Long-Term Road Tests

You Americans need to stop complaning about gas prices. Are you jocking me? Is that expensive? 85 dollars for 21 gallons? Here in Norway where I live that would cost you 210 dollars! Here gas cost 10 dollars a gallon and it is expected to reach at least 12 dollas this year. That is 3 times what you pay for gas.
 
Most sold car in USA: Ford F-150 will do 15Mpg combined
 
Most sold car in Europe: Peugeot 207 will do 52 Mpg combined
 
That is 3,5 times the consumption
 
 I hope your gas prices reach out level, so that average joe cant afford to run a XXXL SUV and pollut the world! America: World police, world polluter. HEHE.

"I'd attribute much of that to taxation"
 
And you'd be correct. Like Europe, a high percentage of our gar price is tax.
 
I don't agree that we don't have costs like medical though. No matter what system you have, it still has to be paid for. The difference is we pay for it directly out of our taxes and avoid the huge greedy insurance companies that you have to deal with.

Not to sound like a complainer, but Canadiens (or is it Canadians?) also don't have many of the other costs Americans have, like medical for instance. While your gas prices are indeed high, I'd attribute much of that to taxation.

1487 is quite correct to state that while gas in the US is cheap by world standards, it is the sudden increase in prices that is shocking to consumers.
In Canada, we are used to gas that is more expensive than in the US, but a sudden rise from $5/gal to, say, $7/gal would be a shock to us, just as the jump to $3.99/gal has been a shock to our American neighbours.

I read an article this weekend that said in Germany gas costs over $8/gal in US dollars.

gas here is cheap by world standards, but the increases here have been sudden and thus they are shocking. Gas right now is only slight more than inflation adjusted gas was in 1981 in spite of all the media hype. If these increases had been gradual the reaction would have been different, but gas was $1.50 a gallon 3 or 4 years back.

$1.31/litre in Vancouver this morning.
 
I chuckle when I hear Americans complain too.

Argh! Americans have CHEAP gasoline! Where I live in Canada, gas is now $1.34 per litre for self-serve 87 octane regular. That's 5.04 per US gallon, or 6.08 per Canadian (Imperial) gallon. Our local price is expected to hit $1.50 per litre during the summer.
Oh, what you poor things must endure by paying 3.99 for premium gas.
My British friends pay way more than even we do, so I am not complaining about our price of gas, since they have it worse.

"BTW, i also own an 04 530i, the onboard computer says that im getting 14 MPG.. that cant be right, can it? its a 3L I6!!"
 
That is probably right if you are doing only city driving. I have a V6 and get 14-15mpg in City driving. You cannot equal EPA city numbers if you do true urban driving. I dont count cruising on suburban roads with 40mph speed limits as "city" driving. driving in and around a congested major city where there are tons of stop lights and lots of volume is city driving. My last car was rated at 20mpg in the city under old EPA standards and I routinely got around 14mpg. I know someone with a four cylinder rated at 23mpg under current standards who gets about 17mpg in the city.
 
"BMW's inline 6s get quite good mileage."
 
You obviously are not doing the same type of driving that he is doing. Drive a 530 in Philly and you will not get close to 24mpg. Trust me. It has little to do with how you use the throttle or engine problems.

elbee, I had the same 3.0 in my 330i (which was only a few hundred pounds lighter than his 530) and I consistently got 23-24 mpg combined. He's either hard on the gas, driving an automatic or there's an engine problem. BMW's inline 6s get quite good mileage.

"BTW, i also own an 04 530i, the onboard computer says that im getting 14 MPG.. that cant be right, can it? its a 3L I6!!"
 
Thats exactly why youre getting bad mileage. It's a tiny engine in a big heavy car.

"carmakers could quickly answer it by running each car through the EPA test twice."
 
texases, That's a damn good idea! They should be forced to give you both premium & regular mileage numbers.

When you use premium in a car that doesn't need it, you can advance the ignition timing a bit to get more power from the same engine. Tuners with new cars seem to do it themselves, so I'm guessing the computer doesn't do it automatically; you have to know what you're doing.
 
And that's why so many cars are tuned (during the design phase) to run on premium. They get a few more hp without any compromises besides requiring premium... and the market supports that. Try running regular in those engines and you lose enough mpg that it's not worth it, and horsepower too (though your ECU tweaks the ignition so that you're not actually causing any harm).

I'd really like to believe the 3 mpg #, but where'd it come from? And as far as tune-ups, not much to do on a modern car, computer controls everything.

It should be noted that the engine must be tuned to get any appreciable value out of premium. You can't simply throw it in there and expect better mileage (even though that does often happen).
 
I assure you any regular-fueled car will get at least 3mpg extra on premium if tuned properly.

The frustrating thing with the regular vs. premium discussion is that the carmakers could quickly answer it by running each car through the EPA test twice. I guess they don't want two more mpg figures floating around.

Premium makes a huge mileage difference in my Yamaha V-star motorcycle. I get over 5 mpg more out of premium compared to regular. I really don’t see much difference in acceleration or smoothness in idling, but I do get a very noticeable difference in mileage.
 
Unleaded 40 - 45 mpg
Premium 45 - 50 mpg

Texases, There is only one way to find out if premium is a better deal, and that is to try it. Next time you go on a long road trip wait until your gas tank is almost empty and fill it up with premium to see what kind of difference it makes.
 
My drive to work is 42 miles, and 40 of it are highway miles. That makes it a lot easier for me to do a comparison between both types of fuels. If you set the cruise and are not in heavy traffic you take most of the variables out of the equation.
 
Last week I drove past a gas station that carried E 85 and it was only $2.85. That’s got to be close to making up the difference in mileage losses. I wonder if it would be worth it to top of a half empty gas tank with E 85 when there is that much of a price difference.

It seems that some of you may be very, very bad at driving efficiently yet still complaining non stop about gas prices. You can't have it both ways...learn to shift at 2000RPM, cruise at 65MPH and coast 1/4 mile every time you see a red light or stop whining.

MrF - Yours is the case where premium "is required". A pinging engine is always a good indicator that a higher-octane fuel is appropriate. I run mid-grade in my '95 Suburban for that exact reason - it's a lot cheaper to do that than to have the heads pulled for a carbon cleanout, the cause of the pinging.