I saw a gas station yesterday that had regular gas for ~$3.60 and “real gas” for ~$4.50. What is the difference between them?
No ethanol and I’m jealous. Can’t get it here in IL due to politicians. For older bikes it’s essential and it raises mpg on newer cars.
Probably Premium (higher octane) grade. Many people are easily fooled into paying more for stuff they don’t need. For example, a four-cylinder car is just a car; but a V8 is a real car. Or a 9mm Beretta is a gun, but a .45 Colt is a real gun. By calling Premium ‘real gas’, they’re marketing to people who believe that ‘bigger is better’.
Most cars nowadays (there are notable exceptions) do not require high-octane fuel. If it runs normally on Regular, then there is no reason to pay more for higher-grade fuel. If it doesn’t run normally on regular (e.g., my MGB pings on hot days unless it has Premium), then it needs the extra octane.
Yeah, no ethanol. The 10% ethanol that’s in most gas these days hurts your performance and mileage to a very slight extent, and there’s some people who say it wreaks all sorts of havoc with small gas engines. (I’m not sure I really buy the latter claim, or at least not the the hysterical extent some make it, but whatever.)
You’d probably see a bit better mileage with the “real gas” but paying an extra $0.90/gal is completely silly. I’m guessing that, yes, in addition to being ethanol-free it’s the high octane premium. Like Johnny LA says, there’s absolutely no reason to use higher octane gas in a car that doesn’t require/recommend it, but recently many gas stations have started this ethanol-free premium practice. IMHO, it should be illegal-- it’s basically the same idea as back in the 60’s when oil companies would only put in better additive packages in the premium gas (and advertise it heavily) in hopes of getting people who’s cars only called for regular to buy the more expensive premium gas anyways. The FTC made them knock it off back in the 60’s, but that’s basically the same thing happening here. If gas stations want to do the ethanol-free gimmick, they should do it in all grades.
Outboards as well. Wish I could buy it.
We have a few gas stations close by our marinas that are the target of regular weekly pilgrimages by atv drivers and bikers and people with yard tractors because they have ethanol-free gas for sale.
They offer all three grades, and they are more expensive than the ethanol versions, but they’re not doing anything except putting up a sign and making sure to buy pure gasoline - if people want to pay more for what they think works better for their needs, good for the gas station for offering it.
If anything, a higher proportion of cars nowadays require higher-octane fuel. As the feds have continued to mandate higher MPG averages from automakers, the automakers have begun to deprecate large engines in favor of turbochargers, and a turbocharged engine has high compression and requires high-octane fuel.
It’s pandering to the same set of clowns who think it’s a big government conspiracy to water down their gasoline with ethanol and thereby reducing performance and economy, and causing everything from fuel system rust to hose rot to hemmorhoids.
It’s a subset of the same science-challenged worldview that distrusts vaccines, President Obama, and “chemicals”.
There are two different cases being argued here. I agree that “real gas” almost certainly means pure gasoline, not higher octane with ethanol.
“Pure” gas - no ethanol or other additives - is better fuel for nearly all engines. Ethanol lowers vehicle mileage by a notable amount, and damages unprotected aluminum carb and intake components, and can deteriorate many rubber compounds used in fuel lines. (Remember the burning BMWs of a few years back? That’s what happens when ethanol eats the pressurized fuel lines under the hood. Nasty.) Buy it whenever it’s available and an economic plus. (That is, for stuff that will be damaged by alcohol, and whenever it’s less than about 5% more than ethanol fuel - the added mileage will make up the difference and more.)
The other case, octane… buying 1 octane point higher than your car uses is wasted money. Period. There is a very limited range of cases where vehicles can adapt - many Hondas can run on regular, but get better mileage and horsepower from higher-octane fuel because they can advance the timing on the fly. Unless you have such an engine - and your user’s manual will clearly say so - putting anything but the recommended octane gas in is a waste of money. (In two ways, yet: put in excess-rated gas and you’re spending money you don’t need to; put in lower-rated gas and you’re risking very expensive engine damage.)
But no, higher octane is not and never has been “better” gas in any respect. Whether ethanol-free gas is better depends on whether you think it’s a better to trade off some emissions for lower mileage, or the reverse.
