Premium Petrol 'is A Rip-off'

[SINGH182]

saw this article in the sun newspaper today.....intresting read

Link

[sparkystav]

I've always found i do actually get more mpg with Premium though, and isn't the main point slight performance improvement?

Stav

[SINGH182]

i agree, ive been filling up with esso premium petrol for the past 3 months and i hav seen a huge improvement in MPG and performance...ill still be using it...

[RedLexus]

Here in Ireland Tesco are launching 99 RON soon , and from next month Maxol will be selling 99.2 with 5% ethanol content , at about 1.20 Euro/litre . which is what , 76 pence?

[el_gencer]

My mpg actually went down a little when i was using super unleaded. But thats probably not due to the petrol ;-)

Also the sun doesn't state what cars they used for testing. From my basic understanding of cars it really wont make too much difference on n/a cars but it does make a heck of a difference on turbo cars also i bet the cars weren't mapped for ron97 and upwards.

[Mike_B]

My mpg actually went down a little when i was using super unleaded. But thats probably not due to the petrol ;-)

Also the sun doesn't state what cars they used for testing. From my basic understanding of cars it really wont make too much difference on n/a cars but it does make a heck of a difference on turbo cars also i bet the cars weren't mapped for ron97 and upwards.

That about sums it up. If your car is designed and tuned for high-octane petrol, then buy it. If it was designed and tuned for standard petrol, then the high-octane stuff is a waste of money. Nothing that leaves the Lexus factory (certain obscure imports aside) was developed for anything more than bog-standard unleaded.

[Chris.S]

Im glad i have a car now that uses standard fuel, i had no end of trouble trying to find stations that did 98OCT or above.

It was a 10 mile round trip when i had the corolla just to fill up

[el_gencer]

There are other "advantages" such as its supposed to clean the engine. Also my engine note changed slightly and it was a bit more responsive but not by a huge margin. Lower down in the rev range it felt a bit better than running off standard fuel but that was it really. People with Evo's, Scoobys, Skylines etc probably notice the difference more than others would.

[Edd]

There are many advantages to using super unleaded, and the mpg improvement is only a minor one.

It is a much cleaner fuel, which causes less wear to the engine due to it lubricating the block better.

There is a noticable performance gain, best being shell vpower proven on numerous occasions.

Also during the tests done, no-one knows how long they ran the cars on each type of petrol, so the ecu might not have been able to adjust properly.

I have used sheel optimax and then vpower for many years now and can tell you that its well worth the money.

[Mark W]

Have to agree......I filled up mine with the Esso premium the other day as the petrol station had run out of standard....I immediately noticed the difference ....smoother, quieter and certainly more responsive at lower revs.

Will be sticking with it from now on....

[Rob's Lexx]

what's the minimum RON rating for TTE s/c?? is it 97?? i use V-Power which i believe is more than enough but have no idea what RON that is.....

[sparkystav]

V power is 99 i believe.

Stav

[Mark W]

Correct...99.....Think the Optimax (which V power replaces) was 98

[trooper00]

My Toyota is designed to run on 100 octane fuel and I always use the "good stuff" where available. Better performance and better ecconomy - at a price.

I've not tried in the Lexi yet but I doubt there would be a great improvement as the car is designed for 95 octane. I will try however when I get some figures to compare with.

[DJ Wozza]

So should the TTE S/C IS200 run on higher octane as I

was told there would be no or barely any improvement ?

[Rogue]

I run with V-max on my Is200 s/c. I had it tuned to 97 first then changed to 99 & ran for a month then got it retuned (for free). Makes a big difference on mpg & a slight increase in performance according to the tuning readings.

[aztecbandit1]

I use Sainsburys super which seems to agree with the car as it always seems to run smoother havn't realy noticed any mpg difference but at 97p a litre its not that bad a price to pay for a litle extra RON... :)

[The Editor]

Ahhhh.... Snake Oil !!

I can here the laughter in the boardrooms from here !!!!

[flotsam]

The RON is a measure of how much you can compress the fuel before it self-ignites; before the spark plugs spark! This is how diesel engines work, which have a higher compression ratio of typically 16:1 and why they're stronger engines.

Petrol engines can get the same effect. It's called "knocking" or "pinking" and will, in time, shake your engine to bits.

Anti knock sensors roll back the timing, meaning they ignite the fuel earlier (I believe). But this means you're compressing an expanding fuel.

Petrol cars with a compression ratio of up to 10:1 are OK with standard 95 RON unleaded. But my 10.5:1 engine needs 97 to run at its best.

Clouding the issue is ethanol which has a RON rating of over 100 so is used as an octane booster. Unfortunately, it doesn't expand as much when burnt so isn't as economical. It can also corrode some components of your fuel system.

[Tango]

That's some thread resurrection. Have you just logged on after six years? Hah, if only it was 97p a litre for premium :D

[Derek870]

97p a litre! my god those were the days!

[wow300]

97p a litre! my god those were the days!

Was only the later part of 2009. Prices throughout the 80s didn't really go up, they just fluttered between 36 and 40pence, in the 90s it went up about 2p a litre per year, since 2009 it's gone up about 20p a year !

[wow300]

Petrol Prices 1983-2012

Prices

Index Petrol Price

1983 36.7

1984 38.7

1985 42.8

1986 38.2

1987 37.8

1988 34.7

1989 38.4

1990 40.2

1991 39.5

1992 40.3

1993 45.9

1994 48.9

1995 50.9

1996 52.9

1997 57.9

1998 60.9

1999 61.9

2000 76.9

2001 77.9

2002 69.9

2003 77.9

2004 77.9

2005 79.9

2006 88.9

2007 87.9

2008 103.9

2009 89.9

2010 111.9

2011 129.9

2012 134.1

[mikey's IS]

That last post is depressing **** government

[dave1]

That last post is depressing **** government

Even more depressing if you think in terms of gallons.......£6+ per gallon. Weird really that we buy in litres but work on miles per gallon! If it was still priced per gallon there might be more of an outcry on increases.........2p/ltr doesn't sound as bad as 9p/gallon.