Price difference between Reg, Mid & Premium gas

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Years ago I recall the price of midgrade gas to be 10 cents higher than regular and Premium to be about 20 cents higher than regular gas.

Now in my area it seems that the price difference is getting way higher than what it used to be.

Example, the last gas station that I stopped at had Regular at $2.79, Mid Grade at $3.09 and Premium at $3.39 per gallon!

Is any one else seeing this big of a spread where they live?
 
I am sure it is what the market will pay. The corporations have staff who does nothing but figure how to milk every cent out of their customers they can.
 
87 octane is the price leader. Over 90% of cars built in the past15 yrs. only require 87. If you choose to step up to 91 or 93 octane you are not concerned primarily with the price. Some folks are of the belief that they are giving their car "the best" when they purchase a higher octane than required. The oil marketers play to this misconception. FWIW

Oldtommy
 
Other than the '15 civic si, the only car I run premium is in the '93 because it runs like poo if it's lower octane. The others... 87 all day every day.
 
Originally Posted By: 2oldtommy
87 octane is the price leader. Over 90% of cars built in the past15 yrs. only require 87. If you choose to step up to 91 or 93 octane you are not concerned primarily with the price. Some folks are of the belief that they are giving their car "the best" when they purchase a higher octane than required. The oil marketers play to this misconception. FWIW

Oldtommy


On the flipside, other folks get too caught up on gas prices. The reason is because they are visually overwhelmed with seeing the prices multiple times/day and always go for the lowest price. sometimes even driving 5-10miles to get lower price gas for only a few cents/gallon savings. (If you do the math, even this short extra distance would eat up all their savings).

When the differential is only +$.16 here and gas is near $3.99. The difference as a percentage is only about 4%. For cars that indicate they benefit from it, as gas rises, if the differential stays the same, it becomes cheaper and cheaper to go for premium.

In perspective, even if you add up all your "savings" from going to premium, it only adds up to say getting a coffee or two a few times. Gas Prices are not where one is losing money. If you shop at the supermarket, and get a gallon of on-sale OJ versus not on sale OJ you've made up the price difference.

No other product are you exposed to the prices so often and in such large type. It burns it's way into your memory pushing out all your other pricing information where you can equally save money
 
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Most stations in Orange County, So Cal have 10 cents spread, some have 12-15 cents spread and some only 8 cents different.

With extra 16 cents(above $3.8x/gal regular) for premium I fill up the Volvo with it. Because it costs only 5% more and usually Premium has more detergent, and it seems to get 1-2% better gas mileage.
 
Ten cents difference per mid & 20 cents more for super here in my neck of the woods over regular unleaded. Been that way as long as I can remember.
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Most stations in Orange County, So Cal have 10 cents spread, some have 12-15 cents spread and some only 8 cents different.

With extra 16 cents(above $3.8x/gal regular) for premium I fill up the Volvo with it. Because it costs only 5% more and usually Premium has more detergent, and it seems to get 1-2% better gas mileage.


That's the marketing talking. My gas mileage varies from tank to tank by more than 1-2% and it's the same grade.

The btu content of regular and super are the same.

Mid grade might be the one marked up the most. Midgrade comes from mixing super and regular. If you have 93 super and 89 midgrade, sometimes it's just cheaper mixing it on your own. With 91 super, then it's just a 50/50 mix otherwise 93 would be a 66% regular 33% super mix.
 
as some one who's worked in gas stations off and on for the last 15 years or so, around here, it used to be a 10cent spread between grades, except at BP Stations, they always did 10 cents reg-mid, 12 cents mid-prem.

last summer we went to a 15 cent spread, and everyone else seemed to do the same. (most of the bp's have either changed brands, or just closed.)
 
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Most stations in Orange County, So Cal have 10 cents spread, some have 12-15 cents spread and some only 8 cents different.

With extra 16 cents(above $3.8x/gal regular) for premium I fill up the Volvo with it. Because it costs only 5% more and usually Premium has more detergent, and it seems to get 1-2% better gas mileage.


That's the marketing talking. My gas mileage varies from tank to tank by more than 1-2% and it's the same grade.

The btu content of regular and super are the same.

Mid grade might be the one marked up the most. Midgrade comes from mixing super and regular. If you have 93 super and 89 midgrade, sometimes it's just cheaper mixing it on your own. With 91 super, then it's just a 50/50 mix otherwise 93 would be a 66% regular 33% super mix.


well, that's assuming your car doesn't adjust timing and take advantage of the octane rating. If your car can adjust timing and increase compression, then despite having same btus in liquid form, it can produce more usable power and work out of that fuel. Majority of the BTUs is "lost" anyway, the engine isn't creating extra BTUs out of thin air, it's just able to turn more of them into work.

