The owner's manual recommends 93 octane fuel, but try finding a station that offers it here in Southern Ontario: rare as hen's teeth.
So -- what's better for the engine? 92 or 94 fuel? I'm willing to pay the extra five cents a litre if it will be of real benefit to my car (i.e. better for the longevity and fuel efficiency of the engine over the long term; "better performance" is not necessarily a factor for me).
I think 92 will be fine. If it costs you .20/gallon for the next jump, definitely go with the 92. (Assuming that's R+O/2) octane.
Use 94 if you want to be on the safe side, but 92, 93 or 94 is a very limited bandwidth, so if it runs well on the 92 octane use that, no chance of engine damage here.
Nothing "unsafe" about lower octane, your engine will just ping sooner, so your engine management system won't give you as much boost, so you won't have as much performance as you would with 94 octane. Nothing to worry about, it's designed to be tolerant of lower octane fuels.
Dave Hinz
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