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Premium or Regular – Premium Better Than Regular
Many folks think premium unleaded gas is better than regular gas. That is a costly mistake.
Regular gas has an octane rating of 87, Super has a rating of 91, and Premium has a rating of 93. As sexy as it sounds this number rating doesn’t really mean squat for most car owners!
Octane grades measure a fuel’s resistance to pre-ignition. Pre-ignition is a condition in which gas burns uncontrollably in the engine’s combustion chambers. This uncontrollable burning could damage your engine. The higher the fuel’s octane grade the higher the resistance to pre-ignition.
Using premium fuel in most engines does not improve performance. Today’s engine designs run fine on regular gas.
OK. You may have read in your car manual to use premium or it is going to blow up or something. Not likely! Go read it again. There is a difference between recommends and required.
Many cars that recommend premium can use regular gas with no problems. All right, I confess…there may be a slight loss of power and gas mileage. Hey! Relax; this is not enough fuel or power loss to care about!
“Say it ain’t so, Joe”…it is so! Most of today’s engines can detect pre-ignition and automatically make adjustments to stop it. Too cool, huh?
For the most part, if your manual says it recommends premium you are safe to use regular.
If your manual says premium REQUIRED that is another story! Some engines need premium fuel. These are the large engine vehicles like luxury and sports cars. They run hot and are more vulnerable to pre-ignition.
After doing a little research consider using regular if you aren’t doing so already. This change will save you some bucks over the life of your vehicle.
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