For as long as I can remember, respectable sources such as Consumer Reports (and I am continuing my long term subscription because we need respectable sources like them, funded by readers, even if they're not always right) have said, as do the automakers themselves, that most cars DO NOT NEED premium gasoline. Only a very small number of high performance cars are said, by the manufacturer, to require premium gasoline.
I've been pretty much following the line for as long as I can remember too. I had been putting regular gas into my car, until recently.
Since 2001, I have purchased two new cars made by Toyota (a very respectable manufacturer) and I have always had them serviced on the factory schedule.
In each case, I started noticing engine knock around 30,000 miles. Perhaps that was partly a matter of perception...I didn't want to believe it knocked before then, and it was about then I started listening for it. A soft knock, the kind you are not necessarily supposed to worry about, but still it was there, especially on climbing small hills (there are ONLY small hills around me nowadays so I can't speak to the other kind) and accelerating, and especially when accelerating up small hills.
Now the dealers have done several related services on schedule, and some extra services because of my sometime complaints, and sometimes they have found additional things to do. In every case, I always do everything the dealer recommends, because I intend to keep my cars a long time, and I want to establish a good relationship, so in spite of beliefs that some of these "recommended" services are only, or primarily, high profit "PACs" for the dealer, I do them anyway. I also don't want it ever said that I didn't do this or that, and that used as an excuse for some later failure, and I want them to want to keep my business by their doing their best work, if there even is such a thing. Sometimes I've gone to the point of BEGGING for additional service to be done (and when I did, btw, that never worked, they never agreed to do anything on my say so, but that's another story). Ladies are always complaining about the extra services suggested by dealers, and that men get a special break where they don't recommend costly unnecessary stuff, but I doubt that many women actually go for as many of the extra service add ons as I do on principle, because my principle is not saving money in the short run, it's saving money in the long run, and you do that by keeping your car as loooong as possible, and you do that with regular service, continuous relationships with the same service people or at least the same dealer, and not giving them the slightest excuse for less than perfection, and my car is an important part of my life I want the best for. Or you could say I'm soft hearted, prone to justify my intellectual laziness, or just plain don't like to argue with people, and all of those are true also. I tolerate a little diguised dealer profit, indeed I expect it, and I wonder if ladies aren't more inclined to question each cent and not be anyone's fool no matter how much pushback it takes. Or, perhaps, I'm just richer than I previously needed to be, or just a fool. But indeed you can't get very far arguing with car dealer service departments either. And with most new cars, especially hybrids, it may be impossible to find a trustworthy independent mechanic.
Typically, after major services, where they do a "tune up" by adjusting the timing, or when they replace the spark plugs (there are no "points" to replace anymore, and spark plugs run for about 90,000 miles or more with little change), I notice an improvement in the knocking. And also if I complain about knock, they typically recommend an additional "injector cleaning" which might cost $100-$200, but which, as far as I know, is basically pouring some cleaner into the gas tank, and maybe into the engine somewhere too, seems to help too, but not as much as spark plug replacement.
But even after all these services, subsequent to 30,000 miles, the knock never completely goes away. There might just be a little on the most aggressive accelerations up small hills, but it's still there, and increases pretty quickly back to the "normal" post-30,000 mile gradually rising baseline level. So all the extra service may be for nought anyway, and I'd long ago stopped complaining about engine knock, though I do the "injector cleaning" whenever they recommend it out of the blue.
Sometime earlier this year, as my car now has about 180,000 miles, I decided to try premium gasoline. And, guess what, the knock ENTIRELY WENT AWAY. I could hardly believe it, after these imaginary or nearly imaginary improvements from spark plug replacements and injector cleanings, NOTHING COMPARES WITH USING PREMIUM GASOLINE!
Now I recently noticed that my friends put premium gas into their 2001 Hyundais and so on too. And if you watch at the gas station, you may notice quite a lot of people using premium gas.
Now I don't know how to explain this. Is it that the car, which isn't supposed to need premium gas, really isn't built or maintained to that standard? Do tolerances increase, possibly after 30,000 miles or so, to the point where knock free performance is no longer attainable on regular gas?
Or is it that the gas itself doesn't meet its advertised standards? One would doubt that, but you never know, and certainly the oil companies (1) are always trying to upsell you to the premium gas by telling you how wonderful it is, and (2) they probably make more money on it, so they might have incentives to somewhat relax the capabilities of the regular gas.
I think it would be interesting to find out, but I don't have my own crew of automotive and fuel specialists to do so.
