Does the fuel type your car uses matter ? - Vol.456
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Have you ever thought when filling up your car, hey, should i pay for premium or just get the regular?Well this article would help you to clarify that question and learn more about car efficiency and fuel economy
Well, Did you know that most drivers choose to don't get the premium and buy the regular regular unleaded gasoline instead. But does it actually matter? . Is there a real difference between the different octanes?
Most gas stations would offer two or three different octane levels:
so , what does this octane rating refer to?
Octane rating refers to the fuel's ability to resist engine knocking or backfire. In other words,the higher the octane, the greater the resistance of the fuel to be ignited before the combustion process happen.Saving that precious new or used car from get damaged by run combustion timing.
Now let see the basic basic benefits or use of each fuel type:
Regular Unleaded Petrol
As mentioned before, it is most widely used and its single and more important benefit is savings. Regular petrol typically costs around 60 cents less per litre than premium.So, over the year period depending on how often you fill up and how your driving style is.You would see significant savings.
So should you use it or skip it?
Most of the cars are tuned to use this type of fuel and even modern sport cars in case of emergency would allow you to use this fuel and they would detune themselves to save the engine.However, you would experience loss of power and poor performance in those cases.
But what about using premium petrol on regular cars. Experts say there are no advantages to using premium petrol in cars that don't require it. As a higher octane it will not lead to better gas mileage or to make your car running cleaner or faster in this case. So we recommend just saving the money and using regular if that is what the manufacturer recommends.
Today in most newer cars computers check monitoring for knock activity and they would adjust ignition advance to avoid knocking.So,basically,cars can effectively tune their engines on the fly.
What about Mid-Grade
This type of fuel sits somewhere between regular and premium. There are very few cars that require or recommend this type of petrol and they are mainly european vehicles and its regarding emission standard.However, some sport cars owners would sometimes alternated between this and premium trying to save money as this type still have higher octane than the regular petrol but is cheaper than the regular petrol and their car efficiency would not be compromise as much.
Finally Premium petrol - Is It Worth the Cost?
Premium petrol usually represents octanes that go between 91 and 93. The automotive industry usually recommended high-compression or turbocharged engines,which are in effect sport vehicles trying to prevent the engine from backfiring during internal combustion.
Higher-compression engines require the higher octane so that the fuel doesn't pre-ignite in the combustion process and damage the motor. Higher octane allows these cars to slow and controls the detonation of the fuel during the combustion process better.Giving them more power and more efficient vehicle fuel economy.
So what does all this mean to you ?
Well, if you are not using a sports car or you got a special tuning vehicle and your manufacturer is recommending it use regular fuel. We recommend follow their instructions.As your fuel consumption would not decrease or your new used car would have a better performance from using high octane petrol.
In case you just got a old sport car a second hand car, we recommend ask the dealer if he can give you an advise on the car of petrol this vehicle use as Japanese car special are tune for efficiency and you might be able to use mid- range petrol or you would need premium to ensure the engine would last year to come.
Also note that in some cases some sports cars would let you use cheaper petrol for emergencies, however, don't do it often as the miles per litre would decrease dramatically and the performance could be compromised.
So we recommend that at this stage follow your manual recommendations and save when it is possible, especially now that petrol is expensive and don't spend on premium if you don't have too. If you do follow the manual as that nice second hand car should last year to come if you take good care of.
And if you are still looking for bigger savings we would recommend checking our variety of hybrid cars or electric cars on the link down below.