Premium Gas Prices

[Virtus_Probi]

$3.27 for 93 last night at Irving and I think the regular was 60 cents a gallon cheaper.
Used to get 10 cents a gallon off of 93 with a Shell discount card, but they dropped that a while ago and I don't drive by Shells as much anymore now. A new "discount" gas station was built on the way to one of the gyms I use and I was hoping to get a few cheaper fillups there, but their prices seem to be right in line with Irving's...they are the only station for a few miles around and must be thinking they will attract enough business without the discount prices.
80% of my fillups now are at Irving, they recently went Top Tier and the station I use appears to do a thriving business.

 

[opus1]

Chicago area must be making up for it...I filled up the Cobalt yesterday and paid $3.87/gallon for BP Ultimate - $1 more/gallon than 87 octane.

 

[WyrTwister]

Originally Posted By: Zee09
Surprisingly premium here is now 40 cents more at my local stations as opposed to 70-80 cents many years prior. And thats 93 octane. Regular here is $2.75-$2.79
I said I'd never own another car that takes premium but at this price it's not so bad.

Citgo here has 20 cents off Tuesday's as well on premium.
Sunoco regular rate is 40 cents more-my local one at least.


Is the premium an ethanol mix ? Think I have read ethanol raises the octane rating of the base product ?

 

[WyrTwister]

Originally Posted By: StevieC
About $4.30 USD per gallon equivalent here for premium. Be happy with the prices you have.

($3.64 USD per gallon equivalent for regular)


How much of that difference is due to the exchange rate ?

 

[WyrTwister]

When I was in High School , Mom was a visiting nurse . She drove a 1969 Galaxy 500 with a 302 V-8 . She said she got enough better gas mileage to pay the difference between the price of regular and ethyl .

Do not know how the math works out for the current high performance engines ? None of my vehicles require premium .

I considered buying a Chevy Volt , after our Leaf was totaled . Only the older ones were anywhere close to my price range . They called for premium . I figured it would get good enough MPG to be worth it ( premium gas ) . Newer Volts called for regular , but that was way out of my price range .

Ended up forgetting about the Volt . Because of price and they did not seem to be as roomy inside , as you would think / hope . Looking at the exterior dimensions .

 

[Artem]

Originally Posted By: opus1
Chicago area must be making up for it...I filled up the Cobalt yesterday and paid $3.87/gallon for BP Ultimate - $1 more/gallon than 87 octane.


A whole dollar more then regular?!?! Wow. Talk about a price hike. No way it costs that much more to spend 93 vs 87. It's all a SCAM

 

[Zee09]

Originally Posted By: WyrTwister
Originally Posted By: Zee09
Surprisingly premium here is now 40 cents more at my local stations as opposed to 70-80 cents many years prior. And thats 93 octane. Regular here is $2.75-$2.79
I said I'd never own another car that takes premium but at this price it's not so bad.

Citgo here has 20 cents off Tuesday's as well on premium.
Sunoco regular rate is 40 cents more-my local one at least.


Is the premium an ethanol mix ? Think I have read ethanol raises the octane rating of the base product ?


10% on most all grades here-so yes

 

[TiredTrucker]

Originally Posted By: skyactiv
If you buy a new gas powered car 10 years from now, it wont be using 87 octane. GM and other auto makers are pushing to get rid of 87 octane
as it's holding back better engine designs and Joe Q public wants to buy a $48K SUV and run the cheapest gas possible.


They are not even trying all that hard. E85 is over 100 octane. Ricardo, Cummins, etc already have developed E85 engines several years ago that have diesel like performance and fuel economy. Cummins 2.8L inline 4 E85 motor will fit in a wide range of vehicles and offers equivalent performance of the 5.7L Hemi. And can do it on E85 while getting small 4 banger equivalent or better fuel economy. The OEM's just haven't taken the plunge to put these type of motors in production vehicles. They stick with the current nonsense of having a motor designed around gasoline use E85 instead of offering motors that are primarily designed around E85. I use E85 exclusively. The last fill up was at $1.84 a gallon yesterday. MPG is lower, but the actual cost per mile is also lower for me using E85.

