LAT: Octane's Allure Hurt by High Cost

Octane's Allure Hurt by High Cost
This year many drivers stopped using premium fuel. The switch will be permanent for some.

By Elizabeth Douglass, Times Staff Writer


This year's soaring gasoline prices pushed droves of drivers to part ways with their premium.

As overall gasoline consumption has increased despite record prices, premium fuel has taken a hit. Nationwide, daily volume of high-octane gasoline sold in the first nine months of this year fell 6.4% from the same period last year, while purchases of mid-grade gasoline dropped 3.6%, according to the Energy Information Administration, an arm of the Energy Department. The volume of regular gasoline sold rose 4.3%....

***

Switching to a cheaper, lower-grade fuel — or "buying down" in dealer parlance — is a common consumer reaction to sharp jumps in retail pump prices. But with each cycle, only some of the octane-hoppers return to the pricey stuff, and that accelerates a long-term trend away from premium, said David Portalatin, an auto industry analyst at NPD Group, a Houston-based market research firm....

***

Nationwide, only 7% of consumers said their last gasoline purchase was premium grade — a new low, according to an NPD survey of fuel purchases through October. A decade ago, consumers shelled out extra money for premium about 19% of the time, Portalatin said.

Today's premium fuel — gasoline with an octane rating of 91 or higher — typically costs about 20 cents a gallon more than 87-octane regular. Mid-grade fuel, with 89 octane, usually splits the difference in price....


http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-premium28nov28,0,68978.story?coll=la-home-headlines&track=morenews

the vast majority of cars do not benefit from high-octane fuel. http://www.ask.com has some good info on it. It's a marketing ploy for the most part, and I see no need to give the oil companies even more money.

The higher-octane gasoline provides greater resistance to the uncontrolled fuel burning that can cause engine knocking or pinging.

Automakers and fuel experts don't dispute the properties of premium, but they point out that most vehicles come with sensors that allow the engine to adjust to different grades of gasoline without a noticeable loss of power or performance.

David E. Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., said some car manufacturers, especially makers of luxury and sports cars, list premium fuel as a requirement in the owner's manual. In such cases, he said, it's usually a good idea to stick with the top-grade fuel.

However, the majority of today's vehicles are designed to run on regular, and even those models where the manufacturer recommends higher octane fuel generally run just fine without it, Cole said. Deviating from the gas dictated or recommended by the auto maker can sometimes cause a drop in fuel economy, but it's unclear whether the loss is enough to offset the higher cost of premium fuel, he added.

"In most cases, I view buying premium fuel as throwing money away," Cole said. "I buy regular fuel. I think it's the best deal, and it's not going to hurt your car."