Math: Why you SHOULD use cheap gas!
03-29-2006 | 08:54 AM
#82
Might as well use that $1.50 and have a longer time frame in between fill ups. I started coming to the conclusion, in the past couple of weeks, that the ones using the Cheap gas are the ones getting jipped, not getting their moneys worth. Theyll come back to the pump faster than I do and the savings is nill. Might as well use the good stuff. I usually get the mid grade but have switched to getting the Premium 91,92,93 whatever it may be and in a months time frame it has helped on my gas budget because Im going to the pump less.
03-29-2006 | 09:16 AM
#83
Originally Posted by max88q
Might as well use that $1.50 and have a longer time frame in between fill ups. I started coming to the conclusion, in the past couple of weeks, that the ones using the Cheap gas are the ones getting jipped, not getting their moneys worth. Theyll come back to the pump faster than I do and the savings is nill. Might as well use the good stuff. I usually get the mid grade but have switched to getting the Premium 91,92,93 whatever it may be and in a months time frame it has helped on my gas budget because Im going to the pump less.
03-29-2006 | 09:43 AM
#84
I put 87 in my car once accidently and it pinged bad, that was all the convincing I needed. Hell the wife hates that I spend 10-20 cents more a gallon than she does in her car but she won't deny the difference either.
03-29-2006 | 09:47 AM
#85
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 540
From: MA
Originally Posted by Tatanko
...and I still don't care because I'd rather treat my car well and get the most out of it.
and using 93 over 87 DOES make a differene. i did a 3 little tests myself. i filled my tank with 87, then 89, then 93 to see how the car ran with the different grade gasses. with the 87, it seems as if the car runs a little rough, and the gas mileage was around 20 to 21 mpg. 89 was about the same as the 87. with the 93, my car runs excellent. not rough at all. gas mileage went from 21mpg to 25mpg. and who cares about a difference in $.20/gallon? wait till june or july, gas prices are gonna be at $3/gal. then what are you gonna do?
..............................
03-29-2006 | 12:07 PM
#88
Give me a break, the guy said he is gonna test it out, if HIS PERSONAL real world testing prooves his theory is right I'm sure he'll continue running the lower octane. If he does so be it, isn't your car.
03-29-2006 | 12:31 PM
#89
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 17
I agree, the originally stated calculation does not take into consideration the increased gas mileage from running the premium fuel. Plus, the higher octane fuel causes the firing to be more consistent with more potential efficiency and performance from the effects of a KS to retard the timing should it be needed. By running cheaper, less stable fuel, that causes ones engine to not run as smoothly, you are undermining your KS's ability to perform anyway.
If you want to justify crappy performance for putting in crappy gas, go ahead. I say get the most out of your car, and do it right by putting in the suggested fuel. It's only 10 cents a gallon and as it was stated, that gets cheaper as the price of gas goes up.
B
If you want to justify crappy performance for putting in crappy gas, go ahead. I say get the most out of your car, and do it right by putting in the suggested fuel. It's only 10 cents a gallon and as it was stated, that gets cheaper as the price of gas goes up.
B
03-29-2006 | 12:38 PM
#90
Senior Member
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 509
Originally Posted by isawyou
WOW! What a huge response! This has so much more (mostly negative) responses than I could have imagined in only a couple of hours from such a topic. First off, I was wrong in "Assuption 3." Cheap(er) gas will not negatively affect knock sensors. Okay. I get it. We all know (yes, I'm talking to all y'all with thousands of posts) that this comes up frequently on here. Perhaps it's readily dismissed as urban legend, followed with the all-too-often used quip "read the stickies." I have read the stickies. We all have probably read the stickies (at least those of us who devote way too much precious time of our lives to a four door family sedan web forum where everyone is expected to be an expert and simple questions are the subject of mockery, despite that being counter to the entire point of such forum [and by "us" I mean "you"]). So, to quote the conclusion to the source article in the stickies on the topic of cheap vs. premium fuel:
"Our tests confirm that for most cars there is no compelling reason to buy more expensive fuel than the factory recommends, as any performance gain realized will surely be far less than the percentage hike in price. Cheapskates burning regular in cars designed to run on premium fuel can expect to trim performance by about the same percent they save at the pump. If the car is sufficiently new and sophisticated, it may not suffer any ill effects, but all such skinflints should be ready to switch back to premium at the first sign of knock or other drivability woes. And finally, if a car calibrated for regular fuel begins to knock on anything less than premium or midgrade, owners should invest in a tuneup, emissions-control-system repair, or detergent additives to solve, rather than bandage, the root problem. Class dismissed."
