Does anyone use mid-range gas?
 

I would imagine that if your car requires premium, you would use premium. If it doesn't you would use regular. So what's the point of mid-range?

Mid grade is nothing more than a button on the pump. There are only two grades of gas in the tanks, midgrade simply uses a mixing valve between regular and hightest. I never knew that until my son went to work at a shop that has pumps.

That's interesting, I never knew that!!!! And to the OP's question, no, I have never used "mid-grade".

Yes my understanding is that the pump mixes to get Mid-grade. The station does not have a mid-grade storage tank. Just a Premium tank and a Standard tank.

Both my daily drivers require premium. The Silverado V8 won't do the cylinder deactivation / V4 mode without premium, then gas mileage is worse.

I never knew it was a mix. That's interesting.

I like to mix it myself. 60/40 premium with just a splash of diesel.

My guess would be that mid-range users are those whose cars specify a fuel within an octane range rather than specifically regular or premium. The mid-range fuel falls within the low end of the range and is cheaper than premium.

BTW, us old-timers remember the old Hancock gas stations where the pumps had a dial on the side with which you could select the octane level for your car. There were seven choices, and seven prices. Of course, that was when gasoline was around 28 cents/gallon for regular. The use of mixing pumps has a long history.

Use it on rare occasions:

1) Honda XR650L I use for single track trails. It's low compression, but air-cooled. Just a little insurance when climbing a lot on a hot day.

2) Have a snowmobile with a setting for both regular and premium. Has a light for a "det' sensor......Can rarely get the light to go off running regular and the switch on the premium setting.....Never lights off when running mid-grade at the elevation and temperatures I ride at. (I think the switch just changes the timing a few degrees).

When my original 305 engine in the El Camino was approaching 300,000 miles it had enough carbon buildup in the heads and on top of the piston to raise the compression ratio enough I would get spark knock with the regular. If I used the mid range it did not knock at all. When I swapped out the engine the new engine is happy with regular. That is the biggest reason I decided it was time for a new engine. Every 300K I will swap in another $1,700 engine.

also if you are a cheapskate and not in California, the midgrade is par with cal premium.

most cars requiring premium should be able to run on midgrade in most places.


For me, though reg cars always get regular and premium cars always get premium. The possible exception is my wrx which is decidedly not premium with 110 miles and almost 10 years old. It still gets the good stuff

Here we only get 91 octane premium. Some states get 93. We get 10% Ethanol too, hope that goes away someday.

The only way ethonal is going to go away is for the government to admit that using food to make fuel is a dumb idea. Since they are the ones who profit form it, and regulate it, I can't see that happening

Replace "El Camino" with "1987 Toyota 4Runner" and my story is exactly the same. Carbon build up on the pistons raised the compression just enough to ping on 87, so I used 89. Problem solved.

Great topic!!! I was a believer in mid-grade, no pinging etc.... but also wondered how sales were. Mixing them makes sense. I learn so much on this forum!!! :D

In Iowa the mid-grade had been E10 but now they have regular that is straight gas and regular that is E10 so I am not sure if they mix it now or not with premium for mid grade.

Some cars require mid-grade but none of ours do. Either regular or premium. The premium where we get gas is straight gas.

I generally run regular in my 944, but fill it up with premium if it's the beginning of the season, or I will be tracking it or autocrossing.

Seriously Steve ? why the dash of diesel ?

Damn Moe! How the hell are you ?

Yea, I was wondering abut that as well. How do you get the giant nozzle to fit is the second question.

The corn lobby are the ones who benefit from it.