My 2000 Acura TL requires premium gas. Great car but the price for premium is
what you pay for the performance it provides. One of my fellow Acura owners did
a fairly scientific study of the cost / benefit ratio of using Regular and
MidGrade vs. Premium in this car. When changes were made to Regular and
MidGrade Gasoline, the computer in the car degrades performance / mileage to
the extent that it is actually cheaper to run the car on Premium than on
Regular in spite of a $.20-$.25 per gallon difference in price. For someone who
commutes 120 mile per day I am concerned about the price of gas continuing to
escalate but it's still better than the gas crisis in the '70's. I remember
being on vacation and travelling to FL on vacation with my parents, being in a
2 block long line waiting to get 10 gallons of gas to put in the '75 Ford LTD
Wagon that on a good day got 8 mpg. Not a fun trip.
I did the math on this with my car. When I used 87 for a few tanks, my AVG MPG
dropped by 2-3 MPG. Here's what I found:
87 octane:
Average MPG: 22 MPG
Cost per gallon: $2.39
Cost per mile: $0.1086
89 octane:
Average MPG: 23 MPG
Cost per gallon: $2.49
Cost per mile: $0.1083
91 octane:
Average MPG: 25 MPG
Cost per gallon: $2.59
Cost per mile: $0.1036
So, it's actually cheaper to run the 91 on a per-mile basis if the engine wants
it. If an engine is happy running 87, there is probably no improvement in
performance going with the higher octane. The TL's engine is not such an engine
with its 11:1 compression ratio.I normally use 93 Octane Shell Gas and with the
majority of my mileage spent on the Interstate at 75+ I get 27-28 MPG.
Bugsy BTW insists on Sunoco 260 94 Octane or he will diesel on and on after
shutoff. 93 Octane or lower = Dieseling, 94 Octane, he shuts right off without
a sound.
Jim Gruber
Bugsy '68 Sprite (future Bugeye in disguise)
Cincinnati, OH
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