GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Just wondering what grade of fuel everyone uses. I've been using premium (92 Octane), but I have friends that keep telling me to use regular. Any advice or opinions???

you should use whatever the manual recommends. 91+ octane.you can read more here on car and driver 's test of 5 different cars:Regular or Premium? Is premium fuel worth the premium price? Can you hurt a high-octane car by running it on the cheaper stuff? http://www.caranddriver.com/xp/Caranddr ... soline.xml

Sunnoco 93 or 94 for my GT. Dont go below 91.

Nevermind what your friends say. I have had a couple of family members tell me the same thing. Two things: it's not their car and the manual says above 91 octane is required, not an option. Personally, when it comes to the fuel, I don't ask any questions. I just use what is recommended.

quote:Just wondering what grade of fuel everyone uses. I've been using premium (92 Octane), but I have friends that keep telling me to use regular.Did your friends design the Vibe? Are they making the car payments? Are they going to pay for any damages that might happen by using regular fuel? If the answers to these questions are NO, then ignore your friends and do with the manufacturer says in the manual: 91 octane or higher.

quote:Just wondering what grade of fuel everyone uses. I've been using premium (92 Octane), but I have friends that keep telling me to use regular. Any advice or opinions???Definatly use the higher octane fuel. Most of todays cars are designed to run on 87 octane. But the higher compression design of the 2zz engine requires higher octane fuel to better control the combustion and ignition. When I picked up my new car it had 87 from the dealer. I noticed that the car pinged when I started out in first gear (I think pinging is pre-ignition?). After my first fill up (I noticed the warning the dealer must have missed) the pinging never re-occured. If pinging is pre-ignition it is bad for the engine. That would be exploding the fuel before it is fully compressed. This is bad on pistons and worse on connecting rods.The car makers are not in bed with the oil companies and would not tell you to use higher octane without good reason

There are cars that will run on both levels of octane, but the Vibe GT is 100% 91 octane. When they tell you that limping on 87 to another gas station is bad, I'd take their recommendation. From what I've seen 11.5:1 is the highest compression ratio of most 4 cyl engines out unless you talk motorcycles and even those aren't much different.

We just saw $1.46 for regular around here.As for the grade I use in my GT, I usually use 93-94 octane. I have used regular 87 octane before a few times and had no problems except that the "boost" of the engine over 6000 rpms was much less. I noticed the label inside the fuel door that said to use premium fuel shortly after I bought my car. On a trip back to the dealership a few days after I bought the Vibe, I asked my salesman about it since it had not been mentioned. He wasn't sure and made a few calls to some of the dealer's technitions (the dealer says that they are the largest GM dealer in North America, so I hope that they would have some people around who know what they are talking about). The answers that he got back were that running regular 87 gas in the Vibe GT would cause it NO HARM but would not allow the valve lift feature of the engine to give the full advertised horsepower. I didn't do the physical research myself, but like I said, I would think that these guys know what they are talking about. I usually use the higher octane in mine only because I am a total "balls to the wall" driver and want every last HP that my engine can muster at any given moment. If I drove like a little old lady, I'd use regular 87 almost all the time. If you have any doubts, call up the service department at a Pontiac dealer that you trust.As for the car makers not being in bed with the oil companies, you have got to be kidding me. That has to be the single most lucrative lobbying effort going right now.

When I bought my GT, my saleslady told me to use regular 87 octane in and not to use plus or premium. I found out about having to use premium by reading reviews online about the Vibe and that being one of the cons to the vehicle. Then....I looked in the owner's manual .Jim

quote:When I bought my GT, my saleslady told me to use regular 87 octane in and not to use plus or premium.I would call her back and let her know that it takes premium fuel only. My dealer did not know this either. I called him to confirm this when I read that the GT required premium here at Genvibe. At the time he though that it did take regular unleaded. He took a look at the manual and confirmed that it does require 91 octane or above. He was very glad that I let him know about it.

Wouldn't 91 octane gas be mid-grade? I always thought of premium gas being above 93 octane. However, I typically see regular = 87, midgrade = 89, premium = 93, and some gas stations have "ultra" or "super" grade that = 94. I never really see 91 octane gas, so I guess we're stuck with the premium 93 octane or above.

Premium around here is 92 octane. I think you have to go to Shell or Amoco to get higher octane than 92. As long as it is above 91, I am happy.

Nevermind, I just read the car and driver article that explained the grade levels. I also now understand that, typically, higher compression engines (like the Vibe GT) will require higher octane gas to aviod predetination.

There are no Shell stations in western PA except occasionally on the turnpike. Amoco, Exxon, Sunoco, BP, Gulf, and Sheetz around here almost all have 87, 89, 93, and 94. Exxon even had some "racing fuel" at some stations around here that was 102 or 103 octane I think.

