2008 and Premium Gas

I am considering purchasing a 2008 miata. O have a 1997 and love it. I
noticed the 2008 miata required premium gas. Is this true. The dealer
said it does not really require it.

I will have a hard time purchasing a car that required premium gas
these days.

any thoughts the group has would be appreciated.

On Feb 17, 9:55 am, socamb > wrote:
> I am considering purchasing a 2008 miata. O have a 1997 and love it. I
> noticed the 2008 miata required premium gas. Is this true. The dealer
> said it does not really require it.
>
> I will have a hard time purchasing a car that required premium gas
> these days.
>
> any thoughts the group has would be appreciated.

I often listen to Bill Wattenburg (berg>>LOL) on KGO radio, here in
the San Francisco Bay area, 810AM, and I believe that you can get it
online kgo.com (the radio, not TV side). Anyway, he is on weekends, at
10PM. He is a well known scientist, nuclear physicist (I believe).
Anyway, he has often said that using Premium gasoline is a complete
RIP OFF. Unless maybe your car is such a high performance vehicle and
will definitely ping badly using regular unleaded. But nearly most of
the time is unneeded.

In article >,
Jazz_Azz > writes:
> On Feb 17, 9:55 am, socamb > wrote:
>> I am considering purchasing a 2008 miata. O have a 1997 and love it. I
>> noticed the 2008 miata required premium gas. Is this true. The dealer
>> said it does not really require it.
>>
>> I will have a hard time purchasing a car that required premium gas
>> these days.
>>
>> any thoughts the group has would be appreciated.
>
> I often listen to Bill Wattenburg (berg>>LOL) on KGO radio, here in
> the San Francisco Bay area, 810AM, and I believe that you can get it
> online kgo.com (the radio, not TV side). Anyway, he is on weekends, at
> 10PM. He is a well known scientist, nuclear physicist (I believe).
> Anyway, he has often said that using Premium gasoline is a complete
> RIP OFF. Unless maybe your car is such a high performance vehicle and
> will definitely ping badly using regular unleaded. But nearly most of
> the time is unneeded.

I can vouch for the fact that it isn't true for my motorcycle. Performance
on lower octane fuel is noticably worse and running it on the highway with
regular is downright dangerous.

bill

--
Bill Gunshannon | de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves
| and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton |
Scranton, Pennsylvania | #include <std.disclaimer.h>

socamb wrote:
> I am considering purchasing a 2008 miata. O have a 1997 and love it. I
> noticed the 2008 miata required premium gas. Is this true. The dealer
> said it does not really require it.
>
> I will have a hard time purchasing a car that required premium gas
> these days.
>
> any thoughts the group has would be appreciated.

A modern showroom-stock vehicle with computer-controlled fuel injection
is quite capable of operating on a lower-octane fuel than the
manufacturer calls for. The only drawback is that under the highest
demand the engine will be detuned enough that the rated horsepower will
never be reached. I routinely drive my 2006, which also calls for
premium fuel, on "plus" grade around town. And when I know that I'll be
burning up the entire tank driving at constant interstate speed on a
long cruise-controlled trip regular grade serves just as well -- when I
get to the other end I fill up with plus grade again.

I suspect that having tire pressure 2 pounds low will rob the car of
more performance than switching down a grade from premium (as well as
making it less safe).

John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com

"socamb" > wrote in message
...
>I am considering purchasing a 2008 miata. O have a 1997 and love it. I
> noticed the 2008 miata required premium gas. Is this true. The dealer
> said it does not really require it.
>
> I will have a hard time purchasing a car that required premium gas
> these days.
>
> any thoughts the group has would be appreciated.

My 1996 BMW 328 conv. requires premium fuel. The engine computer will adjust
the engine so that it runs on regular gas. When I tested this, the fuel
mileage for a similar trip was reduced somewhat with regular gas.
Years ago, a car that required premium meant 49 cents per gallon instead of
29 cents - that was a considerable percentage extra charge. With today's
fuel price here, regular is $3.04 and premium is $3.24 - much less of a
percentage difference.

At any rate, I figure that my vehicle runs most economically using premium.
YMMV.