Then there is the OPOC motor that shows a lot of promise. Again, the major OEM's barely notice. For an equivalent output motor, an OPOC has 1/3rd the weight, 60% fewer parts, lower center of gravity, takes up half or less the space, etc and can be modified for any fuel... gas, diesel, LP, NG, ethanol, etc.

The OEM's will not even move forward on simple thing like SCR on diesels. They continue to use bulky DEF tanks using sloppy DEF with a terrible shelf life made of 33% urea and water when easily replaceable canisters with 100% urea in a substrate that can last as long as the vehicle's oil change interval are readily available. Shelf life is not an issue. Canisters are reusable. Replace the canister at an oil change and forget it. Canisters are recycled and refilled. It is instantly available at cold start up and would eliminate the need for EGR that is on production diesels now. These have been available for OEM implementation for almost a decade.

No, the OEM's are not really trying all that hard to do much of anything right. What is holding back progress in motor design is the OEM's themselves, not the fuel or anything else.

 

[billt460]

Originally Posted By: TiredTrucker
They continue to use bulky DEF tanks using sloppy DEF with a terrible shelf life made of 33% urea and water when easily replaceable canisters with 100% urea in a substrate that can last as long as the vehicle's oil change interval are readily available.


Out of curiosity, what is the approximate shelf life of DEF sitting in a hot Arizona garage?

 

[14Accent]

Originally Posted By: WyrTwister
When I was in High School , Mom was a visiting nurse . She drove a 1969 Galaxy 500 with a 302 V-8 . She said she got enough better gas mileage to pay the difference between the price of regular and ethyl .

Do not know how the math works out for the current high performance engines ? None of my vehicles require premium .

I considered buying a Chevy Volt , after our Leaf was totaled . Only the older ones were anywhere close to my price range . They called for premium . I figured it would get good enough MPG to be worth it ( premium gas ) . Newer Volts called for regular , but that was way out of my price range .

Ended up forgetting about the Volt . Because of price and they did not seem to be as roomy inside , as you would think / hope . Looking at the exterior dimensions .


I don't mind putting premium in my Volt. I'm used to buying it, I've owned many cars that require it. An 8 gallon fill-up every month and a half at $25-$27 each is tiny compared to most peoples fuel bill. I hardly ever use the gas engine, anyways. I get 1200-1400 miles between fill-up's.

 

[SHOZ]

I use premium 93 E10 in my Gen Coupe. It's been stuck at $2.99 since last November when it went up from $2.89. It's a Mom and Pop station. All others around are in the $3.45-$3.65 range. I can get Casey's 91 octane E10 for $3.17.

 

[Pew]

Originally Posted By: opus1
Chicago area must be making up for it...I filled up the Cobalt yesterday and paid $3.87/gallon for BP Ultimate - $1 more/gallon than 87 octane.


I hope you're not in the city. I think it was ~$4.80 for premium.

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted By: WyrTwister
Originally Posted By: StevieC
About $4.30 USD per gallon equivalent here for premium. Be happy with the prices you have.

($3.64 USD per gallon equivalent for regular)


How much of that difference is due to the exchange rate ?


35%

The real question is why we send it to Texas to be refined and then sold back to us when we could build our own refineries...

 

[Garak]

The same reason there's such a difficulty in building a pipeline. NIMBY.

 

[SHOZ]

A lot of the gas in my area south of Chicago comes from Canadian tar oil through BP in Whiting IN.

 

[StevieC]

over 50% of American oil comes from Canada.

 

[bbhero]

Well I much rather get out oil from our friends to the north vs from people elsewhere shall we say...

 

[WyrTwister]

You got that right !

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted By: bbhero
Well I much rather get out oil from our friends to the north vs from people elsewhere shall we say...


Originally Posted By: WyrTwister
You got that right !


Hopefully it stays that way with the Tariff war going on.

 

[CKN]

Originally Posted By: splinter
Originally Posted By: Tahoe4Life
...My buddy does Uber and uses only 87 regular in his 2015 6.2 Escalade...

200K+ miles in his '15 Escalade = remunerative gig that Uber.

$3.79 here today.


"In order to drive for UberSUV, you must have commercial insurance and a TCP or livery license."



Well "Uber Black" pays a little more but Uber also requires commercial insurance at that level. Probably why he needs to burn regular in a"big motor".