Should I switch to regular gasoline?
Prices for premium gasoline are through the roof. Should I switch to regular? is there another way to save?
answer:
Your car will likely run just as well on regular as it does on premium. Only 6 percent of owner’s manuals call for the higher grade, according to Justin McNaull, a spokesman for the American Automobile Association, and almost all cars are equipped with on board computers that adjust ignition timing to account for whatever grade of gasoline you have in the tank (lower-octane fuels burn faster than higher-octane ones). If your car is designed to run more efficiently on premium, however, you might notice a reduction in performance and fuel economy if you switch to regular, though probably not enough to offset the financial benefits of switching to a lower-octane gasoline.
Beyond that, McNaull recommends paying attention to gas prices as you drive about town. Off-brand, mom-and-pop stations usually offer the best prices because they buy their gas at a discount from shipments that are left over from national brands. If they pay less, you pay less. You can also keep track of gas prices at Web sites like gasbuddy.com and gaspricewatch.com, both of which allow you to compare prices as reported by fellow drivers. But, explains McNaull, “the prices on these sites can go stale fairly quickly because they’re not always updated daily.”