Regular or premium
#161
bh9712....i agree with you 100%! That is how I look at it and my calculations are about the same as you. About 3$ a tank so if I use 4 tanks a months (which is on the pessimist side for me), then that is 12$ a month X 12 months a year, that is 126$ a year.
Peanuts if you ask me! I spend on average 80$ a month on Tim Horton coffee....All Canadian will know what I am talking it about when I say Tim Horton
Peanuts if you ask me! I spend on average 80$ a month on Tim Horton coffee....All Canadian will know what I am talking it about when I say Tim Horton
#162
My area 87 to 93 octane could ranges $.35 to $.45 per gallon. I've seen it as much as $.50 difference. I fill up twice per week. I'll use $.40 per gallon as an avg. 16 gallons per fill or $332.8 annual. This not a deal breaker, but the numbers can vary. (stay in Texas. Nothing is really around the corner except maybe school)
I could eliminate all sorts of other expenses(say pistol ammo for range practice); but I wouldn't throw away $700/year on more expensive practice ammo if I couldn't actually perceive a difference in performance. IF I perceive a difference in the RDX's performance with 87 OR if Acura sends out a bulletin requiring 91+, I'll switch to the higher octane. As it is, I'll use a Top Tier fuel rated at 87 for >90% of my fill-ups. Just as an anecdote, I've used 93 in the last two tanks in the RDX and can not tell one iota of difference in performance(mileage looks to be consistent, also).<Got the 93 for 2.99/gal and couldn't resist >
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Lanman (01-28-2013)
#165
I DO NOT miss those days!
#166
My boss drives a super charged range rover and puts 87 in it and the dealer found out by checking the car out and told him about the dangers but he said he doesnt care and even bragged about it to me. Now hes having major problems and wonders why its a broken down POS.
The point of the story is. Follow the rules.
and if the rules are 87 or 93 then who cares, do what you do.
The point of the story is. Follow the rules.
and if the rules are 87 or 93 then who cares, do what you do.
#170
As most of us should know by now....premium is "recommended" not "required." For the best performance you need to burn premium. If you drop down in octane, I would only go down to the highest rated regular you have available.
Personally, I have only used premium and I have almost 6,000 miles in over 7 mos. No, don't drive too much. The extra cost is not an issue since it's not that much extra. Even if I drove more I'd still use premium. Normally it's about 10 cents more than the next lower grade.
I like knowing that I have the best performance available to me by using premium....the computer knows it...adjusts the parameters accordingly and thus the better performance. My fuel mileage is great...avg. 22 mpg in city driving..and I check it every tank by doing the math. The computer is also pretty darn close to the actual #'s. And I never have to be concerned about "what IF I have a little pinging going on that's hard to detect" if I used a lower grade fuel? Peace of mind for me.
Personally, I have only used premium and I have almost 6,000 miles in over 7 mos. No, don't drive too much. The extra cost is not an issue since it's not that much extra. Even if I drove more I'd still use premium. Normally it's about 10 cents more than the next lower grade.
I like knowing that I have the best performance available to me by using premium....the computer knows it...adjusts the parameters accordingly and thus the better performance. My fuel mileage is great...avg. 22 mpg in city driving..and I check it every tank by doing the math. The computer is also pretty darn close to the actual #'s. And I never have to be concerned about "what IF I have a little pinging going on that's hard to detect" if I used a lower grade fuel? Peace of mind for me.
#171
As most of us should know by now....premium is "recommended" not "required." For the best performance you need to burn premium. If you drop down in octane, I would only go down to the highest rated regular you have available.
Personally, I have only used premium and I have almost 6,000 miles in over 7 mos. No, don't drive too much. The extra cost is not an issue since it's not that much extra. Even if I drove more I'd still use premium. Normally it's about 10 cents more than the next lower grade.
I like knowing that I have the best performance available to me by using premium....the computer knows it...adjusts the parameters accordingly and thus the better performance. My fuel mileage is great...avg. 22 mpg in city driving..and I check it every tank by doing the math. The computer is also pretty darn close to the actual #'s. And I never have to be concerned about "what IF I have a little pinging going on that's hard to detect" if I used a lower grade fuel? Peace of mind for me.
