talk to someone and get the full story on what the rules are for your jurisdiction.

Your claim may not be paid out but it’s worth a shot, sure beats filing a claim with your insurance company and getting your rates jacked up.

(Photo: rudiriet)

In the current world of $4 a gallon gasoline, everyone is looking for an edge. Whether it’s additives that don’t really work or little gadgets that don’t really work, we’re looking for anything that will squeeze out a couple more MPG from the car we already have.

The next logical step is to ask whether the gas at various gas station companies makes a difference. For the longest time, I believed that the gas from Exxon was better than the gas from Costco. I did empirical studies where I saved my gas pump receipts and calculated my average MPG and the Exxon gas did give me 2-3 MPG extra. However, after further research, I believe that my driving behavior and routes had a greater effect on fuel efficiency than the label on the pump.

The gas from one company is essentially identical to the gas from another.

Government law requires that all gasoline certain detergents that help prevent fuel injectors from clogging. This means that all the fancy brand name gas stations and their fancy “additives” are all required and that all gas contains them. Some say that the detergents from brand name companies go above and beyond but my perspective is that you only want the minimum standard, which is required of all gasoline. Why do you want more detergent than you really need? I don’t want more detergent in my gasoline, I want as little as possible because that gives me more gasoline! (I’m only kidding, the added volume in detergent is tiny)

Many gas brands share pipelines. According to a Smart Money article on what Gas Stations Won’t Tell You, Chevron gas stations might sell gas refined by another company like Shell or Exxon Mobil, with the difference between their gas being a quart of detergent added to an 8,000 gallon tanker truck! After a little digging, I found these maps of pipelines in the US and there aren’t that many pipelines. There are certainly as many pipelines as there are gas brands, so the fact that they mix and match isn’t that surprising.

If there was a difference, we’d know about it by now. The power of the free markets is very strong, if a particular brand of gasoline was definitely superior, we’d know. We’d know because it would be more expensive because the higher performance would justify the higher cost. Since there isn’t a brand that exists with significantly superior performance at a higher price, it’s clear that they’re all pretty much the same (and these brands have been around for decades).

If you really want to make a difference, you can save more money by buying the cheaper gas and then adding a fuel injector cleaner with every oil change. I’ve used many a fuel injector cleaners, which you can find in any auto parts store, but can’t really say I can tell. The mechanic friends of mine say that while it can’t hurt, don’t bother getting expensive cleaner, just get the cheap stuff.

Oh, another tip, don’t buy higher octane than you need, it’s a waste of money.

(Photo: ella_marie)