Why is mid grade more expensive

[Dave1027]

You would think that mid grade gas is a mixture of regular unleaded and premium. At many gas stations it's priced exactly like that, right in the middle. But I'm noticing a trend at many gas stations these days. They are pricing mid-grade almost as much as premium. Example:

Regular 2.99
Mid-grade 3.23
Premium 3.33

Notice mid-grade is 24 cents more than regular? But it's only 10 cents less than premium. So my question, is mid-grade actually better than a straight 50/50 mix of regular and premium? My vehicles run like crap on regular but I don't really notice a difference between mid-grade and premium.

 

[Vern_in_IL]

mid grade is 87 WITH ethanol. Ethanol bumps it up to 89.

Premium, the old 91 is now 93 with ethanol.

 

[Cressida]

It may depend upon your area (not familiar with Calif.), but think in terms of yield management. Most stations will have ethanol in all of the grades unless they offer 100% gas as an option.

Straight 50/50 mix of regular and premium is basically the same so you would be fine using that to blend your on mid-grade.

Also know that your gas prices would sometimes be lower except there are state "below cost" laws that end up causing the consumer to pay higher prices at times.

 

[Kestas]

Originally Posted by Vern_in_IL
mid grade is 87 WITH ethanol. Ethanol bumps it up to 89.

Premium, the old 91 is now 93 with ethanol.

Are you saying 87 and 91 have no ethanol?

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted by Vern_in_IL
mid grade is 87 WITH ethanol. Ethanol bumps it up to 89.

Premium, the old 91 is now 93 with ethanol.


87 has ethanol. Mid-range may have more.

 

[Audios]

I always assumed it was price gouging. My buddy goes 20 reg, 20 super when he fills.

 

[pschnahc]

Seems like a nice way to extort the octane "on the fencers" for the convenience factor. If you want the fairest price for true mid-grade fuel, you gotta pump the low and high octane yourself. I used to do this. Always pump premium first, then the regular...don't want to leave a liter of paid high octane fuel in the pumps lines

 

[ammolab]

Originally Posted by Vern_in_IL
mid grade is 87 WITH ethanol. Ethanol bumps it up to 89.

Premium, the old 91 is now 93 with ethanol.


This would require a third tank at the station for your high level ethanol mid grade. The Vast number of stations have two tanks, one each for Regular and Premium gas. The pump draws from both to blend your overpriced "Midgrade" gasoline.

 

[Propflux01]

I was led to believe 87 was 85 with ethanol. 89 was pure, and 89 with ethanol was 91.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted by Donald
Originally Posted by Vern_in_IL
mid grade is 87 WITH ethanol. Ethanol bumps it up to 89.

Premium, the old 91 is now 93 with ethanol.


87 has ethanol. Mid-range may have more.


You're not making any sense. Regardless of the actual concentration, the max is 10% unless other wise marked. So even if 87 is less than 10%, it's priced at a certain amount, in the example cited earlier, $2.99. Premium is priced at $3.33 and can also have ethanol up to 10%. Remember, that's regardless of the ethanol concentration and they're both limited to 10% max. So if you mix the two, I fail to see why a greater concentrating of ethanol would have on the price. As mentioned in other threads, mid grade is mixed at the gas station. It's basically a money grab by the gas stations because with places that have 91 octane, you could just buy half regular and half super and make your own mix and end up with the same midgrade. It's even cheaper in places that have 93, then you only need 1/3 super to 2/3 regular to get the same mix.

 

[Vern_in_IL]

Originally Posted by Kestas
Originally Posted by Vern_in_IL
mid grade is 87 WITH ethanol. Ethanol bumps it up to 89.

Premium, the old 91 is now 93 with ethanol.

Are you saying 87 and 91 have no ethanol?


Depends how it's blended!

Depends if you are getting ethanol free 87 or 85+10e(87) I've seen 90 mid grade before. Most mid grade is 89, some premium is 91, now most is 93(91+e10)

 

[Rmay635703]

Tell me about it,
E0 87
And
E10 89
Used to be exactly the same price.

Now days most stations are trying to make this into a profit center with a buck surcharge

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted by Vern_in_IL
mid grade is 87 WITH ethanol. Ethanol bumps it up to 89.

Premium, the old 91 is now 93 with ethanol.

All gasoline here has ethanol regardless of brand or octain.

 

[Kestas]

Originally Posted by Vern_in_IL
Originally Posted by Kestas
Originally Posted by Vern_in_IL
mid grade is 87 WITH ethanol. Ethanol bumps it up to 89.

Premium, the old 91 is now 93 with ethanol.

Are you saying 87 and 91 have no ethanol?

Depends how it's blended!

Depends if you are getting ethanol free 87 or 85+10e(87) I've seen 90 mid grade before. Most mid grade is 89, some premium is 91, now most is 93(91+e10)

This suggests some midgrade is made from 85+10e, which means even more ethanol is added. Can't happen because gasoline is limited to 10% ethanol, unless a third tank is used at a station.

We have very few stations with ethanol-free gasoline around here. If we do, they have a special pump and special price. But every station carries midgrade.

 

[GON]

Simply put, mid grade and premium are priced for profit. They hope unsuspecting buyers won't notice.

Many stations, like Sheets removed the price of premium from there signs- and then raised the price of premium.

Costco is one of the more dependable places to purchase premium at a competitive price.

 

[tc1446]

Some years ago a local station owner I know said that mid-grade was a blend of 10% premium, rest regular. Don't know if its still the same or not.

 

[eljefino]

30 years ago Regular (leaded) gas was 89 octane, so they sold 89 unleaded to "work" in those cars. People bought into getting something "a little special" and it stuck around.

My dad used to buy 89 because of its added FI cleaners. Marketing sucker.

 

[incognito_2u]

Originally Posted by Rmay635703
Tell me about it,
E0 87
And
E10 89
Used to be exactly the same price.

Now days most stations are trying to make this into a profit center with a buck surcharge

Side question about your post: Does your 91 Premium contain Any Ethanol.

 

[y_p_w]

Originally Posted by Donald
Originally Posted by Vern_in_IL
mid grade is 87 WITH ethanol. Ethanol bumps it up to 89.

Premium, the old 91 is now 93 with ethanol.


87 has ethanol. Mid-range may have more.

No guarantees of that. These days the most common commodity fuel sold in the United States is called RBOB (reformulated blend stock for oxygenate blending). It's strictly designed to be 87 octane (R+M)/2 when blended with a 90/10 mix with fuel-grade denatured ethanol.

It's a math exercise, but using 10% ethanol doesn't uniformly result in an (R+M)/2 bump of 2. The higher the base fuel octane rating, the less the bump.

 

[hatt]

Originally Posted by Rmay635703
Tell me about it,
E0 87
And
E10 89
Used to be exactly the same price.

Now days most stations are trying to make this into a profit center with a buck surcharge

That has to be the worst hikes I've seen for mid and premium. I thought it was bad around here.