Is Premium Petrol Worth Buying?

benham3160

If your car has a "knock sensor" or manually adjustable ignition timing or your car is remapped for higher ocatane fuels, then yes, you may notice a difference in both power and economy.

However, for a lot of cars, you should notice zero difference (not better, or worse) running on premium fuel, based purely on the octane of the fuel.

What is probably true, is that fuels like this have better detergents, which is why they probably recomend three tanks full. A £1.29 "one dose" shot of Red-Ex from Halfords will probably have more effect.

Regards,
Andy

AlexisV

You'll probably subconsciously drive less economically with the more expensive fuel because you'll think you have extra power and will be using less, ironically probably increasing your fuel bills.

Lum

maninthestreet wrote: »

Fifth Gear on Channel 5 tested 'premuim' petrols a few years ago - unless using a high performance, turbo-charged vehicle, they found no benefit whatsoever from using these fuels.

Depends on the car and if it requires it or not. If you own, say, an imported Subaru then you will find that not destroying your piston rings is one of the benefits of the high octane fuels.

AndreaE

Thank you all for your comments - I don't think I will bother.

Andrea

Inactive

I wouldn't trust anything that Tesco tell you, they are out to make money.;)

neilmcl

Out of interest, I'm using Shell Fuelsave Diesel, mainly because it's actually cheaper than our local supermarkets, and it is doing what is says on the tin. It has increased my avg mpg albeit by only 2 mpg, although the effect was almost immediate.

LandyAndy

neilmcl wrote: »

Out of interest, I'm using Shell Fuelsave Diesel, mainly because it's actually cheaper than our local supermarkets, and it is doing what is says on the tin. It has increased my avg mpg albeit by only 2 mpg, although the effect was almost immediate.

I use standard petrol in my Mazda2 (hardly a performance vehicle:D). I estimate I have filled it up over 30 times since I bought it, mostly from the same 'branded' filling station.

I do very much the same type of driving over the same roads on every tankful.

My fuel consumption per tankful, based on the brim method, can vary by up to 5mpg.

To properly confirm an overall increase of, say, 2mpg from using premium fuel would take quite a long experiment to establish that it was not just due to normal fluctuations

neilmcl

I have the same daily journey week in/week out, no variations and my average mpg has been 47mpg, I've not reset it for ages. Started using Shell Fuelsave and within a couple of days (over 100 miles) this had increased to 49mpg and stayed there since. I've not varied my journey, changed the style of driving and my tyre pressures are the same.

I've used Millers Diesel power sport additive before and never had an increase like this, in fact that stuff was useless.

almillar

This question seems to come up every week, and lots of people come in and say 'yes my car's faster', 'yes my car's more economical', 'no it doesn't make any difference', 'only on fast cars' and 'I heard about some guy's mate that put in premium and the car blew up..' etc. etc.
This is how you find out - read your car's manual. Don't read someone else's, and don't ask 'the internet'!
As above, the premium fuel depends on the timing in your car and the higher octane stuff lets it advance the ignition slightly. MY car (RX8) does not change the timing. It is set for UK cars, Jap cars or US cars for example, all of whom have different petrol grades.
General rule is that most people's modern or sports cars will, most general or older cars won't, but you need to read your own car's manual to see what fuel your car wants.
If it just asks for RON95, then just put in standard unleaded. If it mentions RON98 as being a requirement or beneficial, CONSIDER using it. There are plenty of cars that want 98 and will make do with RON95.
Also be aware that when you change over, the ECU of the car will need to relearn, and you'll still have standard stuff in the tank too, so you need empty your tank twice to start getting the benefit, and it might be an idea to reset the ECU to make the car re-learn the timings.

rca779

I had a problem with my Wife's Peugeot 307 with a anti-polution sensor fault comming up on the computer. After a bit of Googling, I found several recommendations that I try filling up with Shell premium fuel. I had to fill up fully twice, but low & behold it did the trick and the warning went out. I now only use Shell fuel (standard) and avoid cheap supermarket fuel.