XRS & fuel type

[TrixStir]

Greetings,

I've searched the old posts but cant find any info on whether or not the XRS can only use premium fuel.
does anyone know if
You can use regular fuel?
Do you only lose hp's or mpg's also in using reg fuel?

I'm thinking about buyin a Matrix after my negotiations for the Honda Fit went sour.. Of course the Matrix is a step up.. Now my only decision is used or new? any opinions?

Thanks all in advance.

[matrixmanvvtl_i]

welll... according to the service manuel, it states that the XRS model is suppost to use 91 or better... i've been using 89 since week one and i've dynoed against another XRS running 91 and he had 3 more horsepower than i did, had nothing to do with the gas though... no pinging for me...

[thespud]

I would reccomend Premium in all new cars. It does actually work out cheaper (I'll get to that in a minute). But the owners manual says to use 95RON (works out to about 91 in the US).

As far as working out cheaper, put it this way working in the Australian environment, I fill my Pulsar up with Premium every tank at 0.05c Per litre more. In an average fill i put 35-40L in which works out to be $1.75-$2 more per tank. At the current price for unleaded of 139.9c Per Litre, i need to get an average of around 1.5L or 15km more. I know, because i watchthese figures, that i get about 50km more per tank in the city and 100km more on the highway han regular. So this works out to be much much better... and cheaper...

[ksbrace]

I'll confirm that in cars with high-compression engines (the 2ZZ is one), high octane fuel doesn't necessarily cost more per mile. A friend had a Volvo (I forget the model) that "recommended" high octane fuel. On his 60 mile commute he kept good fuel records and found that his fuel economy improved on premium by about the same amount as the cost per gallon increased, so buying premium didn't cost more, and it meant fewer fill-ups. This is because high compression engines "de-tune" a little for regular fuel to avoid pinging, so are not running at the efficiency the engine was designed for.
High octane fuel shouldn't make any difference in fuel economy for the 1ZZ engine, because with the lower compression it won't be pinging on regular fuel. It is designed for regular, so it will run at full efficiency on regular.

[357wheelgunner]

You have to use premium feul.

You get more power, better feul efficiency, and less pinging. You WILL ping if you use crappy gas so don't do it. If you can't afford the feul you can't afford an XRS, but it really is not that big a deal, a dollar or two every full tank of gas is nothing.

Get the XRS it is very fun, if you don't you will just wish you did later....