Taking a Spin in the No-Fact Zone

BEFORE you angrily leave a comment - read a follow-up posting here...

Clearly following in the footsteps of Bill O'Reilly and other ill informed political pundits, my rant on the Great American Gas Swindle had a couple of inconsistencies readers of this blog pointed out.

For example, I wrote: "American car manufacturers boast about getting 'an incredible 25mpg' while in Europe our mid-sized cars effortlessly deliver 40mpg."

My father very wisely pointed out a problem with my theory - a significant difference between the US gallon (3.750 litres), and the UK gallon (4.546 litres). The mid-sized car that effortlessly delivered 40mpg in England would only do 33 mpg by American standards.

An anonymous contributor also took exception when I wrote: "European unleaded is 95 Octane... ...Regular American gasoline is a mere 87 Octane...."

According to a website they linked to, Octane Explained, there is a difference in the way Americans and Europeans measure octane ratings, too. The RON and MON ratings are significantly different so British petrol rated at 96 octane via RON would only be considered 92 octane on American gas pumps - our anonymous friend said: "American [Super] 93 is the equivalent of European 97, for example."

He also pointed out that some cars (he gave the example of a highly tuned Honda V6) run more efficiently on lower octane fuel. That might well be true - although my Lincoln and my parent's friend's Jaguar V12 both seem to purr more smoothly - and drink less - on 'the good stuff.'

Now I had actually done some research into this - the almighty Wikipedia (which is written by the ill-educated likes of me, I should remind you) explicitly states that: "octane ratings are higher in Europe than they are in North America and most other parts of the world."

Which seems to support my original comments.

I guess further research is needed - or if you're a fan of Bill O'Reilly, just go with what you think is the 'truthiness' - what you know intuitively, "from the gut," without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or actual facts.

After all, that's what many of us bloggers rely on instead of research!

With thanks to my father and my anonymous commenter.