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Research: Americans waste 2.1 billion U.S. dollars a year on premium gas

Xinhua, September 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

If you put premium gas into your car and think you are doing your car some good, chances are, you are wrong and you may very well be wasting your hard-earned dollars, according to the latest American Automobile Association (AAA) research.

"Using premium fuel in a vehicle designed for regular is like throwing dollars out the window while you are driving," Megan McKernan, manager of the Automobile Club of Southern California's Automotive Research Center (ARC), said Friday, explaining that the premium gasoline, which was formulated to special types of engine designs, could not provide advantage to most vehicles.

Moreover, there was no indication that running premium gas was better for the environment either, AAA' s Lead Engineer Tim Lavery told Xinhua, "It will only be a disbenefit to your wallet because you are paying more, but you are not getting any benefit."

As North America' s largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA provides more than 56 million members with travel, insurance, finance and research service. ARC is AAA's only dedicated automotive research facility basing in Los Angeles.

According to a report released by AAA this week, 16.5 million American drivers had used premium fuel despite the vehicle manufacture' s recommendation for total 270 million times, wasting about 2.1 billion U.S. dollars last year alone.

However, experts of AAA also told Xinhua that the study only tested traditional gasoline engines, and for many hybrid vehicles out there, whether there was difference between regular and premium gas was still unknown.

"There would be more studies done on hybrid vehicles, but for now hybrid owners should check with their owner' s manual first," said Lavery. Endit