Jim

On Sun, 17 Feb 2008 23:07:44 +0000, Carbon wrote:

> On Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:43:17 -0500, John McGaw wrote:
>
>> A modern showroom-stock vehicle with computer-controlled fuel injection
>> is quite capable of operating on a lower-octane fuel than the
>> manufacturer calls for. The only drawback is that under the highest
>> demand the engine will be detuned enough that the rated horsepower will
>> never be reached. I routinely drive my 2006, which also calls for
>> premium fuel, on "plus" grade around town. And when I know that I'll be
>> burning up the entire tank driving at constant interstate speed on a
>> long cruise-controlled trip regular grade serves just as well -- when I
>> get to the other end I fill up with plus grade again.
>
> I wonder if this is also true for turbocharged cars like my MSM.

Easy to test. Supercharging promotes knock, but if you pussy-foot
it, it may be OK. Put in plus or regular, and if the pistons do not
melt, you will have saved money. And if you pussy-foot it, you do
not have to worry about losing power due to the ECU trying to burn
the mixture while it is already in the exhaust.

Leon
--
Leon Bess Bozo .)

In article
>,
socamb > wrote:

> I am considering purchasing a 2008 miata. O have a 1997 and love it. I
> noticed the 2008 miata required premium gas. Is this true. The dealer
> said it does not really require it.

On regular, the computer will retard the ignition timing significantly,
to prevent burning holes in the pistons. The result will be a loss of
power, which may not bother you if you're a gentle driver. You'd also
have a drop in fuel mileage, no matter how you drive, probably wiping
out any cost savings from buying regular instead of premium.

I would only use regular if I needed fuel desperately and premium were
not available, and I would only buy enough to limp to the next gas
station with a better choice.

--
Lanny Chambers
St. Louis, MO
'94C

Lanny Chambers > wrote:

> In article
> >
> ,
> socamb > wrote:
>
>> I am considering purchasing a 2008 miata. O have a 1997 and love
>> it. I noticed the 2008 miata required premium gas. Is this true.
>> The dealer said it does not really require it.
>
> On regular, the computer will retard the ignition timing
> significantly, to prevent burning holes in the pistons.

Only if the knock sensor detects "pinging", otherwise the timing
will remain the same as it would with premium gasoline. Of course,
since the engine isn't allowed to ping the driver will probably
never know if the timing is retarded or not, so unless you're
driving to win an economy championship you'll probably be driving
around with retarded timing.

> The result will be a loss of power, which may not bother you if
> you're a gentle driver. You'd also have a drop in fuel mileage, no
> matter how you drive

Er, no. A couple of problems here, no loss of power OR fuel mileage if
you can drive gently enough to avoid retarding the ignition and, more
importantly, are there gentle drivers in Miatas and, if so, WHY? ;-)

> I would only use regular if I needed fuel desperately and premium
> were not available, and I would only buy enough to limp to the
> next gas station with a better choice.

Agreed. It makes no sense to not have the power and economy that is
available just to save a penny. If you want to run regular get a car
that doesn't recommend premium.

FWIW, I used to own a car that absolutely had to have premium but that
was when gas was cheaper, I'm glad I don't have it today. That's
something I check and if a vehicle recommends premium I'll go look
elsewhere, it's not worth it to me.


--
XS11E, Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project:
http://improve-usenet.org

On Sun, 17 Feb 2008 09:55:56 -0800 (PST), socamb >
wrote:

>I am considering purchasing a 2008 miata. O have a 1997 and love it. I
>noticed the 2008 miata required premium gas. Is this true. The dealer
>said it does not really require it.
>
>I will have a hard time purchasing a car that required premium gas
>these days.
>
>any thoughts the group has would be appreciated.

You can use regular but performance will be lowered and running will
become rough.
Fuel consumption will rise noticeably unless you pussyfoot around.

My 2005 runs like a hairy goat on regular and with such a tiny amount
of fuel used each mile/kilometre, I prefer to use premium and often
super premium which gives better consumption figures again.




OzOne of the three twins

I welcome you to Crackerbox Palace.

In article > ,
XS11E > wrote:

> Only if the knock sensor detects "pinging", otherwise the timing
> will remain the same as it would with premium gasoline.

I'm not sure exactly how the NC's knock sensor functions, but such
devices typically retard timing FAR more than necessary at the first
ping, and don't recover quickly. It's not an efficient way to control
the ignition on a routine basis, it's an emergency safeguard to prevent
engine damage. I wonder if it throws an OBDII code?

--
Lanny Chambers
St. Louis, MO
'94C