Minimum octane?

I made no such assumption about the money you were willing/able to pay for fuel.

My response was in regards to the optimum performance.

Me too. But they help to keep one from looking like a smart ass, or worse. (You asked a question, then put yourself in a position to look as though you were arguing with the response; this is worse than a smart ass.)

Actually I didn't infer a dispute with the recommended fuel requirement. I, in fact, stated, in no uncertain terms, conflict and confusion between opinions about the proper fuel to put in my car and asked for opinions.

With a directive unsupported by fact or opinion.

Except for the fact given by the automaker, and my opinion that you should follow their recommendation.

Put in what they suggest.

...and you determined the standard that was being used by the manual how?

Hypocrisy is a funny thing.

How? By the knowledge that people that write such stuff do so after rigorous testing, ond or compliance to engineering requirements. Technical Writers do not pull shit out of thin air and put it on paper, they are fed data and/or engineering requirements, and put that on paper.

If the manufacturer says shit stinks, I do not put my nose in it to see if they are right. If they tell me the requirement is 91 ocatane, I accept that as factual.

It is my opinion that the standard is accurate because I have 15 years expereince writing technical stuff, and I know that technical writers do not pull stuff out of thin air and put it on paper. I also know that big-name companies do not want lies and missrepresentations put onto paper. As a general rule, they work very hard to ensure there are no errors in the information that gets put onto paper -- although we all know that errors make it to print.

Put in what they suggest ...

You're arguing with the answer again ...

Metric mishap caused loss of NASA orbiter

"NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter because a Lockheed Martin engineering team used English units of measurement while the agency's team used the more conventional metric system for a key spacecraft operation, according to a review finding released Thursday."

Care to revise your statement?

Except that as Tom explains in the thread, though his 325i states its required octane in American standards his BMW motorcycle states its required octane in European standards.

I'm sure you're a very good technical writer... but I've made no dispute of the information in the manual. The manual doesn't specify what fuel standard is being used, you can therefore make no assumption of what standard is being used.

I live near one of the Ethanol refineries in WI.

They have a factory outlet fueling station that sells * 89 Octane E10 typically 10 - 15 cents cheaper than everyone else 87 octane E10 (currently $3.00/gal) * "Premium" E25 for about 10 - 20 cents cheaper than the E10 and, * 103 Octane E85 Stays around $2.10 or $2.20 regardless of the price of gasoline

If you have a flex fuel engine that can use E85, it can be a good deal even with the loss in MPG when gas is high, as an added bonus the $$ from E85 mostly stays in USA.

I have run E25 in some of my non flex fuel vehicles, there is a small drop in MPG but less than 5%.

Ask Jeffy how old he thinks the Earth is.

Who has time for this horseshit? Is this is a contest to determine who can muster more absolute blather than the next guy?

You win!