A fuel filter cleans the gas before it goes into the engine, stopping dirt and other stuff from causing problems. If it gets clogged, the car might stop running well.
Gas stations get new fuel deliveries at certain times. Filling your car right then might mean you get some dirt or stuff from the bottom of the tank in your gas, which isn't good for your car.
Sometimes tiny bits of dirt or rust can build up inside gas tanks, especially if the tank is old. This can cause problems with your car's engine if the dirty fuel gets through.
AAA is a roadside help service that can tow your car if it breaks down. Depending on your membership, they might tow your car for free only a short distance or a much longer distance.
Sometimes people want their car fixed at the place they bought it or a shop that knows their car brand best. So if their car breaks down, they might want it towed there.
A convertible is a car where you can put the roof down and feel the wind. But when the roof is down, the car uses more gas because the air pushes more against it.
Cruise control helps your car keep the same speed without you pressing the gas pedal all the time. It makes driving long distances easier and can save gas.
A manual transmission means you have to change gears yourself using a pedal and stick. Pressing the clutch pedal when you don't need to can wear out parts and use more gas.
A speed limit tells drivers the fastest they can safely and legally drive on a road. Different places have different speed limits to keep everyone safe.
Snow tires help your car drive better on snowy and icy roads. They have special patterns and materials that keep your car from slipping, but they can use more gas if you drive on dry roads.
A lithium battery is a special kind of battery that stores power to run electric cars. It can hold a lot of energy and lasts a long time before needing to be replaced.
The Hyundai Sonata is a comfortable car that uses both gas and electricity to help save fuel. It’s a good choice if you want to spend less money on gas and be a bit kinder to the environment. People talk about it when discussing cars that use batteries to help them run better.
Leasing an electric car means you pay money every month to use it for a few years instead of buying it. This can be cheaper and easier for some people.
LIVE
He is Robin Leach. He is Jada Markin. This is Car Keys.
Good morning to our show of Car Keys with Jada Markin and Robin Leach. We are in the middle of a maybe a hopefully
consistent spring thaw as this show is being done.
We have mud all over the place as the frost is coming out of the
grounds from the dirt roads to the under the pavements and lots of lots of pavement and
road surfaces
Sins are adjusting to the warming temperatures and one of the amazing things that I have noted as I've been driving around on Northwest corner
Many miles of which and this includes some of New York State were paved
in
2025 and let me tell you the new pavement
More silent tire for noise and smoother riding for many of us, but it is astounding
What's going on right now in in on the paved roads in terms of ground shift underneath the asphalt?
It's causing fissures in some of the newer paved road the older newer paved roads. It's causing
Cracks across maybe where there was once concrete under them. I don't know
That your tires are and this is that some of the new pavements are doing this
There are cracks that are going
perpendicular to the direction you're traveling on the road and then there's some fissures that are opening up on either the northbound
Lane or the east, but you know the southbound Lane and a north south road or east and west
I don't know whether they are going to settle down and
Merge back so that the cracks disappear or whether they're going to require
a
Very
Some repairs going on
The dirt roads as we know we have many around our listing area
Sharon is full of them
They put mud signs mud season signs up and many of them Salisbury has fewer of them
Matter of fact, I'm not sure we have
Any dirt town roads? Oh, yes, we do River Road along the Houston River is a dirt road
but
The and driveways my driveway is a mess of deep treading tread marks
In the mudded areas of the non paved section of the driveway, and I'm gonna have to roll it
Or why don't you pave it once and for all?
