Part II in a series, examining alternatives, incentives and other ways to save money on gasoline

Chris Haag doesn’t give much thought to the cost of gasoline.
He doesn’t have to.
In an economy where nearly everyone is grumbling about rapidly rising fuel costs, Haag, 25, powers his 1999 Volkswagen Golf with vegetable oil.
The conversion, he said, was made with input from like-minded friends and assistance from a diesel basics class at Oakland University.
A flip of a switch is all it takes for the 2001 Clarkston High School graduate to go from diesel, to start and warm the car, to the recycled oil he now gets exclusively from the Clarkston Caf?.
“It’s the most phenomenal oil I’ve ever seen,” he said.
After he collects the oil, Haag runs it through his homemade refinery-a used water heater that sits near the back of his garage-to remove water and waste.
That’s all it takes to make the oil good enough to drive on, and he gets about 40 miles per gallon.
When he first made the conversion, Haag, who recently earned a Bachelor of Economics from Oakland University, was featured in local newspapers, including The Clarkston News, as well as on television.
In addition to praise and positive attention, he also fielded criticism from doubters who warned him he was going to wreck his car.
He’s now logged some 30,000 miles.
“It’s still running great,” he said. “I’ve not had one problem with the vegetable oil. There’s a lot that can go wrong, but as long as you’re careful everything works great.”
Haag said he doesn’t see the rise in gasoline prices as a bad thing.
“The higher the prices go, the more innovative people get,” he said. “The higher it goes, the more people do things that don’t impact the environment.”
At 25, Haag said he feels it’s important to be environmentally responsible and lead by example.
“People my age are going to have to change a lot of our habits,” he said. “We’ve got to get creative and innovative.?
Meanwhile, others are just trying to get by. Across the area, those who can’t use vegetable oil are making an effort to at least cut down on fuel consumption.
With layoff from his auto-industry related job impending, Bob Barnier takes his motorcycle just about everywhere.
“How are you going to beat it?” he said, noting the bike gets about 40 miles to the gallon, while his Ford F-250 averages about 13. “I don’t see an end in sight for these prices.”
While prices continue to put a strain on most everyone, some gas stations offer deals to customers who use their credit cards.
Speedway, for example, will knock five cents off every gallon for customers who sign up for the company’s line of credit.
But with an average fill up of 13 gallons per week, customers will save only a modest $34 a year. Although the card has no annual fee, retail card interest rates and a whopping $39 late fee quickly negate savings if balances are not paid in full and on time every month.
Other stations, like Costco and Kroger offer members a few cents off per gallon with no other fees to worry about.
Consumers have also been drawn in recently by dealer incentives revolving around gas prices.
The Let’s Refuel America program offered by Chrysler is generating a lot of interest, said Chris Dillaway, sales manager of Clarkston Chrysler Jeep in Springfield Township.
Those who take advantage of the program are guaranteed to pay no more than $2.99 per gallon of gas for the first three years they own the car.
“I think it’s a pretty strong commitment from Chrysler to come up with something like this,” he said. “It’s out-of-the box thinking, and it’s brought people into the dealership to see the new products.”
There are, of course, limitations-a Chrysler Town and Country, for example, is allotted 1895 gallons, which are divided evenly over the three years.
The deal also cancels out part of the manufacturer’s rebate on some cars.
Nevertheless, he said, the program is doing good things for business.
“It’s been awesome,” he said. “We’ve had a huge response from customers calling in and inquiring about the program, so if its done nothing else it’s generated a lot of interest in buying cars, which we’ve needed for a long time.”
Although hybrid vehicles offer higher gas mileage and tax incentives, Al Hall, sales manager at John Bowman Chevrolet in Independence Township hasn’t seen an increase in demand for the company’s Tahoe Hybrid.
But, he said, General Motors has come out with some incentives on the full-size utilities and full-size trucks so the payment is low enough to offset the gas prices.
Customers can get zero percent financing for 72 months on the Tahoe, Suburban and Silverado.
“Most people are leasing the Silverado because they can get it for $250 a month for four-wheel drive, loaded, and that’s cheap,” Hall said. “We’ve been swamped the last couple days.”
Hall also said he’s noticed people stepping downward as they purchase new vehicles.
“I’ve got people turning in Suburbans and taking Impalas, or turning in Suburbans and taking Cobalts-anything they can get with 30 miles a gallon,” he said. “More people are trying to lease than buy to keep payment as low as possible.”
And loyalty, he said, appears to be a thing of the past.
“We’ve got Chrysler employees in here buying cars, just the same as when Chrysler had low payments they had General Motors employees in there buying,” he said. “There’s not a lot of loyalty between General Motors Ford and Chrysler-people are just searching for the lowest payment.”