Fuel efficiency is now a major concern for motorists as gas prices rise. While a great deal of attention has been given to how changes in driver behavior and habits can improve gas mileage, there are also a number of automotive products and accessories that can help vehicles get better fuel efficiency.

For the vice president of communications and events at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA),  Peter MacGillivray said that automotive specialty-equipment products often do “double duty,” serving to improve fuel efficiency as well as improve the style, comfort, safety or performance of a vehicle.

“Most automotive products and accessories serve more than one purpose,” said MacGillivray. “While it’s the desire to personalize and individualize one’s vehicle that is driving the industry, automotive specialty-equipment products make driving more fun, comfortable or safe-and in many cases-even more fuel efficient.”

Drivers may want to get cat-back exhausts to really get a two-for-one deal.  The cat-back exhaust system refers to the components of a vehicle from the catalytic converter on back., which is the outlet of the catalytic converter to the final vent to open air. It includes the pipe from the converter to the muffler, the muffler and the final length of pipe to the open air. Aftermarket cat-back systems generally use a larger-diameter pipe than stock ones, thus reducing back pressure and enhancing performance.

“Replacing a factory-installed cat-back exhaust system with an aftermarket system can improve the efficiency of how air enters and exits the engine, thereby improving the vehicle’s horsepower and use of fuel,” said MacGillivray.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 24th, 2007 at 4:46 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.