TrickyBuddha Studios

RE: I’m a Convert

I wouldn’t even know where to begin to scientifically defend the move, but it looks like it has been a winner of a choice. I filled up with 93 octane gas back in early June and promptly scored my lowest recent mileage — 23.6 mpg. Since then, I’ve switched to 87 octane and have scored about a mpg (or two) better each fill-up: 24.7, 24.5, 25.9, and 25.2 in order. In fact, these are my highest mpg totals since 2007. Could be anything, but whatever. I’ll take the improved mileage.

In other gas-related news…

(The needle is now below “E”. Rick is looking at it)

RICK: Is it just the angle I’m looking from?
KRAMER: No, Sir. We are down there.
RICK: Oh, this is amazing! Oh, I’ve never felt so alive!

That fill-up back in June was also notable because I hit 575 km on a tank of gas, a personal best. But instead of satisfying me, it made me want more; I wanted to see if I could hit 600 km. I missed bettering my score on the next attempt, but the try after that I hit 585 km. Closer! Another miss on the next try, but then I hit 598 km! So close!

Finally, today, with no looking back, I aimed for 600 — and did it. I pulled into the gas station at 600.9. Fantastic. Maybe it’s a little less impressive when you convert to miles (373.4) but I’ll take it.

One more side note — on the costs of driving, per mile — I’ve mentioned before that my only fill-ups over 9 cents came in the summer. That trend has continued. My last 5 fill-ups, all this summer, have gone over 9 cents: 10.3, 11.2, 10.8, 9.2, and 9.9 cents per mile, respectively.

That’s right. I’m converting. I’m taking the plunge. I used to be an adherent to 89 octane gasoline. I’m dropping to 87.

If you read yesterday’s post, you might think cost is the reason for the switch. But that’s not the case. When I bought my car, they told me to fill it with premium. I think somewhere along the line I likely realized the car “required” 87 but whenever I’d read up on the “87-vs-89″ topic on-line I’d see 20/20-like fear mongering among 89-octane believers:

“[87 octane] tends to build a carbon film on your cylinder heads. … if you open the engine to replace your head gasket when you rebuild your engine head or when you want to do an engine overhaul… you will see what [using 87 octane does] to your engine. So if you plan to keep your vehicle for over 10 years then it would be a good idea for you to use the higher octane.”

True, I’d also find comments saying this was flat-out wrong, but the fear mongering works. We’re talking about caring for a huge, fragile, mechanical investment. I know little about cars other than that I don’t want mine breaking down. Ever. Can I in good faith risk my car’s engine for the savings of a mere dime per gallon? I mean, that’s $35/year if you fill up every other week. And I don’t think I fill up even that much.

So why switch?

Because I don’t like the idea of doing things that have no basis in reality. What’s next? Someone tells me that wearing garlic will protect me from vampires so I may as well wear some garlic just to be safe? It can’t hurt, they’ll tell me, and if it works then it’s win-win. No, I can’t do that. It feels like a scam, like the oil industry is squeezing a little more money out of my pocket by preying on my desire to take care of my car. I feel like I’m realizing how silly I’m being over this. I taking a stand.

Plus, the manual does say 87. And I got a letter from a fellow Subaru driver at fuelly.com asking me why on Earth I was using 89 octane. That led to more on-line reading and now I’m wondering if there is more risk using 89 octane than not (more fear mongering, eep!).

It’ll be a while before I have to fill up again, but when I do it’ll be bold-and-true, red-white-and-blue, proud-to-be-an-American 87-octane we-kicked-Iraq’s-butt gasoline! And I’ll see how it goes.

Speak to me, fellow drivers. What do you fill your car with? What does your car require? What are you thoughts? Am I crazy to switch? Or have I finally seen the light? What has your research told you? Please share links if you have them (but don’t bother sending me the fuel injection article from Wikipedia; that may as well be in Chinese).

PS Anyone out there with a 2003 Subaru Forester XS must respond.

I gassed up the car the other day after hitting a record-setting (for my Forester) 575.5 km (357.6 miles) on a tank of gas. In fact, in retrospect, based on the capacity of my tank (60 liters/15.85-gallons) I could have safely hit another 40 km (25 miles) to clear 600 km.

By way of contrast, last December I once eked out just 426.5 km (265 miles) on a tank of gas.

As I sat back thinking how much better summer driving is on the mileage than winter driving (150 km better!), I realized that the gas prices are higher now. That December tank of gas cost an absurdly-low $1.68/gallon (you’re on your own for the metric conversion with this one). My recent trip to Costco ran $2.95/gallon. And that means my tank of winter gas was $15 less.

So which is better? Summer or winter driving? More miles, more cost versus less miles, less cost. Is it a wash?

Nope! Surprisingly (?), the winter driving is better.

To break it down, I figured out the cost per mile. I spent about 9 cents to travel a mile on that tank in the winter, and 12 cents for the tank I re-filled yesterday. I may be filling up less often in the summer, but those fewer trips are pricey.

Because I’m a geek, I went back through my records (yes, I know the fact I have records is geek-times-geek geeky).

Unfortunately, they’re only time-stamped through last August so I don’t have a lot of seasonal data. But in that time, my spring/winter/fall costs are pretty routine at 9 cents per gallon – and once just 8 cents (another December fill-up but with slightly-less-than-awful mileage). The only time it has exceed that 9 cent cost are my two summer fill-ups: Aug ‘08, 17 cents per mile; yesterday, 12 cents per mile. (Again, I leave the liter/100 km conversions to you.)

Bottom line: winter driving may suck for the environment and the usage of renewable resources, but it rocks for the wallet.

PS I don’t actually track this myself. I use fuelly.com. It’s a cool site. Go sign up and track lots of datum. Er, data.