Personally, I have only used premium and I have almost 6,000 miles in over 7 mos. No, don't drive too much. The extra cost is not an issue since it's not that much extra. Even if I drove more I'd still use premium. Normally it's about 10 cents more than the next lower grade.
I like knowing that I have the best performance available to me by using premium....the computer knows it...adjusts the parameters accordingly and thus the better performance. My fuel mileage is great...avg. 22 mpg in city driving..and I check it every tank by doing the math. The computer is also pretty darn close to the actual #'s. And I never have to be concerned about "what IF I have a little pinging going on that's hard to detect" if I used a lower grade fuel? Peace of mind for me.
#172
From Acura website 'Required Fuel' -
Octane Requiement for - RL, TL, ILX, RDX, MDX, TSX V-6
"Using gasoline with an octane lower than 91 octane may cause damage to the engine. Please consult the owner's manual for details."
http://www.acura.com/Engine.aspx?mod...modelYear=2013
Octane Requiement for - RL, TL, ILX, RDX, MDX, TSX V-6
"Using gasoline with an octane lower than 91 octane may cause damage to the engine. Please consult the owner's manual for details."
http://www.acura.com/Engine.aspx?mod...modelYear=2013
#173
i was just at my dealer. and one of the salesman had approached me after he saw me playing in the RDX in their showroom. he said that the RDX is the only acura that can take regular. i started talking about how the engine is the same one used in a few of the honda lineup, but the RDX is tuned slightly differently. i think that's where i lost him b/c that's where he started mentioning that it had more HP than the hondas. he didnt' say much else after that.
now i haven't seen what the owner's manual** states, but this is from the sales guy at my dealer. not saying all sales guys know all the intimate details of the cars, but this is what he said.
now i haven't seen what the owner's manual** states, but this is from the sales guy at my dealer. not saying all sales guys know all the intimate details of the cars, but this is what he said.
Unleaded Premium gasoline, pump octane number 91 or higher
Use of lower octane gasoline can cause occasional metallic knocking noise in the engine and will result in decreased engine performance. Use of gasoline with a pump octane less than 87 can lead to engine damage.
** 2013 RDX
#174
I would give anything to see moderators close this thread...Can't we all agree that there are two options:
1. Higher octane
2. Lower octane
Can we move on to more interesting topics....? BTW....I put Diesel in mine
1. Higher octane
2. Lower octane
Can we move on to more interesting topics....? BTW....I put Diesel in mine
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hawkeye62 (02-11-2013)
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saxman48 (02-10-2013)
#176
No offense weather but what is the big deal? Do you have to pay to click on a topic or something? If there is a thread or topic that I'm not interested in I just don't click on it. It's really not that hard. There are a lot of threads on here that I'm totally not interested in but I don't jump in and beg people to stop posting in them. Chill out.
#177
^^^ While I agree that there are several threads that do not pertain to things I am overly concerned about, I find that I enjoy reading them because quite often, people bring pertinent and valuable information to the table and I walk away better informed. There are 5 pages of discussions on which type of gas people put in their RDX but recently, nothing new is brought forward except bringing back the same arguments and quite often, it takes on non friendly tone. If people brought good arguments to back their claim on why one type of fuel is better than the other, it would be different but I think this thread is now turning a bit stale....almost like bad fuel. Now that being said, I respect your opinion and I agree that I could have chosen to ignore the thread and just read more informative one but every time I see something new posted in a thread, I am always curious to see if something valuable has been posted, and 95% of time in this thread, I walk away feeling .. "there is 5 minutes of my life I won't get back".
Again, my apologies to all Acurazine members if I offended anyone with my post, that was not the intent. As most f you know me, I enjoy helping out when I can and keep a lighter approach. I am certainly one to instigate personal attacks and that was not my intention when I posted my comments.
....Carry on folks....
