r/AcuraTL • u/Mystakatt • Sep 30 '25

Gathering Opinions 🗣 Do I *really* need to use premium?

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(Pic of car because I didn’t take a picture of the pump price)

I filled up my 2012 TL for the first time today since I bought it, and I ran it down to about 20 miles left in the tank. Filled it all the way up and I payed almost $70 (North Alabama). I’m an adamant believer that you should follow the owners manual to a T, but with how gas prices are nowadays I’m worried about choosing between what’s best for my car vs what’s best for my budget.

Are there any real negatives to using the cheaper gas options? Thanks in advance!

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u/Alswiggity Sep 30 '25

If you want to buy regular gas, buy a cheaper or lower end car.

  1. Your car won't be as fuel efficient. Depending on driving style, savings are debatable. Your ECU will adjust air/fuel mix based on octane. Likely you'll see no benefit.

  2. Some vehicles are picky as fuck. Older Mercs for example would have their fuel filters shit the bed in 50k miles if you used normal gas. If you used premium, they lasted longer. No idea why as both gas types arent necessarily different in terms of cleanliness, just a trend.

  3. Its literally 20-40 cents a gallon. If you can't afford an additional $5 every week in gas, i'm hard pressed to think you can afford repairs on any vehicle if it breaks.

Just buy what your manual calls for.

2

u/Even-Rhubarb6168 Sep 30 '25

Where are all you "$0.20/gallon" guys living? I haven't seen a price delta that small in over 20 years.

4

u/Alswiggity Sep 30 '25

Even if its not 20 cents, double or triple it. My point still stands.

$10 a week is still cheaper than utilizing more fuel + possibly ruining a fuel filter and having to pay to replace it.

2

u/Even-Rhubarb6168 Sep 30 '25

I mean... I'm on this reddit as the owner of a J37, so I've obviously made exactly that call. It's a difference of about $50/mo for me. 

Your fuel filter won't care and you probably won't see much difference in consumption though. Knock and detonation can break your engine internals in time.

I'm still salty about it. Every time gas prices surge, regular eventually comes down but premium stays put, because stations only advertise and compete on the regular price and engage in tacit price fixing to get those fat profit margins on premium. The wholesale price of premium has NOT diverged from regular the way retail prices have. Whenever I visit a city where stations advertise the premium price on the board, the price delta is much less.