Auto Trends

Photo by Caribb

While the lefties would never admit it, a right CAN actually be better than a left when it comes to gas savings. One such instance happens to be the right hand turn lane, which you may or may not already know has been proven by the UPS to be the preferred choice of direction change by their delivery fleets.

In 2004, the UPS officially began their practice of incorporating right turns in their routes and low and behold they actually saved on both money and emission output of their vehicles. It was found to be quite effective. Soon after, the green community began reminding people that they can actually improve their own gas mileage by simply planning their route around right turns.

Their theory is quite simple really. When we wait in line at a left hand turn lane, we are faced with oncoming traffic, which can obviously slow things down significantly. Making a right turn is generally easier to do, quicker to maneuver, and involves the least amount of wait.

Of course, this theory is primary advised for those in the city where traffic can become quite a big hindrance during your daily jaunts. If you live in a small urban town where you could make a left turn with a blind fold on and still have a 98 percent chance of living, then this advice certainly doesn’t pertain to you.

But for those of us who do live within conjested urban trafic, such a small step of planning your routes around right turns can add up to reduced idling (gas savings), less emissions output (saving the world- well, a little bit), and getting where we were heading a lot quicker than the left turn alternative.

With all this said, we also find it our duty to remind you to get your tires rotated regularly if you follow such advice. You should rotate your tires every 5,000 to 10,000 regardless, but when you turn one direction more than another, you are actually wearing your tires unevenly, which will reduce the useful life of your tires if you do not compensate for this.

This helpful advice was brought to you by your helpful, friendly, government United Postal Service driver, who wears shorts, smiles occasionally, and is not disgruntled enough to be giving us bad advice…

Unless you have been sitting in your basement playing marbles for the past week, you should have no doubt noticed the ever decreasing price of gas at the pumps. Are the oil companies running scared from all the treehuggers and their electric lawn mower buggy’s… no! Did they win the lottery and are spreading their wealth to the rest of us poor gas starved folks… don’t think so!

Oil Surplus to the Rescue

Truth be told, for the first time in months, we actually have a bit of a surplus of gas, which has been slowly driving prices back down. The gulf coast oil refineries are back up and running full scale, and suddenly the world has become a better place to drive.

A place where a person can drop by their local convenient store and fill up their SUV or Winnebago without spending an arm and two legs… Today, it is more like just their two pinky fingers and their fifth born.

Winter Blends Roll in Price Drops

Yesterday saw but another price drop, as winter fuel blends have been officially brought in to replaced the summer blends. This meant that many areas saw gasoline within the $3.00 a gallon range or lower.

Despite the fact that people are always complaining about the poor quality of winter gasoline, it always seems to save us ever so slightly each year with at least a small price break. This year it looks like our Christmas has come early with the break we have received.

Summer vs. Winter blend

Compared to the summer blend gasoline, the winter blend does not contain the same extensive processing to remove certain volatile characteristics of the gas that make it more healthy for our ozone. The simpler processing makes the cost of gas production go down between $0.10 to $0.15 per gallon. This is where that savings can come in.

In addition to this, winter blend also must have at least 10 percent ethanol added to its mixture, in what has otherwise become known as E10, E20 (20 percent ethanol), and E30 (30 percent ethanol). This ethanol helps oxygenate the fuel, which improves the quality of the octane, boosts the combustion process, and decreases carbon monoxide output.

Gas Prices Predicted to Drop Lower

The experts are telling us that this isn’t the lowest that we are going to see gas drop this year, as many are predicting the possibility of $2.50 a gallon by the time winter rolls around in full swing. What are people going to do, now that they no longer have a good excuse to blow off Aunt Matilda’s Holiday party and fruit cake casserole!

That $2.50 won’t last forever however, so eat an extra large helping of that casserole and give your Aunt an extra tight hug when you leave, because come next year around this time, there is no telling what gas prices may be!

There was a school of thought a few years ago that told us that a used car was a better buy than new. The reasonings were quite simple and hard to argue against:

1. Today’s Vehicles are Reliable- There was a time back in the eighties, when a smart consumer would be wise to unload their vehicle every time the warranty ran out. Why? Because the cars weren’t built so great and needed a lot of attention. Today, most cars are built to last well into the upper 100 to 200 thousand mile range (especially Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Ford, and GM).

2. Used Cars Reduce your Drive the New Vehicle off the Showroom Floor Penalty- You’ve heard the saying that once you drive that new car off the showroom floor, its automatically worth several hundred to several thousand dollars less… well its true.

3. Used Vehicles Give you More Vehicle for the Money- When you are talking about a new car, you can get a brand new bottom end Chevrolet Cobalt for around $16,000. But if you are willing to go several years older, you could be looking at a clean BMW (with all the bells and whistles) for around the same price.

In Comes the 2008 Stock Market Flush

This advice has not necessarily changed… but the state of the economy has altered the fate of most new cars. You see, as the stock market continues to flush, so does the sales figures for most automakers. This means that dealerships are sharing the same dismal outlook as the manufacturers. The only way around such a situation is to offer consumers a deal that they cannot refuse. Such deals as of currently are special financing (0% APR), cash back, and major discounts off the current pricing of certain models.

The only catch, is if you don’t qualify, you won’t even be invited in on these deals. So if you’ve got good credit, now is not a bad time to get in on a new car deal. If you’ve got bad credit, then you should follow the above advice and get a good solid used car. The APR really is where it is at when it comes to the purchase of a new vehicle… and if you can get in on a 0% deal, it would be hard to find a used car deal that would be much better.

Here is a current list of a few of the new car deals currently going on through October 31, 2008 (via U.S. News & World Report). Get in on them while the getting is still good!

BMW-  0.9% APR financing on most 2008 models.

Buick, GMC-  0% APR on most 2008 models.

Jeep-  Up to $4,500 cash back on selected models.

Ford-  0% Financing on selected 2008 models. Up to $7,500 cash back on some trucks and SUVs.

Kia-  Up to $5,000 cash back, or 0% financing on many 2008 vehicles.

Mazda-  $2,750 cash back, or 0% APR financing on 2008 Mazda6. 0% financing on 2008 CX-7 and CX-9 SUVs.

Nissan-  0% financing on some 2008 trucks and SUVs. Up to $5,000 cash back on 2008 trucks and SUVs.

Subaru-  Cash back and 0% financing on many 2008 vehicles.

Toyota-  Up to $1,000 cash back on Corolla and Camry. Up to $5,000 cash back on pickups and SUVs. 0% financing on most 2008s and 2009s.