Again, my apologies to all Acurazine members if I offended anyone with my post, that was not the intent. As most f you know me, I enjoy helping out when I can and keep a lighter approach. I am certainly one to instigate personal attacks and that was not my intention when I posted my comments.
....Carry on folks....
#178
It seems the more you, CoachR & CO Retd. Guy AF post, the more I find myself in agreement w/ you men, carry on mi amigo.
Last edited by RDXinNETX; 02-10-2013 at 05:09 PM.
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weather (02-10-2013)
#179
A little experiment
I decided to run a little experiment on this. Since I'm tracking my fuel mileage at fuelly.com, everyone can see what my fuel consumption is. I've only put premium fuel (Shell 91) in my car up until now, for almost a year. Starting February I started to put regular 87 (Shell as well) in my car. I know there are a lot of factors in fuel mileage, but this is the most scientific experiment I can run to determine what is the impact on fuel economy when you run regular gas vs premium. From now on I will post the average speed for each fill-up so it makes it better for analysis.
If more of us can do the same we would have a better view of the impact on fuel economy when running regular gas.
I have to say that since I'm running on regular gas I didn't notice any difference in engine power, noise or other things engine related.
Here is the link to my fuelly page:
Weather - I hope this makes the thread more interesting to you...
If more of us can do the same we would have a better view of the impact on fuel economy when running regular gas.
I have to say that since I'm running on regular gas I didn't notice any difference in engine power, noise or other things engine related.
Here is the link to my fuelly page:
Weather - I hope this makes the thread more interesting to you...
#180
I decided to run a little experiment on this. Since I'm tracking my fuel mileage at fuelly.com, everyone can see what my fuel consumption is. I've only put premium fuel (Shell 91) in my car up until now, for almost a year. Starting February I started to put regular 87 (Shell as well) in my car. I know there are a lot of factors in fuel mileage, but this is the most scientific experiment I can run to determine what is the impact on fuel economy when you run regular gas vs premium. From now on I will post the average speed for each fill-up so it makes it better for analysis.
If more of us can do the same we would have a better view of the impact on fuel economy when running regular gas.
I have to say that since I'm running on regular gas I didn't notice any difference in engine power, noise or other things engine related.
Here is the link to my fuelly page:
If more of us can do the same we would have a better view of the impact on fuel economy when running regular gas.
I have to say that since I'm running on regular gas I didn't notice any difference in engine power, noise or other things engine related.
Here is the link to my fuelly page:
#183
I decided to run a little experiment on this. Since I'm tracking my fuel mileage at fuelly.com, everyone can see what my fuel consumption is. I've only put premium fuel (Shell 91) in my car up until now, for almost a year. Starting February I started to put regular 87 (Shell as well) in my car. I know there are a lot of factors in fuel mileage, but this is the most scientific experiment I can run to determine what is the impact on fuel economy when you run regular gas vs premium. From now on I will post the average speed for each fill-up so it makes it better for analysis.
If more of us can do the same we would have a better view of the impact on fuel economy when running regular gas.
I have to say that since I'm running on regular gas I didn't notice any difference in engine power, noise or other things engine related.
Here is the link to my fuelly page:
Weather - I hope this makes the thread more interesting to you...
If more of us can do the same we would have a better view of the impact on fuel economy when running regular gas.
I have to say that since I'm running on regular gas I didn't notice any difference in engine power, noise or other things engine related.
Here is the link to my fuelly page:
Weather - I hope this makes the thread more interesting to you...
The Fuelly chart is interesting. If I may ask, what's with the small-volume top-offs? Convenience? Price? Cute girl at the station counter? Just wondering. Carry on.
#184
*lol* I am putting my money on the cute girl at the counter....Guilty of doing it And for the record, yeah, you guys have it good in the States....cheaper price for the vehicles and cheaper gas too! We pay so much more for everything up here. And we have to deal with our stupid winters
#186
Holy guacamole !!! FIVE DOLLARS a gallon?!?!?!!? I thought it was bad that we're approaching $3.50 for 87 here in central Texas.
