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Gas companies and auto makers love it when you buy premium gas. They like it so much that they try to perpetuate myths about premium gas. Myths like premium gas will lead to better fuel economy. Myths like premium gas will make your car perform better. Why do the gas companies and auto makers like premium so much? Gasoline refiners and retailers like premium gas because it's a lot more profitable for them than regular gas. You pay 20 cents more for premium gas while the retailer only pays about 8 cents more for that same gallon. That means the retailer makes an extra 12 cents on every gallon of premium gas he sells. The oil refineries make a few cents per gallon more on premium gasoline over what they make on regular when selling it to distributors. The small extra profit per gallon is multiplied by the tens of thousand of gallons of gas that refineries sell, and ends up adding thousands and thousands of dollars to their profit. The refineries and fuel retailers aren't the only ones that get an advantage using high octane fuel. Vehicle makers use high octane fuel to increase their bottom line also. The car makers use high octane fuel to increase the perceived value of their vehicles. They use this type of thought pattern:if a car can only use premium gasoline it must have a more expensive engine and since it has a more expensive engine naturally the vehicle must cost more. By using that logic, auto manufacturers can convince you that you should be spending extra dollars on their car. Another benefit of premium gas that auto makers capitalize on is to take advantage of the anti-knock properties of premium gas. By designing engines to be optimized for that property of premium gas they can create engines that in fact do get more horsepower out of premium then out of regular. Since these engines do have some horsepower gain it enables the auto makers to advertise bigger horsepower ratings for their "premium engines". Higher horsepower means more expensive auto which means more cost for you and more profit for the car manufacturers. These optimized for premium engines actually do put out a little more horsepower on premium than with regular. But most car experts and engineers seem to agree that if you use regular in a premium engine, the difference in horsepower is so small, you probably can't tell. Premium gas does not increase fuel economy. Regular gas can be run in a so called premium engine without any noticeable effect. In the end it all comes down to money. By convincing you that you need to use premium gas they are able to take more money out of your pocket and put it in theirs.
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