How filling regular petrol over RON95 affected my VW Taigun's mileage

The entire trip saw me refill my car with normal petrol. I was dreading the performance & fuel economy drop.

BHPian asmr recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Just wanted to post an interesting update. During my weekend trip to Madurai, I did not get any RON95 fuel. The bunks near my place were not having XP95. And I didn't have the mind to go out of the way to get Speed 97. The nearby BPCL outlet didn't have standard Speed too. The same was true for Madurai.

So this entire trip saw me refill my car with normal petrol from BPCL. I was dreading the performance & mileage drop. I couldn't have been wrong.

5 people - 3 adults, 2 children (9+ yrs). 3 suitcases, 3 bags. Tyres set to 38(F) and 42(R).

I got an average mileage of 17.7Kmpl on the onward journey. On the return journey, thanks to the wide open, empty stretches from Madurai to Trichy, a steady 80-85Kmph cruise saw my car touch 20+Kmpl for real! Here's a screenshot taken after driving 110km from our hotel in the southern end of Madurai:

I had even driven to Vaigai dam on Sunday through 2 lane highways, with good bit of traffic and I was able to see 15+Kmpl on the instrument panel. The car was not sluggish but the "pep" you get with RON95 was missing surely.

Just thought I will post this here, since I have been telling people to stick to RON95 petrol. I think it is still the recommendation, but on long trips, where RON95 petrol might not be available, I think we should be fine with good quality normal petrol IF mostly running on highways.

Also, since these are connected topics, I would like to bring the question up that I had asked several months ago. If anyone has had any luck with octane boosters in their Taiguns, I would request them to share their experience here.

During this drive, I did face one issue. The steering wheel, when centered (visually, aligning to the side stalks) saw the vehicle drift to the left. I then started noticing that I had to hold the steering 2 or 3 degs turned to the right to keep the vehicle straight. Is this the same as the left drag issue that people have been complaining about? or Something that got to do with wheel alignment? I had checked the tyre pressures and they were fine. Any guidance would be appreciated.

Here's what BHPian MismatchD had to say on the matter:

Yes, there's almost NO 95RON fuel pumps here in Madurai (though I've seen advertisements of it here, haven't seen an actual pump yet). But ever since I got my Taigun delivered (1.0 Topline MT), I have only been using regular fuel (91RON) and never have we filled anything else.

Mileage on the city hovers around 12-14km/l with AC, which is pretty good for me. On highways, it's around 15-17, as we love to rev it hard when we find empty long stretches.

By the way, we went to my dad's native for a visit today, and the roads were almost deserted, so we did some triple-digits (100-120kmph, though cruised at 90-ish when the road had other vehicles), and after the 60km to-and-fro run, the mileage was 15.7km/l on the display.

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