I continue to use 91 octane @ $2.20-2.35+ a gallon. I'm not trying to compare gas prices in your area. Instead, i want to know when you're going to 89 or less? There has to be a breaking point for some of you guys and im pretty sure this summer is going to be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

I'm seriously considering a 89-87 octane downgrade or even going to costco and safeway for 91. What do you guys think? When are you going to make that desicion IF at all?

Say we hit $3.00 for 91 and $2.70 for 87... At 20,000 miles a year at 20mpg equals a +/- $300 difference (depending on family size and # of cars)... that's my yearly dental insurance cost.

I'm not saying i can't afford the difference but I think im going to make that choice for the sake of savings. What about you guys? Staying with 91 or what?

~Eric

 

if you put anything less then 91 into your car it will run like **** and give you worse gas milage than with 91.

 

Gotta stick with 91. High gas prices means I drive my POS truck more or ride my cycle to work. Can use any crap gas in the truck and the bike gets 50 mpg.

 

doesn't the new cobb accessport have an 87 octane map? might be worth the 500 bucks to run on 87 for your commute and 91 during the weekend

 

Fine. But what about cheaper surplus 91 like costco or other store brands?

How much can your pocket book handle until you simply cannot pay for 91?

 

according to my math (if correct) that wouldn't make too much sense until after ~2yrs (depending on annual mileage)

 

there is no breaking point where i would downgrade. actually its more of a breaking point of when to upgrade. if gas prices got over $3.00 a gallon then might as well pay the extra dollar a gallon and get 100 octane and spend an extra $10 or so per tank. assuming the price of 100 doesn't change. it hasn't so far as other gas prices have gone up

 

I use safeway 91 and it seems to work fine... 2.12 a gallon is somewhat reasonable, i guess.

 

true ... but you'd have fun on the weekend

 

yeah you can get an 87 map.

If gas prices keep getting over inflated and no one does anything about it I may be forced to buy a motorcycle or build a datsun or civic or something to commute in. I get 20mpg in my wrx. Getting 35 would be a nice change...35 on 87 especially.

I am gonna have to stop now before I go on another famous rampage. I'm tired of corporate bastards inflating costs to increase profit margins while everyone suffers. CEO's taking 11 million dollar bonus' and employees getting cut back bonuses and higher expenses causing a potential strike that will put my car and apartment at risk. Oh these bastards.

 

i'm probably going to switch to costco gas when prices hit $2.70 or so.

 

I've never understood this..

Ok, generally, 91 and 87 differ in price by about $.30/gal (I'm shooting high to try and be extra conservative). So lets say 87 is $2.50 and 91 is $2.80 per gallon.

If you put in 14 gallons of gas (that's how much I usually end up putting in to fill the car), your cost is..

87: $35
91: $39.20

That's $4.20 difference. Now lets say you fill up once a week (that's how often I fill up)

52 * 4.20 = $218.40
$218.40 / 12 = $18.20

So you pay $218.40 a year, or $18.20 a month extra for the 91. The trade off is that with 87 you get WAY poor gas mileage and your car runs like ***. If you buy an accessport for $500 just to run an 87 map, it will take you nearly 3 years to recoup the cost of the accessport in gas savings.

Me personally, I would rather pay the $18.20 extra a month to get the performance out of the car. That's why I bought it in the first place. And really, do you notice $18 bucks a month? Just don't go out to fast food 3 times, or don't rent a couple movies. $18 isn't that much.

I would stick with the 91, man. The best alternative if you're looking to save the $$ would be to go to Costco or Sams. I know the Costco over here (by s2) has a gas station, but I don't know what the prices are.

 

I think im going to take that route as of today. Unless im doing a "fun run" or something else... then i'll use 76.

 

from what I've been told, there's only a few refineries that make california gas. So the gas you get from costco or safeway is probably the same stuff you get at chevron/shell/76

 

The gas is mostly the same -

Chevron uses MTBE and has other additives (techron)
76 does NOT use MTBE - they instead never converted and still have ethanol in the gas.

To me, the car feels like it prefers 76 over Chevron - I think it's the ethanol.