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MyiBill

macrumors 6502
Feb 8, 2012
395
57
Ahh I see... well those cars, I think, have high performance engines. As for me, my car recommends 91, but states that 87 will not harm anything. I've put 93 (they don't have 91 here) and got poorer gas mileage than I did with 87. I suppose I ought to try 89 sometime.

I have an Audi, it has a warning on the gas cap to use minimum of 91. The manual even says which gas stations I should use "for best performance."
 

adam044

macrumors 65816
Jan 24, 2012
1,095
10
Boston
Ah yes the great gas debate. The extra couple of cents spent on the higher octane should be made up in increased MPGs. That's all I'm saying about this topic. Go Google.
 

Apple fanboy

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Feb 21, 2012
56,996
56,024
Behind the Lens, UK
Prices have dropped so much here in New York, usually I pay $45-50 to fill my tank almost twice a week, moved to a new area and only had to pay $31! Yes $31 US dollars on 87 octane, lucky I didn't get a car with a turbo and I would have had to put premium in, usually 30-40 increase over regular

$45 to fill your tank! So unfair. Our government has really got to think about fuel taxation. I only drive a 1.6L Petrol Ford Focus. I think I'll get the floor taken out and drive like Fred Flintstone!
 

costabunny

macrumors 68020
May 15, 2008
2,466
71
Weymouth, UK
$45 to fill your tank! So unfair. Our government has really got to think about fuel taxation. I only drive a 1.6L Petrol Ford Focus. I think I'll get the floor taken out and drive like Fred Flintstone!

Last time I filled up (few weeks ago and prices had come down a fair bit by then) it was almost £90! - thats $143 for you guys n gals across the pond.

Really must get a cheeper to run car at average of 22mpg the coupe sucks!

Sorry to derail slightly, but I did buy milk yesterday if that gets us back on topic :)
 

erayser

macrumors 65816
Apr 9, 2011
1,267
1,232
San Diego
Preordered the PS4 and accessories way back when they started taking preorders for our boys. Picked up some of the preordered accessories today. Even if I mainly game on my gaming pc, I've always been a fan of Sony PS exclusives. Looking forward to playing Infamous Second Son when it comes out. Kids our excited for Friday to come... they selected Knack for their first game. :)

ps4_stuff.jpg
 

/"\/oo\/"\

macrumors regular
Jan 7, 2007
138
0
Ah yes the great gas debate. The extra couple of cents spent on the higher octane should be made up in increased MPGs. That's all I'm saying about this topic. Go Google.

Just...no.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/autos/2003-07-30-premiumgas_x.htm

Not a perfect article, but it gets the important points across well. It touches on the concept of premium gas having higher energy density than regular- just to ballpark it, regular gas at $3 and premium at $3.20 in a car that gets 30mpg on regular would need near enough a 2mpg jump in efficiency just to break even on the added cost. The benefit in real world usage isn't there.
 

DaKKs

macrumors 6502
Aug 15, 2012
474
43
Stockholm, Sweden
Indeed. While they do run more efficiently, you wont gain anything by it economically speaking. There are some small city cars that gain from premium fuel (Euro 98), but those are few and the gains are marginal bordering on statistically insignificant.

And for the record, consider yourselves lucky, it costs me 124USD to fill up my tank. 62 liters = 16.37 US gallons. And that's standard fuel, premium lands on 131USD.

EDIT: And gas prices went down a lot in the last few weeks, its 13.98 SEK right now per liter, normally its closer to 15SEK. Hereabouts it usually around 14.70. But in the city its just short of 15 SEK.
 
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Mr. McMac

Suspended
Dec 21, 2009
2,968
364
Far away from liberals
It looks like I am one of the few that is still clinging to my old license plate. I just renewed my registration a couple of weeks ago, and was able to keep it for another 2 years. I hope I can skip that plate until the next version comes out.

Just got a new car and transferred my old New York State plates . I hate the new ones as well
 

Delorean2006

macrumors 65816
Feb 4, 2012
1,026
669
It looks like I am one of the few that is still clinging to my old license plate. I just renewed my registration a couple of weeks ago, and was able to keep it for another 2 years. I hope I can skip that plate until the next version comes out.

I wish i could have had the old plates, i hate the new ones and hate seeing them on my car every single time i see them, but it was a brand new car and i had no plates to transfer over because it is my first car and i bought it myself, hopefully the new ones are a lot nicer and if they are, I'm definitely going to get them for sure...
 

