Survey - What Grade of Fuel Do You Use?

Poll Poll What grade of fuel do you use?

  • Premium Grade

    Votes: 115 77.2%

  • Mid Grade

    Votes: 28 18.8%

  • Low Grade

    Votes: 6 4.0%
  • Total voters
    149
Don't see the point in owning an expensive race horse and feeding it sh#t if you get my drift.. As I said before, low grade causes pinging/pinking so people will just end up complaining of engine knocking etc
 
I dont think it makes any difference at all and the more expensive stuff is just that 'more expensive'. To me its like buying Evian instead of drinking tap water, the only difference is price and maybe for some folks it gives a perception of better quality. Marketing is a powerful thing.
 
I tend to use the standard stuff , , however , every now an then I fire in a bottle of redex, whether its a habit or not I dont know, as Iv done it with all my cars , I feel as thou' Im giving the fuel system a clean out . cos thats what it says on the bottle . :oops:
 
Dunno which one to use for the poll, so I chose the middle one...
In the UK, it's usually 95/97/99 with 95 being the 'standard' unleaded, and 99 being V-power
In the US, the 'standard' is 91 I think... but I'm not certain.
When I bought my Z4 I used to use 99 V Power, but only occasionally these days as I find that my engine is quite happy on standard 95, but only the stuff from Shell, I don't know if I'm imagining it but it does run smoother on Shell than say Texaco or Esso.
 
Tend to use sainsburies 97 Ron as that's the most convienient to me...... Occasionally use vpower 99 and don't notice any difference from the 97.
 
ferrelscent said:
I dont think it makes any difference at all and the more expensive stuff is just that 'more expensive'. To me its like buying Evian instead of drinking tap water, the only difference is price and maybe for some folks it gives a perception of better quality. Marketing is a powerful thing.
Click to expand...

To an extend I agree with you but some engines, in fact quite a lot of engines these days do adjust to the different fuel grades. I rememeber the manual of my 3.0 Si stating the engine was designed to run on 98ron fuel. ANd yes it had hessitation at a certain RPM when run on 95ron. However, using 98ron in an engine not capable of adjusting to different fuel grades is a waste although the supposedly better fuel system maintaining properties of the higher octane fuels might have some benefit.
 
Yoho AHOY- sticker inside fuel cap on the E89 states 95 to 99 RON, personally I get far better performance and far more miles per gallon on 98RON than on 95, it still works out slightly better per mile on 98RON given the "premium" on the "premium" :wink:

P.S. that's on a 35i Twin turbo
 
I used to only use v-power then when the prices started rocketing up I thought I'd stick some 95RON in. Can't tell any difference at all - mpg is the same and it drives just fine. If prices were to come back down I might go back to the v-power but not seeing the benefit here.
 
I've been using 95RON mostly but have just filled it with Shell's V Power. I have noticed that Shell's fuel seems to give 1-2MPG more - regardless of whether it's the 95 or 99.

Wasn't there a test done by a car motoring show to see if higher grade fuels really do make a difference? I think the difference was limited to high performance cars (minimum entry standard was a Mitsubushi Evo).
 
I find that 95 makes my car feel a little restrained during spirited driving. I can honestly say that V-Power is the best fuel for my car. it's kind of a known fact that you lose power when you reduce the RON of the fuel you use.
The only issues is noticing it, the way the BMW enigine management works it'll make gradual adjustments. you also have to take into consideration the cleaning additives in the V-Power also help.
 
I tend to use Sainsbury's 97 RON - it's the cheapest of the 'higher octane' fuels I can find at the moment (only 3p/l more than 95).

Definitelly feels different driving the Z when I fill up - it's not imagination as GF has noticed too without me prompting...
Smoother ride, spikier acceleration.

Will try filling up with 99 to compare.
Filled up with something VERY low in my 330ci a year or so ago when on holiday - car wasn't happy. Felt 'bangy'.

Si
 
Why would you even try to put in a lower grade fuel than recommended? IMO, if you can't afford the fuel grade, you shouldn't have bought the car. of course, that is only my opinion
 
I depends largely on the engine, surely? Putting 99RON into a 2 litre or 2.2 litre won't make much of a difference. I would even go as far to say that it won't make a noticeable difference in a 2.5 unless it's been modified. Using premium fuel on a 3 litre or higher does appear to bring some benefits though.
 
I've been running my 3.0l on 95ron, had no issues at all, but about a week ago I thought I'd try some 99 ron as I was running stupidly low on what was in there (car was telling me 10 miles of fuel left)... into the second tank full now thinking it might take time to flush through and for a difference to show. HHHMMMM, can't say I've noticed any difference apart from my MPG has actually gone down. So in my circumstances it would appear to be the placebo effect for other Z4 owners (this is just my findings and what I believe, you don't have to agree with it).

Can't say I'll be sticking with the higher octane fuel... I'll give it one last top up using this stuff for the benefit of the doubt but will most likely be going back to 95ron.
 
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