Obama Tire Guage Energy Plan

Barack Obama just suggested that Americans can help conserve energy by inflating their tires. The McCain campaign is making a bit of a joke from this suggestion. In fact, this morning the McCain campaign distributed tire pressure guages to reporers and emailed supporters offering them “Obama Energy Plan” tire pressure guages if they donate $25.

Is this whole tie pressure bit just a lot of hot air? Not really…although it won’t be a major solution to our energy problem, little things do help. Keeping tires inflated properly can improve gas mileage 3-4% resulting in a savings of about twelve cents a gallon, according to the overnment’sd website www.fueleconomy.gov

According to the Energy Information Administration, in the US we consume 9,286,000 barrels/day (390 million gallons/day) of gasoline. Three percent of that consumption is a savings of 11.7 million gallons a day. Here’s some interesting related stats:

Consumers would spend 46.8 million dollars less a day for gas (assuming $4 per gallon price)..so that’s 1.7 billion dollars a year less that consumers would be spending on gas that could be spent elsewhere in the economy! Interesting numbers…the fact is that we’re consuming so much oil that even a minor savings can mean a substantial dollar impact!

No, I think Obama’s point about inflating our tires was presented incorrectly (at least in tone) as a major solution to our problem, but it has a bigger dollar impact than many of us might think! Don’t these dollar numbers surprise you? Of course, to get 100% of Americans to inflate their tires (or do anything) is unrealistic..but even if half of the population did it, the impact could still be helpful.

Scooter buying tips

Have you ever considered using a scooter sometimes to help reduce the amount of money you spend on gas?

According to dictionary.com, a scooter is “a child’s vehicle that typically has two wheels with a low footboard between them, is steered by a handlebar, and is propelled by pushing one foot against the ground while resting the other on the footboard.Also called motor scooter. a similar but larger and heavier vehicle for adults, having a saddlelike seat mounted on the footboard and being propelled by a motor.

Here’s some tips for buying a motor scooter:

1. Where will you drive it? Will you only be driving it locally or will you be driving on more high traffic roads? This will help you determine how fast you need the scooter to go.
2. How much weight do you plan to carry? Will you be the only person on the scooter or do you plan to take a passenger? You need to consider weight in order to check the specifications of what wieghts your scooter can carry.
3. Which scooter should I buy? Much of this is personal opinion. To help you check out some of the manufacturers, we’ve listed some of the manufaccturers with links to their sites.
4. Drive safe! Before you start driving, take a motorcycle driver training course even if it isn’t required by law.
5. Get insurance just like yu buy insurance for your car
6. Consider getting an alarm for your scooter to protect it from being stolen.

As part of my continuing series of buying tips, we’ll share other scooter buying tips in the future. As promised, here’s a list of links to scooter manufacturers:

Aprilia Scooters

Piaggio Scooters

Honda Scooters

Suzuki Scooters

Vespa Scooters

Schwinn Scooters

Yamaha Scooters

Lottery gas prize

It seems gasoline is entering all aspects of our lives…and in the “sales gimmick” incentive area the promotional ideas keep “rolling” along. Here’s the latest-With gas prices making a beeline for the $5-a-gallon mark, the Florida Lottery has a solution for lucky drivers this summer: free gas for life.

Once a week for the next two months in a game called Summer Cash, the lottery will offer as second grand prize a card that will entitle the winner to gasoline for as long as they live. First prize: $250,000 in cash.

Summer Cash will run statewide through Aug. 26 with drawings on eight consecutive Wednesdays, starting July 9. Each drawing will offer up to five winners the lifetime supply of gas.

Fifty lower-prize winners each week could end up with a year’s supply of gasoline.

Tickets went on sale Monday. Juan Andres Perez, who says he spends $70 a week to gas up his Mitsubishi, was starting his week off with lunch at Caribe Cafeteria in Miami and dreaming about what could be.

”If I win the prize, I’ll come to this restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner and I will take a trip around the entire state of Florida,” said Perez, 52.

”People are very excited,” said Juan Jose Alvarado, Caribe Cafeteria owner.

