MD36

I purchased a 2017 Maxima last weekend, I'm still driving around with the gas added by the dealership. During the sales process, I asked about which grade of fuel I should use, and the salesman laughed and said they only use unleaded 87 on every vehicle on the lot. At that point I started thinking about those poor GT-R's and 370Z's up front. So apparently Nissan Corp. will only reimburse the dealerships for the cheap stuff?

The salesman also said if I switch to Premium, it would take several tanks of gas before the car's ECU would recognize/accept the better fuel

Who knows, I'll think I'll try out the Premium 91 per Nissan's recommendation, at least while the grade is still under $2.75 a gallon.

Per the Maxima manual:

FUEL RECOMMENDATION
NISSAN recommends the use of unleaded premium
gasoline with an octane rating of at least
91 AKI (Anti-Knock Index) number (Research
octane number 96). If unleaded premium gasoline
is not available, you may use unleaded regular
gasoline with an octane rating of at least 87 AKI
number (Research octane number 91), but you
may notice a decrease in performance.

robtroxel

Car is plenty fast running regular. I have over 16000 miles on mine and no issues at all with Regular.

lightonthehill

Interesting that this thread just got bumped. Beginning with my first Maximas (I bought two 1985 Maximas, one for my wife and one for me), I have owned nothing but Maximas. I have used the same fuel procedure for all thirty-some years - premium until the car is 18 months old, then midgrade the rest of the way. Since MPG is not tied to octane, my fuel efficiency has never changed when I changed octane. I have never had a fuel or engine problem with any of my Maximas. Two of them made it over 200,000 miles before trade-in.

Yes, regular fuel will work, especially for normal driving. But midgrade is nearer the 91 octane that gives maximum performance, and I do sometimes tend to drive briskly whenever traffic is light.

And why is it interesting that this thread got bumped today? Because I just filled up with premium fuel, but my car was built August 20, 2015, so my next fillup (and all fillups from now on), will be midgrade.