$200 Gas Card to Test Drive Hyundai

If you live in New York, Los Angeles or Chicago, you can participate in a special Hyundai VIP test drive that lets you keep a Hyundai Genesis 375 HP luxury sedan for a week and get a $200 gas card.

CAR AND DRIVER and ROAD & TRACK invite you to be the first to drive, the first to be envied, and the first to experience the all new Hyundai Genesis 375 HP luxury sedan. Not only will you be the first on your block to drive it, you get to keep it for a week and you get a free $200 gas card. Put your CAR AND DRIVER and ROAD & TRACK knowledge to the test and don’t miss this chance to sign up for the Hyundai Genesis VIP Test Drive and give us your opinions of Hyundai’s ground breaking new entry into the luxury sedan market.

Do Fuel Injector Cleaner Additives Work?

They do, but you don’t need them.

Back in the day, only the premium grade of gasoline had all the fancy detergents and cleaners found in fuel injector cleaner products. It was like that because only the top of the line cars were fuel injected. Now, almost every car is fuel injected and so every grade of gas will have detergents and additives that will keep those injectors nice and clear.

In fact, according to Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers of Car Talk fame, say that the best thing you can do for your injectors is to replace the fuel filter every year.

Ten Most and Least Expensive to Insure Cars

Ever wonder what the most expensive card to insure are? According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, based on 2004-2006 models, the ten most expensive cars to insure are:

  1. Cadillac Escalade EXT 4WD
  2. Subaru Impreza WRX 4WD
  3. Hyundai Tiburon
  4. Mitsubishi Lancer
  5. Scion tC
  6. Acura RSX
  7. Nissan Sentra SE-R
  8. Suzuki Forenza
  9. Nissan Sentra/Mitsubishi Eclipse
  10. Chevrolet Cobalt two-door

The ten least:

  1. Ford Five Hundred 4WD (now the Ford Taurus)
  2. Buick Rendezvous 4WD
  3. Buick Lucerne/Buick Rainier 4WD/Honda Odyssey
  4. Ford Freestyle 4WD/Subaru Outback 4WD
  5. Buick Rendezvous/Honda Pilot
  6. Chrysler Town & Country LWB
  7. Honda Pilot 4WD
  8. Buick LaCrosse/Chevrolet Uplander/Ford Escape/Volvo V70
  9. Dodge Grand Caravan/Ford Freestyle 4WD
  10. Ford Explorer 4WD/GMC Sierra 1500 4WD/Toyota Highlander/Toyota Sienna

Except for the heavy emphasis on sports cars in the more expensive category, there doesn’t seem to be too much trending otherwise. There’s a solid mix of SUVs and sedans in both groups.

10 Most and Least Expensive Cars to Insure [Yahoo! Finance]

Track Fuel Efficiency

Ever see someone pull out a notebook at the gas station? They’re recording how much gasoline they just purchased and calculating their fuel efficiency for the last tank. If you think they’re just stathounds who love to crunch numbers, think again. Tracking your car’s fuel efficiency is a great way to spot potential problems. If your car usually gets 25 miles to the gallon and you’re starting to see that slip, it might be a sign that your car is in need of some kind of servicing. Perhaps you need an oil change or a new air filter, or even a tune-up.

Be sure to account for seasonal changes such as increased use of air conditioning and your driving patterns. If your mileage increases, perhaps you did a long haul trek the last time and got higher MPG because of an abundance of highway driving. Ultimately, it’ll help in figuring out whether the increase or decrease is real or merely the result of a change in driving patterns.

It will also be useful in figuring out your car’s cost per mile driven, which can be useful for many other applications.

Properly Inflate Your Tires

If gas prices have gotten you down, here’s a quick and easy way to ensure you get the maximum fuel efficiency out of your car with only a little extra effort: check your tire’s air pressure every week. This simple act, and ensuring your pressure is up to specification, can improve your fuel efficiency by a few percentage points and thus save you real money for very little extra effort.

To do this, you should get an air pump or find a gas station with free air as well as a good tire gauge. The pencil-type gauges often aren’t the best because they’re inaccurate but you can get a cheap tire gauge at your local auto parts store. Then, check your tire pressure each week and ensure it’s inflated up to the specification on the tire itself. Ignore any other spec (such as in the car’s manual), the tire will tell you what to keep it at.

You can over-inflate the tire by a pound or two (psi) if you want greater fuel mileage but that will reduce the life of the tire and reduce traction, so it’s not advised. The money you save on fuel by overinflation will be offset by the need for new tires.