Just filled my wife's G35 yesterday with premium per usual and actually looked at the pump prices. Regular unleaded was 2.18 and premium was 2.78. That's .60 more a gallon! What premium on premium is everyone else seeing?

 

In my part of Washington St. our regular is 87, then +10¢ 89 and +20¢ for 91

 

You just wasted $.60/gal
Keep pissing your money away
The shareholders of oil companies love people like you that boost their profits

The price depends on many factors including how far the truck that makes the delivery is from the refinery, your state and local taxes, and even the rent and business expenses of the station you are buying from. Some stations subsidize fuel prices with sales of other items.

Telcoman

 

It depends on the station, highly recommend downloading the free GasBuddy app. It shows you the cheapest locations on the map.

My car really requires premium. Wish I was lucky like telco where he got away with using regular.

We pay $0.50 USD more per premium gallon here.

 

Pissing my money away by NOT ruining my engine? Interesting. Everything I've read about the VQ says you MUST use premium fuel. If you have prolonged experience doing otherwise without damaging your engine please share your experience. I own a bit of CVX stock so I guess that eases the blow.

 

What you've been reading is a total myth. On my previous 06 G35 6 speed manual in almost seven years and 171796 miles it was all regular 87 octane except for one month tests of using 91 and 93 octane and carefully monitoring MPG. The results of those tests proved that 87 octane gave better MPG.

I've never used a drop of premium in my current 2012 G37S and the results of long distance driving on trips to Florida from NJ are the same. Currently at almost 95k miles



I use WaWa locally



And Loves Travel Plaza'a on the road



Both my vehicles were purchased brand new at the dealer and the dealer provides a full tank of regular for their customers.

Telcoman

 

You're probably NOT going to ruin the motor because these things practically live off the knock sensor anyways. The biggest issue is the timing retard under WOT with lower octane fuel but if you aren't pushing the pedal completely to the floor you will see almost literally ZERO difference between 87-91 octane.

Basically for every cycle it detects knock it retards timing -2 degrees, for every successful cycle that doesn't knock it advances +1 degree until it hits the ceiling of +40'ish advance. The ceiling is determined by throttle position and rpm so if you're only half throttle the ceiling is much lower and you're not going to be pinging anyways probably but under WOT with max advance it's more likely and higher octane fuel just prevents the timing retard.

Yes pinging it bad but these engines pretty much all do it to a degree as designed from the factory and the ECU is fast to respond. Higher octane fuel just lowers the point that the engine will ping and thus allows maximum timing which = power.

Edit: the word NOT

 

Saw this elsewhere: "
When the fuel/air mixture is put under pressure, it behaves like any gas would... it heats up. Fuel/air will self-ignite (detonate) under enough pressure even without a spark. Higher octane translates to allowing more pressure before self-igniting.
If you are using too low octane fuel, the compression stroke of the engine will detonate the fuel/air mixture before the piston is ready for the explosion stroke. This potentially means the explosion is trying to spin the crankshaft the wrong direction just like pedaling a bicycle and then deciding to push down on the pedal before it reaches the top.
The crankshaft can handle this physically, it's the bearings that cannot. Over time the bearings will break down and start to come apart. This puts debris into the oil and creates more and more friction and heat. Eventually the crankshaft cannot spin freely enough and real damage occurs.
Use the octane the engine designers tell you to use. Don't risk it."


So far I haven't risked it but .60 more a gallon is hard to swallow. That's $12 more a tank.

 

Costco here is $0.43 difference for Top Tier 93 octane over 87 regular.

As long as you are not beating on it, you can probably get by with 87 as cleric notes and telco experiences without ruining things.

But what's the fun in that? I didn't buy this car to putt-putt around....

 

Costco by us it's .50 difference. I agree about it probably not being damaging if driven lightly but what fun is that? I wonder how Telco drives his with the 87?

 

I putted around with 87 and got 9 mpg. So there is that.

 

You didn't post where you live but that pricing doesn't sound right! Shop around, but buy only quality gasoline and not places like Costco but name gas from name brand company's!
Our gas prices are only 10 cents apart here in Ca., but we're getting screwed by our Democratic Liberal gas tax increase! Premium cost here is $3.50 per gal + or - a few cents! Stay with premium fuel like Nissan recommends regardless of what the 's here on Driver recommend!
Gary

 

It's not the bearings that fail under predetonation it's usually the connecting rods but the knock on these engines is usually VERY mild and occurs a degree before actual ignition so it's not as destructive as the typical kaboom situation that occurs at >+10 degrees early. Those knocks are LOUD and you feel it in the car, the typical VQ knock is so subtle most people never even notice it.

 

I can put put better than you.

Saving thousands of dollars using regular 87 octane


Telcoman
King of the put putters

 

It appears that as long as you don't drive the car hard, 87 will not harm the engine. Are you easy on the car in general?