Buying premium gas is waste of money

ellie05 said:

I think this thread has some really good points just to be clear the article is not focusing on people following the recommendations for their car in fact several times they said you should follow the recommendations . They are talking about people that have cars that recommend regular gas and use premium thinking it is better because they don't understand how octanes work.

Here is what boils down to me and even in the article they mention it. If your car recommends premium and you put cheaper gas you risk knocking of the engine, in my opinion if you plan to keep your car a long time why even risk putting that pressure on the engine to save a few cents ?

Perhaps more important is to stay away from smaller gas stations to avoid carbon build up. Most cars that recommend it or requiere premium are luxury cars and I would never understand why people choose to spend thousand of dollars more on a luxury car, but refuse to put premium . This is a cost that should be calculated in the ownership cost.

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The one that gets me is the Smart car. Entry level car that is supposed to run on premium.

tvguy said:

The one that gets me is the Smart car. Entry level car that is supposed to run on premium.

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Prettty ridiculous it is like the luxury brands that charge for keyless entry. I can't tell you how much that irks me.

kathy884 said:

Is the study saying that owners who are following recommendations in their owners manuals are wasting money

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No, the article is saying that people who use premium in a car that's designed for regular are wasting their money. Some people seem to think that they'll get more power out of premium or mid-grade. Or they think it will burn cleaner. Or be "better" in general because it's more expensive. But if a car isn't designed for premium, it will not benefit in any way, and might actually cause problems. It's basically a "if it costs more it must be better" fallacy.

Personally, I just hate paying the higher price for premium fuel. I insisted my latest vehicle run with 87. I still can't get over the 50 to 60 mpg mileage I'm getting on my Prius.

ellie05 said:

Prettty ridiculous it is like the luxury brands that charge for keyless entry. I can't tell you how much that irks me.

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Are you sure Keyless entry? that refers to the remote not a smart key... even the majority of the cheapest base cars have keyless entry these days. When you go into smart keys there are in fact different levels where the base will work only the drivers door and sometimes just for the push button start, as you go up it will include the passenger door and trunk....Ok but not having to open your door and hit a trunk release or hit a button on the remote is a luxury and one that can be option to sell you other things... smart keys still have all the buttons on the remote as well as a key--pull out the part the key ring is attached too... lower end luxury cars (true Luxury brands not what is considered near Luxury) leather and a Sunroof is an option as well and always in a group and sometimes you must purchase another group to get that one... endless.. no luxury brand wants to sell a base car but they want to keep the price in the mid upper 30's but you will walk out in the 40's

Anthony1971 said:

Are you sure Keyless entry? that refers to the remote not a smart key... even the majority of the cheapest base cars have keyless entry these days. When you go into smart keys there are in fact different levels where the base will work only the drivers door and sometimes just for the push button start, as you go up it will include the passenger door and trunk....Ok but not having to open your door and hit a trunk release or hit a button on the remote is a luxury and one that can be option to sell you other things... smart keys still have all the buttons on the remote as well as a key--pull out the part the key ring is attached too... lower end luxury cars (true Luxury brands not what is considered near Luxury) leather and a Sunroof is an option as well and always in a group and sometimes you must purchase another group to get that one... endless.. no luxury brand wants to sell a base car but they want to keep the price in the mid upper 30's but you will walk out in the 40's

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Obviously it was the smart key. A lot of non luxury brands are making this standard yet some luxury brands this still consider an add on. In luxury brands I have never seen a smart key package that only covers driver door and push start. It can be set up a few different ways( as the owner prefers) and usually for safety the best way is that only driver door unlocks. That is how we have it set up. The trunk can be open by sensing the key and pushing the button on the trunk or pressing the button in the control. However if you need to find the keys for certain stuff the whole convininece of having a smart key is null.

I know smart keys still have buttons and a key as I had an smart key since 2007, but I am not sure how this is relevant . I never had to use such key but it is good to have in case the battery dies.

That is true for every car manufacturer that they don't want to sell base models. Leather and sunroof is not something that is standard in a lot of brands like the smart key is becoming so it is not comparable. I personally prefer to be able to choose between leather and synthetic stuff I think now a days that goes beyond "true luxury" or whatever you want to call it, i know many people they don't agree or use leather and for me leather is just a pain to maintain having dogs, that being said we do have leather that apparently took 6 years of refine process to make in on our car believe me you don't want to even get me started on the topic but DH has to win sometimes. As for sunroofs again that is not standard on most models of non luxury or luxury cars. I don't know what your ridiculous notion of true luxury, near luxury etc are you referring too since this break down seems to only be in your head because even Porsche has options that are not full leather and sunroof come as options too. When we talked about ferraris and other brands up there it would be just ridiculous for them to offer a $100,000+ car an charge you for petty stuff.