When you're filling up your car, what kind of gas do you use: unleaded or premium?

Premium. Always. Premium stays in your car longer.

Chris wrote:

When you're filling up your car, what kind of gas do you use: unleaded or premium?

Technically Chris, premium is unleaded too. I use what the manufacturer recommends, 87 octane, i.e. "Regular". NY, I'm sure you have all sorts of empirical data to support using higher octane fuel in cars engineered for lower but I think it's actually a waste of money because it's unnecessary. The only difference I notice in my gas mileage is when they switch to the winter formula. Then my milwage goes down but not because of the octane rating.

unleaded... it's the cheapest.

cheaps wrote:

unleaded... it's the cheapest.

It's ALL unleaded!

Alan Smithee wrote:

cheaps wrote:

unleaded... it's the cheapest.

It's ALL unleaded!

O. I get the cheapest one then

Regular

cheaps wrote:

Alan Smithee wrote:

It's ALL unleaded!

O. I get the cheapest one then

I buy premium because I'm dumb when it comes to the mechanics of cars and because my var is a V-6, I'm afraid putting anything less my mess things up.

true. my mustang V6 says "Regular only" in the owner's manual. My V8 says "Premium only"

The only time i ever had any problem with the car caused by gas was when they turned to ethynol. My 96 V8 did not like the gas with ethynol and the engine light would go on and off until i used that tank and filled it with non-ethynol gas. Now, the law states that all gas contain 10% ethynol, so i guess im lucky i no longer have that car

Nystyle709 wrote:

Alan Smithee wrote:

Technically Chris, premium is unleaded too. I use what the manufacturer recommends, 87 octane, i.e. "Regular". NY, I'm sure you have all sorts of empirical data to support using higher octane fuel in cars engineered for lower but I think it's actually a waste of money because it's unnecessary. The only difference I notice in my gas mileage is when they switch to the winter formula. Then my mileage goes down but not because of the octane rating.

I used to think the same thing. It's not unnecessary because it depends on the make and model of your car. For instance, I had a friend who bought a BMW. BMW M3 to be exact. BMW recommends that you burn premium fuel to utilize the maximum performance of the car. When gas prices started going up, he thought he could put regular in there to save money. Kept putting it in, his engine started knocking. Then the tranny started to act up, wasn't shifting as smooth as it used to. I've had older cars and I've gotten five to seven miles better gas mileage to the gallon by burning premium fuel. My current car requires it and I won't put in anything less. If your car doesn't require it, then you don't have to use it.

I didn't say all cars run fine on "regular". I said use what the manufacturer recommends. If your owner's manual tells you to use a higher octane, you should do it by all means. I have used premium gas in an older car thinking it would perform better. It didn't.

Regular/unleaded.

Regular. With gas prices the way they are, there's no way I'm paying more than I have to.