As fuel prices are continuing to rise by leaps and bounds we begin to feel the pinch in the wallet and most of us go back to simply buying regular fuel instead of mid-grade or premium. While you should check your vehicle owners manuals for fuel recommendations, many cars can use regular fuel and not even notice a difference.

The octane of our fuel is measured in three different levels. There is regular unleaded 87 octane, mid-grade unleaded 89 octane and premium unleaded 91 octane. The octane level refers to the burning properties of the fuel – the higher the level, the cleaner it will burn in your engine. Most all vehicles are built for the 87 octane and most all vehicles recommend using the 89 or 91 octane. The higher octane fuels burn cleaner and will help reduce or eliminate buildup on the fuel injection system. They also burn faster, thus increasing the performance of the vehicle. Depending on how much time you spend in your car, you may want to burn the higher octane simply to prevent the buildup and keep the performance. However, if your car gets you to work and back home and brief trips otherwise, you might be ahead to just buy regular unleaded and save yourself some money.

When fuel prices go up we also begin to think about efficiency, or how many miles to the gallon are we getting. If we know the miles per gallon (mpg) we are getting then we can calculate how much a $.10 rise in fuel prices will affect our budget or how maybe getting a car with better mpg would lower monthly costs. The first step to figuring out the number is to go to the gas station and fill up the fuel tank. Then record the mileage on the odometer before pulling away from the pump, or simply reset the trip odometer. Drive your car as you normally would and let your gas tank go down to at least a half of a tank of gas. The lower you let your tank go, the better average rating you will get, but you don’t want to run out of gas either. Go back to the gas station, preferably the same one as before and fill your tank again. Record the amount of gas it took to refill the tank, and also record the mileage either from your odometer or trip odometer. Remember, if you are using the regular odometer; subtract the original reading from the new reading to get the miles traveled. Divide the miles traveled by the amount of gallons it took to refill the tank. The result will be the average mpg for your car. It is important to note that you should redo this calculation for every different type of fuel you use, so for regular, mid-grade, and premium unleaded. Once you have the calculations for each type of octane, you can apply the price per gallon of fuel to figure out the cost per mile. A simple formula for getting this figure right is: the price of gas divided by your car’s mpg = cost per mile. For example current fuel cost is on average $3.387 for regular unleaded/22 mpg =15.3 cents per mile. For mid-grade fuel the same figuring would cost 15.8 cents per mile and for premium fuel the cost would be 16.5 cents per mile. It’s obvious that regular unleaded is a bit cheaper, however if mid-grade would raise your mpg number then it might pay off to spend the extra half a cent and move up a grade. This is why it is important to figure your mpg for each fuel grade in order to actually determine which grade is best for you. Saving cash at the pump might cost you more mpg than it’s actually worth and mean that you use more fuel than you save money.

There are a few other tips that are common vehicle maintenance items that can be done to improve your vehicles mileage. If your vehicle is noticeably out of tune or has failed an emissions test, fixing the problem can improve your gas mileage by an average of 4%. Fixing a serious problem like a faulty oxygen sensor can improve your mileage by as much as 40%. Keeping the right amount of air in the tires can improve mileage by up to 3.3% as well as make the tires last longer. Even using the proper grade of motor oil can improve your mileage by 1-2%. Your local auto repair center knows these tips as well as any others that could affect your vehicle’s mpg. Everyone working in those centers faces the same dilemmas that we do with rising prices; they are interested in saving money and helping you save money as well. In our current economy even the smallest of a percent is worth having if it saves us a little gas.