By your logic, because the btus are the same in the fuel, all engines should produce the same power and useful work out of the same amount of fuel btus. Obviously that isn't true.
 
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Originally Posted By: raytseng
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Most stations in Orange County, So Cal have 10 cents spread, some have 12-15 cents spread and some only 8 cents different.

With extra 16 cents(above $3.8x/gal regular) for premium I fill up the Volvo with it. Because it costs only 5% more and usually Premium has more detergent, and it seems to get 1-2% better gas mileage.


That's the marketing talking. My gas mileage varies from tank to tank by more than 1-2% and it's the same grade.

The btu content of regular and super are the same.

Mid grade might be the one marked up the most. Midgrade comes from mixing super and regular. If you have 93 super and 89 midgrade, sometimes it's just cheaper mixing it on your own. With 91 super, then it's just a 50/50 mix otherwise 93 would be a 66% regular 33% super mix.


well, that's assuming your car doesn't adjust timing and take advantage of the octane rating. If your car can adjust timing and increase compression, then despite having same btus in liquid form, it can produce more usable power and work out of that fuel. Majority of the BTUs is "lost" anyway, the engine isn't creating extra BTUs out of thin air, it's just able to turn more of them into work.

By your logic, because the btus are the same in the fuel, all engines should produce the same power and useful work out of the same amount of fuel btus. Obviously that isn't true.


Normally you can't increase compression, that's from the design of the engine. And you normally don't increase timing, it's normally already optimal unless timing has been retarded due to knocking. So all else being equal, a proper running engine doesn't benefit at all from super. Again, it's all about the marketing.

Your logic is also faulty, I'm saying that the SAME engine doesn't produce more power just from using a higher octane because the energy content of the fuel is the same. It's known as comparing apples to oranges. Of course different engines will develop different amounts of power. Logically, you should use the scientific method. That is repeatable, reproducible results. People who report slight better gas mileage using super aren't using the scientific method, they're reporting anecdotes which isn't scientific. More like the placebo effect is in play than any logic. The scientific literature all says that higher octane won't get you better gas mileage in the SAME engine if it's designed for regular gas. It's the marketing that will make you think otherwise.
 
The price spread has very little to do with reality. It's just something typically done because it's always the way it has been done. The majority of gas stations around here have that 10 cent spread, but not all. The gas station really just cares that it's going to make an overall profit on fuel sales. It's not really any more or less expensive to make higher octane fuel (to a degree) but it's a matter of supply/demand and being able to command a premium price for something marketed as a premium product.

There are a lot of products out there where the cost of manufacturing is pretty much the same, but the differentiation comes in tiny things where the premium price comes. If you look at a modern TV, some have more advanced features, but they're basically made the same and the firmware or jumpers may turn some features on/off. That's not exactly the same as gas, but there's no particular reason why it should cost 10 cents more per 2 octane rating jump. That's just traditional.
 
Originally Posted By: CT8
I am sure it is what the market will pay. The corporations have staff who does nothing but figure how to milk every cent out of their customers they can.


Are you a socialist or a communist? You obviously have no idea how a free market works. Yes, oil/gasoline is a free market. If it wasn't the staff at oil companies who figure how to milk every cent out of their customers have all failed with oil at $65 per barrel instead of $120 and they have all been fired.

It's called supply and demand. Couple that with American shale oil production versus imported crude and you have your answer. It's easier and cheaper to make lower octane gasoline out of shale oil while imported crude is better suited for higher octane.

Add the fact that fewer and fewer engines require premium (Ford's latest Ecoboosts are designed to run on regular albeit at lower than advertised power levels) and you have the reasons why premium is at a higher than historic premium.
 
Gasoline really isn't a free market. For one thing, many people can't choose not to buy more. They must consume it in some way, either in their own vehicles or in busses or whatever to get to work and operate their lives. Secondly, almost nobody can decide they're going to enter the market and compete. Maybe Apple could, with their billions and billions in cash?

robert
 
When I filled up last week it was a $0.25/gallon spread. I was surprised. I too used to think it was just a $0.10/gallon difference. Until last week I knew it had gone up but I thought it was closer to the $0.15/gallon spread.
 
I've seen as much as .50 spread between 87 and 89. Not everywhere, not even at all Exxons (which is where I've seen the above .50 difference); usually it's .20 or so.
 
Originally Posted By: SonicMustang
You're a moron. Demand for gasoline is very elastic.


Gas is a price-inelastic product, especially in the short term.

Products which consumers must have, and which are hard to substitute, have low price elasticity / are inelastic.

Products which consumers can do without, and which are easier to substitute, have higher price elasticity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_elasticity_of_demand#Selected_price_elasticities
 
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