Regular fuel on Premium fuel engine

[Garak]

Stewie, you must be able to find a better spread than that. Here, 20 cents difference and under is more the norm, with the difference being closer to 10 or 12 cents at some Loblaws and Coop stations. I believe Costco is fairly close, too.

The last three vehicles I've had (aside from the old F-150) required premium. I don't adore paying more or anything, but if I'm so terribly worried about fuel prices, I should be driving a Nissan Micra and not an Infiniti G37.

 

[badtlc]

Originally Posted By: DAC17

You're being falsely thrifty. If the octane difference from 87 to 93 is 6, and you're paying 50% of the price difference for 33% of the octane, you aren't maximizing your benefits. Would be better to alternate 87 and 93 fill-ups. I know I'm talking pennies, but this whole thread is about relatively minor $$ impacts.


You botched that financial analysis. You don't analyze how much octane you get per $.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I've tried 93 in the Regal's 2.4L NA mill, which is fairly high compression. My mileage either went up by too small a percentage to make it worth continuing, or the mileage went down; and the car didn't drive any differently. I may experiment with 89 if I can find it at a reasonable rate of extortion. (One Exxon station near me has the cheapest 87 in town, but its 89 is .50/gal. higher. However, I've seen 89 for only .20 more than for 87.) Otherwise, 87 works fine.

 

[y_p_w]

Originally Posted By: badtlc
Originally Posted By: DAC17

You're being falsely thrifty. If the octane difference from 87 to 93 is 6, and you're paying 50% of the price difference for 33% of the octane, you aren't maximizing your benefits. Would be better to alternate 87 and 93 fill-ups. I know I'm talking pennies, but this whole thread is about relatively minor $$ impacts.


You botched that financial analysis. You don't analyze how much octane you get per $.


You're right - that sounds like a basic misunderstanding of what octane rating is. Octane rating attempts to quantify a property (via comparison to a iso-octane and n-heptane reference fuel) that really isn't as linear as it sounds by just assigning a number. The difference between 87 and 91 octane is huge in terms of what it means to the ability to improve performance. That those (R+M)/2 octane ratings generally correlates to 95 and 98 RON kinds of changes the understanding.

 

[jrmason]

Originally Posted By: skyactiv
Unfortunately, North America gets less efficient and less power engines from the auto makers in Japan and Europe becuase of our love for 87 octane. The European Mazda Skyactiv engine has 1 point higher compression and VW and Mercedes have gone as far to tell Washington our gas sucks.


That could all change in the next several years. Auto manufacturers are looking for ways to meet the 2025 CAFE requirements and beyond and a lot of their problems could be solved with higher octane fuel.

 

[y_p_w]

Originally Posted By: jrmason
Originally Posted By: skyactiv
Unfortunately, North America gets less efficient and less power engines from the auto makers in Japan and Europe becuase of our love for 87 octane. The European Mazda Skyactiv engine has 1 point higher compression and VW and Mercedes have gone as far to tell Washington our gas sucks.


That could all change in the next several years. Auto manufacturers are looking for ways to meet the 2025 CAFE requirements and beyond and a lot of their problems could be solved with higher octane fuel.


However, it's not as if the making of more higher octane rated fuel is that easy. Certainly there have been tricks to make higher octane fuel streams, but in the end the refineries only make so much of this and that, and it becomes a blending exercise of matching these fuel streams to meet demand. Or else there's going to be a certain amount of lower octane fuel that can't be sold as motor fuel or has to be tanked/piped to countries that use lower octane rated fuels.

In California, 92 octane (R+M)/2 used to be the standard at most gas stations for premium unleaded. Then around 2000 we started seeing 91 octane stickers slapped over the old 92 labels. Apparently this had to do with the high demand in California for premium, which by definition only had to be 91. This allowed refiners to use save some of the higher octane streams to make more salable regular unleaded.

 

[sciphi]

It all depends on the car. If it says it can run on 87, try it and see. My Cruze runs horribly on 87. I tried it for a few tanks and switched back to premium. The difference in fuel economy and drivability wasn't worth it.

 

[Stewie]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Stewie, you must be able to find a better spread than that. Here, 20 cents difference and under is more the norm, with the difference being closer to 10 or 12 cents at some Loblaws and Coop stations. I believe Costco is fairly close, too.

The last three vehicles I've had (aside from the old F-150) required premium. I don't adore paying more or anything, but if I'm so terribly worried about fuel prices, I should be driving a Nissan Micra and not an Infiniti G37.


Life is too short to be spent waiting at the gas station, Costco's fuel lineup is 30min long.

Major fuel stations is 20 cents difference per liter (in Toronto) + tax. That's about $10 per fill-up.

Once she was very happy to see that the gas station didn't have 87 so they were forced to sell 93 for the price of 87

 

[Garak]

I'm not saying you should spend your life in fuel station lineups. I wouldn't, either. In fact, I simply don't. I'm usually filling at very odd hours. If I were you, I'd just keep my eyes open and see if I can find something with a better spread than what you've experienced.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Around here you must shop a bit. We have two premium fuel only cars and the difference in the spread can be 20 cents or more even if the regular fuel is competitive.

Gas Buddy!

 

[Garak]

That's per gallon, though, not per 1/4 of a gallon.

But that's a good suggestion for others in the thread - Gas Buddy and its ilk. I get around enough in the day to have a pretty good idea what gas is going for in different parts of the city and outlying areas (usually not a big difference). Not everyone has that chance.