The Fuelly chart is interesting. If I may ask, what's with the small-volume top-offs? Convenience? Price? Cute girl at the station counter? Just wondering. Carry on.
The Fuelly chart is interesting. If I may ask, what's with the small-volume top-offs? Convenience? Price? Cute girl at the station counter? Just wondering. Carry on.
Hehe, I wish it was the girl at the counter. I'm not that lucky.
The thing is I once ran of gas on the highway because of a faulty gage. It wasn't pretty. Since then I never go below half on my tank. I usually fill up before a longer trip on the highway. Sometimes is the price of gas on a particular day.
I did 2 quick fill ups yesterday and today because the one I did yesterday was all in the city in terrible snow in the worst possible situation. Today I took a trip on the highway and I wanted to show a highway mileage, but the highway was quite busy, so it wasn't what I expected.
#187
I noticed that in some browsers the fuelly badge does not open the link properly. Here is the fuelly link in text format:
http://www.fuelly.com/driver/mstroe/rdx
http://www.fuelly.com/driver/mstroe/rdx
#189
I've been putting in the premium 91 octane in my RDX. And like others have said, it's less than a $150 a year more than the regular unleaded. I've also been avoiding the stations that have mixed ethanol in it. I haven't seen many people talking about the ethanol mix in the thread, but in Hawaii over 90% of our gas stations mixes it in.
My mechanic for my previous jeep said that the corn ethanol that they were mixing in our fuel was bad for our engines. Alot of our vehicles were built to run on gasoline, but when ethanol was introduced to the mix; he's seen an influx of engine problems. He's said it's been good business for him, but bad for the consumer.
TL;DR: I only put 91octane ethanol-free fuel in my 2013 RDX.
My mechanic for my previous jeep said that the corn ethanol that they were mixing in our fuel was bad for our engines. Alot of our vehicles were built to run on gasoline, but when ethanol was introduced to the mix; he's seen an influx of engine problems. He's said it's been good business for him, but bad for the consumer.
TL;DR: I only put 91octane ethanol-free fuel in my 2013 RDX.
#191
I'm very surprised that non-ethanol premium only costs $150/year more than 87. In Austin, that would only cover 8k miles for the year.
#193
You might try to find out where the Costco yhou frequent gets it's gas. In Chicago area many of the Costcos get their fuel from the BP refinery in Indiana. IMO any premium gas is fine but the top tier brands may have better engine cleaners, etc. I try to use top tier brands in all my vehicles whether they take premium or regular but don't worry about it all that much.
#194
Yay for me....Where I live, most (if not all) gas stations get their gas from teh same refinery (in Saint John NB) so people here buy their gas where they get the best incentive (reward program). For me, Costo offer the best price for the premium gas in the area, and in addition, every other gas bars have dropped their price considerably (regular) to keep up with Coscto so I am loyal to tehm...if it wasn't for Costco, we'd be paying at least 5-6 cents more a litre (or 20-25 cents a gallons for you guys in the US).....
#195
My dad worked as a regional maint. man for Sunoco for 32 years and he also co-owned two independent branded gas stations for years while working for Sunoco. So I guess you could say he knew the gas business. He said that even though gas may be shipped from the same refinery in different trucks to different marketers(gas station brands), it was not the same exact gas. Additives were used at the refinery for different companies. If the load was for brand X it may get certain additives added, etc. We picked up all our gas, diesel and home heating oil in our own tanker at a Marathon refinery and it was not the same exact gas that went to Marathon stations. The gas that went to Marathon stations had some additional additives. Now this was quite a few years ago and things could have changed I guess but when you look at the refinerys that are out there, computerization and the industry consolidation that has taken place I would think that it may even be more prevalent today.
#197
He said that even though gas may be shipped from the same refinery in different trucks to different marketers(gas station brands), it was not the same exact gas. Additives were used at the refinery for different companies. If the load was for brand X it may get certain additives added, etc.
#198
Yes, like I said though, that was a while back. My dad's been retired and out of the business for 20 years now. But I would think it would be much easier to now than back then.
#199
Regards, Jim