TheAppleFairy

Suspended
Mar 28, 2013
2,588
2,223
The Clinton Archipelago unfortunately
I wish i could have had the old plates, i hate the new ones and hate seeing them on my car every single time i see them, but it was a brand new car and i had no plates to transfer over because it is my first car and i bought it myself, hopefully the new ones are a lot nicer and if they are, I'm definitely going to get them for sure...


Don't forget the guy who pushed for these plates was legally blind. I am not surprised they are that bad. :D


(I am sure he didn't design them, but I bet he approved of it without seeing them)
 

-SD-

macrumors 6502
Mar 23, 2009
343
1
Peterborough, UK
A Philips 8620/02 Perfect Care steam generator iron.

cgmy.jpg


I had a £20-off coupon for the electrical department in Tesco, so I finally dug out all my Club Card vouchers, doubled-up the value of £75 worth to £150 and ended up with the iron for free, essentially. Bonus.

:apple:
 

M0esmac

macrumors 6502a
Apr 25, 2012
749
28
UK
Just got these in

Nike Zoom Vapor 9 Tour "Savile Row" Limited Edition shoes. They feel freaking amazing. I don't even know should I wear them at all…

aIo6YQN.png
 

adam044

macrumors 65816
Jan 24, 2012
1,095
10
Boston
/"\/oo\/"\;18352817 said:
Just...no.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/autos/2003-07-30-premiumgas_x.htm

Not a perfect article, but it gets the important points across well. It touches on the concept of premium gas having higher energy density than regular- just to ballpark it, regular gas at $3 and premium at $3.20 in a car that gets 30mpg on regular would need near enough a 2mpg jump in efficiency just to break even on the added cost. The benefit in real world usage isn't there.

Thing is I do get easily 2+ mpg from using 91 so good try though.... Maybe your Ford or Chevy or car like that doesn't know how to adjust for the higher octane but my car and many others do.

Plus my car is tuned so I don't really have a choice.

----------

Last time I filled up (few weeks ago and prices had come down a fair bit by then) it was almost £90! - thats $143 for you guys n gals across the pond.

Really must get a cheeper to run car at average of 22mpg the coupe sucks!

Sorry to derail slightly, but I did buy milk yesterday if that gets us back on topic :)

$143 what in the world are you driving a tank?! I get around 22 also usually takes me around $70 prices how come down though so should be around $65 next time. That's using the highest octane also. 17-18 gallons.
 

JoeG4

macrumors 68030
Jan 11, 2002
2,873
538
I wish i could have had the old plates, i hate the new ones and hate seeing them on my car every single time i see them, but it was a brand new car and i had no plates to transfer over because it is my first car and i bought it myself, hopefully the new ones are a lot nicer and if they are, I'm definitely going to get them for sure...

As someone from California, I agree. The statue of liberty plates were even cooler!
 

Delorean2006

macrumors 65816
Feb 4, 2012
1,026
669
As someone from California, I agree. The statue of liberty plates were even cooler!

I couldn't agree more! when new york had those, i hope they were modernize those instead have a bad knockoff of old ones, I'm very jealous my parents still have those plates with the statue of liberty on both of their cars
 

Delorean2006

macrumors 65816
Feb 4, 2012
1,026
669
wanted a pair of on ear headphones for the gym, i know i could have purchased better headphones and i could care less, i wanted comfort, i tried other ones and they weren't comfortable at all, so i had a bunch of gift cards to best buy and got these today, the Beats Mixr, the sound quality is actually not bad shockingly, much better then the new studios in my opinion and on par and actually better for a bunch of the songs that i listen to then the klipsch i was using
 

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/"\/oo\/"\

macrumors regular
Jan 7, 2007
138
0
Thing is I do get easily 2+ mpg from using 91 so good try though.... Maybe your Ford or Chevy or car like that doesn't know how to adjust for the higher octane but my car and many others do.

Plus my car is tuned so I don't really have a choice.


Wait, you're joking...right?

You're saying that your car sees an increase in efficiency that can't be consistently measured in a laboratory because the difference is so minute, and then go on to say that your car is tuned so you don't have a choice but to use only premium? When have you ever used regular gas? Before the car was tuned specifically for the properties of premium? Tuning would make the motor more efficient for whichever type of fuel being used (duh), not just changing the fuel.

Dipping back into science, the numbers I provided were based purely on cost benefit not how motors actually respond to the change in fuel. Looking at the article, going from premium to regular fuel decreases power by 5% under constant, absolutely ideal conditions (probably at the crank, which is where manufacturers measure output. But we'll assume they mean at the wheels since that'll give us a bigger difference) and we'll assume that the decrease in power corresponds directly to the additional fuel needed to compensate for the lost power (it doesn't actually correspond, the additional fuel needed is less than the power loss as a percentage) for the sake of discussion. Given that you're "around" 22mpg on premium, switching to regular would give you 20.9mpg. And you're claiming +2mpg from that, which means you should be getting 23(+)mpg...over twice the difference that the people who design the motor say there is. And that's before considering that your car isn't being operated in anything resembling ideal conditions or the myriad of unaccounted for variables.