At El Palmar Supermarket in Hialeah Gardens, proprietor Victor Peña reported brisk Summer Cash sales. ”It is being played by everyone from young adults to the elderly,” Peña said.

“Everyone is dreaming of winning!”

The prize will have a minimum value of $52,000, said Julio Rodriguez-Diaz, the lottery’s Miami-Dade sales manager.

Winners can opt to receive the minimum cash up front or choose 26 prepaid gas cards worth $100 each year for the rest of their lives. Winners of the one-year supply of gas will get 26 $100 cards, as well.

Cards will be accepted at BP, Chevron or Exxon Mobil stations.

Tickets will cost $5 and will be sold each week until midnight Tuesday. There is no limit on how many can be purchased.

”We are very enthusiastic about this game,” Rodriguez-Diaz said.

Summer Cash is one in a series of three-month seasonal games the lottery launched two years ago. Lottery officials estimated the game would bring in between $4.7 million and $5.8 million for education.

Dining at Caribe and fantasizing about pocketing a Summer Cash winning ticket, cabdriver Juan Castaño, 62, said he spends $350 a week on gas.

“If I win, it would be the happiest news of my life!”

For the whole story, click here

Here’s some related stores about free gasoline promotions..

SWEET DEAL FROM HERSHEY! Chicago residents had a surprise FREE Gas … - “Experiencing some of the nation’s highest gasoline prices, Chicago was the perfect location to host a free gas giveaway to kick-off our national ‘Cash 4 Gas’ consumer promotion,” said Jody Cook, Director of Product Publicity, … FREE Gas Anyone??? - Judging by the response to the free gas promotions, consumers are indeed hooked on gas giveaways. And who wouldn’t be when you hear about contests like the one sponsored San Francisco Bay Area 76 stations, offering a chance at “free gas … Free Gas - Get Yours Now! - Choose “free gas promotion” from the dropdown box. Eldorado Hotel & Spa in Santa Fe, NM, for the second year in the row, is offering $50 gas rebates for Sunday-Thursday stays through July. Room rates start at $169 a night. … So Why Are Banks Giving Away Free Gasoline? - The soaring fuel prices have triggered a massive surge in free gasoline promotions by banks and credit card providers that are way too good to pass up. Major Banks and credit card companies are now using free gasoline to entice us to … Brothel’s Gas Promotion: PUMP AND GO! - So, starting this week, visitors to her Shady Lady Ranch in remote eastern Nevada get $50 of free gas for every $300 they spend on, well, you know what. Spend four hours with one of the brothel’s “shady ladies,” and the next $200 of gas …

 

Lock in gas price

clipped from www.reuters.com Service lets drivers lock in gasoline prices NEW YORK (Reuters) - The high price of gasoline has some U.S. drivers looking to the future. A recently introduced service called MyGallons.com allows drivers to fill up their tanks sometime in the future but at current prices, using a debit-like card which banks gallons rather than dollars. “The price of gasoline was changing all the time. It seemed unpredictable,” Steven Verona, founder and owner of the Miami-based company, said on Monday. “It seemed there had to be a way to fix the price,” he said. Working on the assumption that the price of gasoline will continue to rise, Verona started about two and a half years ago to put together the company which gives the driver some measure of control of what he pays for gasoline. To read the whole story, click here

July 4 travel down

This year 40-45 million Americans are projected to be traveling this weekend but, according to AAA, that’s 1.3% less than last year. I’m on my way to see fireworks at Cold Spring Harbor, NY and I’m just wondering if the fireworks display will be more jam packed because less people are away from home…I’ll be back in a few hours and let you know what my personal experience has been.

Hi, it’s the “morning after” the fireworks display and the place was jammed. I had to park in a way that blocked a side driveway until someone moved while my wife and son walked to a better viewing point. Finding anywhere to park was difficult. Maybe the high price of gas did result in more people attending fireworks in their own town…at least that’s what my friend Jack just reported in his comments here.

