# Premium vs regular

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/premium-vs-regular/16936>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Created:** [July 19, 2008, 8:37pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/premium-vs-regular/16936 "2008-07-19T20:37:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 11\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![regularguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@regularguy](https://community.cartalk.com/u/regularguy)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2008, 8:37pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/premium-vs-regular/16936/1 "2008-07-19T20:37:02Z")

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i’m looking at an acura TL, but after the test drive and research i find that it requires premium gasoline. i know that in some cars which purport to require premium, you can use regular without and problems. Does anyone know if this is true with acuras, infinitis?

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**Author:** ![Joe-Guy](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/joe-guy/32/124_2.png) [@Joe-Guy](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Joe-Guy)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2008, 8:52pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/premium-vs-regular/16936/2 "2008-07-19T20:52:40Z")

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As I understand it, the answer is whether a premium fuel is “recommended” or “required”. If recommended, premium fuel is not absolutely necessary.

I looked up the acura TL and it says premium fuel is recommended.

Click on ‘Specifications’ and then ‘general specifications’ here - [http://www.acura.com/index.aspx?initPath=TL](http://www.acura.com/index.aspx?initPath=TL)

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**Author:** ![BustedKnuckles](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/bustedknuckles/32/25_2.png) [@BustedKnuckles](https://community.cartalk.com/u/BustedKnuckles)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2008, 8:56pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/premium-vs-regular/16936/3 "2008-07-19T20:56:40Z")

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If the car requires premium, I don’t care what the make, using regular will cause problems. You just may not see it right away. Most cars will retard the timing to run without pinging, but the mileage will drop, and performance will suffer. Then, because the car is not running at optimum conditions, carbon begins to build up, and the car will begin to give problems that will be more costly than the $2-3 dollars per tankful you were hoping to save. Oxygen Sensors alone will eat your savings within just one year of this abuse.

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**Author:** ![hellokit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6a8cbe/32.png) [@hellokit](https://community.cartalk.com/u/hellokit)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/premium-vs-regular/16936/4 "2008-07-19T20:58:00Z")

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Just use the “premium” (high octane) gasoline and save the gambling for Lost Wages.

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**Author:** ![Joseph\_E\_Meehan](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/joseph_e_meehan/32/21_2.png) [@Joseph\_E\_Meehan](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Joseph_E_Meehan)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2008, 10:23pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/premium-vs-regular/16936/5 "2008-07-19T22:23:13Z")

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Look at the owner’s manual It will recommend or require. If it says require that is what it means. Recommend means it will not damage the car with regular, but it will not have the power nor likely the mileage that it would with premium, so any savings in fuel are likely to be minimal if there are any at all.

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**Author:** ![a2listener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ccd318/32.png) [@a2listener](https://community.cartalk.com/u/a2listener)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 12:20am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/premium-vs-regular/16936/6 "2008-07-20T00:20:57Z")

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Here?s another way of looking at the ?regular vs. premium? question: The EPA tests all vehicles (\<3 tones) for city/highway gas mileage. Vehicles engineered for regular gas use regular gas for testing purposes. Vehicles engineered for premium gas (required) use premium gas for testing. For vehicles that recommend premium gas, but can use regular gas (because the on-board computer and knock sensor can dial back the timing to prevent detonation which would damage the engine), what grade of gas would the manufacturer have the EPA use? I?m guessing that premium gas is used to get the best EPA mileage figures for those vehicles that merely recommend premium. Or, you can believe that the manufacturer tells the EPA to use the cheapest regular gas they can find and they (the manufacturer) can live with the mileage numbers they have to post on those new car window stickers?

My take: If your vehicle only recommends premium gas, use it. Those maligned EPA mileage figures were likely derived by using the manufacturer?s recommended octane rating. By using regular, you give up some measure of performance and MPG. How does saving .20 cents per gallon and getting fewer miles per gallon make sense? If you lose only one mile per gallon by using regular, you lose ten miles per ten gallons of gas. To make that up, you have to buy an extra ? gallon which equals what you would have spend buying premium.

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**Author:** ![lenjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f475e1/32.png) [@lenjack](https://community.cartalk.com/u/lenjack)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 1:43am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/premium-vs-regular/16936/7 "2008-07-20T01:43:01Z")

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Why not search? We get this question 3 times a week for months!

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**Author:** ![lion9car](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/59ef9b/32.png) [@lion9car](https://community.cartalk.com/u/lion9car)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 1:34pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/premium-vs-regular/16936/8 "2008-07-20T13:34:27Z")

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This is an excellent question. However, the last time I put a comment like this in a thread, it escalated into a flame war about whose time was more important, causing the whole thread to be removed. Let’s see what happens this time!

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**Author:** ![andrew\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@andrew\_j](https://community.cartalk.com/u/andrew_j)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 6:39pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/premium-vs-regular/16936/9 "2008-07-20T18:39:30Z")

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Looky here-\>\>\> [http://community.cartalk.com/jforum.page?module=search&action=search&clean=1&search\_keywords=premium+regular&search\_terms=all&search\_forum=&sort\_by=time&sort\_dir=DESC](http://community.cartalk.com/jforum.page?module=search&action=search&clean=1&search_keywords=premium+regular&search_terms=all&search_forum=&sort_by=time&sort_dir=DESC)

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**Author:** ![texases](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/texases/32/862_2.png) [@texases](https://community.cartalk.com/u/texases)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/premium-vs-regular/16936/10 "2008-07-20T20:47:49Z")

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If it’s ‘recommended’, then no harm in trying, my car was ‘recommended’, but no difference in power or mileage.

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**Author:** ![jtsanders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c2a13f/32.png) [@jtsanders](https://community.cartalk.com/u/jtsanders)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 12:28am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/premium-vs-regular/16936/11 "2008-07-21T00:28:10Z")

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If you really like the car, isn’t it worth an extra 20 cents a gallon? That’s not even 10%. Buy it and run the test yourself. Let us know how it turns out so that we can help others make the same decision.