I don't want to spark another thread of "if you bought luxury should be able to afford premium" so let me start with a good ol' disclaimer: this is NOT about performance. In a little devate with 4thaccord flaunting the "higher ownership cost" against the tlx got me to look a little deeper into the "premium vs regular" but with a little more practicality added to it.
The full article is here but here is the rundown.
We understand that buying octane fuel higher than recommended in the car manual won't bring any more benefits from it (source: Cartalk)
and because those who have done the research know that premium gas for the TLX is recommended and not required (source: Mat Hargett, Vice President of Acura Development & Chief Engineer, Acura TLX at Autoline After Hours 262)
this translates to me as TLX owners having the option to go back and forth between fuel types, but for what purpose and what cost to performance? that's where the article makes a practical approach:
[quote]
The next step is to compare the prices of ethanol-added fuel and non-ethanol fuel. Youll need to know the prices to figure out which is the best buy but its not always the cheapest one.
The Department of Energy suggests that 10% ethanol blend fuels trim about 4% off of the gas mileage of the automobile. My experience actually pushes that percentage higher according to my own measurements in our automobiles, doing a mix of city, interstate, and highway driving, 10% ethanol blend fuel drops gas mileage by 7-8%. Lets say its 7.5% for the purposes of calculating this.
What I do is I take out my calculator on my phone and multiply the non-ethanol fuel cost by 0.925 (which is simply 1 minus 0.075 the 7.5% indicated above) and see what the resulting number is. If that number is lower than the cost of the ethanol fuel, I buy the non-ethanol fuel. If the ethanol fuel is still cheaper, I buy the ethanol fuel.
[end quote]
The article goes on to say that most of the times the writer tends to buy ethanold-added fuel because it's till cheaper even after calculating the reduced efficiency and that prices between the two types will vary by season.
In my research about ethanol showed that law requirements have varied wildly from state to state and that in most metropolitan areas your choices will be limited to only ethanol filled gas. Either way, I am understanding then that it is perfectly possible to make a calculated choice for your gas type based on the prices at the gas pump even if all three of the gas have E10 marked for 10% ethanol however that's not my main point.
The point I'm trying to make here is actually much simpler: our engines are far more flexible than our 87octane only siblings thus we have a greater range of driving choice from hyper miling to hyper revving given our various and unique driving situations. I'll take that as a win, even if all this is theory until we see some miles in our TLXs.
The full article is here but here is the rundown.
We understand that buying octane fuel higher than recommended in the car manual won't bring any more benefits from it (source: Cartalk)
and because those who have done the research know that premium gas for the TLX is recommended and not required (source: Mat Hargett, Vice President of Acura Development & Chief Engineer, Acura TLX at Autoline After Hours 262)
this translates to me as TLX owners having the option to go back and forth between fuel types, but for what purpose and what cost to performance? that's where the article makes a practical approach:
[quote]
The next step is to compare the prices of ethanol-added fuel and non-ethanol fuel. Youll need to know the prices to figure out which is the best buy but its not always the cheapest one.
The Department of Energy suggests that 10% ethanol blend fuels trim about 4% off of the gas mileage of the automobile. My experience actually pushes that percentage higher according to my own measurements in our automobiles, doing a mix of city, interstate, and highway driving, 10% ethanol blend fuel drops gas mileage by 7-8%. Lets say its 7.5% for the purposes of calculating this.
What I do is I take out my calculator on my phone and multiply the non-ethanol fuel cost by 0.925 (which is simply 1 minus 0.075 the 7.5% indicated above) and see what the resulting number is. If that number is lower than the cost of the ethanol fuel, I buy the non-ethanol fuel. If the ethanol fuel is still cheaper, I buy the ethanol fuel.
[end quote]
The article goes on to say that most of the times the writer tends to buy ethanold-added fuel because it's till cheaper even after calculating the reduced efficiency and that prices between the two types will vary by season.
In my research about ethanol showed that law requirements have varied wildly from state to state and that in most metropolitan areas your choices will be limited to only ethanol filled gas. Either way, I am understanding then that it is perfectly possible to make a calculated choice for your gas type based on the prices at the gas pump even if all three of the gas have E10 marked for 10% ethanol however that's not my main point.
The point I'm trying to make here is actually much simpler: our engines are far more flexible than our 87octane only siblings thus we have a greater range of driving choice from hyper miling to hyper revving given our various and unique driving situations. I'll take that as a win, even if all this is theory until we see some miles in our TLXs.