You haven't given me the money yet
But in any way
Going beyond this topic
Triple a has got some two topics that I picked up on I get a lot of emails from triple a
on my email because I'm a member and one of them is
There are
Title there are a ton of tricks you can try to maximize your miles per gallon
I was reading some of these and Jay will get a good kick out of it
I'm not gonna read all 36 because many these don't pertain to
The drivers around our corner as far as I'm concerned
One of them that I say here it says avoid buying gas when there's a delivery truck at the station
Well, that that may be an old wise tale that may or may not be relevant today
But they say recent delivery stirrup sediment which can clog your filter
Causing your engine to possibly stall. I
Valid point to
Follow if you knew that the tanks at the stations around where we live were older and or near empty
I'm not sure that
deliveries delivers sediment
In the delivery portion of the fuel and they fill the tanks up
So if the tanks are new, I'm not sure there's a lot of sediment in in the tanks, but I
sometimes follow this
Suggestion, but
Sometimes I don't because I'm not really concerned about that happening as much as it might have been in older in the days
In the past when the tanks were old it hadn't been replaced
I just think it's a good idea to stay away from gas stations when they're delivering fuel
But that for a whole other reason, but yeah, that's gonna be a safety factor that may be well
Maybe well thought about
So hey Robin about AAA. So what does what does AAA sell? What do they do? What do they cover?
Okay, I think I keep it relatively simple there
I didn't know about the two levels of towing
Distance that you that that were very different when you first signed up to AAA and the first few years
Unfortunately, I didn't need it. Well, I found out about it when I needed the towing and found out that the the basic
Membership level only got you five miles of towing free after which there was a charge of 25 cents a mile or something
So I certainly up my membership to the whatever status I've got now
It gives you a hundred miles of towing range, which is significant for people around here
Especially if you want your vehicle towed to and it's new and you want your vehicle towed to a
Deal ship that you purchased your vehicle from or that services your particular brand of car
Because we don't have we only have what we have one dealership within
Five miles of some of our villages and that's in Millington, New York
other everyone else is
For dealers is 25 miles away or more
So five miles doesn't get you much around here except it will get you to some service stations
If you are lucky enough to have broken down or needed tow within five miles of the independent repair places around of which
We have several excellent places to use
But back to your question
you you if you are a member of
Triple a you can get a discount a
credit card from a
Gas lean supplier shell in this instance and you can say 10 cents a gallon if you purchase your gas
with
Your shell card that you get for triple a
So how much you pay for it? What is your triple a?
Subscription it's about $60 a year. I'm not quite sure
I'm out auto renew now, so I'm not paying but it's not it's not too expensive as
But it's much more valuable. I found I mean if you're if you're getting your own tote with their own
Free towing outies. I don't know about BMW and Mercedes and I don't know about domestic
Car makers whether that you you get the free towing for three or warranty period with Ford Chevy or
Stalantis well that was going to be my next question is you know you you have some of those
Toe rescue packages available both through insurance companies, you know on your regular insurance policy and or like you mentioned warranty
Or you know extended warranties that you have on your vehicles or even basic
Returns so, you know I my only thing I guess is to
Make sure you're not being you're not getting
Overinsured and and paying for the same insurance in two or three different places. Correct
But it pays for people who buy cars to know what they're getting in this. Yes, and
Know how to use it. I do not know whether that it's just you know whether they're any more effective
I have never found
When you've had to use triple a that you've got quick
Service I have found that most terms or timelines from the call to the actual arrival of the vehicle to
Save you is round is around an hour
Now that's gonna that's gonna differ depending on where you're living in whether you're living in an urban area where there are lots of gas stations
And maybe more than one triple a supplier of triple a services
We have one but we had one in Canaan. I believe
Arnold's used to be a triple a member and I think they have discontinued their services under the triple a moniker
the last time I had to use
Triple a the truck came from New York State. I believe it was like 40 minutes away and
So that was the nearest triple a person that could get to me in an hour or so
So you don't know how long it's gonna take you with the Audi system or the Mercedes system or with any other non triple a system
It depends on who's a member of those particular
manufacturers
Toeing plants
Same way with a triple a
Well, I can tell I can tell you that it's if you're really paying like $60 a year, which seems very little to me
I can tell you it's a lot less than what I'm about to pay here in Europe for
Equivalent service and
I'm not on my little car that I have here and
Because that amount is like well over 200 bucks. So
well
As cars get over it's probably wise to have have a coverage plan because
Around here in our rural driving zone
When you break down with a flat tire or are you run out of gas and you want to try to use those
I do not know that trying to call triple a to get five gallons of gas delivered to you is necessarily a
