Pump Fiction - Premium vs Regular - CBC Marketplace

[Traveller]

If you haven't seen that CBC Marketplace episode, you can view it on line for a good laugh.

Pump Fiction

Go to the 3' 40" mark where CBC Marketplace drives their test vehicle to the Canadian Automotive & Trucking Institute.

Marty, an instructor of over 20 years has the car run on their test jig on Regular and then on Premium. This gets good.

Marty thinks it'll take less HP to run on Premium.

God, the blind leading the blind. No wonder we have dumb techs.

On a test jig with the same car, it will take X horsepower to run at the same speed no matter what fuel is in the car. They're not even taking any fuel consumption measurements.

Listen to the rest of the chit chat between Tom and Marty.

This is hilarious.

[Drisump]

SERIOUSLY? Gees, this is how the world is going, how fricking useless an exercise is that? I've checked my fuel mileage on the hiway on various grades in my BMW 328i and it seems to me that the highest grades gets the best MPG, especially without ethanol. You would think a show like "Marketplace" would be focused on value to the consumer, ie $ per mile to run (especially on the dyno, not just anecdotal. The driving by a guy that has well known views favouring a particular stand is just plain silly. ("I'll just hammer on the accelerator from every stop and that should do the trick")
They seem to make broad sweeping statements on the basis of testing a brand new "appliance" car....yeesh. Are we soon going to have a hard time finding proper fuel for our cars? Cheers

[Traveller]

Originally Posted by Drisump

I've checked my fuel mileage on the hiway on various grades in my BMW 328i and it seems to me that the highest grades gets the best MPG.

That is possible because without premium, your engine Motronic may be retarding your ignition due to engine knock when running on regular or mid grade and that will likely cause a reduction in MPGs.

What was useless about the episode is that they should get people that know what they are talking about. That mechanic/instructor at CATI had no clue. He is a wrench turner...throw something technical at him and he can't reason it out.

[Drisump]

Yeah for sure, how did he suppose that a car would require less HP to run at a particular speed simply by changing fuel? Personally, with my cars at least (the 85 911 and the 2000 328i), I think they simply do better MPG by producing more HP with less skinny pedal. The manufacturers of these cars do recommend premium for a reason and this "journalism" is one more example of not just over simplification but blatantly lazy and sloppy work outside the scope of their abilities. Cheers