I'm sorry I haven't blogged in awhile, folks.  Honda's latest advertising campaign highlighting the low cost of ownership for eight of their ten vehicles (Accord, Civic, CR-V, Element, Fit, Odyssey, Pilot, Ridgeline) has been extremely demanding at work.

By now, many of you have seen Shell's commercials for their new nitrogen-enriched gasoline.

http://www.shell.us/home/content/usa/products_services/on_the_road/fuels/passionate_experts/dir_passionate_experts.html

We've made a great product even better!

The experts at Shell have found a way to destroy gunk with all three grades of Shell gasoline! Every drop of Shell gasoline contains a NEW Nitrogen Enriched cleaning system that seeks and destroys engine gunk in both conventional and modern engines. There's nothing else like it!

What makes NEW Shell Nitrogen Enriched Gasolines even better?

• A unique, patented, improved formula exclusive to Shell designed to seek and destroy engine gunk.
• Acts as a barrier to help keep your engine clean and protect it from performance-robbing gunk even better than before.
• Helps protect and clean critical engine parts in all three grades of Shell gasoline with the most advanced Shell technology ever.
• Helps improve engine performance as you drive.
• Has been extensively tested, clocking more than a half-million miles in various engines and vehicles, covering a wide range of conventional, modern turbo-charged, direct fuel- injected and hybrid engines.

I asked Edmunds.com Engineering Editor Jason Kavanagh what, if anything, was special about Shell's new gasoline.  He said he believed that nitrogen was used in most detergent gasolines.  After learning that, I went to Chevron's web site to see if their gasoline was also nitrogen-enriched.  Sure enough, it is.

Here's their spiel:

http://www.chevron.com/products/ourfuels/chevwtech/

Chevron gasolines with their nitrogen-enriched Techron additive contain polyether amine (PEA) chemistry to help keep vital engine parts cleaner than lower quality competitors, helping reduce the amount of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides released into the atmosphere. It all adds up to a cleaner and happier car.