What type of Fuel?

[Yoda3000]

Hi, I am an unemployed 16 year old. I got my SVX almost six months ago, and buying Premium with money leftover from a summer job is sucking me dry. Is premium necessary or am I just wasting money?

[ensteele]

First, welcome to the site. This is the place to get a lot of questions answered. You can do a search and find out lots about subjects talked about in the past.

Premium fuel is necessary. The car will not run properly if you use a lesser grade of fuel. The engine is designed to run on premium fuel and you are not wasting your money on the better fuel. You may have to cut down on the miles you drive, if it is too expensive for you. Make sure you do the proper maintenance on the car or you will be looking at a much bigger bill than for fuel. Good luck. You can do a search on fuel and premium fuel on this site. There is one thread that discussed this topic a lot.

You have a 92, so premium back then would be 91 grade, wouldnt it? Anyone know? But it is definitely in the vehicle's best interest to use the highest grade possible.

So yes, premium. Others will say it doesn't matter, but ENSTEEL is right, it does.

May I ask what are you doing owning a car if you are unemployed? Maintaining any type of vehicle is costly, let alone the SVX. If you will be driving your vehicle regularly, I recommend you get yourself a job. Think of all the good costly things you have to look forward to every few months - brake jobs, rotors, oil changes, etc - and that's just normal maintenance.

This is all assuming you are not sponging off of mommy or daddy.

[Beav]

My first thought is if it's only a buck or two more each tank, that's not such a big deal. But I used to live out west and also understand that it's not uncommon for a normal trip to include an hour or two of driving, each way. Personally I use 91, get 18-19 mpg in town, 28-29 on the highway.

Here's the way I rationalize it: the engine has knock sensors to 'listen' for detonation, pinging, whatever your favorite term, and reduce the timing in order to stop it. Reducing timing lowers power a bit and that in itself will affect fuel mileage. So my thoughts are if it doesn't adversely affect fuel mileage you're probably paying for something you don't need. If it does affect your mpg then it's probably costing you more in mpg$ than the extra dime per gallon of the premium blend.

or, of you are really cheap, then mix 1/2 tank premium with 1/2 tank mid-grade.

I put 87 octane in the SVX one time. You will be sorry. It ran so bad, it wasn't even funny. Although the knock sensors will retart the timing, you still have a 10.5:1 compression ratio to deal with. You can only retard it so much, then it becomes worthless.

16 and out of a job? Hate to say it, but the SVX wasn't the best car to buy.

Hello,

I am getting to be a bit outspoken on this but I think that you are one more case of getting an expensive car cheaply and that is no deal at all because these are complicated, expensive, wonderful cars.

You need, if I may suggest it, two things:
1) A 5 year old Civic
2) Someone who will tell you to stop being angry and finish your education.

16 is no time to be either out of school OR unemployed. What work can 16 year olds do now or in the future? Menial, food stuff

I do care and have put 3 children through University and it is possible: you need to get a less expensive car, find a guardian angel and get back to school.... really!! tough love

Hotshoe

[SVX10]

Hey there yoda3000. First of all, I'm from Albuquerque so it's cool to see another SVX owner from the area...no too many from NM. I got mine when I was 17 with no job, and I've been OK (although I did have a warranty to pay for my bad transmission a few months after I bought the car). Anyway, I'd say use premium. I was used regular for about 1 year. Car will run, no doubt, but won't run very well. I'm no longer into racing from light to light (cruisin' Montgomery), but I was losing off the line to Cavaliers and stuff like that, so it will effect performance (as soon as I lost to a Cavalier I put up the exact same post you started this thread with and I was convinced to use premium). My gas mileage didn't suffer much while using regular, but I did have a knock sensor go bad. That's at least $60 along with an hour of labor, so is that worth 20-30 tanks of premium compared to regular? All in all, I'd say use premium if you want the car to run well.

Also, am I just slow, or was there no mention of being out of school? True, he is using money from a summer job, but last I heard it was a good thing not to be in school during the summer. I never got the impression that Yoda was some angry slacker dropout with no job, just an unemployed 16 year old.

Mat

[svxistentialist]

Hello Yoda

Welcome to the club, and I hope you get good service from your SVX.

Are you winding them up about being 16?

I run my car on standard unleaded here in Ireland. I was using the premium, but I am a high mileage user, and the cost per tankfull was shocking!

There is a noticable power loss with the lower grade petrol[gas]. You still have a powerful car though. Beav is right, as usual, the closed loop antiknock sensors retard the ignition to save damage.

It is also a little down on gas mileage, but not a lot, this will depend on how much cold runs/stop-start versus long steady speed drives.

Our standard unleaded may be higher RON than your cheap grades, I don't know. Just for comparison, in case someone accuses me of being cheap, I will give you our fuel costs;

standard fuel costs me the equivalent of $3.28 per US gallon.

premium fuel costs the equivalent of $4.18 per US gallon.

This on a car up to this week giving the equivalent of 15mpg. You can understand my weekly fuel bill.

My advice, try the cheaper stuff, see how it goes. If it's OK it's OK. If the car runs rotten or you hear the engine knocking, bite the bitter pill and go back on the good stuff.

Joe

[Yoda3000]

Thanks a lot guys. After reveiwing your comments, I think I will stick with premium. As for the 16 years old thing: I use my car mostly for driving to and from school, about 10 miles away. No, I'm not a drop out. I am in AP humanities which jives about 2 hours of homework a night. I can (and will) get a job eventually, but for now, I am trying to prolong that and mantain my GPA.

Again, thanks a lot for your input.

Do NOT tell me to buy a civic.

-Yoda

Originally posted by Yoda3000


Do NOT tell me to buy a civic.

-Yoda

hehehee

Hey I forgot to congratulate you on your fine taste in automobiles! Nice choice with the SVX.

May I ask how you learned about and obtained the SVX?