http://www.caranddriver.com/features...r-premium.html
How can you compare a percentage of price to a percentage of horsepower? If a person could buy fuel at double the cost and get a 400 hp Maxima would that be an even trade off? Surely many of you would jump at the opportunity to do this, but you'll still be stuck behind the same beige Impala at the next traffic light no matter how fast you accelerate. To me, x percent decrease in power (off an already powerful car) is negligible compared to x percent increase in price. Would I drive a 100 horsepower car on gas that cost half as much? Damn right I would (here's where someone tells me to get a Prius, which I would gladly do if it could get 50 miles per gallon and have a purchase price, reliability, and handling characteristics the same as my Maxima SE 5 sp - with leather, Bose, moonroof, and cold weather package, thank you very much). If I had the money to care about a red light horsepower war on my way to work, my car wouldn't be an eleven year old, four door, five passenger, front wheel drive sedan. This cheapskate will take the eight hundred dollars in savings, thank you very much. As for frankd121's comment: "Bad assumption. Lower octane gas will result in decreased fuel economy," I average above 25 in overall driving (most of which is "spirited city driving" and I only use the cheap stuff unless midgrade is under $2.00/gal.). But, always open to new ideas, I will run higher octane fuel in my next few tanks. I keep track of all my fillups. If the miles to dollar ratio changes noticeably (for better or worse), I'll be on here to report on it. If the expensive gas gets me more miles to the dollar, I will gladly admit my mistake. If I get fewer miles per dollar, well, I'll very gladly tell you about that.
Bottom line, the almighty sticky says use whatever we want unless it results in a drivability issue. For those of us who aren't racing, apparently that isn't a problem.
I think I'm gonna use the savings to buy Altezzas and a Type R badge. That'll make my car faster.
"Our tests confirm that for most cars there is no compelling reason to buy more expensive fuel than the factory recommends, as any performance gain realized will surely be far less than the percentage hike in price. Cheapskates burning regular in cars designed to run on premium fuel can expect to trim performance by about the same percent they save at the pump. If the car is sufficiently new and sophisticated, it may not suffer any ill effects, but all such skinflints should be ready to switch back to premium at the first sign of knock or other drivability woes. And finally, if a car calibrated for regular fuel begins to knock on anything less than premium or midgrade, owners should invest in a tuneup, emissions-control-system repair, or detergent additives to solve, rather than bandage, the root problem. Class dismissed."
http://www.caranddriver.com/features...r-premium.html
How can you compare a percentage of price to a percentage of horsepower? If a person could buy fuel at double the cost and get a 400 hp Maxima would that be an even trade off? Surely many of you would jump at the opportunity to do this, but you'll still be stuck behind the same beige Impala at the next traffic light no matter how fast you accelerate. To me, x percent decrease in power (off an already powerful car) is negligible compared to x percent increase in price. Would I drive a 100 horsepower car on gas that cost half as much? Damn right I would (here's where someone tells me to get a Prius, which I would gladly do if it could get 50 miles per gallon and have a purchase price, reliability, and handling characteristics the same as my Maxima SE 5 sp - with leather, Bose, moonroof, and cold weather package, thank you very much). If I had the money to care about a red light horsepower war on my way to work, my car wouldn't be an eleven year old, four door, five passenger, front wheel drive sedan. This cheapskate will take the eight hundred dollars in savings, thank you very much. As for frankd121's comment: "Bad assumption. Lower octane gas will result in decreased fuel economy," I average above 25 in overall driving (most of which is "spirited city driving" and I only use the cheap stuff unless midgrade is under $2.00/gal.). But, always open to new ideas, I will run higher octane fuel in my next few tanks. I keep track of all my fillups. If the miles to dollar ratio changes noticeably (for better or worse), I'll be on here to report on it. If the expensive gas gets me more miles to the dollar, I will gladly admit my mistake. If I get fewer miles per dollar, well, I'll very gladly tell you about that.
Bottom line, the almighty sticky says use whatever we want unless it results in a drivability issue. For those of us who aren't racing, apparently that isn't a problem.
