When Should You Fill Up Your Tank?

When do you wait to fill up your gas tank? Do you constantly keep it full, half empty, riding close to 'E'? One blogger writes about what she thinks the advantages and disadvantages are of different fuel levels.

Kristy Welsh writes:
There has recently been a lot of talk on how you can get better gas mileage by driving when your tank is half full to empty or making sure you fill up when your tank is half full. Which is correct – or does either method hold any water?

The fill ‘er up when it’s half full foks proclaim that if you leave the gas tank empty, the gas will be evaporating in the empty space of the tank. Gas tanks are designed to force out all those gas fumes from the tank into the atmosphere and this gas is wasted. Yes, it’s true, but how much gas are you actually losing? To tackle this one, I woke up the engineering part of my brain (I used to be one) and looked at a paper published by the Environmental Protection Agency and their analysis of gasoline storage tanks and the evaporation rates.

At 60 degrees Fahrenheit, a gallon of vehicular gasoline weighs about 6.15 pounds. In the above paper on page 87 (if you want to chew through it), they go over what the gasoline vapor losses are for large storage tanks. For a 8400 gallon tank the total loss is 48 lbs (or about 8 gallons) a year.


Read more: http://www.creditinfocenter.com/wordpress/2008/07/24/increase-mileage-gas-tank-full-or-half-empty/

The Car Driver’s Guide to Avoiding Motorcycle Accidents

With Thunder in the Valley currently running check out these tips on how to avoid an accident with a motorcycle:

Five good habits to keep include:

1. Always look twice – It’s easy to miss a motorcycle with a quick glance to your blind spot. Always make sure to look twice when changing lanes and turning to avoid pulling out in front of or changing lanes into one.
2. Signal lane changes and turns – To hedge your bets with crash avoidance, be sure to always signal your movements at least a few seconds before making them. This gives the motorcyclist a heads up so that they can avoid your car.
3. Avoid letting motorcycles stay in your blind spot – While any motorcycle rider should know better than to stay in a car’s blind spot, if you find one hovering in yours, try to speed up or slow down to get them into a more visible location. It can be easy to forget that they’re there when you’re changing lanes.
4. Leave room – When you’re behind a motorcycle on the road, always leave extra room between your car and their vehicle. Motorcycles are much more agile than cars, and you will want to be sure that you have enough time to stop.
5. Be aware of potential “danger zones” – Some roads make it more difficult to drive with motorcycles, but if you note these areas ahead of time and take extra precautions, you can reduce risk.

Information courtesy of: http://barbaslaw.com

Do You Have The Ugliest Car in America?

Do You Have The Ugliest Car in America? You could win an all-expenses-paid trip to the year’s most exclusive automotive event, the Monterey Classic Car Week in California’s tony Pebble Beach!

We’ve all seen the rusted out, dinged up lemons, paint peeling, bumpers missing and bumpers hanging on with a bungee cord.  But which of these is really America’s ugliest automobile?  That’s what the folks from Hagerty Insurance want to find out – and the winner among those losers could be in for a sweet surprise as part of the second annual “Search for America’s Sweetest Lemons.”

The winning car will come along for the ride, there to be celebrated alongside rarities like a Bugatti Royale and some equally rare gems.  Appropriately, the winner of the Sweetest Lemons contest 

“We believe all cars are beautiful and deserve to be celebrated,” said McKeel Hagerty, CEO of Hagerty. “This is an opportunity to showcase these eccentric, quirky and weird vehicles. Many cars that were once viewed as hopeless now enjoy an enthusiastic, cult-like following.”

Whether the winners of the contest will develop their own cult – complete with car groupies or not – remains to be seen, but there’s a growing counter-culture following for truly awful automobiles, as demonstrated by the growing success of what is now the Tour of Lemons.

will serve as Grand Marshal of the Concours d’LeMons, now being renamed Hagerty’s Tour of Lemons.

The event is a mock race that requires entrants to come up with the cheapest, rudest and crudest junkers they can find.  Simply having the car survive the race is generally considered a certain degree of victory.

Anyone who wants to risk going up against America’s other great lemons can submit a photo of their car and a brief description of why it deserves to be christened “America’s Sweetest Lemon.”  Submissions can be sent to SweetestLemon@Hagerty.com by Sunday, July 8. The top ten candidates will be posted for public voting from July 11 – 20 at the Hagerty website.

 

Read more: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/14/12221249-the-search-is-on-for-americas-ugliest-car?lite

Join us June 29th for BMW Drive for Team USA event at Laurel BMW!

Join us for the BMW Drive for Team USA event at Laurel BMW on June 29th beginning at 11 AM.

Get behind the wheel of the all-new 3 Series Sedan. Then compare it against competitive models from automotive brands like Mercedes Benz, Audi, or Lexus. You'll see for yourself that BMW comes out on top. In addition, BMW will also make a donation to the U.S. Olympic team for every participant who test drives a vehicle at the event. And, after registering and attending, you'll be eligible for an exclusive sales incentive.

To reserve your spot visit www.bmwusa.com/driveforteamusa or call 1-800-956-4BMW