Finding right gas, low price is an art

To buy gas in these hard-luck times, you've got to be shrewd. It's not a casual purchase anymore. It's personal, and finding the right station takes all the passion and pretzel logic of choosing a brand of cigarettes.

You drive an extra 10 miles to save a handful of change at the cheapest pump. You wait in lines so long that they spill out of the parking lot and block traffic. But you find your sweet deal, and you stick with it.

Consider John Evans. He's an insurance salesman in Raleigh, and his route runs everywhere. But when the needle on his Ford dips low, he plans his wandering around the Crown station on South Saunders Street.

It doesn't matter that the line of idling cars stretches four cars deep at every pump, or that the parking lot is so full that a Honda knocks over a trash can making a three-point turn.

Gas costs just $3.61 a gallon there -- 20 cents cheaper than most.

"We've got to loop our lives," he said, "make sure our errands are on the same route."

Gas stations have always tried to gain a subtle edge, said Jeff Lenard, a vice president with the National Association of Convenience Stores.

For example, he said, the plum spot for an urban gas station is just past a traffic signal at a four-way intersection.

Put it before the traffic signal, and drivers can't get out of the parking lot when cars are queued at the red light.

Still, he said, behavior is fueled by price first, price second and price third. Burning extra gas to save some pennies per gallon doesn't enter the equation.

"They'll drive 10 miles," Lenard said. "My dad's a real smart guy. He says, 'I drove to BJ's today, and I saved 8 cents a gallon.' He's lost money, and he still brags about it."

His group's February study showed:

* 32 percent of motorists will take a left turn across a busy street to save 1 cent per gallon.

* 23 percent will drive 5 minutes out of their way to save the same penny.

The way Lenard figures it, commuting to cheap gas only works filling a tank that holds 18 gallons or more. Otherwise, you're eating up savings and free time.

None of that bothers Aaron Bassham, who works at Outback Steakhouse in Garner.

He'll make the daily drive from Clayton, then tack on an extra eight miles to fill up at the South Saunders BP, where a gallon went for $3.62 this weekend.

He burns about a third of a gallon to make that trip, not to mention spending an extra 15 or 20 minutes. But it feels right in a pyrrhic-victory way, like waiting 30 minutes on hold just to register a complaint with the cable company.

Consumers are fickle, said Sherry Jarrell, a finance lecturer at Wake Forest University.

"I think the reasons are as different as people are," she said in an e-mail. "I avoid Citgo because I got water in my gas one time years ago. Some people swear by Shell."

And when money gets tight, they'd rather fight than switch.