which fuel?????

[jacobus]

I have a 2000 VX, I just got the car and do not know which fuel to use, so far I have received three different answers, any of you VX experts could tell me .
Thanks for your help

[Ldub]

Standard (stock) intake...87 reg. is fine.
Supercharged...91 premium works best.

[nocturnalVX]

Yup, just plain old 87 octane is all a stock VX needs, but if you want to treat her with the "good stuff" every now & then I'm sure it wouldn't hurt anything other than your funds.

[Anita]

Regular here

[Joe_Black]

My '88 Trooper with the 2.6L would only be happy with mid-grade, but ever since the 3.2L DOHC came out it's been regular ever since. Makes the wallet just a bit less sore at no cost to performance.

[VehiX]

I usually shoot for mid grade (or Plus, in most areas).

Even though the VX only requires regular, I figure gas is a nasty dirty substance and the midgrade is probably just regular after it's all said and done.

Isn't regular cheaper not only because it's less octane but because it tends to be the bottom of the barrel or mixes of different grades?

There is no rhyme or reason to my theory and I'm not sure why I believe this, but that's what I do. Doesn't seem to be hurting the VX by doing so. However, since the gas price hike, I've switched to regular until the prices come back down

[WyrreJ]

Isn't regular cheaper not only because it's less octane but because it tends to be the bottom of the barrel or mixes of different grades?

I got bad news for ya. Midgrade is just a mix of the low octane and high octane fuel.

Almost all gas stations have just two tanks in the ground, low and high octane. They mix them at the pump to get the in-betweens. In many cases, you can actually mix it yourself (pump 2/3rd low octane and 1/3rd high octane or whatever ratio it takes) and it is cheaper than letting the station mix it.

However, you are not alone in your misconception, the gas companies actively seek to mislead people into thinking just that, to trick you into giving them more money.

[Ldub]

A lot of the "mid-grades" around here are 10% ethanol to increase octane.
$.02 from ND.

[Tone]

Specs call for 87 unless you hear detonation - it is not unusual for engines with higher miles to need a higher octane due to build up in the combustion chambers. Search on octane for many posts about this and a thorough explaination of octanes.

[VehiGAZ]

The 10% ethanol is there to reduce emissions, not to improve octane. The carcinogen (I think) MTBE was the most popular additive until recently, when it started showing up in drinking water supplies. CT and many othe rnortheast states switched over to ethanol very quickly.