premium gas vs. regular

[xman21]

i know that it is recommended by nissan to use premium gas. as we are all aware gas prices are thru the roof. i wonder if anyone knows if there is much of a difference in preformance when using regular gasoline.

[MagicM]

The 3.5VQ is designed to run the best on premium. It's pointless and stupid to try and save a few cents in reducing engine life.

[xman21]

i was just looking for information. we're talking dollars here. not cents. thanks anyway.

[kgb_Maine]

I know I'm late to the party, but I found through very non scientific research that I get slightly less gas mileage when I use regular, and lower performance. When gas was in the $1.50/Gal range the and Premium was always $.20 more than regular, this price increase was higher, percentage wise, than the loss in gas mileage as a %. But now with gas over $3./Gal and premium still only $.20 more... it is a lot less as a % of cost per gallan, thus making premium cheaper.

Did anyone follow that pretzel logic?

Bottom line: It would cost you MORE to use regular, due to lower mileage.

[pat03z06]

Basically the engines compression will determine if you need higher octane or not.

The FX35 is 10:3:1 compression I believe.

If you run lower octane gas in the engine and you punch it your engine can experience detonation, sometimes called ping, the knock sensors will pick up the ping and pull timing from the engine to save the engine from the damaging effects of detonation thus reducing power and gas mileage/efficiency.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/question90.htm

[nissans13240sx]

From what I have expierienced Murano with regular gas pings. I'd say if you dont want to buy premium atleast by 89 octane. Depending on what state you live in you could fail emissions due to knock sensor codes.