I have a psychological model for people buying premium gas when they don't need it, that fits in with the demand for it being quite price-elastic. Most people

I have a psychological model for people buying premium gas when they don't need it, that fits in with the demand for it being quite price-elastic. Most people don't understand cars very well, but just about everyone understands that they are complicated and they need maintenance. So there's always an anxiety that the car is going to break. I think the way we deal with limited agency in an uncertain environment is to just "do what we can". So when there's an unexpected windfall at the pump (cheap gas), the maintenance-anxiety heuristic says "apply it to maintenance" and people buy premium gas. Because that's good for the car, right? And now they've "done something", so the anxiety is reduced. Of course, it doesn't actually have any mechanical benefits, but this isn't a mechanical issue.