And what do you mean, "or car like that?" Do you hate poor people or something? I guess you could make good arguments that Corvette Z06s and Ford GT500s run pretty poorly on premium...oh wait, no. It must be so rough to have a car like that and not whatever you have.
 
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MyiBill

macrumors 6502
Feb 8, 2012
395
57
/"\/oo\/"\;18359795 said:
Wait, you're joking...right?

You're saying that your car sees an increase in efficiency that can't be consistently measured in a laboratory because the difference is so minute, and then go on to say that your car is tuned so you don't have a choice but to use only premium? When have you ever used regular gas? Before the car was tuned specifically for the properties of premium? Tuning would make the motor more efficient for whichever type of fuel being used (duh), not just changing the fuel.

Dipping back into science, the numbers I provided were based purely on cost benefit not how motors actually respond to the change in fuel. Looking at the article, going from premium to regular fuel decreases power by 5% under constant, absolutely ideal conditions (probably at the crank, which is where manufacturers measure output. But we'll assume they mean at the wheels since that'll give us a bigger difference) and we'll assume that the decrease in power corresponds directly to the additional fuel needed to compensate for the lost power (it doesn't actually correspond, the additional fuel needed is less than the power loss as a percentage) for the sake of discussion. Given that you're "around" 22mpg on premium, switching to regular would give you 20.9mpg. And you're claiming +2mpg from that, which means you should be getting 23(+)mpg...over twice the difference that the people who design the motor say there is. And that's before considering that your car isn't being operated in anything resembling ideal conditions or the myriad of unaccounted for variables.

And what do you mean, "or car like that?" Do you hate poor people or something? I guess you could make good arguments that Corvette Z06s and Ford GT500s run pretty poorly on premium...oh wait, no. It must be so rough to have a car like that and not whatever you have.


I think they're getting at that a chevy cruse or ford focus or any car similar to that is going to see no difference between regular or premium gas. Once you step up to higher end cars having most have engines that require premium gas and do get performance and efficiency gains from it. I don't thing anyone compares the corvette, or even camaro, or the GT500 to the cruse and focus.
 

Delorean2006

macrumors 65816
Feb 4, 2012
1,026
669
I think they're getting at that a chevy cruse or ford focus or any car similar to that is going to see no difference between regular or premium gas. Once you step up to higher end cars having most have engines that require premium gas and do get performance and efficiency gains from it. I don't thing anyone compares the corvette, or even camaro, or the GT500 to the cruse and focus.

I agree, I just don't think anybody buys those cars in general for fuel efficiency, they know they're going to be pigs on gas but who cares! You're still driving a Vette Irma Camaro or a GT500
 

/"\/oo\/"\

macrumors regular
Jan 7, 2007
138
0
I think they're getting at that a chevy cruse or ford focus or any car similar to that is going to see no difference between regular or premium gas. Once you step up to higher end cars having most have engines that require premium gas and do get performance and efficiency gains from it. I don't thing anyone compares the corvette, or even camaro, or the GT500 to the cruse and focus.

That's the thing though- the Cruze and Focus, particularly late models, are already so efficient with fuel consumption on regular that they stand no benefit from running on premium. And if the added cost of of simply putting premium into those cars was more than offset and the increased fuel economy that adam044 is claiming occurred, don't you think that Chevrolet or any other company would be advertising it as madly as their fuel consumption numbers?

Moving to cars that are designed for premium, you're absolutely right that they provide higher specific output when using premium, no argument there. However, with a car that's driven daily in a vaguely reasonable manner...what percentage of that power is being used at any given time? Or how often is something approaching peak power needed? If a car with 300hp doesn't exceed ~4000rpm on any given day and averages ~2700rpm for that day, how much of that power is needed? Looking around at dyno charts that measure the power output at any given RPM, it's probably around 100hp that's being output at 2700rpm. The 5% performance swing, either way it's applied, is negligible and would fall into the margin of error if it were measured on a dyno at the wheels. Add to that the motor doesn't need to work 5% harder to make up for the loss of power...and again the benefit just isn't there.

That all goes out the window when you start talking about performance exotica like the Z06 or GT500, where you want every last bit of power everywhere you can get it and everything needs to be turned up to 11. But for the average BMW, Lexus, whatever that mostly just putts around, the increase in performance from premium isn't being used, so why waste money to have the capability?
 
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