As Pump Prices Rise, So Do Iffy Ways to Boost Mileage

Drop a pill in your gas tank for better fuel efficiency? Yeah, right, auto experts say.

In a stuffy Marina del Rey hotel meeting room Thursday night, Taylor Rivera spoke excitedly about a gas-saving additive he’d discovered a few months before.

“I normally get 255 miles to the tank,” said Rivera, who drives a Porsche SUV. After popping the gas additive BioPerformance Fuel into his tank several times, he said, “my mileage jumped up to 305. I didn’t research it, but it worked for me, so I shared it with my friends.”

Using colorful anecdotes, Rivera and three of his friends who also were there to tout the product told the small audience how they increased their mileage 10% to 30% using BioPerformance.

But neither Rivera nor his friends could explain how BioPerformance Fuel lowered emissions or increased gas mileage, citing only anecdotal evidence and referring questions to the company’s website. They could not provide the corporate office’s phone number