Premium Fuel for LR4

[baobay]

I use regular and have no problems with performance or mileage.

 

[tim-in-ca]

I use regular and have no problems with performance or mileage.

What is the mileage delta you've seen between regular vs premium? The REAL savings should be calculated as dollars per mile, not miles per gallon. Here in So Calif, the delta between regular and premium is about 20 cents. With regular in my area at $3.80, thats aprox 5% premium for premium gas. So if your mileage drops than more than 5%, then Premium gas is actually a better deal! Which for me getting about 15 mpg, even 1 mpg drop is actually makes regular more expensive than premium on the dollars per mile scale!

Assuming 14mpg on regular ($3.80/gal) and 15mpg on premium ($4.00/gal):
Regular = .271 cents per mile
Premium = .266 cents per mile

I know that thats only a .005 cents difference, but at 15K miles per year that equates a $75 savings to use premium! Just my 2 cents on the topic!

 

[Franky]

The reason Premium is recommended is that it's needed to achieve the advertised horsepower and fuel mileage. The cars knock sensors will adjust and run just fine on almost any unleaded gasoline.

This is true, the engine will sense the lower octane and adjust to run safely. A knock due to lower octane is harmful to the engine. The engine will downgrade performance to run safe (lower horsepower).

Motor Trend or Car and Driver Mag. did a test a few years back on this, using a few different vechicles. There findings was that it was best to use what is recommended. If you car calls for 87, and 93 is used, there was no gain in performance or MPG. Vechicles which recommended higher octane ran best with the higher octance and downgraded performance when rwegular was used. This was confirmed by use of dyno.

None of my vechicles get good gas milage, my '91 vette actually getting the best on the highway (22-24) durning cruising. If MPG was a concern I'd be driving a smart car, and what fun would that be! If the LR4 is what you want, and you can afford to run Prem. go for it.

 

[baobay]

I am convinced. Premium it is!

 

[DonMitsu]

Now if only it was easy to find fuel without ethanol. Ethanol will damage your motor and there's nothing we can do about it.

 

[alegrialv]

Here's a nice article on the topic from howstufworks:

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/premium-gas-luxury-vehicles.htm

 

[overblown]

As that article points out, the words premium and regular are simply marketing tools used to get people to spend more money. The quality between the two is the same. Putting "premium" fuel in the tank isn't like giving your dog a treat. The difference is octane (87,91,93 etc.) Octane is basically a fuels amount of resistance to burning. The higher the number, the harder it is to burn. That's why low performance engines see no gains with high octane fuel. High performance engines produce more heat and use high compression and the high octane fuel resist burning prematurely (knock).

 

[mateored]

I find it funny that people would buy a $60,000 truck that gets terrible gas mileage and then try to save a few bucks by putting regular gas in it. I offset the gas issue by driving our Prius whenever I don't need the extra room or capabilities of the LR. When we're done with the Prius, I'll probably get a full electric as our other car.

 

[Trekker]

I find it funny that people would buy a $60,000 truck that gets terrible gas mileage and then try to save a few bucks by putting regular gas in it. [...]

I stumbled across an old thread and thought this was awesome! I'll never understand owners that try to pinch pennies on gas for a $60K vehicle. Why would you want your performance and economy diminished?

 

[aj22]

I stumbled across an old thread and thought this was awesome! I'll never understand owners that try to pinch pennies on gas for a $60K vehicle. Why would you want your performance and economy diminished?

Well, the question is whether there is a performance and economy penalty. I've tried running a few tanks of each(regular and premium) and don't notice a difference. If that's the case, why not pinch pennies? Like the thread about prices paid, I negotiated a better price. I would have bought the car regardless, but I still won't pay more than I have to.
The same way I go to the station with the lowest price(within reason, I won't go more than a minute or two out of my way), I likewise will probably run regular. If you get any knocking, then definitely immediately go higher octane. Without knocking, it doesn't make any difference.