Considering how high the gas prices are, seeing the cost of premium gas makes me wonder if anyone buys it at that price. I can’t remember ever being with anyone who ever filled up with it. Everyone I know always gets the least expensive unleaded kind.
Is there really enough advantage to using it that it’s worth the extra cost? If so, it seems you would be bound to keep using premium in order not to lose the benefits. That would be a fair amount of extra money over time to pay at the pump.
I only use it for smaller engines like my John Deere lawnmower or my BMW motorcycle.
Seeing that these don’t use much gas at all I never worried about the extra 50 cents when buying a gallon or two.
Both my manual and my gas door both mention using premium so I use it. It’s only about $4 extra over 40 litres (or roughtly $200 over the course of the year). Not a huge deal.
About any sort of sports or “premium” car (luxury cars, basically anything that isn’t considered and economy vehicle) will recommend the use of high-grade gasoline. From what I understand, the main idea is that the engines are designed with high-grade gasoline in mind. The higher grades have better combustion, which will result in more mileage and a longer life-span for the vehicle. I’ve also noticed that my car “knocks” if I ever use low-grade or watered down gas. I’m driving a car from '93 with about 120,000 miles that still runs better than most vehicles from just a few years ago.
That said, many cars are not designed for high-grade gasoline and recieve no real benefit from it.
Yeah, my car requires minimum 91 octane. Since I don’t ever see that grade, I buy 92 thru 94. To compensate for occasionally bad gasoline and carbon buildup on the valves and injectors, I regularly add fuel injector cleaner to a full gas tank.
I don’t, because my car wouldn’t benefit from it. As said, unless you ahve a sport or luxary car with an engine designed for higher octane gas, you aren’t doing yourself any good by using premium. That stuff about “Driving your engine clean” is pretty much non-sense. Hell, using a higher octane can even be bad for the engine in the same way using a lower octane can be in a sports car.
My Subaru SVX needs Premium. It has a high compression engine, and lower octane gasses can detonate prematurly during the compression process and rob power and stress the engine.
As others have mentioned, you should only use premium in engines that are designed for it. But I think your economic analysis might be flawed. As gas prices go up, people will try to limit their driving costs, but at the same time, the proportional cost of buying premium gas shrinks. As far as I can remember, there have pretty much always been $0.10 steps from the cheap to midrange to premium prices. With gas prices as high as they are, the difference between using the cheap gas and the premium is proportionally lower than it’s ever been. High prices will tend to change people’s driving habits, but I imagine that they’d be more likely to use the premium gas now that the marginal increase is less.
Consider if gas went up to $10 a gallon. Would you really balk at paying $10.20 to get the good stuff?
Toyota Matrix XRS. The same engine is found in the Celica GT and the new Corolla XRS as well as the Matrix’s twin GM model, the Vibe GT.
180 HP (164.9 WHP) and a 11.5:1 compression ratio in a 1.8L engine means premium. Using regular my timing would retard itself and I probably would get somewhere around the regular 1.8L power in a normal Corolla (around 130 HP or about 110 WHP).
As others have said, if your car wasn’t designed with premium in mind (high compression ratio) you can’t take advantage of premium gas. You can reduce knock but it would be better to spend the extra money on actually fixing your engine
I use the premium in my Audi A4. It’s recommended by the manufacturer, and when I talked to a service person about it he said that he would recommend that I use it if I planned to keep the car for a while. If I planned to drive it for only a couple years then sell it, he said, get the cheaper gas because the long-term effects will be someone else’s problem. Since it’s five plus years into my ownership with no problems with the car, I can see myself keeping it another 2-5 years, so the minimal extra cost of the gas is fine by me.
I have to use it in a Benz. Yes, there was a thread I think in GQ awhile back that came to the conclusion that the use of premium gas in an engine that doesn’t require that octane rating doesn’t provide any benefit.
My owner’s manual for my Pontiac Vibe (yes, I know it’s a Toyota in GM clothing) specifies using premium, and says that the warranty is void unless that is what is used.
I used to in my Volvo S70. Sold it and bought a Mazda3, so I only need the cheap stuff (87 or higher) now. The Volvo would knock and shudder if I put more than one tank of the cheap stuff in.
I’m not trying to be rude, but a better way to put it would be to say that the higher grades “delay” the combustion. A higher octane rating does not mean “cleaner” or more “powerful”.
We used to have to use it in our 'Vette. But I drive an Aerostar that calls for regular, and my sweetie drives a diesel, which lately costs more than most premium grades. But he gets 50MPG, so that helps.
