I wonder what his colleagues in Germantown are saying
Anyways, as of this post, most of the name brand dealers in my area are selling 93 for around 4.50 a gallon. Independents, about 4. Only Sunoco has 91. It's a matter of a few dollars.. cup 'o gourmet coffee, a happy meal, a pack of smokes ... I'll stay with the premium grades.. I fill up twice a month, the difference will get me a movie ticket and popcorn at the end of the year
Certainly premium for our own personal cars at least....
__________________
S.
2006 ML350 white/ash
2008 C300 Sport mars red/black
2004 986S seal gray metallic/black/black
Certainly premium for our own personal cars at least....
Definitely premium - the price difference between 89 and 93 is about 2 or 3 bucks a tankful times 24 tanks that's 72$ a year, I can live with the difference. Same goes for a loaner even if the last 100 customers put 87 in it, someone has to appreciate the car And I won't be driving 10 miles to save 2$ either What's that saying? Pennywise and poundfoolish? Does that apply here?
"It's not going to hurt anything," said Peter Gregori, service manager for EuroMotorcars, a Mercedes-Benz dealer in Bethesda. In fact, Gregori has been using regular gas in one of his own Mercedes cars for two years, and "it's perfect," he said -- even though Mercedes-Benz says owners should use only premium.
Considering that these cars have 11.3:1 compression ratios it would not be advised to run the cheap stuff. It would run but it would run very poorly, low power, poor milage. Then you'll be upset that you are getting poor milage. If it were a carbed motor it would be bording on pump gas friendly.
OK, maybe I'd never switch from Premium to the Regular grade since the price difference per gallon is not huge, BUT, come on guys, it is Marketing! It is no other than MBUSA who, I am sure, is asking a "Sercive Manager" to quote whatever he's quoted above. In this bad economy, he'd know his job would be on the line for speaking loosely to the Press!! I imagine this person has a few years with MBUSA and has been willing to make that quote. After all, MB definitely wants to swing those people in favor of buying an MB, who are on the fence due to the higher pricing of the Premium gas for their daily commute. They know that not everyone has short commutes and some calculate to this extreme........
I am by far no expert in these matters, but I know that there's a few reasons why they recommend High Octane fuel:
1. European "regular" is 95 RON (98/99 RON for Premium, and 100 RON for Shell V* series fuels) and that's what the engines were designed for.
2. Higher Octane is the fuel's resistance to autoignition - i.e. knocking
3. By chance, most premium fuels offer a greater MJ/litre and tend to be "cleaner"
So what does all this lead to? MB, BMW, AUDI, etc will always recommend Premium Fuels because :
1. That's what they designed the engines to run on
2. It ensures the engine runs quieter and smoother
3. higher quality fuels tend to have less contaminants and thus extends the serviceable life of the engine.
So, can you run on 87? Sure!
Would you? Not if you care about that engine.
Last edited by xntrek : 07-21-2008 at 12:24 AM.
Reason: spelling mistakes were bugging me :P
What's that saying? Pennywise and poundfoolish? Does that apply here?
Linear Mode
