Poll: Performance with regular gas
 

Folks, we now have a bunch of active threads about 87 vs 91+ gas. Some people feel that 87 gives better mileage and/or performance. Barring the price difference, let us try and capture our experiences with the car's performance with different grades of gas.

I drive about 320 miles with a full tank of gas (91 octanes) with the N flash.

performance-wise i can't tell the difference

My car tends to knock a bit on the 87 but it gets better mileage. It also seems peppier with the 91. I sit in a lot of traffic so I tend to stick with 87 during the week and get the 91 on the weekends if I can afford it.

How'bout same performance, better gas mileage? :)

^^^ I'd vote same perf, better mileage.

I've recorded my gas usage from tank #1 up to the present. I tried a number of brands and different octane ratings.

Low octane gives me about 1/2 more mpg, but the performance suffers and I get pinging.

From now on it's 93 all the way.

ah! missed that one. Is there a way I can edit the poll and add

same perf, better mileage and
better perf, same mileage???

Maybe the mods can help me out here :)

Well said.

only 11 votes ???

Maybe for you - that doesn't mean everybody gets the same result.

Yeah, I wish more people would vote. This is a fascinating poll, given that the two *extreme opposite* answers are running neck-and-neck.

(I confess, I didn't vote, but that's because I have no data, and there was no choice for "I have no clue!" :) )

Krankor
05 Shinka 6MT

as long as it's decent 87, better performance better mileage.

Is that CANADIAN MILES????????? LOL


I get 240 ( = 16 MPG)


THat BLOWS.........

I didn't vote because I'm now using 89 octane gas only (previously using 93 octane). Between 93 and 89 octane I vote for 89. My mileage definitely got better without sacrificing performance.

93 is better than 87 for me. I've been using nothing but 93 or better since I bought her 2 years ago. I just tried 87 for 3 fuelings since the gas prices increased. I was getting better gas mileage, but my performance definitely suffered. I drove the car to PA, 3 hour drive, last weekend, with my last tank of 87, and the car dragged it's ass. My car was making an electric crackling sound, which I assumed was pinging under the heavy load. This sound was never present when daily driving. While I drive to work everyday I was driving conservatively so I never would have had the car under heavy stress during those drives. I'm not sure if driving in more extreme conditions would make me more vulnerable to pinging, but I took and educated guess and thought it would.

I'm now using 93 and I my 8 loves me again. I'd rather pay the extra money to have the car run the way it should and not drag throught the mud.

I have used both the higher octanes and 87, and without a doubt I get the best gas mileage AND performance with the 87. If your car doesn't ping with the lower octane you SHOULD get better performance. This has been discussed on many threads here in the past.

I didn't vote because you didn't have my choice:

Can't tell any difference either way.

I use 93- to be honest I have used 89 and did not notice any diffrence- I did see a slight dip in milage with 87

I don't see anything about it in the post, but I got a service bulletin for my dealer stating that you should only 89 and above because of a possible vapor locking issue in hot weather. It also stated some other issues, but, I don't have the bulletin with me today.

switched to 87, and no problems or noticable change in performance.

Same here. Switched to 87, noticed an increase in mileage on average from about 15/15.5 to around 16, which could very well be due to the car breaking in. I switched at about 2000 miles. I'd call it wash. Oh yes, and I didn't notice a significant difference in performance.

I decided to try 87 octane for my 3 hour roadtrip to the beach this weekend. Driving rather conservatively (keeping revs near 3000 and cruising in 6th at between 65 and 75mph), I managed to make a round trip without filling up and reached 309.6 miles on the tank. When I filled up, it took about 14 gallons.

Before that, I was using 93 octane and averaged 200-215 miles of 50/50 city/highway, mildly spririted driving. You could chalk it up to keeping the revs down and a lot of highway driving this time, but a ~100 mile difference is pretty incredible. I also did not notice any pinging or loss of performance.

I have used only 91 all the time. I average 12.5 mpg (50/50 - city/highway). The best I ever got is 15.5 (mostly highway). The poll is pretty even as of now. I might give 87 a shot and see what gives.