Boston to NYC and back.... 430+ miles on one tank. The last 20 miles the orange light was on, but I was too afriad to go to a gas station after 10pm around Boston.

Am I supposed to be excited the car got 400+ on one tank? I thought it was supposed to do 18/27? I actually averaged around 26 on the highway, then again I was going 85 in the rain.

 

how do u figure 95% of gas stations use the same fuel?

pull that figure out of your ***?

"Few Fuel marketeers [40 out 146] own their own refineries any longer. They mix and match depending on where you live.

The closest refinery is what's important as the pipelines charge per mile to deliver.

It can cost 30 cents per gallon to truck gasoline vs 4-5 cents by barge vs 1.5-2.5 cents via pipeline.
Colonial [pipelines] delivers 90 different products for 85 customers to 270 terminals and more than 1,000 storage tanks.

Other than regular and premium grades, the bulk of the differences are for different localities [EPA emission regulations].

http://www.ftc.gov/bc/gasconf/commen...cobsstevee.pdf"

what does that have to do with anything?

 

I should have said 95% of the retail gasoline station in ATL Metro use the same fuel from the same pipelines except for the marketeer additive that the tanker truck driver adds [to the 5,000 gallons] as he leaves the two terminals in ATL metro.

Economics dictate you buy bulk fungible gasoline from the closest refinery instead of pumping it all over the country, then you make it your BRAND by adding your companies proprietary version of the federal mandated detergents in the absolute minimum cost quanties.

All gasoline is sent by pipelines or barges........Direct from refineries is rare except within say 150 miles of the refinery due to truck transport costs.

Since fuel is fungible you buy a load today [million gallons] and immediately take out the eqivalent 1,500 miles away......long before it gets to your location from the tank farms stock pile.

I did a property tax study for a city where tank farms are located so access to the books and proceedures as some Markteers leased some of the tanks to put their BRAND name on them. However they didn't keep their fuel in them finding it more economical to just buy generic as they needed it. They did however have railroad cars full of additives and small tanks electronically switched into the tanker truck filling system.
Most tanker delivery trucks are owned by transport companies and the marketeers pay for different brand logos on the trucks to fool consumers. Many times you will see the wrong brand or generic un branded trucks filling up the station tanks.........a routing problem ocassionally.

They had to expose their practices to avoid paying property taxes [inventory taxes] on something they didn't mantain.

" In fact, less than 7 percent of the country's convenience stores that sell motor fuels are owned or operated by one of the "Big 5" major oil companies. They may have a sign out front that indicates that they sell a specific brand of gasoline, but that is the extent of their ties to the oil company. They do not benefit from the company's profits generated by exploration and production or refining. And, increasingly, major oil is finding out that retail is a tough business -- it's estimated that the five major oil companies will decrease their retail stake by one third between the end of 2003 and the end of 2004."
http://www.petroretail.net/npn/2004/0406/0406wash.asp

Study the following pipeline codes for the midwest, no where do you see a BRAND NAME........you see grades for specific regions and cities. It doesn't get BRANDED till if fills the tanker delivery trucks!
http://www.expl.com/pdfs/appendix_c.pdf

http://gobi.stanford.edu/ResearchPap...ary/RP1712.pdf

 

Why attack the guy for sharing what he knows? The info posted by Q45tech was very informative (as it always is) so why make those kinds of comments? There are better ways to ask where he got those figures or question the validity of his data besides asking if he "pulled it out of his ***".


I get about 22.3 mpg so calculating my mileage from a 20 gallon tankful that would be 446 miles per tank -- on average. When I take long drives and get about 26 mpg that would be about 520 mpt. I've pushed it to well over 400 miles on many occassions on long drives to Chasn from DC.

 

riiiight.

 

12 Years ago Gasoline sold had up to 123-125,000 BTU per gallon. Currently gasoline varies between 108,500-117,000 [winter/summer min max] BTU per gallon and Ethanol 76,100 BTU and 10% Ethanolized Gasoline yields 111,860 BTU [sometimes]:
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/rfgecon.htm

In theory Ethanolized Gasoline should only get 3.4% worse MPG BUT the O2 sensors are calibrated at 14.7 AF and the Oxygen in the Ethanol FORCES/FOOLS the ecu to run richer by another 2-3%. This takes the Cats out of the ideal operating point increasing emissions slightly and also results in a REAL 6-6.5% decline in MPG.

Shows up mostly on highway with a [up to] 1.5 mpg worse consumption of an Ethanolized tank vs High BTU Conventional Gasoline, assuming the O2 sensors are working as designed.

Something the pro farm [corn farm] lobby/politicans never mention........the increased fuel consumption with Ethanolized fuel............to be fair some of this happen with MTBE also but at a lesser rate.

Ethanol is a way to allow the engine to handle up to 2-3% water so fuel pumps rust and mileage declines while performance goes to hell as the engine cannot produce the stated power. The Brake specific fuel consumption increases.

Whether you get 22 or 24 mpg at the exact same speed on same high way at same temp is a function of local gasoline you purchase.

Ethanol is always added at the LOCAL tank farm as it CANNOT be transported via pipelines [as water slugs are used to divide the gasoline product mix and the pipelines are 5-10% full of water].

"June 15, 2004

(CNSNews.com) - Under pressure to "do something" about high gasoline prices, two House Republicans have introduced what they call the Gas Price Reduction Act of 2004.".............
"Specially formulated "boutique" fuels are required by law in certain communities, to lower pollution levels. The Gas Price Reduction Act would cap the number of special fuel blends at the current level; and it would give waivers to communities facing fuel shortages so motorists could use conventional gasoline.

The bill would also encourage the consolidation of boutique fuels, giving communities three federally approved types from which to choose"