Gas

if the gas stations stopped selling gas, what would they be called?

My little volkswagen beetle is a diesel 1.9L turbo that I've been driving for a while now. I average 39-40 mpg in town and 46-47 mpg highway. I like it so far. Starts great in cold weather. I just run the glow plugs twice and then it takes right off without plugging it in. Great little car mileage wise and saves alot in fuel. Costs me about $38 to fill up. Thats about 630 miles per tank. Eventually I'm going to find a place that has a kit for my car so I can try vegetable oil. That would be interesting, although in the winter that maybe a problem. I think vegetable oil will gum up in the cold. Something I will learn eventually.

I don't know the specifics on diesel fuel, but I do know the "mix" of No. 1 and No. 2 diesel fuel is different in the winter to allow it to flow better. When the 2-percent biodiesel first came out a year or so ago, truckers had trouble with it. The problem was traced to the refinery process and was corrected in a few weeks. Gov. Pawlenty is said to be pushing to raise the percentage of biodiesel to 20 percent.

As an update to my earlier post on my personal vehicles, I have sold the 1994 S-10 Blazer. Shortly before that, I had the fuel regulator replaced to cure a slightly rough idle. It appears to have helped mileage too, as it turned in a solid 24.5 mpg on a trip to Alexandria and back a week before being sold. That isn't too bad for a 13-year-old small SUV. Of course, the key is I chose to drive the 2-lane, 55 mph limit Hwy. 55 instead of the 70 mph I-94. It probably added a few minutes to the trip each way, but likely added several mpgs, too.

The Blazer was replaced with a 2007 Chevy HHR with a 2.4L 4-cylinder engine. (Need the space the HHR offers to haul things, so a Beetle won't work that well for me.) I think it is just starting to get broken in. Drove the first 1,000 miles less than 60 mph. On a trip up north last week, we drove about 750 miles and only filled once. The first tank got us about 30.5 mpg, mostly into a north/northwest wind. We filled up at Two Harbors and was getting about 36 mpg driving Scenic Hwy. 61 at 50 mph instead of the expressway at 65 mph. Then we hit the hills of Duluth and mileage dropped to about 28.5,

When we left Duluth the next day, we got off I-35 at Black Bear Casino exit and got on Old Hwy 61 again through Moose Lake and Hinckley to Hwy 23 to St. Cloud. Those are 55 mph roads. The mileage moved steadily upward on the way home until it was 32.8 as we pulled in the driveway, mostly with the wind to our back 45 degrees from the side.

It only took about 15-20 minutes longer avoiding I-35 to Hinckley, but I am sure the HHR's mileage would not have climbed doing 70 mph.

Each car has its own "sweet spot" where it is most efficient. The size and shape of the vehicle and its engine play major roles in determining that, as well as gearing/transmission.

My wife's 2004 Malibu Maxx has a 3.5L V-6 engine, but I suspect it will usually get better mileage than the 2.4L 4-cylinder HHR. The HHR, while 6-inches shorter in length, is higher, and the smaller engine lugs a little going up hills. When the cruise control is set in hilly terrain, it readily jumps to 3,500 rpms. In hilly terrain, you are better off driving without cruise so you can let the HHR slow slightly going up hill.

The HHR, with two less cylinders, also cruises at slightly more rpms on level ground (about 2,000 rpms at 58-59 mph.) at the same speed as the Maxx (1750 or 1800 rpms at the same speed).

The bigger engine in the Maxx rarely accelerates wildly in moderately hilly terrain. On a trip to Maryland in 2005, mostly on interstates, it still got 31-33 mpg at freeway speeds. It seems to have a sweet spot somewhere close to 60.

Last fall, we drove the Maxx from Mackinaw City, Mich., to Silver Lake on one tank of gas — more than 600 miles at 38.3 mpg. Perfect mileage conditions, though — 60-65 degrees so we didn't need AC or have the windows down, little wind, 55 mph highways with almost no traffic all across the U.P. of Michigan and northern Wisconsin, few towns and most were bypassed or you only had to slow to 45 or 50 mph. That convinced me that getting highways to go around towns would help us save a lot of gas.

My early experience with the HHR is that its sweet spot is closer to 50 mph or slightly higher. Probably the result of a smaller engine pulling around a comparatively small, but still sizeable, vehicle.

In town, the HHR is pretty much 22-23 mpg. Not great compared to the diesel Beetle, but probably 8-9 mpg better than my former 4.3L V-6 Blazer. So I'm satisfied so far.

(Terry Davis is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at davis@hutchinsonleader.com.)

One thing about diesels is that you get comparatively good torque out of a small engine vs. a gasoline engine. Diesel is becoming more readily available, too. The Holiday station (formerly Little Dukes) on State Highway 15 South recently added it.

A friend of mine has a Honda hybrid, the small two-seater, and regularly gets about 84 mpg with it when driving to northern Iowa to visit his father. Gets about 60-65 mpg otherwise. He likes it. The rest of his stable includes a Corvette, an 1980s Impala 350 and a 1980s El Camino 350. But it appears the Honda gets the most miles now.

(Terry Davis is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at davis@hutchinsonleader.com.)

I lost this news page a while back but now have found it. It talks about E85 Ethanol. Seems to me alot more testing needs to be done.
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/april18/ethanol-041807.html