With the cost of gas going out of site, can we use regular gas instead of premium? A mechanic I know says it will gunk up the engine, a guy who works for Chrysler told me that you can use regular as long as that's all you use and the computer will be happy, it's using different grades that screw it up; another guy told me he's never used anything but regular in his 2005 Coupe.

I have a 2005 roadster with 20k miles that's always had premium. Any money saving advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

premium required...

that's what it says so that's what i put in her.


besides, when you break down the actual difference in price per tank between regular and premium it isn't that substantial.

Regular in Houston: $3.59
Premium in Houston: $3.85

for a "full fill-up" of 15.9 gallons (main tank size) that would cost you:

Regular: $57.08
Premium: $61.21

that is a $4.13 difference between regular and premium for one tank.

assuming the national posted average miles a year is 15,000miles. at the stated 25mpg (i know people are getting upto 30mpg, but this is hypothetical). that would mean you use 600 gallons of gas a year. which is equivalent to 37.74 "full tanks" of gas. meaning that over the course of a year you would save $155.85 in a year.

now ask yourself is $155.85 worth saving when running regular instead of premium could cause your engine to ping and go boom (somewhat extreme case). to me, ill take the peace of mind by putting premium in my crossfire. besides if you think about it... all you have to do is eat out one time less a week for a year and you will be more than covering the difference.

i am not intending to offend anyone with this. i am just putting it out there.


Matt

 

my thoughts exactuly, couple bucks for peace of mind

 

When I got home last night my wife demanded that I take her out to some place expensive.

So we went to the gas station

 

that's just fantastic, i think ill trick my wife into that one this weekend

 

Here's a post a made a few months ago. Just thinking out loud...

I'm confused by all of this concern about the cost of premium gas. Let's assume you fill your tank once a week with 10 gallons of gas. That means you have spent $2 more than if you had been able to fill it with regular. So, if you fill your tank every week for one year as mentioned, you have spent $104 more because of the premium gas. But let's go nuts and say you use twice that amount of gas. Oh my God! Now you've spent $208 more a year on gas. Whooptie-do. Man, this car is worth every damn penny. I pity the poor fools who can't use premium gas on their loser, regular-gas-using jalopies. Crossfires rock!

 

Maybe you can offer up a lube job while you're there

 

I've seen this discussion about two dozen times on this forum over the last four years (at least !). In my opinion, it comes down to why you bought the car. The Crossfire is designed to take advantage of higher octane fuel to give you better performance. Will it operate on 87 octane ? Absolutely.. the computer will retard the timing and make other adjustments and you drive all day on regular. Will you get optimum performance. Absolutley not.

If you plan on driving your Crossfire like a Buick, then go ahead and run regular gas and save yourself a whole $8 a month or so. But if that's the case, why the hell did you buy the car to begin with ?

 

Also, don't forget that when the computer retards the the spark timing to prevent detonation and pinging from using 87 octane, your fuel economy also decreases. If you calculate miles per dollar vs. miles per gallon, you probably are spending more money to cover a given distance using regular instead of premium.

 

You've got to pay to play. Luxury cars (that is what these were at one time) cost more money to operate, that's why they are luxuries.

 

And why does everyone complain about the price of gas. Do they want to save $3/quart on oil too by not using synthetic. Geez, why are people so penny cheap and dollar foolish?

 

I never understood (and still don't) folks wanting to save $2, 3, 4 on a fill up - my time is way more valuable than sitting in line to save $4 -

As far as the XFire - use the premium - why would you not for that savings and potential degradation of performance - short-term or long...

Seems folks want these cars to be VW's -

They're 'hybrid' Mercedes Benz's with American ingenuity thrown in (in some cases lack-of maybe...) - I consider mine total decadence and enjoy, in fact love the fact that I'm able to be decadent with my machine...alright stop laughing...

 

This is perfect!

Tonite is our anniversary. Thanks for the tip Liberty1


roadster with a stick

 

I just saw that gas is over $4 a gallon in Detroit for regular. $5 is next. That's wht they are buiding indoor ski slopes in Dubai! Van't find enough ways to spend our money fast enough.

 

Here in IN, we have stations that sell the premium cheaper because no one else buys it. They won't let it just sit in the tank, so I always fill up at the same place. I have bought gas at the same price as regular at least 6 times in the last 6 months, but she is stored in the winter, so it doesn't cost me anymore to drive the xf than my Mazda, and, and a big and, the xf matches the Mazda on fuel mileage, and it will out run just about anything that was dumb enough to screw with me, including our own police cruisers. They can't believe it. Everyone around here thinks its a cute little roadster. They don't know it can be a beast like the Vets I used to own. They think I am getting old and slowing down....Doc

 

Maybe 'they' will stop making Premium because it's not cost effective to produce! Not enough profit margin?