Now, first let me say, I know I have a TA, and I know its not exactly a fuel efficient car, that being said...

Have the companies been doing something to the gas? I've noticed in the past few weeks my mileage has been going down. I've just done my annual tuneup, and the car is running and feels better than ever. After the tuneup I was getting the same as before. Today a 45 mile round trip, all highway driving and no traffic, dropped the needle from full to one notch before 3/4. Not that its an accurate gauge of usage, but definitely noticable and a greater drop than the same trip in the past, WITH TRAFFIC.

Its just annoying to do quite a bit of work and see a detriment, and I'd like to know if they're doing something before searching for a non-existant problem. Not like A compiracy theory, but along the lines of some additive that's supposed to make it burn "cleaner."

The gas comanies may not be doing anything to thier gas. but the stations may be... or the supplier's of those stations could be adding water to the gas... Now if you have gas that has 20% ethanol in it that will lower it as well.. I have noticed the same thing in my Sunfire... I would say I get about 5mpg less than I used to.. and it has just happened within the last few weeks... In my 83 camaro I have actually found water in the fuel filter canister... and i am not talking a little bit. but i mean ALOT.... so that is certainly a possibility. That way they can sell more gallons of fluid without spending the actual amount on gas...

Just think.. if 10% of thier tank is water.. imagine the amount they save on thier fuel charge..

I'm having the same issue in my daily driver Taurus. I was getting 25mpg and now I'm getting 21. My friend is reporting a similar drop with his car, too.

I didn't think anything of it, but I have been driving my moms corolla wagon, and it is def using more gas than before. Not a TON more but enough that when i see the gas light come on, i feel a bit confused. We have had it since new back in 95, so I have put a good amount of miles on it, (from boston to miami twice in 2 years)

thats not bad.. I take a trip out to Seattle once a year from St. cloud, MN about 1400 miles one way lol.

I would not put it past em in this day and age.

Update.. the people who come along and check he fuel octane actually showed up with one f those government guys to one of the stations in the the town..... I guess they are actually investigating the price thing for once amazingly enough. Anyhow when the guy tested the fuel. the octane of the fuel was only at 75 and the water content was a whopping 25%. They shut the station down.. and now they are going to be testing the rest of the tanks at the rest of the stations.

Awesome to hear. I read that NJ is cracking down on price gouging... hopefully on octane levels as well.

Last tank went back up to 25 mpg, but it was more highway driving.

Rich at Cruizin Performance recommends DryGas at least once a year to remove the moisture from our fuel sytems. With all this latest B.S., it looks like we'll need to do it more often. Out here in California they are also Oxygenating the fuel and I have no doubt the process is benefitting them, not us in some way. I have had problems in the past with watered down gas from off brand/lower price gas stations. Anymore, I buy gas from newer stations (Union 76, Conoco) and pay a little (ALOT!) more but haven't had the water issue in awhile. The latest info states the gas companies are making, on the average 99 cents a gallon PROFIT. AAAHHH!

With the octane issue I'm glad I constantly buy at the same station... this way any ill effects I have tons of receipts if needed.

I think its really nice how a company can feel they can get away with endangering my property and myself to make a few extra bucks... and raise the price in the process. I feel its kind of like giving them the money and say "I'm paying you to kill me."

I have also learned since that Bush has asked the EPA to allow the companies to use the winter additives NOW...

Casey, I heard that on the news the other day. You of course know what that means, they'll get busted and NY will allow them to raise prices to make up for it. NJ cracked down on insurance fraud and therefore high rates and as a result the insurances companies cried to NY got higher rates here.

thats a good point

my sunfire GT got 29mpg 2 tanks ago with about 100 miles of driving at 70mph now my last tank got 22mpg with a bunch of highway also but thats a huge change

Ugh.... Yeah Goumba, you're probably right.

Just a little info, I don't know how common this is, but I have only seen this done recently (maybe because of fraud with the higher prices?).

I went to pay my credit bill online when I noticed a transaction "75.00 SUN REFINING MARKETGING CO" on the same day as a $20 gas purchase at Sunoco. I called AmEx and they had no information other than the company name and that it was an automotive service. So, I did some Googling and found SUN REFINING and Sunoco were the same (yes, I know its obvious now, but the "Marketing" made me want to confirm).

As it turns out, come companies are placing two charges on a credit account at the time of purchase. One temporary at a preset amount, which I assume is to make sure you have enough credit. The second transaction being the actual purchase amount.

Being that the first, larger amount is a temporary authorization, it should disappear. However, I don't know if this will lead anyone to trouble - being near their limit (or balance on a check card) may lead them to be subject to overdraft charges.

seems a bit of a stretch as far as a tempory charge.. most cc authorization takes place by checking the balance remaining based upon the card number (it is why when you swipe a card it actually calls a large server with such bank info and then give back a yes or no answer, which will then either decline or authorize the payment.) Since You can not charge something to a card and the remove the charge (unless you are one of the authorized person's to do so on that card (basically the CC Company or you as the cardholder for unauthorized use)) I think that particualr place might have been tring to scam some cash.

Pretty poor scammers then -- they never actually took the money. "Sun Refining/Marketing" only made a temporary authorization and never actually took any money -- that authorization disappeare from my account.

I wish to add one thing to your information as I was given by the CC company: The transaction is automatically removed if the seller never puts in a final request. So no, it is not necessarily true that only the cardholder or CC company can remove the charge... the seller just puts the temporary request in and never asks for a final. At least this is how this one particular CC company does it, I can't speak for the rest.

BTW we're still over $3.00 most places here.

was 2.49 here.. and i never thought about a final request since most places it is just a swipe, hit the button, takes your money, and done. That is interesting. I was thinking about it the other day when i was filling up my jeep.. and it hit a 65$ mark and the pump refused to pump any more.... aparently there is a limit to how much gas it will allow you to get in one sitting (i have heard some places it is 70$) The reason for it I do not know.. probably drive offs or whatnot.. but that makes no sense either since theose always get caught (if the place has cameras in thier islands which 99 % of the ones i have seen do (and this is from minnesota to texas to cali, all the way to florida, and all those night states in between... took a little trip the last 2 weeks lol thank *** for laptops)

I was getting about 400 miles to a tank in my Mazda6, and now its more like 360-370, and thats border line running out of gas..... my driving habits have not changed...

during the winter months the gas companies put an additive in the gas to prevent seperation and congeling, like in diesel. this is to make it easier to start in the morning and easier to run during the cold. consequently you get far worse gas mileage from the additive.

This thread started over 5 weeks ago though, when it was still pretty warm out.

Since I last posted, my MPG has come back to its normal level. I'm fairly convinced that there was a temporary period of time where companies and or stations were watering down the gas.

You know, come to think of it, this COULD be the problem to the horrible mileage I have been getting. Then again, I can actually smell gas fumes from time to time, so I could be getting a leak, but my mileage has been horrible since about a month ago.