Premium vs. Regular Gas.

Is the US octane rating different to that in the UK? As far as I'm aware the lowest octane on general sale here is 95

success snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com quipped:

Gas, IMHO, isn't "maintenance". It's fuel. As for premium vs regular, do a google search on that. The threads are frequent and "spirited".

I specifically asked about luxury cars. Cars like Toyota and Honda run on regular gas just fine.

google this subject, there haec been numerous threads about it

yes

Read the owner's manuals. Many of them will say premium is recommended, but that no engine damage will occur if you run as low as 87 octane.

At that point, you should run a few tanks of regular and then a few tanks of premium, check out the gas mileage, and figure out how much per mile your fuel costs are on each type of gas. Then run the fuel that gives you the cheaper per-mile cost.

That being said, consider: when gas was 59 cents a gallon, extra was 69 cents and premium was 79 cents. That 20 cent/gallon premium was a TON of money, percentage-wise.

Fast forward to today. Gas is $2.99/gallon. Extra is $3.09, and premium is $3.19. They've kept the 20 cent spread, which means percentage-wise the extra for 93 octane fuel is much less than it was 20 years ago.

It all comes down to your fuel cost per mile. And that's easy to calculate if you give yourself a few tanks of each.

I live in so. cal area commuting 80-100 miles per day. Bought my 2002 GS300 in Dec. 2005 with 73k. Car is now coming up to 90K service. I have been running 89 octane since the recent run up in gas price. Car averages 17mpg with traffic and 21 on a recent Vegas trip. This is right in the wheelhouse of maufactures specs. I think I may get a mile or two at the 90k service. They will replace the timing belt water pump and spark plugs at this service.

That did'nt answer the Q

The answer is "yes - but". "Yes" because all new cars calling for premium have knock sensors which retard the timing so that no damage will be done by

87 (R+M/2) octane fuel. "But" because the resulting lower fuel economy will most likely more than eradicate any per gallon savings - so using 91 octane may actually be less expensive.

Now see Elmo's post for particulars.

Tom K.

Usually, but not always the case. I recently spotted a couple of stations in central PA selling 87 octane at $2.85 and 93 at $3.45. It would be nice if the manufacturers would provide figures showing the percentage differences in mpg and hp at 87 and 91 (or 93) octane so that we could actually crunch the numbers.

Tom K.

I've got a 2001 GS300. On the open road on premium (usually Shell) I can get ~27 MPG and on rare occasion, 28 MPG. I live in Texas, so not many hills.

While technically not a car, my 2005 Lexus RX330 runs fine on the recommended regular unleaded gas.

It was one of the reasons I decided on this versus a BMW X3

"dulles" quipped:

..as compared to what? What you posted is pointless unless you can compare that with your mpg with 87 octane.

If you are having that much trouble about the gas you probably can't really afford the Lexus. Get yourself a Honda. A Lexus is for people that can afford a luxary car.

Who said he's having problems? He just doesn't want to waste money.

In fact, if you want to maximize your car dollar, do buy a Lexus--a used one. Let someone else eat the depreciation that's inherently bad in luxury lines, and you end up with a much better built car for the price of the Accord. And it will depreciate slowly, keeping the value up over time much better than if one bought a new Accord.

And then, as I said, you figure out which gas (a) matches the

*requirements* laid out in the owner's manual, and (b) gives you the lowest per mile cost.

Frankly, more people can and should afford a Lexus than they realize. It's the best way to spend your automotive dollar.

If I couldn't afford a new Lexus, I would buy a new Camry or Accord. Even cars with great reliability ratings start to have repair problems after a few years. New cars have far fewer problems and are covered under warranty.

Also, I just like having a new car. Not someone else's used car. You never know where it's been, who used it, or how.

Further, new cars have features old car don't, like navigation, etc.

"Repair problems"? Or just need repairs?

Run the numbers. Repairs are no big deal. If you pay significantly less for the car, you can easily afford the repairs. And you end up spending less on the car plus repairs than on a new car.

I have a 94 Lexus. I pay about $750/year in repairs, in addition to oil changes and whatever maintenance it needs. Call it $70/month, even, on average. So what? How does that compare to a car payment?

Buy a 4 year old Lexus where the huge depreciation has been eaten up, pay what you'd pay for an Accord, pay your $50 to $70 monthly maintenance costs, and have a car that's far better than any new Accord--better built, better features.

Well, that pretty much sums up your life. You like paying that depreciation.

I am in the process of buying an 03 Acura TL Type S with navigation for around $17,500. 40,000 miles. It has huge power, great features that you can't even get on an Accord today, and it costs less than a bottom end Accord today--including whatever maintenance a 40K Acura might need now and down the road. And realistically, I'll have it at least as long as any 06 Accord would last.

As an example of features: Honda still, to this day, insists that memory seats are reserved for the Acura line, and are not to be installed on the pedestrian Honda line. Screwy, but there you go. I can pay $28K for an Accord and not get memory seats; on the other hand, I can pay $17.5K for the TL and get memory seats.

Thank you for insisting on buying new and paying that depreciation. That's what keeps folks like me from spending stupid amounts of money for an item you spend less than an hour a day with, on average.

problems

Same thing, as far as I'm concerned.

How much are you including as the value of your time to attend to the repairs? Probably nothing. Is that the value you place on your time? And while you're doing the math, throw in something for aggrivation.

That's $70 a month more than my car payment.

No, I like driving a new car. I value that more than the cost premium.

Everything has a market value. If everyone had the same value judgements, the marketplace would be pretty uniform and boring.

If that's what makes you happy, go for it.

So are you saying that anyone who buys a new Lexus is "stupid?"

No, because my experience on both Honda and Lexus says the *unexpected* and *disabling* repairs are so infrequent as to be non-existent.

I drop the car up the street at the local garage on Saturday morning, go about my life, and by 4pm the repairs/maintenance are taken care of.

How do you handle the oil changes and maintenance of the new cars you buy? Or don't you bother with that?

Ummmm...since I don't have a car payment, let's look at total out of pocket expenses per month.

Your car payment is what? Whatever it is, it's that much more than my car payment. And you have maintenance responsibilities, too.

Pretty much. They're being stupid about their money.

But as you said, that's what makes the world go 'round.