with a lot of cars out there you can successfully use regular in lieu of premium without any adverse affects except for an anticipated (rarely actually noticed) loss of HP. Right after I bought the car, I accidently pumped a load of regular and it seemed fine. i have used premium ever since. My wife owns (and my daughter did own) toyota avalons...both ran regular and seem ok...On my TL I ran premium...my daughter runs regular in her TL without any ill effects.

When I owned my 69 corvette...if you didn't burn the highest octane, it pinged like hell.

finally a question...does anyone regularly run regular in their RL? How does the car run...can you notice any difference...does it ever ping?

 

I've run regular in my MDX (also "requires" premium) from time to time and haven't noticed a thing. I put premium into the RL mainly becasue it's newer and even though it's more expensive, over the course of a year, it can't be more than a couple of hundred dollars for a little piece of mind.

LL

 

It wont ping because newer engines (including honda/acura) have a knock sensor for this very reason to prevent engine knock i.e. pinging. What it does is retard the timing of the engine therefore reducing the performance and in some instances getting worst mpg because the engine is not running as efficient due to the knock sensor doing its job in retarding the timing to prevent engine pinging. My advice....use premium. There is a reason why Acura recommends using premium grade fuel

 

My 1999 Audi A6 Avant with a 2.8L 6cyl engine requires premium fuel. I figured the hell with it I would start adding every other tank regular then mid grade. After about 3 month the car started running very rough especially at idle but it did not ping. Tech figured out it was the low octane fuel. So he told me to run at least 3 tanks of Chevron Supreme. Corrected the problem. I now run only Premium and mostly Chevron and don't have any problems.

 

Most premium grade gas here in the east is 93 octane. Acura calls for a premium grade of 91 octane, so at 93 you're buying more octane than the minimum needed.

If you want to save a few bucks, and take a little more time fueling your car, just mix 2/3's 93 octane premium with 1/3 regular (87 octane) and you'll end up with exactly the 91 octane the manual calls for. The 93 octane mixes in a perfectly linear ratio, so at 1/3 to 2/3 you get 91 octane.

On a 15 gallon fill-up, with premium .20 cents more per gallon, five gallons of regular will save you a buck -- and your RL will be getting all the octane the manual calls for.

Try it and see how your car runs, should be fine.

 

Of course the trick is to find the 91. Here it seems to be all 93. At least at the namebrand stations.

 

I don't get it. If premium vs regular is an issue, maybe you shouldn't be driving a ~45K car.

The difference is only about ~$150 a year, YMMV (no pun intended). Probably not worth losing any sleep over it.

 

I only drive 5k a year. Because the savings in using premium and regular is negligble, it is a no brainer for me as to which grade I should use.

 

I completely agree that if you've got the jack to drive a >$40K car $200 a year in better fuel should not be an issue. To statisfy my curiosity, two weeks ago I put in regular just to see the difference in MPG.
87 octane = 19mpg @ $3.00/gal
93 octane = 22mpg @ $3.20/gal

With the difference in fuel economy & fuel price the difference is $0.88 a tank. I'll keep 93 for the performance benefit.

 

kisk - You are actually saving money with premium if your stats are correct. Costs you 14.5 cents/mile with premium and 15.8 cents/mile with regular. I have found the same to be true with other cars I have owned, that is, I get about 10% better gas mileage with premium over regular. Therefore, if premium costs lesss than 10% more, you actually save money.

 

This has been discussed in every forum and many cars.
Premium is the fuel to use, with the better mileage, there is less than $100 per year difference. You also lose horsepower.
Really a no brainer.