What happens to Vipers without premium fuel

[Lawrenzo]

This article is on the FOX news website- sign of the the times, but it could spell trouble for enthusiasts if we can no longer find the high octane fuel anymore



MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Ernesto Evangelista prefers to pump premium gas into his seven-month-old Nissan Titan, thinking it makes the truck run better.
But at a BP station just a few blocks from the sand of Miami Beach, the 33-year-old painter grabbed the handle for the regular, 87-octane gas to fill his tank on a recent Friday.
"Premium is just too expensive," he said. "Nobody can afford to fill up with premium anymore."
With rising fuel prices pushing the national average for premium to $4.48 a gallon — about 40 cents higher than regular — motorists like Evangelista are buying less of it, industry statistics show.
Demand for high-octane fuel is at its lowest in nearly a quarter of a century and is now primarily consumed by a core group of luxury vehicle owners — and even some of them are putting lower-grade fuel into their tanks to save money.
In 1997, high-octane garnered 16 percent of the nationwide fuel market share, according to figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Last month, premium had only 8 percent of the market. Last year, premium gasoline consumption fell to about 35.6 million gallons of gas per day, the lowest in 24 years, the agency said.

"We're down to the core, die-hard audience that believes they need 93," said Tom Kloza, publisher of the Oil Price Information Service, a New Jersey firm that provides petroleum pricing and news information.
Gas station owners say they are pumping so little premium that it can take three or four weeks to sell their high-octane inventory, as opposed to a couple of days for a delivery of regular gas

[Sweet Ride]

Well, I will try to make up for other people not using it...

Time to drive!

[V10SpeedLuvr]

This actually is good news...in a way. I filled up my dad's Vette at a gas station a couple weeks ago. Premium there was at least $0.20 cheaper than anyone else. I told the clerk that and she said that the reason is when they bought that inventory of premium gas prices were lower. They still hadn't run out of that inventory, so they haven't had to buy any more at the current (higher) price.

[mjorgensen]

You should really whatch this though as if they are dropping prices to get rid of "old" supplies the gas could be junk when you pump it from sitting around. I have heard first hand about the shelf life for gas from the SRT engineers and it is very common for gas to go bad in a couple weeks of sitting in the ground so beware of stations not selling large amounts of premiun fuel when you fill up.

[ViperJay]

mike, would it be better to pump lower octain instead?

[Dads Toy]

what's the difference if it sits in their tanks for a couple of weeks or in your cars tank over the winter? not trying to be wise, just don't see the difference.

[Paul Hawker]

To me the trend seems to be going the other way.

With lots of supercharged, turbo charged and high compression small engines coming out, they can use a smaller engine that burns premium to get the same performance as a larger engine burning regular.

Around here the differential between premium, mid grade, and regular is only 10¢. About the same it has been for years.

[Lawrenzo]

Paul, the article went on a little longer and it did state that many more cars are "suggesting" premium be used. However, people are not putting it in their tanks. With such a small percentage of people actually using it, we might see stations actually dropping premium from their selection.

If you're old enough you surely remember that 100 octane was much more readily available a long time ago, and then it virtually disapeared.

[RTTTTed]

Here in Canada the fule companies used the metric system to raise the premium fuel cost. Now it's an aveage of $.10 per liter or $.40 for us gallon! They want ALL of our money, like the government.

$6.00/us gal.

Ted

[C-Note]

Ted,
Just buy the cheap gas and poor some of that Canadian wisky in for octane boost

[Need1]

If it's .40 cents higher for premium and the average tank is 20 gallons, you're only saving $8... $8 isn't worth putting better fuel in your vehicle? I think people overreact to the price difference, it's not that much in reality...

[97GTS]

Originally Posted by Need1

If it's .40 cents higher for premium and the average tank is 20 gallons, you're only saving $8... $8 isn't worth putting better fuel in your vehicle? I think people overreact to the price difference, it's not that much in reality...

Agreed. Save the $8 somewhere else.

Ron

[RTTTTed]

Not much of a drinker, but I'm hoping to sell a couple of my collector/muscle cars and have lots of gas money in the bank.

I bought my Viper already used and modified so I figure I saved about $100,000 so far for spending on gas, lol. To bad that when you get a 'deal' you don't get the cash you "saved", eh?

I use only premium fuel (91 oct) and I'll fill up with Mohawk of Chevron 94 when it's available.

I could probably use reg. for the highway driving I do, never have anu opportunity to go past 1/4 throttle so I could use regular if I desired.

Ted

[Paul Hawker]

Don't want to use regular with that Roe.

[Kenneth Krieger]

S/C and 87 or less octane spells DETONATION, which spells engine failure........not my cup of tea........at least 91 is available in AZ!