March 2014 US New Car Fuel Economy Average Climbs To 25.4 MPG

ARCO is the name of some gas stations in the western part of the US, along with Union76, Chevron, Shell, Exxon, etc. All these gas stations offer convenience stores and are located within cities as well as on the open roads.

Many of the Arcos where I used to live (Arizona) had a central payment terminal and only accepted debit, not credit. Just terrible.

@bball40dtw I've tanked up at a few ARCO stations and they're pretty modern now, many with pumps that take credit cards and dispense three grades of gasoline and one seasonal flavor of diesel (for cars, not big rigs). Since I always pay in cash, I have to go in to the store, pay the clerk who has to set the pump, gas up the vehicle, then go back in to the store to collect my change. It's a pain but it works for me. One good thing, ever since the NEW $100 bill went into circulation, I have never been refused pre-paying for gas with a NEW $100 bill. Forget about the old ones, or the fifties. Since so many bogus ones of those are in circulation, only a fool would chance taking one and getting stuck with a counterfeit bill.

@highdesertcat I preferred QuikTrip when we lived in Tucson.

@bball40dtw I used to travel that corridor often, still do, and Tucson or Eloy is usually the place I get gas and answer nature's call. But I think that Circle K bought up all the QuickTrip outlets, because there used to be one on 22nd Street and one on Miracle Mile, and both of those are now Circle K. My favorite place to get gas these days is in Eloy at the Pilot Truck stop. HUGE place with ALL the amenities. It's away from all the Tucson traffic (I-10 has grown into six lanes in each direction near Congress) and the Nogales interchange is a mess with the Mexican Big Rigs turning onto I-10 (in either direction).

@bball40dtw I've been to that Pilot station more than a few times. I had to go to the Phoenix area often. I miss living in Southern Arizona. We lived in a condo basically at the JW Marriot and could get to downtown or U of A in 10 minutes. We visit Arizona a few times a year, and my wife cries every time we leave. One thing I do not miss is spending so much time in Mexico. That's more unique to my job at the time though.

@bball40dtw Dude, you missed MLB Spring Training in Phoenix this year. We try to go every year and did again this year for about two weeks. Traffic is a nightmare in Phoenix at all hours of the day to where the HOV lane along the Interstate has to be opened to driver-only vehicles from 9am to 3pm just to lesses the congestion on the other lanes. Getting to/from anywhere in and around Phoenix requires premeditation these days. All that aside, if you can get away from "core" Phoenix to Tempe, Scottsdale, Chandler, and the like, life is good, living is easy and the sunsets are as clear as they ever were.

ARCO stands for Atlantic Richfield Corporation. It is now part of British Petroleum (can't give you an exact year of acquisition). They are on the west coast and their gas stations also have AM/PM convenience stores (think like a 7/11 or White Hen Pantry). They are known for having the lowest prices for gasoline of name brand stations on the west coast (typically). They also discount 10 cents a gallon for cash and debit over ATM. Some of their stations don't even accept credit cards, but are debit/cash only. They were exclusively cash/debit in the 2000s - shifting back to accepting credit cards in the last few years. Tesoro is attempting to buy ARCO from British Petroleum. I don't know if the deal is dead - it is being held up by regulators worried about continued consolidation at the pump, and the impact on prices. EDIT: Tesoro does own ARCO now - completing their purchase in late 2013.

@APaGttH I learn something every day I read ttac. Thank you.

@APaGttH Most ARCO stations take cash , debit or credit cards at the pump nowadays. They charge extra for credit. They actually have something like a Techron additive too nowadays also and generally are very close to the Costco or supermarket gas prices. My Ranger gets better mileage on ARCO than Chevron, haven't figured out why.

@APaGttH Way back in the late 70's when every gas company had their own credit card ARCO made a big to do about getting rid of their credit cards. Not too long after a number of stations started offering discounts for cash. Eventually that pretty much went away in my area. However Tesoro purchasing ARCO brought credit cards back to ARCO stations. They resumed the previous practice of charging more if you use your credit card which in turn made just about every other station in my area start charging 10 cents more per gallon if you use your credit card. So now I haven't bought gas at any place other than Costco or Sam's Club. They usually have the same or better price than the nearest ARCO and at least at Costco I actually get a rebate for using my Costco Amex.

Not sure, really. I know ARCO's presence is on the West Coast and in Nevada and Arizona, while former parent company BP has the rest of the U.S.

Actually, I think the Styrofoam ball was (supposed to be) red, to represent ARCO's "Red Ball Service" meme - when gas stations treated motorists like royalty - they'd pump your gas, wash your windshield, and ask if you wanted your engine oil checked; then they would pop that silly little ball on your antenna! A really funny one was when Exxon was selling (I think for a buck) a stuffed little tiger tail with an elastic band that you would slip around the filler neck, and close the filler door (so people would see that you "Had a tiger in your tank").

When Atlantic and Richfield merged in 1966, they had service stations on both coasts. Then ARCO bought Sinclair and regulators forced ARCO to give up some east coast stations, and when BP bought ARCO, they changed the rest of the east coast stations they didn't shut down to BP stations. ARCO is pretty much a west coast company now, (bought out by refinery Tesoro last year) and getting most of its crude from Alaska for the California market, since US crude can't be exported. Somehow, I managed to be old enough to remember when Atlantic was a separate company, with it's slogan "Atlantic keeps your car on the go", touting its high detergent gasoline that kept your engine's innards clean while you drive. Atlantic was one of the two major sponsors of Red Sox games, the other being Rhode Island's Narragansett Beer. That produced a lot of "Drink beer and get gas" jokes.

+10

Agreed. As a centrist among conservatives of varying degrees during politically-charged discussions in real life, I have to be careful what I say regarding climate change/environmental issues/pollution, but they all agree that one of the best ways to improve the US is to invest in the US. That generally means being a little smarter about driving, if only so less money goes to line the pockets of oil execs. And here's something else: regardless of one's position on climate change (that's a whole 'nother can of worms I don't need to open up here), this is indisputable: We will eventually run out of oil. We might find another reserve somewhere to keep us going another 25, 50, 100 years, but at some point 99.9% of petroleum reserves will be gone, and wars will be fought and people will die over the .1%. I try my best to support all forms of renewable alternative energy, since we will absolutely never run out of wind or sunlight (at least for the next billion years), especially here on the prairies of Minnesota. Plus it frees up gasoline and (more importantly) diesel for agricultural and commercial transport use--you know, those guys who make more food with less land every year, and drive 15 hours a day, 7 days a week, just so we don't have to worry about running out of Cheetos and Twinkies.