I think I'm gonna use the savings to buy Altezzas and a Type R badge. That'll make my car faster.
you sound really cocky, and you sound like you think you just showed us up, or figured something out that nobody knows about. we know that using the wrong gas is going to hurt mileage and performace, good for you
03-29-2006 | 07:52 PM
#92
Originally Posted by DR-Max
Can't argue with a moron! 
Do some research for yourself. If the only defense you got is what you've just said about soliciting my friends to find out if anyone of them has lost an engine, then I might as well save my $300 and get gaytezzas. 
BTW, all my Maxima friends use high octane on their cars. I guess nothing anyone will say would matter to you anymore. I don't know why you even bothered to create this thread in the first place.
Do some research for yourself. If the only defense you got is what you've just said about soliciting my friends to find out if anyone of them has lost an engine, then I might as well save my $300 and get gaytezzas. BTW, all my Maxima friends use high octane on their cars. I guess nothing anyone will say would matter to you anymore. I don't know why you even bothered to create this thread in the first place.Who gives a crap what anyone else or this guy uses? Not me.
If the guy thinks he's discovered some hidden gem in using 87 octane when the manual and gas tank door says "for best performance use premium fuel" then what do I care?
I'd rather he not postulate his theory as well thought out research, but it certainly won't change my mind about using 93. If Nissan say's to use premium for best performance that's good enough for me.
03-29-2006 | 08:43 PM
#95
Originally Posted by Kevlo911
Damn yall are lucky I am not a Mod. This forum would be on lock down with threads like these.
03-29-2006 | 10:06 PM
#96
Originally Posted by Puppetmaster
You would definitely be pretty damn busy with it too.....
03-31-2006 | 01:56 PM
#99
I tried using one tankful of Regular, and I will NEVER, EVER do that again.
The car felt like I was running on 5 cylinders every time I punched it to pass someone. I cannot express how strongly I feel about the safety factor that having quick acceleration provides. I can point to several incidents where the difference between an accident and no accident was being able to pull out of the way in time.
I have to also agree with the statement that gas mileage will be lower UNLESS you really drive like a granny and never run the tach past 4Gs.
If the cost of gas is the big issue, then I would continue to use Premium, and do all of the things that people recommend to increase one's mileage.
Again, there's no price that you can put on having a car capable of running at its peak performance if you need it.
The car felt like I was running on 5 cylinders every time I punched it to pass someone. I cannot express how strongly I feel about the safety factor that having quick acceleration provides. I can point to several incidents where the difference between an accident and no accident was being able to pull out of the way in time.
I have to also agree with the statement that gas mileage will be lower UNLESS you really drive like a granny and never run the tach past 4Gs.
If the cost of gas is the big issue, then I would continue to use Premium, and do all of the things that people recommend to increase one's mileage.
Again, there's no price that you can put on having a car capable of running at its peak performance if you need it.
03-31-2006 | 03:53 PM
#100
Junior Member
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 77
OK, I've read ALL the replies so far
I think the orginal poster has a lot of the ideas correct. The way I've learned it, after 35 years of driving performance and transportation cars, all grades of gasoline have the same amount of energy per volume. The only thing higher octane does is supress detonation, which keeps the knock sensor from retarding the timing. It's the retarded timing that decreases the mileage, not different amounts of energy in different grades of gasoline. So, despite the fact that the VQ has relatively high compression, the higher octane recommended by the factory is not needed unless the car is driven hard. If it's driven just as everyday transportation and you seldom if ever push it hard, premium fuel should not increase your mileage. Conversely, if you push it hard regularly, premium fuel should give you better mileage than a lower grade because the KS doesn't have to tell the ECU to retard the timing as often. If there's an occasional time when you need to accelerate with the pedal to the floor (like maybe when you need to avoid an accident), the ECU will retard the timing to avoid detonation if it starts to occur. Sure, maximum power will be less if you're using regular, but not by much.
04-02-2006 | 10:50 PM
#101
You all need to read this and if time permits do the exercise included. I'm going to do this as well and post results, although I already know that high octane will yield the best results. Post your results here. Then we'll see if using high octane for our cars is necessary or not hopefully settling this topic for good.
http://dnr.louisiana.gov/sec/execdiv.../trans/b/b.htm
http://dnr.louisiana.gov/sec/execdiv.../trans/b/b.htm
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