Downgrading gasoline can be a problem
An article by Mark Phelan of the Detroit Free Press entitled “Don’t overlook fuel fine print” talks about how many vehicles these days have recommendations by the automakers for premium gasoline, but then say it won’t damage your vehicle if you just use regular fuel. Well, I guess, according to this article, that isn’t entirely true. While you may not damage your engine per say if you use regular gasoline instead of premium (and by the way, there really isn’t any data available to back up this statement,) it is thought that downgrading your gas from premium to regular could reduce horsepower and torque by 2 to 3 percent. Also, by not using the recommended premium gasoline can reduce the fuel economy of the vehicle. That’s is a lot of fine print that you wouldn’t know about, unless the automaker told you. The fuel ratings on the vehicle’s sticker are for the recommended gasoline, so if you do use regular, your miles per gallon will probably be less. The moral of the story really is that there isn’t a lot of information out there of the problems and less performance of the vehicle when you downgrade on the gas. Yes, it looks like for sure horsepower is less, but there could be more things down the line that are problematic, especially since there aren’t any real tests that have been done.