Efficient use of the triple a system since we don't have triple a
members
within
Well, I don't know how close to closest one is maybe there's one at Jack's
service down 22 down
South of Armenia
Yeah, you may know where that place is I do and and
Yeah, I I call them for a friend over on a on a weekend a few weeks ago and
That's directly
Yes, not anyway
All right, so triple a get triple a
Save money with self-service. Yes many places
Have well
Many places not around here. Fortunately have cash versus credit card pricing the credit card pricing is 10 cents above the cash
Price at many places, you know, not going on 22 didn't down
Towards 684 if you read the signs carefully, you'll find that there are two prices for each grade of gas
One is 10 cents more for using credit cards
So if you can pay for cash, you can say 10 cents a gallon as we are brought the broadcasting this show during a spike in both oil
Diesel and gasoline prices
That may be something you wouldn't want to focus on if you're really sensitive about the
Prices that have grown up in some cases over 30 cents in the last
Several days from the time this show was done
And if they're still climbing
It's 339 in Sharon. It's 327 in Lakeville right now because
Mobile which is the Lakeville sorts and shell have not raised their prices at the same in the same time frame
Although they both
serviced by the same delivery wholesale delivery
firm
Company in Tarrington, Connecticut
They'd say
Keep your eyes open to find good prices at the pump. Why am I doing that? I do not know how many people really care around here
We have two stations within six miles of each other
They are within usually 10 to 10 cents of each other. It's not identical or a couple of cents cheaper
Because they are service deliver they sell products from the same wholesale delivery
I'm not sure that the independent names of the fuels are really priced
Because of different cost levels at the wholesale level or not
It's voodoo economics in my head
Well, it's still only half the price of what
People in Europe. Yes, I know that we're at around two euros a liter which is
two euros is arguably a little less than two dollars, but a
Leader is the three point eight liters in a in a gallon. So basically
There's still paying twice as much as we are
What is there Jay because diesel's hit for 89 in some stations here as well and as low as 409 in others
I've noted that because I know you have that turret. I'm all about you hunting for lower diesel fuel
Diesel prices here are I you know, I don't know where they are
Fossil to gasoline all the time. I thought cheaper in Europe. It is now
You know decades ago it was not but ever since they've been trying to get diesels off the roads
They have price diesel
Like I think it's like 20 30 percent, you know, give or take over the price of gasoline
But you know speaking of gas prices, I'm always appalled when driving cars that require
premium gas
Premium gas is actually I mean, I haven't been I've been out of the country for a week or two, but
Diesel is usually cheaper than premium gas
So there's sometimes no rhyme or reason to these prices, but they are gonna go up and Sharon
That is not the case, but that's you're right
It's usually been cheaper than premium gas here in the US as I've seen to recall
But let's go back to a few of the other things. I don't know now. It says keep windows closed and traveling highly highway speed
This is all about wind
Turbulence around a vehicle causing to use more fuel if the wind if the
Air does not travel smoothly over and around the configuration of your car
You know if it's hot out. I like I don't like air conditioning. I'm gonna I don't play with this is is worrying about
Using more gas if I drive your side window and or another window is open in the summertime situations
Think well, let me tell you something
My only experience is driving, you know, I've never measured the difference between
Windows open but hold on but between I've driven a convertible over
over a thousand miles a few years ago and half of that was
With the top down and half of that was with the top up and the whole time I was driving at
highway speeds even with with the top down and and
The increase in fuel burn so the mileage went really way down when the when the roof was open
There's no doubt about that
Maybe that may well well be true and and thank you for
Commenting on that, but if you're gonna have a convertible you that's what you want to do. That's true
They do say this keep windows closed and traveling. They say open windows called the our dynamic drag
Which consumes fuel well a lot of things control our dynamic
Drag and one of the other ones that does is improperly inflated tires
I think there's more drag if the tires are under inflated. I do not know about overinflation causing drag
But no they just that creates wear on the tires. It's going to tires
And they also say okay gas mileage usually decreases rapidly over 60 miles an hour that may well be
Effectively true. I do the cruise control lot
Which is another thing that suggests and I know and I and I also are monitoring my instant fuel
I have the capability of monitoring my instant miles per gallon
Feature in my jeep or the average miles per gallon on many of my cars
And if I set the if I set the reset the trip computer to zero when I start out
I can monitor the miles per gallon over that particular distance of a trip
But I don't I'm not paying attention to many of these 36 items that
Triple A has gotten their recent publication online or otherwise
They say if you have a manual transmission, don't keep your left foot on the clutch pedal while driving J
The slightest pressure puts a mechanical drag on components wearing them down prematurely and therefore using more gas also a
Law avoid driving along rough roads whenever possible
Is this a triple A or an ARP?
