Don't waste your money on Premium gasoline
AAA, just finished a survey on gasoline the public uses. The result was 270 million drivers needlessly use premium fuel! What vehicles need to use premium? Those that have engines with turbo chargers ...
Forum Discussion
Wow, this thread is all over the board. What AAA "discovered" has been known by gear heads for decades. This is really simple.
If the owners manual says 91 octane, that's what you use. If it says 87, that's what you use. An engine/computer designed for 87 will not benefit from using 91 octane. Conversely using 87 in a car that calls for 91 octane will not be running at it's full potential. You probably won't notice this in a Jeep or a family sedan, but you will in a Z06 Corvette.
I have owned 2 "premium optional" cars. In other words the manual says they are designed to run what ever I put in it, with the recommendation that you only switch octane when the tank is low. My current HHR with 2.4 l 4 cyl eng. Previously I had a '99 Cadillac Catera with 3.0 l V6.
When running premium vs regular in the Caddy was interesting. With regular it ran a little rough at idle. With Premium is ran smooth as silk, and had noticeably more power at all RPMs. Mileage was a wash.
The differences with my HHR is I get slightly better mileage and slightly more power at higher RPMs with premium than with regular. The reality is that premium is now $.60 higher than regular so there is no monetary gain by running it.
If the owners manual says 91 octane, that's what you use. If it says 87, that's what you use. An engine/computer designed for 87 will not benefit from using 91 octane. Conversely using 87 in a car that calls for 91 octane will not be running at it's full potential. You probably won't notice this in a Jeep or a family sedan, but you will in a Z06 Corvette.
I have owned 2 "premium optional" cars. In other words the manual says they are designed to run what ever I put in it, with the recommendation that you only switch octane when the tank is low. My current HHR with 2.4 l 4 cyl eng. Previously I had a '99 Cadillac Catera with 3.0 l V6.
When running premium vs regular in the Caddy was interesting. With regular it ran a little rough at idle. With Premium is ran smooth as silk, and had noticeably more power at all RPMs. Mileage was a wash.
The differences with my HHR is I get slightly better mileage and slightly more power at higher RPMs with premium than with regular. The reality is that premium is now $.60 higher than regular so there is no monetary gain by running it.
