Vehicle manufacturers and oil companies love to make extra profits so they love it when they are able to persuade you to purchase premium fuel. They like it so much they continue to perpetuate inaccuracies about premium fuel. Inaccuracies such as premium fuel will provide better fuel economy. Inaccuracies such as high octane fuel can enhance your engine's performance. Actually these aren't inaccuracies they are complete 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 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 way that car manufacturers capitalize on premium gas is by using to their advantage the anti-knock properties of premium gasoline. They do this by designing engines to be specially tuned for premium gas. By doing that they can create "premium engines" that actually do get a little more horsepower out of premium gasoline then they do from regular gasoline.
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.
The optimized for premium engines do perform with a small increase in horsepower running on premium gas. Most engineers and car experts seem to agree that you can use regular in a premium engine and you probably can't tell the difference.
Regular gasoline can be used in a "premium engine" without any noticeable difference. Premium gasoline does not enhance fuel economy. In the end it all comes down to this: By making you believe you need to use premium gasoline, the oil companies and auto makers are able to put more money in their pockets by taking more out of yours.
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