Magazine you're reading no, I'm reading online from triple A
Okay. Hey, so I wanted
Go ahead a little bit about I you know, I was on a road trip just a few days ago came back from
Switzerland back to Belgium where I still am for a few days
With only a five-hour difference. I just learned
time zone wise
and
What was I gonna say I drove I drove about two-thirds of the way back on that trip and
I thought about you because I
Did not use cruise control, but it is highly recommended to do so the speed limits have become
incredibly
Strictly enforced here in Europe and even with all the electronic gizmos to detect radars
You there's just so many of them that you're you're basically
Driving the speed limit and this is going back to my point that if you're gonna have speed limits and yes, they do work
Making them
Enforcing them in an equal way
Really is the only way to go and the only way for people to follow speed limits
And and you know what it was very relaxing except for the fact that I was constantly monitoring my right foot
And speed limits are somewhat reasonable
Except in cities you go down to you know, you go through little towns whether it's Switzerland Belgium France, Germany
And you're down to 30 kilometers an hour in that in the
18 miles an hour and which brings me back to thinking about you know when we go through towns
that's so much shan, but if you think of
Salisbury or Millerton and
During you for instance, you know 18 miles an hour is or 20 miles an hour is not that unreasonable and
You do get used to
Jay especially in our small town Salisbury for example and Millerton for example where they have these
blinking lights that people push to
Cross the walkways. I think you should go through these and you've got cars parked on both sides of the road
So sometimes you can't see the people stepping out until they stepped out in front
You know beyond the cars the width of the cars parking on either side of the crosswalks
I think the 18 to 20 miles an hour would be a much more practical way and I watch people speed through
You know they come cruising into the Salisbury for example coming from East East or West
And you know you really do need to break and step down
Especially when you do go through the middle of Salisbury where the crosswalk is very has very poor
Pedestrian visibility in my opinion
So that's not a bad idea
On the other on the other hand in Switzerland we went through little towns
You know in the mountains in the Alps
Where between these little towns and these twisty roads I was driving probably I don't know somewhere around
30 35 miles an hour 50 k's and then I get to I enter a little town and I see a sign
Speed limit as you're entering town 60 k's and I'm going what in the world?
How could I have even been going faster than 60 k's before I entered town?
So the Swiss seems to seem to have up in the mountains seem to be pretty liberal with their speed limits
Well, let's talk about the speed limits versus the the the enforcement limits
Because I've talked on this show several times that I go roughly eight miles per hour above the post at speed limits
Going doing my trip no tolerance
No tolerance
Yes, I'm in Europe no tolerance. No tolerance. Well, I've learned I bring this up because when I was in Italy
Some time ago
And I rented a car and I talked a little bit about it
I was trying to travel with the traffic and you know, you know how this I don't know how well
You know about what the speed limit enforcement in Italy is it doesn't sound like it's as onerous as it is in
Belgium and maybe Germany and France
No, Italy Italy is a little different. Yeah, well, you know, you have the auto strata and it was just sort of like the the Autobahn, right?
