91 Octane w/Arco or 87 Octane with Chevron and other "name brand" fuel?

Any 87 octane gas from here: Top Tier Gasoline

 

My experience has been pretty simple... I stay away from Chevron and only buy 87 octane.

 

I use 87 octane from Arco almost exclusively. Its routinely 10-20 cents cheaper than the rest in my neighborhood. Using 91 octane does nothing for the Prius except cost more. I've personally never found any benefit to buying Chevron/Shell etc. In most places they are the same gas from the same pipelines and trucks. The only difference is the detergent / additive pack that's dumped in. I've never seen any evidence that Arco is gumming up my fuel system, and never seen any difference on the rare occasions I have to buy top tier. I'd use Costco, but its less convenient and often the same price to a few cents more than Arco.

In general I believe their is much more benefit to buying fresh gas from a high volume station whose tanks are in good repair, than to buying one brand over another. Because the Arco stations I use are usually the cheapest in the area, they are always packed. High throughput means fresher gas.

Rob

 

God help us, will this inane discussion of octane and gasoline quality never end!?!?!?
What exactly is it that you are trying to deterimine here ??

This is even more confusing than most questions because it muddies the discussion by MIXING different octane levels and different brand in the same question.

Octane has been discussed to death here.
So has "top tier" fuels......but in different threads.

Nobody.....NOBODY (except maybe few kooks) really recommends using higher octane in a vehicle not designed for it.

And in most cases the gas from ALL of the stations in a given area comes from the same refinery and the same pipeline.
Depending on where you live, Arco and Chevron might both get their basic fuel from a Shell or Marathon refinery.

 

It's what car folks do.. If you don't like this discussion - you're gonna hate tire discussions !

If the 91 had no ethanol, and the 87 did...it would have to depend on price. Though I'd be tempted to run the 91 now-and-then, just for the fun of it.

 

I would buy 87 octane gas from a busy station. Old gas tends to have attracted water. When I visit places with Arco stations, they are busy.

You can buy 91 octane if you like throwing away money, and if it is as busy as the 87 octane.

 

Except for experimenting to see if you might get higher MPG, I am not aware of any reason to get anything other than Regular.

Re: Detergent Additives - Years ago some brands put more detergent in the premium, but to my knowledge this is not true today. TopTierGas.com brands in particular reportedly put adequate detergents in all grades. Non toptier.com brands, you might want to check their web site to see what they say...COSTCO claims to put adequate detergents in all grades I believe.

I personally go with TopTier.com brands but that's easy in my area they are the best price when considering discounts - grocery etc. Some areas the TopTier is hard to get or more expensive.

 

Kick to the groin, or punch to the kidneys... tough decision.

 

Well here we go again, I wish someone from Toyota would step in and solve this for once and for all, but until that day, I would use Chevron 91, at least you are buying fuel that all manufactures use to test with and have the security that you are meeting and exceeding the recommended octane rating by Toyota.

 

They did, it is in the manual, use 87 octane or higher.

There is no advantage to higher, but it is OK

 

Well there is still some confusion because we need to define Octane units we are talking about.
Regular = 87 US Pump Octane ~= 91 Reseach Octane
US Pump Octane is also known as 87 AKI = 87 R+M/2
So I assume Orenji is saying he likes Premium = 91 US Pump Octane

Toyota clear they like Regular 87 Pump Octane or higher. Not clear but Toyota may also prefer TopTierGas.com brands due to their commitment to add adequate detergents. But probably top tier is not practical in some markets, so you have to use your judgement if your other brands are equal or if you might want to add some Techron once in a while.

 

But THAT is what makes this "discussion" so pointless.
Toyota HAS told you what to use.......right in their owner's manuals.

And the answer is: Regular grade 87 octane.......or higher, because higher won't hurt.
If there was ANY advantage to actually using higher octane fuel, don't you think that they would come right out and SAY that ??
All the manufactures who make cars that will benefit from higher octane gas HAVE THE RECOMMENDATION TO USE HIGHER OCTANE right in the manual. If that recommendation is not in there, you don't need it.

This really isn't a complicated subject. Why do people insist on making it difficult ??

 

Costco 87 for sure, cheapest by far plus cash back at the end of the year. Second would be Arco 87 for price.

 

One reason is years ago there may have been benefits for Premium (more detergents, cleaner, etc). Today due in part to EPA regs, all grades are more equal in terms of detergents/cleanliness.

 

I would like to believe this, but who knows what they really do to save on costs, so to be sure I am getting the best available, I prefer to use Chevron and 91 octane. For the small cost difference it makes sense to me.

 

Higher octane and "the best available" have NO connection to each other.
You refuse to believe that and continue to be delusional about this.
That is your right but trying to convince others to follow your folly is not a responsible thing to do.

 

Toyota also said in the owner's manual to change the oil at 10k miles. They'll even do the honors of paying it for you. But people still insist on changing it out early or going to 5k miles OCI instead. Isn't this the same thing? People think doing these things are better for the car. There's really no confusion. Toyota recommends 33 PSI in the tires. Somebody said pump it up and started up the discussion. Sometimes people and their discussions can be right.

I use the cheapest 87 octane gas that is on my regular route. Name brand or not, it's never been a concern to me. Because it's the cheapest, I know the gas is always is never old. I never go out of my way to get gas at a specific station because that wastes gas to go there.

 

Unless they carve it in the side of a big mountain, I think Toyota has communicated the recommendation.

They clearly did 4 years ago. Before the release of the Gen 3 Prius the discussion and question arose about what grade of gasoline would be recommended for The Prius. With the "new" beltless engine there was quite a lot of speculation and concern that the Prius might go from being run on "regular" to requiring a higher octane. It took a while to get the answer down from Japan and Toyota. BUT the answer did come, and was presented by the US Toyota Prius team. Regular....

You want to run a higher octane? Go right ahead. But the answer exists.

 

There's confusion about octanes for a couple of reasons I can think of.

First, the gas stations are no help. I'm sure they want to upsell you, with the array of octane pumps as you pull in. In fact very few vehicles need anything other than the lowest octane. Those vehicles will have specific statements in their Owner's Manual. And even then, due to computer controlled fuel injection, using a lower octane will have little effect other than the car possibly stepping in and retarding ignition timing a bit.

Secondly, if I look in my Owner's Manual, I see an octane requirement number. When I arrive at the gas station, none of the pumps show that same number, due different units, formulas, moon phase, whatever: I don't care. Bottom line: the lowest octane is the one to get. Anything else, you're throwing away your money, buying gas that's main distinction is it's harder to ignite, to resist pre-ignition, an issue with high compression engines. Which Prius isn't.