Instead, I've just decided to do what my friends do, and just use the premium gas. That minor knock I feel on regular gas may not be that harmful, but I don't know that for sure either, and it might be, and it's annoying anyway, and knock free performance is like owning a new car, even if it has 180,000 miles.
I've been pretty much following the line for as long as I can remember too. I had been putting regular gas into my car, until recently.
Since 2001, I have purchased two new cars made by Toyota (a very respectable manufacturer) and I have always had them serviced on the factory schedule.
In each case, I started noticing engine knock around 30,000 miles. Perhaps that was partly a matter of perception...I didn't want to believe it knocked before then, and it was about then I started listening for it. A soft knock, the kind you are not necessarily supposed to worry about, but still it was there, especially on climbing small hills (there are ONLY small hills around me nowadays so I can't speak to the other kind) and accelerating, and especially when accelerating up small hills.
Now the dealers have done several related services on schedule, and some extra services because of my sometime complaints, and sometimes they have found additional things to do. In every case, I always do everything the dealer recommends, because I intend to keep my cars a long time, and I want to establish a good relationship, so in spite of beliefs that some of these "recommended" services are only, or primarily, high profit "PACs" for the dealer, I do them anyway. I also don't want it ever said that I didn't do this or that, and that used as an excuse for some later failure, and I want them to want to keep my business by their doing their best work, if there even is such a thing. Sometimes I've gone to the point of BEGGING for additional service to be done (and when I did, btw, that never worked, they never agreed to do anything on my say so, but that's another story). Ladies are always complaining about the extra services suggested by dealers, and that men get a special break where they don't recommend costly unnecessary stuff, but I doubt that many women actually go for as many of the extra service add ons as I do on principle, because my principle is not saving money in the short run, it's saving money in the long run, and you do that by keeping your car as loooong as possible, and you do that with regular service, continuous relationships with the same service people or at least the same dealer, and not giving them the slightest excuse for less than perfection, and my car is an important part of my life I want the best for. Or you could say I'm soft hearted, prone to justify my intellectual laziness, or just plain don't like to argue with people, and all of those are true also. I tolerate a little diguised dealer profit, indeed I expect it, and I wonder if ladies aren't more inclined to question each cent and not be anyone's fool no matter how much pushback it takes. Or, perhaps, I'm just richer than I previously needed to be, or just a fool. But indeed you can't get very far arguing with car dealer service departments either. And with most new cars, especially hybrids, it may be impossible to find a trustworthy independent mechanic.
Typically, after major services, where they do a "tune up" by adjusting the timing, or when they replace the spark plugs (there are no "points" to replace anymore, and spark plugs run for about 90,000 miles or more with little change), I notice an improvement in the knocking. And also if I complain about knock, they typically recommend an additional "injector cleaning" which might cost $100-$200, but which, as far as I know, is basically pouring some cleaner into the gas tank, and maybe into the engine somewhere too, seems to help too, but not as much as spark plug replacement.
But even after all these services, subsequent to 30,000 miles, the knock never completely goes away. There might just be a little on the most aggressive accelerations up small hills, but it's still there, and increases pretty quickly back to the "normal" post-30,000 mile gradually rising baseline level. So all the extra service may be for nought anyway, and I'd long ago stopped complaining about engine knock, though I do the "injector cleaning" whenever they recommend it out of the blue.
Sometime earlier this year, as my car now has about 180,000 miles, I decided to try premium gasoline. And, guess what, the knock ENTIRELY WENT AWAY. I could hardly believe it, after these imaginary or nearly imaginary improvements from spark plug replacements and injector cleanings, NOTHING COMPARES WITH USING PREMIUM GASOLINE!
Now I recently noticed that my friends put premium gas into their 2001 Hyundais and so on too. And if you watch at the gas station, you may notice quite a lot of people using premium gas.
Now I don't know how to explain this. Is it that the car, which isn't supposed to need premium gas, really isn't built or maintained to that standard? Do tolerances increase, possibly after 30,000 miles or so, to the point where knock free performance is no longer attainable on regular gas?
Or is it that the gas itself doesn't meet its advertised standards? One would doubt that, but you never know, and certainly the oil companies (1) are always trying to upsell you to the premium gas by telling you how wonderful it is, and (2) they probably make more money on it, so they might have incentives to somewhat relax the capabilities of the regular gas.
I think it would be interesting to find out, but I don't have my own crew of automotive and fuel specialists to do so.
Instead, I've just decided to do what my friends do, and just use the premium gas. That minor knock I feel on regular gas may not be that harmful, but I don't know that for sure either, and it might be, and it's annoying anyway, and knock free performance is like owning a new car, even if it has 180,000 miles.
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