and people the Italians are crazy drivers anyways and
They they like their high-performance vehicles and they and they make use of it
but
The the opposed to speed limits is usually around 100 to 110 k kilometers an hour
It's mostly the standard to be a hundred which is what 60 ish in our in our miles per hour and
There were areas where yes, you knew there was a radar
Event ahead because of either a blinking sign or other some or maybe you knew the drivers knew about something going on and you
And you paid attention to the speed limit, but otherwise, you know, it wasn't it wasn't a limitless alternative
But it was certainly 10 over 10 kilometers over any postage speed limits
I experienced in much of the Italian driving that I did when I was there in Italy
Yeah, what they what they do in France and Switzerland and Belgium is a lot of
Not, you know scanners, so they'll scan the light right this yep
They scan it's just like an easy pass
They just scan every every license plate and then remeasure, you know, the the time it takes you to go the next 10 miles or so
Oh, yeah, technically there in Europe because you know, we all discussed that possibility on something like the mass pike and exits
It could be very it's easy to implement from a technical standpoint and
Again, if you want to enforce speed limits, it is the only way to do it
Now do I like it? Of course not
But but that's a whole different thing
I think everybody should drive the speed limit and and and then make exceptions for me, but that's you know
Probably not gonna happen. Let's just do a few more appropriate things for the country driving because
Mostly 36
Things are what you know if you tried to remember all of them you probably get nowhere fast if you utilized everything
They
That they talk about snow tires
Take your snow tires off at the end of snow season because snow tires eat up
Gasoline because of the courses of the trends of the depth of the trends the deeper the trends
The more fuel you're likely to use because deep tread tires cause again more drag along with open windows
Sunroofs. Oh ski racks
You know roof racks will you should take the roof racks off if you're really concerned about saving as much possible gas as you can driving
They create drag as well and you've got the cross racks which probably create more drag
than the
the ski carriers, I do not know but
They also what a I guess I'm mostly done with this particular topic so we'll move on
a
AAA kick
Came out with an article about how long to let how long the lithium item
Batteries last and they basically said unless you get a problem battery. They last for the life of the car
Jay you've mentioned this in Tesla
Information way back when the testers were out and you saw you said taxi drivers or people and
They were driving a hundred thousand or 200,000 miles
In a Tesla or an electric car never had to change their batteries most of the time
It was once a concern
Of mine about battery life of the electric batteries
I thought a Hyundai Sonata hybrid, which is I believe I'm still not a lithium battery that has a lifetime battery guarantee
It is now
What is it? It's a 2013. It's now 12 years old
135,000 miles and I still apparently have a lifetime guarantee on it
But I've never had a battery failure and I've known people with Priuses that have gone a long way
Without a battery failure as well
battery
Replacement is an expensive proposition if you'd have a battery pack that is
Gone beyond its warranty and does fail after the warranty
I think most of them have been like eight years or a hundred thousand miles
Which is quite a long term and many people aren't keeping those particular cars
For that duration so
Electrics so speaking of electric cars you make me think
When I got here a couple weeks about ten days ago
My usual taxi driver was drives on Mercedes and was telling me that he had gone to the Brussels auto show and
Seen the BYDs and said without without a hesitation
In his next car would be a BYD
Okay, sorry I'm getting old no no, it's all right. It's uh, you know
The electric industry in our in our country in the US is sort of in shambles right now
year two I mean have
laid off
Building all electric cars in many cases forward with a jeff 150 pickup. I believe Chevrolet is cut back
Fuel there all electric vehicles
But you know if this
Fuel price increase that's going on right now were to hold as you mentioned in one of your
Emails to me that I got it might be a time you said there was electric vehicle leases are extraordinarily
economical and cheap
Yes, well, I can't remember which one that was
I've seen some ads for some electric vehicles
That seem extraordinarily cheap, you know leases on them at least I'm not sure about
Prices, but the leases on them have been you know
Under $400 for 36 months a month for 36 six months leased and maybe some cases under $300 a month
As we come to a close on all this discussion about how to save
Fuel and you're driving
We will drive less
Drive yes drive last that may be the final advice
Car keys with J. DeMarco and Robin Lee car keys with Robin Leach and J. DeMarco is produced at the facilities of
WHDD
91.9 FM Robin Hood radio comm Sharon Connecticut
About this episode
Robin Leach and Jay de Marcken discuss the challenges of spring thaw on road conditions, including cracks in new pavement and muddy dirt roads. They explore tips from AAA on maximizing fuel efficiency and share insights on AAA membership benefits, especially towing coverage in rural areas. The conversation also covers fluctuating gas and diesel prices locally and in Europe, the impact of fuel types on costs, and practical driving habits affecting fuel consumption. Their friendly banter highlights real-world experiences with roadside assistance and fuel economy strategies.
