Originally Posted by Smokescreen
Glad I have a 2013 Civic Si...no stability control, no TPMS, no direct injection..none of the nannies that cause issues and the traction control can be completely turned off.
Your SI has stability control. Heck, I think my previous '07 SI was one of the first ones to get VSA.
Edit: if Google can be believed, stability control was made mandatory as of 2012 MY's for all makes.
Originally Posted by KrisZ
Originally Posted by AC1DD
Originally Posted by KrisZ
Manufacturers are free to specify the minimum octane rating as they wish. There are plenty of vehicles on the road that require premium fuel and people don't seem to complain.
Artificially forcing the market to offer less choices because of some technical difficulties is never a good choice for the end user. These companies pushing for higher octane are simply lazy. They want what's best for them, not the buyer.
Fact is that higher efficiency ICE require high octane fuel burn, it's that simple. Europe has these higher efficiency engines and because the fuel is high octane and has less
impurities like sulfur in it is burns cleaner with far less deposits left behind creating problems later on.
You don't need to tell me what they have in EU as I lived there. Their higher fuel economy mostly comes from small engine displacement, not better fuel.
They do have better quality fuel though, not going to argue against that, but they pay a very high premium for it.
Everyone in US is free to use premium right now, why do you feel it needs to be mandated? You do understand that whatever fuel efficiency gains it might bring, will be swallowed whole and then some by increased fuel prices?
If manufacturers mandated higher-octane fuel, it would become more prevalent. As older cars die off, lower-octane fuel can be phased-out, too.
If all there was was higher-octane, then wouldn't there be the benefit of economies of scale? In other words, I would bet that the price of premium would be right between where 87 and 93 AKI are today, if only 93 was available. I'm not talking about my local, price-gouging Shell station; I'm speculating, based on the usual markup.