My friend, Sarahbbong asked me this question:

How are you? Since you know a lot about cars, maybe you can help me with my question. For a car that only requires regular gas, is it better to put in plus or it doesn’t matter? Does it make a difference if you put in plus versus regular? Like does plus create less build up? If you switch over to regular from plus, does it affect the car in any negative way? I’m assuming no? Please let me know, thanks!

If a car requires only regular gas, use only regular gas. A higher octance burns only at higher temperature levels, and will not benefit your car. In fact, MPG will go down because higher octane gas also burn away faster than lower octane. Build up has little to do with octane. Quality of gas does. In your case it would be best to stick with regular, as your engine may not burn the gas as efficiently. but it won’t hurt the car.

Enjoy your drive!

If any of you readers have questions, feel free to post a question in the comments section. It doesn’t require you to sign up, though it does ask for an email address (you don’t have to provide a real email address). Or as Ms. Sarahbbong says:

ok thanks! now i know who to come to for car questions!

I have a friend who told me an acquaintence of her’s had a BMW that required premium gas. Well, actually all BMW’s require premium gas. At least in the USA (I don’t believe they introduced alternatives yet). It was a company car, and he was allowed to drive it whereever, whenever. But because the car wasn’t his, and it was a company leased car, he didn’t take care of it. Oil changes? bah. Transmission fluid changes? ErR? But the worst thing: he only put in the cheapest gas he could find. This doesn’t mean just regular grade gas (87 octane). This meant he went to the discount gas stations that somehow provided gas at prices 50 cents lower than any other gas station around.

Many cars nowadays can take 87 octane gas. A certain grade gas that’s recommended by the manufacturer simply is where the engine can burn most efficiently. Many ECUs can adjust the timing to reduce or eliminate any problems cause by using a different grade gasoline. So something that requires 91 octane, can actually use 87 octane. You hurt performance, but it’s not the end of the world. While this is true for most cars, this isn’t true for all cars. BMW specifically warns that not using 91 octane may result in unscheduled maintenance. They even go on to state that using poor quality fuel can result in driveability, stalling, and starting problems.

Believe it or not, there are state and federal mandates on quality of gas. The reason gas in California may seem ridiculously high is because California sets higher standards on the cleanliness of the gasoline and the quality of the gasoline. High quality gasoline versus low quality gasoline can be easily seen in its volatility, composition, additives, and other things. Still, rules are always set, and rules are always broken. And those who don’t want to follow the rules completely step into the gray zone. What are these gray and black markets? One of my friend’s dad own a Gulf gas station over in Nutley, New Jersey. He revealed that he constantly gets calls from people with tankers sitting off the coast with gasoline ready for delivery. The prices for this gas at a wholesale price is SO low, that if he WERE to buy it, and sell it at normal price, he’d make enough money to the point that he wouldn’t also have to run a garage. Little known fact: the profit margin for each gallon of legitimate gas wholesale to each gallon of legitimate gas retail sold to customers is actually pretty small.

While my friend’s dad brushes these people off, the fact that there are people calling means other gas stations obviously do buy them. This gas may be stagnant/stale reserves, or may not have been processed completely or by the regulations, or may be completely watered down. Another little known fact: when we refer to watered down gas, we don’t mean water. Water actually would be REALLY bad for your car. Instead they add various things such as a lot of ethanol, methanol, or some other type of alcohol. Cars not built to burn ethanol, etc. can’t use it. Therefore it just burns off.

While laws do mandate quality gas, due to budget limits, etc. inspectors have a tough time going around to EVERY gas station to inspect all tanks. A recent news report shows some tanks never being inspected for 2 years. I would imagine the fine being pretty meager compared to profits gained from selling low quality gas. Generally, major brand gas stations buy direct from their brand supplier. This would usually result in good gas. This is why I recommend Shell, Sunoco, Chevron, Exxon/Mobil, and BP. Yeah, I know ARCO is part of BP, but everyone says ARCO is low quality gas. BP is really expensive and high quality east coast. So i’m not sure. Some 76 gas stations are pretty good too. I would never recommend going to something like Phil’s Discount Gas. That just sounds scary. While they can also buy from a major brand supplier, their rates are not as good. Many times they are cheaper because…well…they get their gas from shady places.

However, major brand gas stations are not locked into buying only from their brand suppliers. A Mobil gas station can get its gas from a Shell supplier. I’ve actually seen this. Or they can get it from a shady place. In order to keep corporate from investigating, they’ll step into the gray zone. Here is where they fill part of their tanks with their brand’s gas. The other is filled with low quality gas.

Unfortunately, there is no way of finding out if the gas you’re getting is good or not. The best, though not foolproof, method is to buy from a gas station (regardles of brand) that your car seems to perform best with. If not close to that gas station, choose one that is in the range of the average price, and always choose a major brand name.

The vice-president of the company I work for sends me random car stuff. I think it’s because her son likes car stuff too. Cool guy. Recently she sent me an email saying that this was pretty remarkable. I had to check it out.

So there’s this vehicle that a company called Aptera made. They’re proud of it because it hit 230 miles per gallon. Here’s a quote from their site.

Five years ago, Aptera’s founder Steve Fambro endeavored to design and build a passenger vehicle that was safe, comfortable, and more fuel-efficient than anything ever produced. This aspiration, combined with his background in engineering, led him to an intensive study of aerodynamics, and composite aircraft construction. He hypothesized that a low-drag, aerodynamic body shape could be achieved without sacrificing comfort, drivability or safety.

What emerged, after much designing, conceptualizing, and constructing, was a prototype two-seat, three-wheeled vehicle. This first operating prototype achieved a stunning 230 miles per gallon, Building on this success, Steve expanded his Aptera team and created the Aptera Typ-1, which has been re-designed, re-engineered, and refined into a production ready vehicle.

