Is regular gasoline just as good as premium gasoline for your car?

Regular grade gasoline vs. premium grade gasoline.

Like many products and services in the marketplace today, premium gasoline is one of those higher priced options that will not give the majority of it's consumers anything beneficial to justify spending the extra money. Kind of like those people you see purchasing overpriced water that claims to be superior to other bottled water.

Many gas stations and companies will have you believe that the higher price and higher octane markings on a gasoline make it better for your car then other gasolines. They will tell you that the premium gasoline is filtered, contains more additives,and will make your car run better. The truth is that nearly all gasoline on the market comes from the same crude oil that is many times filtered and purified of contaminants and debris using similar methods.

The only actual difference between competing gasoline stations in their fuel are the additives they put in the gasoline. These additives range from chemicals that claim to clean your engine to additives that claim to boost horsepower and performance. It is important to note that most gasoline companies in order to stay competitive have put the same additives in regular and premium gasolines leaving the main differences of price and octane level as the only differences.

Since most regular gasoline you buy will be filtered and contain some additive unique to that particular station you frequent and since most of you reading this don't own Lamborghins or Formula One race cars, you have no need to spend extra money on already high priced gasoline. You see, the higher octane gasoline does actually make a difference in a few of the high performance engines out there in high performance cars and is even recommended by some of the makers of those cars. But for the majority of us and our cars, the only thing premium gasoline does for us is drain our wallets quicker.

You may be thinking that if some premium gasolines do contain additional beneficial additives that the regular gasoline does not then it might be worth the extra money regardless whether you are driving a Ford Pinto or a Ferrari. But when is the last time you've seen a list of ingredients in your gasoline available to you? You can clearly see the difference between many premium vs. 'regular' products through labels, but gasoline is not one of those products. With that said, you really have no clue what, if any, additional benefits you'd be getting from paying more for a slightly higher octane gasoline that may or may not contain useful additives.

Keep in mind that just because a gasoline is advertised as having good additives in it, these additives could range from engine cleansers (may be useful) to those that change the color of the gasoline (useless). So in closing, unless your car maker strongly recommends higher octane gasoline or unless you plan on racing at the Daytona, stick with regular and both your car and wallet will survive just fine.