Sun. Dec 8th, 2024
car

Debunked: Popular Car Myths Everyone Thought Were True

The car world is full of myths that a surprising number of motorists believe to be the truth! It’s quite shocking; I think! The belief in a lot of these myths stems from many people’s lack of knowledge when it comes to how cars work.

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Many of these myths are quite outdated. Meanwhile, other myths are just plain nonsense!

In today’s article, I focus on some of the most-common misconceptions that many people have about cars. Enjoy!

Myth: Premium gas is better than regular

In some circumstances, that statement is true. But for the majority of car drivers out there, paying more for premium gas is just a waste of money!

Premium gas contains extra detergents to help the combustion process in an engine be efficient. Better efficiency means less wasted fuel and more performance.

But, the thing is, most car engines get told what to do by an electronic “brain” called the ECU. Most of those electronic systems get programmed to work with regular gas only.

Your car’s motor might have cleaner cylinders. But apart from that, premium gas won’t offer any significant power gains unless you reprogram the ECU.

Myth: Stick shifts are better than slush boxes

In other words, there is a myth going around that manual transmissions are better than automatic ones.

Drivers of stick shifts cars feel they have more control over their cars than those with slush boxes. But today’s automatic transmissions are intelligent. Many have at least six forward gears, and some even have eight!

Today’s automatics can no longer get described as “slush” boxes anymore. They can change gears in a more efficient manner than those with stick shifts. And for die-hard manual drivers, you can drive some like “clutchless” manuals. Just like with the DSG transmissions in Volkswagen cars, for example!

Myth: Open your windows and turn off the A/C for better gas mileage

There has been a great debate over why opening your windows and turning off the air conditioning offers better gas mileage.

The truth is, the difference in gas mileage is negligible. Air conditioning draws increases the load on your car’s motor and uses more fuel. But driving with the windows down increases drag, according to Motorpoint Burnley.

You could always keep your windows up and turn the air conditioning off. But I would not recommend doing that on a hot summer’s day!

Myth: You get extra gas for free if you fill up on a cold morning

Gasoline is dense when it is cold. The logic behind this one is you get extra gas for free by filling up on a cold morning. The good news is that you don’t need to wake up at the crack of dawn to buy your gas.

It’s true that gasoline is dense when cold. But gas gets kept in underground storage tanks. The temperature underground is colder than the ambient air temperature anyway!

In short, the volume of gas pumped into your car’s tank is always at the same density, whenever you fill up. I hope you have enjoyed this article. Thanks for reading!