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Auto makers and Gas companies really like it when they are able to convince you to buy premium gasoline. They like it so much they continue to perpetuate half truths about premium gasoline. Half truths such as premium gasoline will provide better fuel economy. Half truths like premium gasoline can increase your engine's performance. Actually these aren't even half truths they are full blown myths. 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 gas refineries and retailers are not the only ones that make more money from premium gas. Auto makers use premium gas to add to their profits too. One way they do that is by creating a higher perceived value for their cars. They convince you that if a vehicle can only use high octane fuel it must have a premium engine and since it has a premium engine naturally the vehicle must have a higher price. Auto manufacturers can persuade you that their "premium engine" is worth more dollars by stating that it can only run on premium gas. 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. Because these engines do have some horsepower advantage it enables the car manufacturers to advertise more horsepower for their "high octane engines". Higher horsepower equates to higher cost autos which equates to higher cost for you and more profit for the vehicle manufacturers. High octane engines do output a small horsepower advantage when running on high octane fuel. It is so small though that most engineers and vehicle experts agree that you can use low octane fuel in a high octane engine and you probably can't tell the difference. 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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