Autos: Big Profits in Little Cans

In the great gas-station battle, gas oline companies have long tried to win a larger share of the consumer's dollar by promoting a mystifying variety of cryptically named additives and other special ingredients that promise to per form a miracle in the tank. The Fed eral Trade Commission, investigating one aspect of the great gasoline war, plans to press for legislation to force the companies to post actual octane ratings on the pumps so that motorists will not have to buy higher octane than their cars need. Now the battle ground has expanded to another area of mystification: the...

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