News & Events

We at Riverside Dodge know the pain of the gas pump. We all feel that pain every time we fill up, but the good news is that there are things you can do to make the pain less, well, painful when you fill up your car. Here are some tips that we've learned over the years at Riverside Dodge for getting the very best gas mileage you possibly can from your car.

You've seen them many times in your life: tire filling stations with endless loops of hose attached ending in that oddly-shaped, knobby little tip with the strange pin in the middle. They're at gas stations, car washes, and auto shops. If you're not familiar with their proper use and the proper fill pressure for your vehicle's tires you should take the time to learn. It will save you money on tires and gas. Here's what you need to know.

Under-filling and Over-filling

Proper tire pressure preserves the life of your tires. Under-inflating them causes them to ride soft, meaning they flatten too much, as if your vehicle rested upon marshmallows. Tire surfaces not intended to contact the road will do so, resulting in damage to the sidewall areas of the tire.

Over-inflating them makes tires too rigid. The overpressure strains the integrity of the tires and creates increased risk of a rupture. It also leaves less tire surface in contact with the road, resulting in decreased performance.

Most drivers are familiar with the term horsepower as it applies to automobiles. More horsepower equals a more powerful engine. More specifically, a horsepower is defined as 550 foot-pounds per second which means the equivalent of the energy required to push 550 pounds over a distance of one foot in one second. That figure is equal to moving 1 pound 550 feet in one second, 225 pounds over two feet and any combination that works out to the same total.

In terms of your car, the horsepower is the total amount of power available to make the car go. Since the car's weight is constant, notwithstanding cargo and passengers, more horsepower allows it to cover more distance in fixed period of time. In other words, it'll go faster.

Antifreeze/ engine coolant maintenance is one of the basic engine care tasks that most car owners can handle by themselves. It is more complicated, however, than just topping off the coolant overflow reservoir with water when it runs low.

We've all seen cars sitting by the side of the road, hood open, with steam billowing out from the engine. This means that the car has overheated and the engine coolant is boiling away. Continuing to operate a vehicle that is overheating or in which the there is insufficient coolant left in the system can result in many thousands of dollars of damage to your engine, including break-down of your engine oil viscosity, bent piston rods, cracked heads, and even melting plastic components inside the engine compartment.

Every so often, emails go around explaining how someone's cousin installed some device in his car engine and is now getting noticeably better gas mileage. These might be a device that alters the fuel or air intake systems of the car, using water for gas, or in some cases magnets or exotic metals placed outside of the fuel line to chemically change fuel passing within.

Sometimes, the explanations given by the companies peddling these products seems to make sense and at, other times, they are clearly nothing but double-talk designed to confuse the facts. Some reliable third party organizations have voiced their opinions and they all agree. Based on EPA testing of more than 100 such fuel economy improving devices, the Better Business Bureau, the EPA, and the Federal Trade Commission all agree: don't waste your money. None of the aftermarket products tested by the EPA have resulted in substantially improved gas mileage.