What is wrong with the people at Nissan? Have they all got rocks in their heads? Yesterday I almost bought a 2007 Quest. But I decided to do a little more research. That's when I learned the engine is designed to run on premium gas and that the published specs, i.e. MPG, horsepower, torque, etc are all arrived at using premium gas. Of course no one on the sales staff will inform the potential customer of any of this. In fact the sales manager later denied even knowing about this engines fuel requirement. Neither is this information printed in any of the various brochures given to me. Nissan's website does mention in small print near the bottom of the page that the vehicle will accept regular gas. But it fails to mention how performance or mileage will be affected. A Nissan customer service representative informed me that the use of regular gas will do no "serious" damage to the engine. I assume that any damage that is less than "serious" should be acceptable to the customer.
When regular gas is selling for $3 per gallon and premium gas is selling for $3.40 per gallon, I find Nissan's decision to stick a premium gas engine in a family type minivan and then tell it's customers to use regular gas is unconsciencable.
I guess in your world, they would rate cars on low octain gas with 15% ethonol @ 5000 ft elv doing 75MPH with all ratings at the wheel with the AC on? And in this world they have CAR SALESMEN that reveal the truth without asking. Urm, I often dream of this world...
I hear something....it's the Waaaaahhhhmbulance coming...
Do your homework. Read Consumer Reports. Read carsurvey.org. It's all out there, the dealership people are iffy on knowledge anyway, they're just there to sell cars. Great reason to not go back to another Nissan dealership...
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'88 Pathfinder: 6" of lift, 33x13.50 Swamper LTB's, Rancho 9000's, L&P Stage 3 steering system, K&N, Pacesetter headers and 2.5" exhaust, Lock-Right locker, 110A alty and electric fan swap, dual batteries, 700W+ worth of PIAAs, etc.
Not so fast there, guy. First of all, lets look at what you get for your money when you buy the better gas. The AVERAGE car (i.e. including american made junk 15 years old) supposedly gets 8 to 10% better mileage on premium. That means that if you are paying $3.30 for premium instead of $3.00 for regular then you are breaking even. In my area, premium is never more than $0.20 more than regular, so it is actually significantly CHEAPER to run on premium.
Now consider that our newer cars can reprogram themselves to optimize whatever fuel you feed them, and you can bet we probably get a few percentage points that way as well. Running on regular will NOT hurt your new van. The computer will figure it out quickly and scale itself back SLIGHTLY to use the regular gas effectively. It just isn't really a big deal like it used to be 20 years ago.
The difference now is that is used to cost 20% more to buy the good stuff (when regular was 0.99 and premium was 1.19). That made using premium expensive. Now that the price of either has trippled and they are still only $0.20 apart, the good stuff is actually cheaper.
That said, what about the performance... I recently drove my '04 Quest SE from TX to Ohio and back. I drove around up there for a couple of days, too. The entire trip averaged 28.0 mpg. I don't care what kind of gas you are running, that is unreal mileage for a 250hp minivan.
Even at the highest gas prices you are still talking like $0.12 per mile for gas. Maintenance and car payments are WAY bigger than gas anyway. With the difference between one van and another coming down to one or two mpg, it would literally take you hundreds of thousands of miles for that to amount to the price difference between, say, a Quest SE and an equipped Toyota. My Nissan gets better mileage than my sister's toyota anyway.
To some extent you make a valid point rwinegar. Unfortunately most manuafacturers do the same.
I assume it's a legal requirement where you are, as here, to publish consumption figures. So the car makers highlight the required figures and tuck away the fact if they need a higher octane fuel. Perhaps it's time for governments to require equal prominence to the RON required because until they do all companies will highlight the facts that suit them.
Published consumption figures here are based on lab tests anyway so may have liitle relation to the real world.
The engine will adjust to using a lower octane and drivers of some models say they can't notice the difference. Should only do any harm if it causes pinking which is unlikely in a modern engine.
I have an 06 Pathfinder SE and was wondering what I should be putting in?
Thanks
Depends on the state/country and altitude. Then loaded/unloaded (hauling). The PF has varable timing, so really for day to day, buy the cheepest. Do an internet search and you will find opinions that vary greatly.
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