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I'm sorry, but this is just a ridiculous comment and terrible advice. I was driving a borrowed Mercedes over Christmas purchased earlier that year. When I fil

by pfranz 8y ago

I'm sorry, but this is just a ridiculous comment and terrible advice. I was driving a borrowed Mercedes over Christmas purchased earlier that year. When I filled it with gas it clearly said, "minimum octane rating 91." Sure, you can use regular gas and on any modern car it shouldn't cause damage, but it's silly to pay that much for a car and cheap out $.20-$.30 per gallon when it is designed and recommended for it. I included the cost of regular gas because even that showed the article was being disingenuous about cost even using those numbers. Per a 2017 jalopnik article[1], any short term gains by using cheaper gas are likely to be lost because of decreased performance. While any short-term problems will likely be addressed by anti-knock sensors, long term problems aren't known. If you're that price-sensitive, buy a car designed for regular octane fuel. [1] https://jalopnik.com/why-putting-regular-gas-into-a-car-that-needs-premium-w-1796463139 https://jalopnik.com/why-putting-regular-gas-into-a-car-that...

VSpike 8y ago
TIL that in the US you use a different octane rating to the UK (and Europe generally). We use RON, while you use an average of RON and MON (called PON or AKI). Our baseline fuel here is called "Premium Unleaded", despite it being the standard fuel and is 95 RON, which should equate to about 90-91 AKI meaning it lines up with your Premium gas. We also have "Super Unleaded" at the pumps, which is 98 RON and should equate to 93 AKI in the US. I guess that means we have no equivalent of your regular gas. FWIW I've never managed to detect any benefit of using the 98 octane fuel, either in performance or fuel consumption. I've never owned a really high performance car, beyond a tweaked Saab 9000 Turbo running a higher boost, and that seemed to be happier on the Premium. I always assume that the 98 octane stuff is just a way of extracting extra money from gullible people, but I have no more proof of that than the anecdata from all the people who buy it and swear by it (probably because of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choice-supportive_bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choice-supportive_bias )

by pfranz 8y ago

VSpike 8y ago

TIL that in the US you use a different octane rating to the UK (and Europe generally). We use RON, while you use an average of RON and MON (called PON or AKI). Our baseline fuel here is called "Premium Unleaded", despite it being the standard fuel and is 95 RON, which should equate to about 90-91 AKI meaning it lines up with your Premium gas. We also have "Super Unleaded" at the pumps, which is 98 RON and should equate to 93 AKI in the US. I guess that means we have no equivalent of your regular gas. FWIW I've never managed to detect any benefit of using the 98 octane fuel, either in performance or fuel consumption. I've never owned a really high performance car, beyond a tweaked Saab 9000 Turbo running a higher boost, and that seemed to be happier on the Premium. I always assume that the 98 octane stuff is just a way of extracting extra money from gullible people, but I have no more proof of that than the anecdata from all the people who buy it and swear by it (probably because of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choice-supportive_bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choice-supportive_bias )