Everything else
GregB #1
I noticed that a Facebook acquaintance has started hawking this stuff called Xtreme Fuel Treatment from some company called Syntek Global. Near as I can tell, it’s some kind of bullshit mid-level marketing scheme. I can’t seem to find any references about this product that I would consider on the up and up. Does anyone know anything concrete about this stuff or the company?
kerzain #2
Well, whatever it is, they insist they are not a snake oil scam. I don’t know about you, but I’m relieved they’ve addressed these unfounded rumors.
Houngan #3
GregB:
I noticed that a Facebook acquaintance has started hawking this stuff called Xtreme Fuel Treatment from some company called Syntek Global. Near as I can tell, it’s some kind of bullshit mid-level marketing scheme. I can’t seem to find any references about this product that I would consider on the up and up. Does anyone know anything concrete about this stuff or the company?
Oh hell yes, this is some good shit:
XFT utilizes a NOBEL PRIZE WINNING chemistry to bring you the most effective solution available. It has multiple patents, which means nobody has what we have, and no other product does what XFT does. Because Xtreme Fuel Treatment is a comprehensive approach, it would take many products mixed together to even come close to giving you the same benefits!
And for 2012 in the category of Fuel Additives, the Nobel Prize goes to . . .
Xtreme Fuel Treatment contains an oil-soluble organo-metallic compound which functions as a “burn rate modifier” and a “catalyst”. It lowers the ignition point of fuel by several hundred degrees…about 400 degrees to be more exact!
Wow, I’m going to get a heck of lot more out of my sparkplugs if I can turn them down 400 degrees!
One very important benefit of using Xtreme Fuel Treatment is that it reduces the amount of harmful emissions produced by your vehicle by up to 33%.
Fuck yes, pour a bottle of this in your Hummer and twenty dolphins will simultaneously climax somewhere near Nova Scotia. Service the dolphins, human!
Anyway, so yeah, bullshit. It might be the equivalent of an off-the-shelf fuel additive, it’s probably some sort of extremely light grade oil plus something something something that adds a bit of lube. It’s also a page-by-page classic MLM scheme.
jpinard #4
They use the “up to” argument over and over again. So instead of 33% emissions reductions, you will probably see something closer to .1%. I wish the government would make advertisers use real numbers.
RichVR #5
Dan’s Data has done several pieces on this kind of scam.Like this one.
GregB #6
I guess I should start a thread about people from your past whom you friend on Facebook only to find out they’ve gone batshit insane.
Sinij #7
… and this is why I don’t use Facebook.
JonRowe #8
Anything that has to insist it isn’t a snake-oil style scam usually isn’t off to a good start.
JonRowe #9
Additionally, why wouldn’t gas companies include this additive to begin with? If Shell was selling gasoline that increased your mpg for a little bit more, I am sure people would flock to their stations.
Lunch_of_Kong #10
GregB:
I guess I should start a thread about people from your past whom you friend on Facebook only to find out they’ve gone batshit insane.
Hahaha. +1, etc.
ibdoomed #11
Jon Rowe:
Additionally, why wouldn’t gas companies include this additive to begin with? If Shell was selling gasoline that increased your mpg for a little bit more, I am sure people would flock to their stations.
We wouldn’t believe them either…
CLWheeljack #12
kerzain:
Well, whatever it is, they insist they are not a snake oil scam. I don’t know about you, but I’m relieved they’ve addressed these unfounded rumors.
I like that they don’t mention what it does or even what it’s called until the very end. It’s like they bought a generic infomercial, and then went in to only record custom footage for a single scene.
Houngan #13
Jon Rowe:
Additionally, why wouldn’t gas companies include this additive to begin with? If Shell was selling gasoline that increased your mpg for a little bit more, I am sure people would flock to their stations.
“If Shell was selling gasoline that made you buy less Shell gasoline . . .” there’d be no more Shell.
Sinij #14
Houngan:
“If Shell was selling gasoline that made you buy less Shell gasoline . . .” there’d be no more Shell.
This is broken logic. Shell would sell more gasoline at a higher price because everyone would only want to buy Shell gasoline.
Unless you subscribe to an absurd idea that additive that could reduce your gasoline consumption to ZERO could exist.
Houngan #15
Sinij:
This is broken logic. Shell would sell more gasoline at a higher price because everyone would only want to buy Shell gasoline.
Unless you subscribe to an absurd idea that additive that could reduce your gasoline consumption to ZERO could exist.
I buy 10 gallons at Shell and get 20 mpg.
I buy 10 gallons at Marathon and get 15 mpg.
Shell, therefore, can charge 33% more for their gas. If they charge less they have to increase volume to offset the loss, if they charge more they won’t sell any gas. There’s some sort of fuzzy convenience factor built into the fact that you would have to fill up less often, but that’s easily offset by the aversion to the higher number despite the higher value.
The gripping hand is this; it’s all a fixed market to begin with, guaranteed demand and communally manipulated supply. There’s no benefit to increasing the cost of your own product in order to differentiate it except in cosmetic ways, otherwise you damage your profit margin and your investors bail. There’s no one in upper management at a major gasoline company that is thinking “How can I get better gas to people and absorb some of the cost so that they get more for their money?” There are, however, dozens of people thinking “How can I keep our profits at the same level or higher?”
Sinij #16
You really think that hypothetical jump from 15 to 20 mpg would not attract more customers? In your example you don’t have to charge X% more unless it also takes X% more to produce, because with better product you’d get bigger share of the market and make up on MORE PEOPLE buying YOUR 20 mpg gas than OTHER COMPANY’s 15 mpg gas.
What you are saying contradicts how virtually all technological progress is made and how free markets work.
ArmandoPenblade #17
Sinij:
You really think that hypothetical jump from 15 to 20 mpg would not attract more customers? In your example you don’t have to charge X% more unless it also takes X% more to produce, because with better product you’d get bigger share of the market and make up on MORE PEOPLE buying YOUR 20 mpg gas than OTHER COMPANY’s 15 mpg gas.
What you are saying contradicts how virtually all technological progress is made and how free markets work.
I think people assign values in a sometimes pretty random way and have maximum prices set pretty firmly in their head for some items. I’m probably the only guy in the world who likes McDonalds hamburgers as much as a decent steakhouse deal, but even if everyone else agrees a $12 plate at Ye Olde Burgerbaron’s is superior, they still eat McDonald’s most days.
Of course, that’s a luxury good; I’m not as hip to people’s behavior regarding essentials. Closest I could say is that there are enough people out there who buy cut-rate auto insurance in states where some form of insurance is mandatory even though we all agree that real insurance is quantifiably better and, after your first wreck, actually saves you money.
RichVR #18
But nobody gets into that first wreck. So no worries, right?
ArmandoPenblade #19
Having had not one but two uninsured (and almost certainly unwashed) gentlemen in beat-up cars with expired plates and a tendency to run from the scene smash into my vehicle, I might be slightly more willing to accept the possibility of accidents happening than the average kid-at-18-who-thinks-he’s-invincible.
People do and think silly things sometimes. I’d be willing to bet that most people would view more expensive gas–even if it’s scientifically proven to be better–as a silly expense.
RichVR #20
Science is a bad word in the USA these days, so yeah, point taken.
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