‘UNCOVERING SOME HIDDEN TRUTHS’
Or
‘WHAT I LEARNED TODAY WILL SAVE ME TOMORROW’
THE
DIFFERENCE IS IN THE DEFINITION
I suspect
most people are like me and always looking for ways to shave a few bucks off of their expenses. I was recently shocked to
know that although I’ve known what I’m about to share with you for years, I was
blind to the fact many of my friends didn’t know what I’m about to share with
you.
Recommended
VS Required
I was told
this long ago by several mechanics and my experience has proven them
right. In the past I’ve owned and ACURA
and I currently drive a Miata HTC. If you
read the manuals for both vehicles and even inside the gas cap area of the
Miata it’s written “Premium fuel recommended”.
The key word
here is recommended. You can run regular
unleaded fuel and get the same gas mileage, no harm, no foul. Please note that if it says ‘Premium fuel
required’ do not run regular unleaded in the vehicle because harm to the engine
becomes a very distinct possibility at that point.
So by now
you are wondering why manufacturers are recommending premium unleaded in
certain cars when it really isn’t a necessity.
There are at least three reasons.
The first reason has to do with engine design. The engineering is such that is makes premium
fuel desirable, however (and this is huge), modern computers in today’s cars
compensate for the fuel type and adjust how the engine performs. Sooooo, you can hit the cheaper pump
next time you gas up. Please notice I
didn’t say you must or should, you just can.
It’s still entirely your choice.
The second
reason is a bit more dubious. If you run
regular unleaded in a car that has a premium recommendation and the vehicle
gets engine problems the manufacturer could hang his warranty repair denial on
the type of fuel you used. I call this a
dubious reason because the manufacturer was the one using the word recommended
so you could fight a denial on the use of their choice of words. Of course there is time and money involved and
that has to be taken into consideration.
The third
and lamest reason is manufacturer pride and prestige. It simply makes a car appear a) more luxurious
or b) more badass or c) both a & b.
I will tell
you this, the nine + years I owned my ACURA, I very rarely used premium
unleaded. I say rarely because during
the first few months of ownership I did not know I could use regular unleaded. After I found out I stopped using it. I’ve owned my Mazda now for a little more
than a year and during that time I’ve only used 1 tank of premium
unleaded. That was to try an experiment
to see if premium unleaded got me better gas mileage on a long trip. Ready for this? Premium unleaded gave me 2 miles LESS per
gallon than regular unleaded. Yep, it
cost me more and delivered less.
Water
Resistant VS Water Proof
Be sure and
pay close attention to the above words when you buy your next watch or cell
phone. The difference here can really
cost you.
Let’s say
you are considering a watch or cell phone that is WATER RESISTANT to 30
feet. Now let’s say you drop the item in
5 feet of water and it leaks to the point where it is ruined. Do you get a new one under the warranty? Depending on the company you may, but by
using the word RESISTANT the company does not have to give you a
replacement. Water resistant means the
product will try to avoid water damage, but, hey, if it gets destroyed – too bad,
so sad.
WATER PROOF
is a different story. Let’s assume the
same item only this time it’s water proof to 30 feet. If you dump it in 29 feet of water, it gets
damaged and can prove it was only 29 feet, unless there is some fine print in
the warranty (isn’t there always?), you’ve got a case and cause for
replacement. Drop it in 31 feet of water
and it turns into a paperweight, you lose.
DO YOURSELF A
FAVOR AND DESTROY A TREE
Tree huggers
will hate me for this, but before they do let me first add I recycle and I’m
not required too. I do it because I
believe it’s the right thing to do.
Now I could
try and be funny here and say, “Only God can create a tree. He did His job so let’s get out the chain
saws and do ours.”
What I am
really getting at is don’t go paperless with your bills. There is a perfectly good reason for not
doing it. Actually there is a better
reason for not going paperless than for doing it.
I have one computer
I use to pay my bills. I online bill pay
whenever I can. It’s simply logical and
it saves me money. I insist that I get
all of my bills in the mail – paper bills.
The reason is because over the years I’ve had a few major hard drive
crashes. If you’ve ever had this
nightmare I feel for you. You already
know it can take weeks, and in some cases months to get a computer to the point
that it works the way you want it to work.
If for some
reason you lose your email capability and/or your computer, you are still
responsible for paying your bills on time every month. Imagine all of your utilities going dark one
by one because of an email/computer failure that can last several weeks. It can and does happen. If you have a flawless payment record the
utility company will most likely work with you, however, if you are a
borderline late payer, you, my friend, are about to take it in the shorts. I’m talking late fees, reconnect fees,
etc. This is not a pretty picture and
gets expensive quickly.
Knowing what
you now know, you can take the chance and go paperless. As for me, I’ll keep my utilities and kill a
tree for you.
© Krystalco LLC 2013 Any publication or reuse of the information on
this blog, in part or whole, without express written consent is
prohibited.