I've never seen any octane higher than 91. I have lived in NorthWest Ohio and the Chicago land area. What is really weird is that All of Amoco Premium fuel is made at the Whiting IN Refinery so you would think that it would be the same octane every where.My other question is why does the premium octain change but the Regular and plus stay the same?I always use 91 octane in my Vibe GT

here in California, we don't get anything above 91 octane, other than some very specialized stations. some formulation law (California supposely has cleanest gas) prevents it above 91.the gas price here is about $2.10 average.

Here in Southeast PA we have:Regular = 87"Plus" = 89Premium = 93(Sunoco sells Premium = 92 and Ultra = 94)Premium is anything 91 or higher.

quote:Premium is anything 91 or higher.Thanks Scott. I didn't know that anything 91 or above was premium. I guess it just depends on how high you want to go above 91 then.

90% of the stations around here have 93 as premium. Only Sunoco sells 92 premium (no 93 but they also sell 94-ultra). I don't know of a single station that has 91 premium. There may be but I don't know of any.

Sonoco also sells 86 "economy"!!! I wouldn't use that in any of my cars.I just think that it is funny the way there is such a big jump in octane where you live Nova. 87, 89, 93. you would think that if premium needs to be a higher octane then the other grades would follow suit. Example 89, 91, 93 for Regular, plus and premium. But they want to make money. Out of curiosity how much is 93 octane? 91 currently ranges from about 1.69 to 2.09 here.

I'm paying $2.35/Gal for Premium here in San Diego, CA. Has anyone ever used an Octane Booster additive??

Around the Cincinnati area, cheapo gas stations like Speedway have 91 octane, but Shell, BP, Chevron, Sunoco, and other have 93 and Sunoco has 93 and 94. I've seen this trend all the way up I-75 into Michigan and I know for a fact you can get this gas in Toledo. The more octane you make a grade, the less cheapo gas you can have. In Ohio, we aren't heavily dependant on premium so there is enough to keep it at 93+. Out in Cali, there is such a large need for premium that they thin it down to 91. As far as price, it ranges from $1.50 to $2.00 depending on the economy as of late. It's typically $.20 more than regular.

I grew up in Lima OH, and I went to College in Cincinnati, and I never remember seeing premium octanes that high (except for at Sunoco). But then at the time, I only bought regular and Plus (for my Laser).This also brings up the question of how they do it. I co-oped for BP in Lima (at the chemical plant) and since all our electric came from the Refinery I interacted with them alot. I questioned one of the engineers there after I saw a Shell, bp, speedway, and a Clark truck all picking up gas at the Premcor terminal. He told me that all gas is the same, just different companies put different additives in it.

All gas is essentially the same however it would be more accurate to say that all 89 octane is the same and all 93 octane is the same.The refinery (doesn't matter Exxon, Shell, etc) produces various grades of fuel - 89, 91... Each downstream retailer creates an additive package and supplies it to the terminal.When the delivery trucks lift the fuel, they key in a code that indicates for whom they are lifting the fuel... this code alerts the pumps to inject the appropriate amount of the appropriate company's additive. The type and amount of additive is the only real difference between fuels.HOWEVER, some refineries are not set up to produce a 93 octane product so you have to have a 'high octane' refinery somewhere near you to get the rocket fuel.Some independent stations simply purchase, for example, Shell fuel. I'm not sure if they get the full Shell additive package or some lesser form thereof but that's how independant stations get their product.One other point... in Canada, at least, it's legal to sell 93 as 89 but not 89 as 93 thus there is the potential that you'll get something better than 89 when you purchase reg while a low volume 93 may actually degrade over time to less than 93. Those of us with Base Vibes... 89 is the best value and we'll not really notice any performance or mileage difference.

Well I feel very sheepish. I filled up last night and it was 93 octane and not 91 octane. So I'm just crazy .

Nope, it was only $1.789 a Gallon (US). I was just saying that I was incorrect earlier when I said that I always bought 91. I guess that I sould pay more attention.

it is still over $2 per gallon here in California. you guys are lucky

I'm paying $1.85 to $1.95 per gallon of 92 here on L.I. I try to go to BP as they don't get their oil from the mideast. The prices are a little higher but I am not supporting who we are fighting.

Always Super or Super plus! 91 to 94 Octane

quote:I try to go to BP as they don't get their oil from the mideast. The prices are a little higher but I am not supporting who we are fighting. Actually, we've had a U.N. oil embargo on Iraqi oil since 1991, shortly after Gulf War I ended. We should have 0% Iraqi oil in our fuel supply. However, several of the other nations over there are gladly taking our money in oil sales and turning around to give us a fast boot in the a$$, so I support you in not purchasing their goods. However, it would probably do more good to boycott all goods from terrorist-dictator supporting countries like France and Germany. A good list of products to boycott for those who wish to support the good people of this nation: www.citizensunited.com/boycott_products.html