I find that design so typical of that futuristic design that the people in the 70s did. Of course, it is pretty aerodynamic. You can see the stingray (the animal, not the car) in the shape. Animals have evolved to be better suited for their environment. In the case of the swimming stingray, streamlining is important.

However, then I read about how the car is classified by CARB as a motorcycle. Though it has 3 wheels, it is still not actually a car. Then I started piecing things together. A hybrid vehicle that lightweight and large enough to fit 2 people. The company pretty much paired a light weight body, a motorcycle engine, and a hybrid engine together. I started emailing her back with my final analysis of this so called “amazing” vehicle.

Makes sense. The vehicle is a motorcycle…a lightweight one at that. Having less weight and more aerodynamic body will always increase MPG. Additionally, the engine used is small. They don’t specify the actual liters, but one would assume it’s comparable in size to a scooter’s engine size. Compare a Camry (heavy car), the 4 cylinder version gets 21 city mpg. The hybrid version gets 33 city mpg. We’ll ignore the highway because hybrids are most efficient in city driving. That’s a 57 percent increase in mpg. Due to this vehicle being a “motorcycle”, it’ll be much lighter and more aerodynamic. At the very least, we’ll see decent mpg from it. Scooters average about 85 mpg. Now making it a hybrid increases the mpg – one would say about 130-200 mpg – exactly where the company says it’s predicted. The range is really high because the lighter the load, the less the motor has to work, and the more the battery can be used. Doesn’t seem like a huge breakthrough – adding an electric engine to anything will always help MPG if you measure the final mileage after the car has absolutely no more power (no more gas in the tank and no more electricity in the engine).

I gues the main reason for someone to order this is this: it looks vey unique – you’ll definitely get a TON of looks and questions. Seems good for the beaches of California.

Generally blogs, magazines, etc. all review the newest cars.  I’m not that lucky – I’ve yet to establish myself enough to get invites from Nissan or other companies to try out their cars.  Regardless, there are still ways I can drive relatively new cars.  We have to thank Enterprise Rent-A-Car for this.  They have the very good grace to allow 21 and up drivers rent cars without the under 25 penalty fee that every other company seems to do.  Plus, rental places often replace cars within one to two years, so you are guaranteed to have a semi-new car.  Enterprise typically does not have too many of the lowest end Economy car (labelled E Car in their corporate lingo).  Therefore, especially on weekends, they will give you a free upgrade on cars as long as you had booked an E Car online.  I’ve gone all the way up to a Jeep Wrangler with this.  This time I was put into a 2007 Nissan Sentra 2.0L I4 CVT.

With 140 HP, this little compact car would be my partner from Thursday till Monday.  What struck me immediately was how large this compact car was.  It looked like the sportier Altima, just slightly smushed.  While I am iffy on the styling, it does follow styling cues from its siblings.  The big bold front grill brings about an modern urban feel to the car, while the clear taillights that Nissan cars seem to like clearly is to attract the younger generation.  Personally I feel that clear taillights, which obviously stems from the popularity of Altezzas that the younger tuner crowd liked to swap into various cars, take a bit away from the car.  However, obviously enough buyers like it enough for Nissan to continue providing these taillights as standard. 

I was very impressed with the interior.  This particular Sentra was the base version.  Despite this, the materials and fit of the components were excellent.  The seat’s fabric felt great, and the mesh center of the seats gave it a slightly sporty look and feel.  The console was plastic, of course, but it did not look nor feel too cheap.  I loved the backlighting to the speedometer, and the fuel gauge was electronic instead of the typical needle.  There were plenty of cupholders, and it seems even a fries holder (it actually does fit a McDonald’s fries box).  What was disappointing was the lack of power side mirrors.  Though this is offered on all other models except for base, it seems silly for any car not to have that as standard, considering there were power locks and power windows.  Overall seating position was acceptable, but I couldn’t find a position I was comfortable enough to drive for longer distances.  Head clearance and leg clearance was great for both front and rear, though the headrests was slightly uncomfortable.  The radio was easy to use and intuitive, and with 18 available presets and a plug for your MP3 player, that was pretty impressive.  However, Nissan should consider changing all CD players to have MP3 capabilities.  This is pretty standard nowadays for most aftermarket headunits.  I did wish the car was a little lower, as most cars in it’s class are lower to the ground.  It almost felt like I was driving a crossover.  In fact, on the highway, I was convinced I was the same height as a Nissan Rogue that was driving next to me. I also did not like the fact that you cannot selectively turn off some vents if you or your passenger feels too cold/too hot.

I have heard complaints on the clunkiness of CVT transmisions.  Honestly, it felt quite smooth the entire drive.  What I did like was the exhaust tone when full on throttle.  When attempting to reach highway speeds from an onramp, the car can easily stay at it’s redline of 6200 RPM before you finally release the gas pedal.  At highway speeds, the car feels stable and road noise is acceptable.  I found myself easily reaching 80 MPH before realizing I was going a bit over the speed limit.  However, I would have liked a little more road feel and feedback from the steering wheel.  It might be due to a compliant electronic power steering.  Power at the low and mid range for local driving is impressive, with enough pickup to pass or cruise along.  Performance wise, acceleration was great and normal quick turns are fine.  However, at higher speeds the understeer becomes much more pronounced.  Some thicker swaybars or better suspension in the higher end models would probably help this.  This understeer is quite predictable though, but I wouldn’t take this car unmodified through a twisty mountain pass.  I did wish the turning circle was slightly tighter, but it’s acceptable.

Overall, this car is great for it’s class and price range.  Some minor modifications would assist this tremondously. If this styling fits your cue, then this is an overall good buy. For more picture please check out the Photo Album.