47% of New Vehicles Require Premium Gas?

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Tahoe4Life
OVERKILL what grade of fuel are you running in your 2 vehicles? Just wondering. Thanks in advance.

Broward County is running 87 in their Hemi Chargers with zero issues.


The Durango has the 3.6, so it gets 87. We had a loaner 5.7 for a bit, it also got 87, as that's what it called for. The 6.4L gets 91, because that's what is indicated as the minimum acceptable grade for it. It has higher compression than the other two.

 

[Nyogtha]

In my area the nearest Sam's Club to my residence with fuel pumps has the lowest consistent differential between 87 regular and 93 premium (the only 2 grades available at those pumps). Price today is $2.389 / gal for 87 and $2.689 / gal for 93.

 

[circuitsmith]

Originally Posted By: Whimsey
"This is most noticeable in hot weather and other conditions such as towing".


This is worth emphasis. Tendency of spark knock rises with intake air temp.
I bet some of those "premium fuel required" engines can run at full potential when it's a 10F winter day.
My Matrix runs a little peppier with 89+ octane when it's 90F or over,
even though it calls for 87.
No increase in MPG though.
So I've used higher octane to make it less sluggish in a heatwave with the AC cranking.

 

[bmwpowere36m3]

That's fine by me... but not by increasing ethanol %.

 

[dailydriver]

^^^IF it were available in my area, I would mix E85 with 93 (E10), to yield about an E25/93 VPower end result, especially in the summer.
Yup, the fuel mileage will go south, but I will gladly accept that in order to keep whatever power the car can make in 95*F ambient temps, and it sure beats $10.00+ a gallon 100 octane unleaded!

(LOVE that Ford O.A.R. system!

)

 

[Nyogtha]

Summertime volatility restrictions make E85 actually around E55.

 

[853okg]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Kestas
Thank you for posting the 47% usage rate for premium. This should quell a lot of arguments I've read in the past, where people attribute the higher cost of premium to the trouble of carrying it for only a few users.

Yup. Not only has consumption of premium fuel gone up, but the price spread between regular and premium has increased significantly in recent years. Pure cash cow, driven by the assumption that if you require premium fuel, it must mean you own a premium car, which must mean you're rich, which must mean you can easily afford it, so shut up and pay the premium.




Agreed. Nobody can give a compelling (i.e. truthful) answer to this. Another boondoggle: remember when diesel used to cost less than gasoline?

 

[supton]

I always thought diesel price went up due to heavy usage--all heavy equipment uses diesel (not sure if OTR emissions, which reportedly drove down mpg, also increased demand for diesel). Crude comes out of the ground with relatively fixed proportions of gasoline and diesel, per barrel. IIRC they can't swing a barrel that far as to the percentage.

As for premium gasoline, I'm assuming again that to make higher octane gasoline, they have to pull out higher octane stuff and put into the high octane gas--leaving a fair amount of lower octane stuff. Increase the demand, and what's left over is bound to be cheaper (supply & demand).

Finally: is it 47% of new car sales need premium, or that 47% of models require premium?

 

[853okg]

Originally Posted By: supton
I always thought diesel price went up due to heavy usage--all heavy equipment uses diesel (not sure if OTR emissions, which reportedly drove down mpg, also increased demand for diesel). Crude comes out of the ground with relatively fixed proportions of gasoline and diesel, per barrel. IIRC they can't swing a barrel that far as to the percentage.

As for premium gasoline, I'm assuming again that to make higher octane gasoline, they have to pull out higher octane stuff and put into the high octane gas--leaving a fair amount of lower octane stuff. Increase the demand, and what's left over is bound to be cheaper (supply & demand).

Finally: is it 47% of new car sales need premium, or that 47% of models require premium?


Supply and demand is certainly not what's driving prices at the pump. Nor is the cost of manufacture. 47% of new car models require premium. Many remember when premium was one cent more than regular, maybe two cents. Back then diesel was much cheaper than gas. The price of gas makes no logical sense and correlates directly with nothing. Prices fluctuate with the price of crude, but only generally, and differences in local pricing defy all reason.

 

[SHOZ]

Diesel went up and stayed there as we started exporting copious amounts around the world.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: 853okg
Agreed. Nobody can give a compelling (i.e. truthful) answer to this. Another boondoggle: remember when diesel used to cost less than gasoline?

Car and Driver published a story that did little to clear it up, too.

As for diesel, we get it cheaper than gasoline on occasion. In fact, it happens fairly regularly in the summer.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: 853okg

Agreed. Nobody can give a compelling (i.e. truthful) answer to this. Another boondoggle: remember when diesel used to cost less than gasoline?


Diesel costs less than gas up here in Ontario. At my local Shell for instance, 87 octane is $1.379 per liter this morning, diesel is $1.259

 

[CrAlt]

Originally Posted By: dailydriver
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
For those in the US, multiply by 3.79 to get the price per US gallon. 94 is $7.08/gallon.


That's approaching the price of 100 octane unleaded racing fuel in many areas south of the northern border.

Ya if gas was 7bux here I would just swap out the thick head gaskets on my T/A and run race gas full time. Only a buck more last I checked. Or run 100LL from an airport. That seems to be 5 to 7bux a gallon depending which airport you get it from. If i have to pay a lot might as well have fun.