Premium Or Regular: Is It Worth The Extra Cost At the Pump?

Pull up to the pumps at a gas station  and you’re usually faced with three options: regular, mid-grade and premium. The grades are often rationalized as "All right," "Why not do something special for my car?," and "Wow." Yet there is more to the choice than just good-better-best.

The staggered prices reflect the measure of octane in the fuel. Octane is a molecule of composed of hydrogen and carbon, a hydrocarbon. Octane raises a fuel's resistance to autoignition, so the more octane in a fuel, the more pressure the fuel can take before it spontaneously combusts. If the fuel doesn't autoignite, or explode before its meant to, then the spark plug can do its job, you get the full performance of the engine and everyone's happy. If the fuel does autoignite, bad things can happen to your engine -- but we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves here.




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KZ258 - 8/20/2010 11:36:48 AM

+1 Boost

uh, those gas prices are so out-dated oo9

Agent009 - 8/20/2010 12:33:07 PM

+2 Boost

Not for Maui

KZ258 - 8/20/2010 4:28:44 PM

+1 Boost

maui huh? what a way to be irrelevant

1uberaudiR8 - 8/20/2010 9:39:21 PM

+1 Boost

They are!!!

Larrybel2000 - 8/20/2010 11:47:27 AM

+1 Boost

I always run mid grade. My 2.4 turbo seems to like it and my v6 minivan enjoys it as well.

Larry B.
Key West.

Agent009 - 8/20/2010 12:31:45 PM

+2 Boost

Mid grade works for us in most cases.

lewishamiltonpimp - 8/20/2010 10:09:16 PM

+2 Boost

Larry, you are wasting your money. If he car is designed to run on regular, you gain absulutely nothing running it on mid grade.

Nothing.

Larrybel2000 - 8/21/2010 9:17:31 AM

+1 Boost

lewis. That may be true with the minivan but with the PT Cruiser it actually makes a difference.

Larry B.
Key West.

uaw_lax - 8/21/2010 10:25:36 AM

+1 Boost

Mid grade for my minivan and the STS requires premium 92 or better and it loves 94 when I can find it.

Shredmo - 8/20/2010 2:25:10 PM

+3 Boost

Both of my cars currently have tunes which require a minimum of 91 octane. The G8 could run on 87 if using the factory tune. GM claims a loss of 6 crank hp by doing this, FWIW.

pennfootball - 8/20/2010 3:09:50 PM

+1 Boost

It's best to use the damn fuel the engineers recomend for the vehical from the factory...Hello McFly anyone home!

1uberaudiR8 - 8/20/2010 9:42:45 PM

+1 Boost

93 Octane is the only fuel for a premium luxury car. Which means Lexus can use regular.

Listen to pennfootball- he's right!!!

Lexus - 8/21/2010 7:16:04 PM

+2 Boost

Than I guess my co-worker client has to use regular gas for his Audi R8 than because after all it just a VW?

I was just being sarcastic, what a dweeb. I agree, you have to use whatever your car manual said, 87, 89 or 91.

leftcoast - 8/22/2010 12:26:45 AM

+1 Boost

This one is easy, case closed. You pump cheaper grade, you get less mileage, higher grade, higher mileage, give or take, there is no mystery here. Higher octane good for engine, that is why SPT sells Octane Boost for driver pumps lower grade gas for better throttle and engine performance. Most European cars require 91 or above, so you get the picture.