Should you buy premium fuel? C&D feature

Status
Not open for further replies.
Read the article. Would be good if they specified the ethanol content of the fuels they used.
My Hemi recommends 89, but I use Shell premium 91, with no ethanol. The 87 and 89 here has up to 10% ethanol, which should give you 3% less mpg.
 
Last edited:
I use only premium fuel in my Corvette. I feel if the factory recommends it that's what you should use. All my other vehicles excluding my Mercury marine 4 strokes get the lower priced fuel at Costco which was $2.43 per gallon today when I filled up my Honda Civic.
 
Originally Posted by Article
We tested this set of popular vehicles using gas with an octane rating above the manufacturer's requirement.


I stopped reading right there. Tossing in a more expensive fuel than is needed is just downright foolish. There are some vehicles that require a higher octane fuel and for those vehicles it makes sense. Most don't, and most drivers wouldn't be able to tell a difference (or care).
 
I would also love to see long term analysis of regular, Im sure there are much more serious consequences long term of using lower octane fuel than required. I also lol'd at that M5 being around until 2035.
 
Originally Posted by Danno
Read the article. Would be good if they specified the ethanol content of the fuels they used.
My Hemi recommends 89, but I use Shell premium 91, with no ethanol. The 87 and 89 here has up to 10% ethanol, which should give you 3% less mpg.


Petro Canada 94 also has no ethanol.
 
If there are any benefits using 93 over the recommended 87 in my wife's Santa Fe Turbo, we've never noticed. Our mpg is the same and my wife could care less if she got 5-10 more hp. As the article mentioned, any negligible fuel economy bump isn't worth the cost difference.

The Sportage? Strictly 87.

OP, thanks for sharing
 
Originally Posted by Fawteen
Originally Posted by Article
We tested this set of popular vehicles using gas with an octane rating above the manufacturer's requirement.


I stopped reading right there. Tossing in a more expensive fuel than is needed is just downright foolish. There are some vehicles that require a higher octane fuel and for those vehicles it makes sense. Most don't, and most drivers wouldn't be able to tell a difference (or care).

You must not read well because they used words like requirement and recommendation. All but the Honda recommend premium fuel.

I don't notice a difference in my GTI. VW says 87min but 93 will give max horsepower and torque. Real-life is less than 10hp. I am happy with E15 88 octane corn juice. It's cheaper and I found no mileage loss. My testing shows that E15 is really around 10% alcohol.
 
IF tuned for it, they love an E30 (93 and E85 mixture) blend even MORE!
thumbsup2.gif
19.gif
 
I use regular in all of my four vehicles except in the Tucson 1.6 Turbo. Jumping up to 89 octane makes a measurable difference in acceleration up hills and overall smoothness of acceleration. Even my wife notices the difference if I put in 87. No difference in gas mileage with either grade. And running 93 over the 89 does nothing except accelerate the cash flow out of my wallet.
 
Originally Posted by Danno
Read the article. Would be good if they specified the ethanol content of the fuels they used.
My Hemi recommends 89, but I use Shell premium 91, with no ethanol. The 87 and 89 here has up to 10% ethanol, which should give you 3% less mpg.


No idea what gas prices are around you, but the price jump from mid grade to premium is about 40 cents... have to get a whole lot more than 3% gain in mpg to make up for the price difference.
 
Originally Posted by Pelican
Originally Posted by Danno
Read the article. Would be good if they specified the ethanol content of the fuels they used.
My Hemi recommends 89, but I use Shell premium 91, with no ethanol. The 87 and 89 here has up to 10% ethanol, which should give you 3% less mpg.


Petro Canada 94 also has no ethanol.


Not anymore...
[Linked Image]
 
Well, they all turned out more HP with the premium and all but the Honda had better 1/4 mile times. That's something. Basically, turbos, especially 3.5 Ecoboost, run a little more efficiently. You can choose whether the price justifies it. Locally, it's a $.30 jump to 89 and at least an additional $.35-$.40 jump to premium. So a $2.70 gallon (current pricing) regular is $3.40 premium (26% more).

I have a premium tuned car and an Ecoboost, so I do buy premium. It has it's place in certain applications, which most of us already knew.
 
Originally Posted by SevenBizzos
Well, they all turned out more HP with the premium and all but the Honda had better 1/4 mile times. That's something. Basically, turbos, especially 3.5 Ecoboost, run a little more efficiently. You can choose whether the price justifies it. Locally, it's a $.30 jump to 89 and at least an additional $.35-$.40 jump to premium. So a $2.70 gallon (current pricing) regular is $3.40 premium (26% more).

I have a premium tuned car and an Ecoboost, so I do buy premium. It has it's place in certain applications, which most of us already knew.



Your spot on especially with the 3.5 turbo
It really likes premium fuel. For my n/a 6.2 I never buy 87 anymore I use 89 or 93 octane usually just blend it back and forth. I do see a gain in MPG though it's not a huge gain over 87 (1/2) mpg gain. But I don't hunt fish or play golf anymore so if I spend 10 bucks a week more on fuel and my truck runs like silk I'm cool with that !! 🤣🤣🤣
 
My 2018 Camry 4 cylinders, compression ratio of 13:1, gets better mpg after a few tanks of 93 octane compared to regular by 3 mpgs. Im currently getting an average of 40 mpg. And slight performance increase. I know its .50 cents more, but to each their own.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by painfx
My 2018 Camry 4 cylinders, compression ratio of 13:1, gets better mpg after a few tanks of 93 octane compared to regular by 3 mpgs. Im currently getting an average of 40 mpg. And slight performance increase. I know its .50 cents more, but to each their own.


I agree !!ðŸ‘ðŸ‘
 
GM recommends 87 regular in my wife's 2017 Equinox 2.4L GDI with 11.2:1 ratio. It doesn't quite seem to have the performance it should and seems pretty lame using that fuel. I think the ECM is dialing back the timing to prevent knock events. We have found the running E85 it performs much better, idles smoother, etc. And given that E85 100 octane is running $.90 to $1 less per gallon that premium, it makes a good choice for us. Even with the lower MPG it is still a bargain compared to premium on a cost per mile basis.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top