Gas prices Premium vs Reg

Has anyone done a study on how much more mileage a vehicle will get by
going to a higher octane fuel?

With the price of gas hovering around $3/ gallon and the difference
between the price for the next higher octane level averaging about 10
cents a gallon, one would only have to achieve an increase in mileage
of roughly 3.3% to make using the premium gas a better deal.

Of course, if this works and everyone starts using the higher octane
fuels, the differential in price is bound to increase.

What is probably happening though, is that the people who should be
using premium in their vehicles anyway are probably using the lower
priced regular instead. This has to be a mistake, if they are doing
it.

I haven't seen any suggestion that mileage will improve using a higher
octane fuel than the minimum needed for your vehicle. If it doesn't
knock use it.

Russell Patterson wrote:

Has anyone done a study on how much more mileage a vehicle will get by
going to a higher octane fuel?

With the price of gas hovering around $3/ gallon and the difference
between the price for the next higher octane level averaging about 10
cents a gallon, one would only have to achieve an increase in mileage
of roughly 3.3% to make using the premium gas a better deal.

Of course, if this works and everyone starts using the higher octane
fuels, the differential in price is bound to increase.

What is probably happening though, is that the people who should be
using premium in their vehicles anyway are probably using the lower
priced regular instead. This has to be a mistake, if they are doing
it.

Using a higher-than-necessary octane won't improve gas mileage. Do a
Google search and you'll find many articles on the subject.

Never use premium unless required in your user manual. See:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/...emiumgas_x.htm

Robert

"Russell Patterson" wrote in message
...
Has anyone done a study on how much more mileage a vehicle will get by
going to a higher octane fuel?

With the price of gas hovering around $3/ gallon and the difference
between the price for the next higher octane level averaging about 10
cents a gallon, one would only have to achieve an increase in mileage
of roughly 3.3% to make using the premium gas a better deal.

Of course, if this works and everyone starts using the higher octane
fuels, the differential in price is bound to increase.

What is probably happening though, is that the people who should be
using premium in their vehicles anyway are probably using the lower
priced regular instead. This has to be a mistake, if they are doing
it.

It depends on your individual vehicle and whether it was engineered for
regular, the middle grade, premium or any of the above. It the vehicle
manual recommends premium fuel, you will not only get worse gas mileage on
regular, you could eventually damage the engine. If the car recommends
regular, you won't get any better gas mileage using premium and could
eventually damage the engine. To my knowledge (and it could be out of date)
the only engines that get an improvement in fuel economy by using premium
fuel are some Honda engines that are specifically engineered that way. Some
American cars that recommend regular, really do better on the middle grade
if regular causes them to ping. The fuel economy that is going to be best
for your car is usually going to be the fuel for which the engine was
engineered and for which the owner's manual recommends. KM
--
(-:alohacyberian:-) At my website there are 3600 live cameras or
visit NASA, the Vatican, the Smithsonian, the Louvre, CIA, FBI or
CNN, NBA, the White House, Academy Awards & 150 foreign languages
Visit Hawaii, Israel and mo http://keith.martin.home.att.net/

On Mon, 29 May 2006 12:31:53 -0400, Russell Patterson wrote:


Has anyone done a study on how much more mileage a vehicle will get by
going to a higher octane fuel?
Exactly the same or slightly lower.

The octane is a measure of how unlikely the fuel is to explode (ping)
instead of a controlled burn.

If your engine pings, you need a higher octane. Otherwise, it's a complete
waste of money.

Robert wrote:
Never use premium unless required in your user manual. See:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/...emiumgas_x.htm

Gees, I thought we had crap fuel here in Australia. According to that
article, premium is 91 octane (or higher). 91 is our regular and 98 is
our octane. There is some 96 here and there, and then we have the
special ones coming out that are 10% ethanol . . .

I mostly ride Japanese motorbikes. They all run better on premium, (98
octane), esp. a 92 honda cbr that I used to own. It use to falter and
ping on regular, but run pretty smoothly on premium.

Lionel.

"Robert":
Never use premium unless required in your user manual. See:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/...emiumgas_x.htm

"Lionel":
Gees, I thought we had crap fuel here in Australia. According to that
article, premium is 91 octane (or higher). 91 is our regular and 98 is
our octane. ...

Different scale. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating, for
example.
--
Mark Brader "He added a 3-point lead" is pronounced
Toronto differently in Snooker than in Typography...
-- Liam Quin

AZ Nomad wrote:
On Mon, 29 May 2006 12:31:53 -0400, Russell Patterson wrote:



Has anyone done a study on how much more mileage a vehicle will get by
going to a higher octane fuel?

Exactly the same or slightly lower.

The octane is a measure of how unlikely the fuel is to explode (ping)
instead of a controlled burn.

If your engine pings, you need a higher octane. Otherwise, it's a complete
waste of money.

Or "If it don't knock then don't knock it."

Mark Brader wrote:
"Robert":
Never use premium unless required in your user manual. See:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/...emiumgas_x.htm

"Lionel":
Gees, I thought we had crap fuel here in Australia. According to that
article, premium is 91 octane (or higher). 91 is our regular and 98 is
our octane. ...

Different scale. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating, for
example.

Gotchya.

Complaining about $3 gallon seems absurd to me. Try $1.35/Litre that it
is here . . . and as I here, it's even more in parts of Europe.