In fact, there’s plenty of concrete evidence if you do a little research of some those very real problems when using ethanol-laced fuel (excepting the silly “hemmorhoids [sic]” jab,) especially in small engines or older cars.
Modern cars can run E10 quite safely, but there is a performance and mileage cost, which anyone can discover with a little record keeping. And that doesn’t include the very legitimate concerns about growing food to make fuel, and the energy cost of refining the fuel-grade ethanol in the first place.
Remember when both leaded and unleaded gasolines were available for sale?
I remember people pumping leaded gas into their cars using a device to bypass the car’s design that would only accept unleaded. What was going on there?
I have noticed that some ‘economy’ cars like the BMW MINI and, I think, the Smart, require higher octane fuel. I haven’t shopped for a car in quite a while. When I did last Autumn, it was for a direct replacement for the car I crashed, which was a 2005 model. I’ll accept that a higher proportion of cars now have smaller, higher-compression engines (turbocharged or not). But I’d bet that the majority are still normally-aspirated.
The Pure Gas app shows stations in IL, just none within 50 miles of Chicago.
But the government subsidizes all that, so it don’t cost nothin’.
Which you’ll discover next time you go to buy some beef for dinner: while the current increases are more tied to drought, the long-term rise is due to increased feed costs because so many farmers have turned to the liquid wealth of growing ethanol corn.
(missed edit) Because, y’know, may as well take the guaranteed profits instead of slugging it out in the free market. What do you take farmers for, Socialists?
Here in OKC, some stations have only one octane in the 10% ethanol, while 100% gas has 3 octane choices. And quite a lot of those places sell the E85 (flex fuel) stuff, too.
Then, there are the stations that every pump, every octane, is 10% ethanol.
I can actually buy low octane 100% gas cheaper at one place than the station closest to me with only 10% stuff. Weird, huh?
I remember being confused the first couple times in Iowa where 87 was more expensive than 89 at most gas stations I came across. I quickly figured out that the 89 and 93 were ethanol added, but the 87 was not. (Last week when I was there, though, all the pumps at the BP I stopped at were E10.)
I find I get about 7-10% better fuel economy with pure gas.
For those that say in general octane means nothing should have to pay for the damage that happens when a P&W-R2800 to full power with less than the correct octane.
Many older cars do not do well on ethanol blended fuel.
I wonder how many drag racers us it?
Drive a car without EFI? In theory, you should be able to load the car to the normal capacity & floor it up a hill in the summertime with no damage or heating problems. Now compare all factors between blended & non-blended fuel.
I have an 1984 Blazer 4X4 with a slightly healthy 350 in it. I don’t use blended fuel in it. I do have the pencil & calculator results on hundreds of local & long distance use miles that show that, depending on local prices, I almost always come out a bit ahead on total cost using the highest octane rated real gas I can get vs 87 or 89 octane fuel.
The happy engine is running with less temp, strain, etc. verified by the gauges.
Of course I don’t have 20K + invested if a fuel efficient new vehicle, one of the cheap ones, that gets less millage than my 96 Subaru.
YMMV ← he he he 
For those that say’ in general octane means nothing,’ should have to pay for the damage that happens when a P&W-R2800 is taken to full power with less than the correct octane.
Many older cars do not do well on ethanol blended fuel.
I wonder how many drag racers use it?
Drive a car without EFI? In theory, you should be able to load the car to the normal capacity & floor it up a hill in the summertime with no damage or heating problems. Rut Row !!! Big difference in blended & non-blended fuels.
I have an 1984 Blazer 4X4 with a slightly healthy 350 in it. I don’t use blended fuel in it. I do have the pencil & calculator results on hundreds of local & long distance miles that show that, depending on local prices, I almost always come out a bit ahead on total cost using the highest octane rated real gas I can get vs 87 or 89 octane fuel.
The happy engine is running with less temp, strain, etc. verified by the gauges.
Of course I don’t have 20K + invested if a fuel efficient new vehicle, one of the cheap ones at that price, that gets less millage than my 96 Subaru.
YMMV ← he he he
Ability
::: sheesh :::::::