Gas-Saving Moment of the Day: What Fuel Should You Use?

This is important: Does your car "require" premium fuel, or is it just "recommended"? There’s a big difference, and it behooves you to find out. If your vehicle only recommends that you use the more expensive premium fuel, you should stick with regular. Over the life of your car, using regular gas will not damage the engine. It may run less efficiently, but you'll still save money by going with the cheaper stuff.

Check out your owner's manual if you're not sure, and look for tell-tale signs like "for best performance." Forget about "for best performance." In the age of $4 gas, your vehicle's best performance is an easy sacrifice. However, if your car has a turbocharger or supercharger, or if the manual says "only" premium fuel, we're afraid you’re stuck paying the difference.

Related:
Tips for Saving Fuel (Cars.com)
More Gas-Saving Moments of the Day (KickingTires)

Comments

Oh boy, not again.
Come on guys, are there no more real automotive subjects to write about other than the price of gas? Let it go already.

And yeah, I use premium fuel only (required on one car, recommended on the other) and will not downgrade because I don't want to forget about "best performance". If your car is just an appliance to you, by all means, downgrade if possible (or better yet let's all switch to a Kia Rio or something like that). To me, it's a bit more than that.

See European fuels
98RON 93AKI for really high performance machines
95RON 90AKI for normal high performance engine
91RON 86AKI for low demand engines.

Most vehicles are in the middle.

Now see what is available in the US 87,89,91
Wow our bottom is higher, but are middle & top are lower.
There is a reason that European/Japanese offering have to be watered down. The lack of availability of 93 & 90AKI fuels.

Today it is a whopping 4.9% premium for premium over regular. (and 2.4% for mid-grade over regular)

What kind of tip is this anyways? Premium is 20 cents more a gallon and you know what is was 20 years ago? That's right 20 cents more a gallon. If it cost you $60 to fill a 15 gallon tank with regular it will be a wopping $63 for premium. 20 years ago it would have cost around $15 for regular and $18 for premium which is more of a jump. Also if your car can take advantage of premium you will get better mileage. 20 years ago it wasn't enough to make up the diffrence in the price but now it is pretty close.

Its not necessarily the case that your car will get better mileage with premium. With my Saab 9-3 turbo, I can average over 30MPG (70 mile highway commute) regardless of the fuel type, 87 or 93, used. And since I baby it, I don't need to worry about pinging.