Just wondering if anyone has used 91 for the heck of it yet... any difference?

I've always been feeding mine 87

 

Don't waste your money on premium gas. The fit engine does not require it. Just my .02c

 

Compression ratio is still not high enough for the car to significantly benifit from it. I've gotten better gas mileage and quickerstarts/smoother idle on mine with 91, but its all pretty subjective and certainly not worth the extra cost (haha only a buck or two tho...but it all adds up in the long long run). With the fit's small tank, why not just try it? It'll cost you AT MOST 8 bucks more for a fillup.

 

my dealer actually told me not to use anything over 87

 

I was forced to use a 50/50 mix of 93 and 87 once. I was running out of gas, and the first station I found only had 93, and would only take cash, and I only had $20. I then filled up later with 87.

I didn't notice much of a difference, but I did get worse mileage. However, my mileage varies a lot due to all the places my Fit goes, and due to the fact that I'm not always driving it.

 

On a similar note, is there a difference between using 100% gas and gas with ethanol in it? I have a friend with a fit, and he won't put anything with ethanol in it. If it's an obvious answer, sorry, I'm pretty much a car newbie :P Thanks!

 

Popular misconception that putting higher octane will increase power and efficiency. You may LOOSE POWER AND EFFICIENCY by doing this. Pocket the money instead.

 

Alot of people dont know, higher octane is just a a more concentrated gas. kinda like making an old guy go faster with gatorade. what im sayin is, high octane is only for older worn out cars/trucks

 

The difference ethanol makes is that you get worse gas mileage because of the lower energy content in the ethanol. On the other hand, 10% ethanol gas burns cleaner and may be slightly cheaper, and it helps clean things out a little.

Higher octane means it's harder to ignite. Old, dirty engines often have carbon deposits inside the cylinders which can cause the fuel to ignite too soon. High-octane fuel resists this tendency, which means smoother running. High-performance engines often need high-octane fuel because they use higher compression ratios in the cylinders, which again can cause 87 octane fuel to ignite too soon.

However, high-octane fuel has less energy content than lower-octane fuel, just like with ethanol, so you may get worse fuel economy using it, especially if your engine doesn't need it.

 

Wow, this is very informative. I had previously sworn to only use premium fuel in my new Fit under the pretense that it was just "better" for the car. I supposed this warrants a little more research. Luckily I've only had to fill up once, $$38.00!!!!!!! [my last car cost $90.00]

 

my last car's fill up (2006 honda pilot) 85 dollars. first honda fit fill up, around 28 mesily bucks, drastic differnce woudnt u agree? imagine how much it would cost back when gas was like 1.20, 12-13 bucks ^.^

 

USATODAY.com - Why use premium gas when regular will do?

this seems to be the most convincing part from the article...

{The Federal Trade Commission, in a consumer notice, emphasizes: "(I)n most cases, using a higher-octane gasoline than your owner's manual recommends offers absolutely no benefit. It won't make your car perform better, go faster, get better mileage or run cleaner."

There is "no way of taking advantage of premium in a regular-grade car," says Furey.

"There is no gain. You're wasting money," insists Jim Blenkarn, in charge of powertrains at Nissan in the USA. }

 

thats why you buy a Fit, so you dont have to.

 

Twice we've filled with 91 octane just to be on the safe side at the track where repeated running at 100 mph is required. Didn't appear to make any difference at all. as others said unless youre going to run WFO for a half hour at a time the cost is not worth it.
It might be worthy to note that my mpg on that tank was 31.5 including 60 miles WFO and 120 miles of backroad cruising.

 

Many engineers will not use ethanol laced fuels for two reasons:
1. ethanol does not take kindly to many internal fuel system gaskets
2. mpg with ethanol laced fuels is not as good as non ethanol laced gasoline.

As someone pointed out its not the octane rating that yields good mpg its the energy released when the fuel is burned. Pure gasolines can have as much as 122,00 bTu while poor gasolines 110,000. The difference is the recipe used to make the gas. (gasoline has many chemical components and ethanol is not one of the better ones. Its combustion energy is below 100,000 btu per lb.)
Octane merely prevents the combustion flame front from not being steady. It don't know energy from squat.
PS it used to be that premium fuels contained higher energy components like toluene but thats not true as much now.