I would be intested to know if anyone has ever fitted a petro magnet (PetroMag) to a Jazz or Fit to improve fuel economy and if it actually worked. They are supposed to improve economy and result in cleaner emissions.

Kind Regards

Chris

 

They work for the credulous only.

 

They do not work. Not at all.

 

As above. The OEMs spend tons of $$ to improve economy -- if there were any magic devices that could do it easily and cheaply (OK, other than your right foot) they'd be installed at the factory.

 

I also read on the internet that if you add a better driver to your car that your MPG goes up. But I'm not sure if that's true. Maybe the magnet is a better bet. :P

 

seriously?

 

Yes OP, another automotive snake oil.

 

They do not provide any benefit to mpg, or anything else. They have been tested by many sources including Consumer Reports and Popular Mechanics and we verified here. Its a waste of money.

 

I think many people really believe car manufacturers (but applies to most any industry or institution) hold back some sort of secret to high mpg or power and that's what spurs these scam artists. This kind of thing has been going of for decades. I can remember Slick 50 oil, Prolong oil, and the still popular short or ram air intakes (which are not at all intakes). No matter how much engineering or scientific analysis dispel these myths people will read about and believe an quantitative judgement of these products by an enthusiastic user that can paint a good mystery.

My advice is never believe any new product claim unless it's been tested by an independent lab, like a university study, with no association or funding back to the product.

 

You missed the biggest and best: the Fisher carburator which guaranteed 50 mpg way back in the fifties..
'Big oil bought out the rights to it and hid it forever.' You'd never believe how many intelligent people bought that story including many college professors. (Probably same ones who poo-pooed synthetic oils without the use of dynos.) Unfortunately, thats why university labs don't get my vote; their work too often is intended to get money grants. (Yeah, thats my story on global warming too. We don 't have the data to decide anything more than a recent trend and not within 3 sigma temperature range.)

 

it works about as well as headlight fluid.

 

Yeah, boiling the fuel I think was the trick with the carburetor. Of course, there was a lot of left over, unboiled, and useless fuel afterwards which defeated the mileage claim.