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-   -   What Fuel Type do you use for your Indian Cars "Normal OR Premium" (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/40460-what-fuel-type-do-you-use-your-indian-cars-normal-premium-9.html)

Are premium fuels worth it?
This is mostly a subjective question. While we certainly can say that premium fuels have their benefits and are not marketing gimmicks, their usefulness is tad necessity-based. The only exception is in the case if you own a premium sedan or a performance oriented car which specifically demands a minimum octane rating of 93 or above. In such cases, it is absolutely necessary to hunt for that petrol pump which serves the same or use octane booster additives. In any other car, normal fuel will run just fine without suffering from engine knock. Ideally, if your car’s engine has a compression ratio (usually mentioned in the owner’s manual) of less than 11:0 it will run fine on normal petrol.

octane number and premium fuels choose

Coming to the topic of premium fuels with the same octane rating of 91, they do help a little. The detergents are actually effective in keeping the insides of the engine clean. This will certainly ensure smoother and better operation of the engine in the long run but not to the extent that fuel corporations might say in their ads. Even that difference to most people, might not be very noticeable. Unless you are a hardcore car enthusiast and care about the really intricate details, you will be very much happy using normal petrol on a regular basis.

The government keeps revising their standards and have currently set the minimum octane rating as 91 to ensure that it’s suitable for the majority. So, normal fuel will do just fine for your car as long as the required octane rating matches. You will, however, notice an increase in smoothness of operation if you increase the octane rating. Not a bad idea to give it a shot once a while.

Higher octane rating prevents pre-ignition in higher compression engines. The higher the compression ratio, the higher the octane rating required for controlling pre-ignition. With most fuel injected engines, that is no longer the case.
http://www.stevesnovasite.com/forums.../t-164646.html

Premium fuels were needed for carburetor engines having a higher compression ratio (9.5+) compared to normal cars of that era. The normal fuel was also of much lower octane rating. When I first bought my bike in 1969, premium fuel was 91 octane. Today it is normal fuel.

Some performance cars with high compression engines (10+), may benefit from higher octane fuel.

I voted for Normal fuel because that is what I use for my 2015 Baleno Petrol in general.

However after running almost 40k kms in 2.5 years, I observed that there was some knocking during cold starts even if I had adequate fuel in my car. Switched to Premium fuel for it's cleaning additives and it definitely helped. There was no knocking during cold starts at all. Did this for next 3 refuels (approx running of 1500kms) and switched back to Normal fuel and there was occasional knocking.

This time changed the petrol pump from where I used to refuel and the knocking is gone.:D

93ON is a non-starter since it is about the same as normal petrol. 100ON will be overkill. I do not think we have mixing nozzles where you can 'mix' your own. So if my source is kosher then it is normal for me.

Some weeks ago, I was trying to find if Mercedes Benz GLE 43 AMG requires premium high octane fuel or regular one - As per the forums in the internet, and the owner's manual, the recommendation is to use 91 AKI/95 RON . Checked this since one of my friends uses this car.

Which all premium cars in India must require high octane fuel?

Most cars, not just premium cars specify the minimum or base Octane Rating for their engines mainly based on what is widely available. However a lot of manuals recommend filling higher Octane fuel if available.
With CBUs, the engines are usually detuned to perform well with lower octane fuels

I have used Shell V Power occasionally on my previous cars, but didn't see a huge change. So 99% of the time, I have stuck to normal petrol/diesel.

For my 2020 Creta , again I have used only regular diesel. I have been told by the dealer that it is better to use Shell diesel amongst all other vendors as they have the most consistent % of ultra low sulphur, resulting in lower particulate matter (and better DPF action). Haven't tried so far. What do the BS6 diesel owners suggest?

My SX4 Zxi VVT has a compression ratio of 9.7. So, I use normal petrol always, as recommended by MSIL.

On my highway trips to neighbouring states (which are frequent, for business purpose) I fill up at Reliance pumps. Once in a while, I use Adon P (fuel system cleaner) in my petrol.

Shell V power is not high octane petrol, but rather regular petrol with additives. So is power/ speed/ xtra premium. The availability of high octane petrol is still sparse here. Look for speed 98, power 99 and the 97 octane one available with Indian oil. These are the true higher octane brands and they definitely show some difference in higher compression/ turbo engines, especially the ones imported. My first gen GT TSI has the 95 ron recommendation in the fuel cap, and when i use speed 98 occasionally when its available, there is a mild but perceptible difference. May be the difference will be more if i use it continuously. But, again the exorbitant price these demand, nearly 30 Rs more per litre, make them not really VFM.