Sex for Gas

clipped from www.newstrackindia.com Washington, July 4 (ANI): As gas prices skyrocketed to new high this week, a 50 year old Kentucky resident actually paid for sex with a 100 dollar card good for gas at Speedway gas station. An undercover cop caught him having sex with a call girl last Friday at a Days Inn in Fort Wright. Angela Eversole sold her body for just 25 gallons of petrol and has been charged with ‘doing business without an occupational license! Novak has been charged with promoting prostitution. “When people are selling their bodies for gas, that’s pretty sad,” Ken Easterling, chief prosecutor in the Kenton County Attorney’s Office, told a Cincinnati daily.Extreme circumstances lead to extreme measures.

Brothel bonus free gas

Gas Gone Wild??

Everyone seems to be using free gas as a promotion to get new customers and to keep old ones. Well, in the “that’s amazing” department now apparently the madam at a local brothel has jumped (is that the right word?) <g> on the bandwagon…

The Shady Lady Ranch is a brothel in Nevada that has found an innovative way to keep business coming back in hard times. At Shady Lady they are offering free gas coupons in exchange for business and the “green coupons” that pay for…well you know…what brothels have to offer…Full article here.

Back to more conservative, “less shady” uses of free gas promotions, here are a few more….

Get this…even churches now are cashing in and counting new converts and increased attendance at prayer meetings (we could ask them to pray for lower prices!) by using free gas promotional approaches. Read the whole holy story here..

And of course, on the sports front, they are using free gas coupons as well-the Nets say they will give away more than $250,000 worth of free gas to new season ticket holders.

“This is our way to give back to our fans and to make sure they have a great summer heading into next season,” says Nets CEO Brett Yormark. Read the whole story here.

What crazy free gas promotion will we hear about next? If you know of any, tell us and leave your comments here…

Cheap gas, computer glitch

I wish I lived in Cincinnatti right now! Why? Well it seems a Cincinnatti service station started selling gas for $1.40 a gallon instead of $4.10 a gallon (amazing what a few misplaced numbers can do!)

CINCINNATI – A computer error caused a Cincinnati area service station to sell gas for $1.40 instead of $4.10, leading to a major traffic jam.

I’m told the scene was mass chaos at the station located in suburban Sycamore Township. The chaos was short lived however– the good news for drivers only lasted about three hours! But what a cheap gas feast it was!

I wonder how many other computer screw ups around the country have put smiles on the faces of drivers during this sky high gas price period…

Cheaper gas new bulk buying site

Yesterday, an interesting new site was launched called MyGallons.com. As just reported this morning on ABC’s “Good Morning America”, the site is a new membership site that provides bulk discounts on gas. Since yesterday, several thousand people have already joined.

Check out MyGallons.com and let me know what you think. If this is as good as it sounds, this could be a real money saver for you!

Hyper-milers draft illegally

My last post was about reducing wind resistance to increase gas mileage by adding a device to improve the wind contour of your car. This morning I learned of a crazy and highly illegal approach that hypermilers (those who strive to get the best gas mileage) are using. Police are writing tickets for hypermilers who are “drafting.” Drafting is the illegal practice of tailgating big rigs in the hopes of cutting wind resistance.

Road Trip! How to Save Gas During Summer Vacation

Yes, practicing hyper-miling (the art of wringing every last drop from your gas tank) can save you money. Also yes, hyper-miling can put you in the hospital. To be a successful hyper-miler you have to take some risks—like drafting …

Pain at the pump, and steps we can take now to reduce it

Recently I heard about a driving style called ‘hypermiling’ which is a set of techniques people can use to dramatically increase their gas mileage. Google “hypermiling” and you’ll get a laundry list of websites, some better than others. …

Beat High Gas Prices By Hypermiling

Some of the tips to improve your gas mileage are well known, such as pumping up your tires to its maximum rating on their sidewalls, changing your air filter at least once a year and not driving above the speed limit. …

AAA Identifies Dangerous Hypermiling Techniques

How do you feel about hypermiling safety? Source: PRNewswire-USNewswire. Tags: coasting, drafting a semi, fuel-efficiency, hypermiling safety, lighter weight oil, mpg, overinflating your tires, safety. Share This.

Next Page »