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best car w/o premium

5.6K views 14 replies 12 participants last post by  McGizzle  
#1 ·
I was looking for a decently fast car that is also comfortable and uses regular gas. Also good gas milege.
I was looking at the scion tc, mazda 3, i think gti
 
#4 ·
v6 or v8 - 87 octane



any new Mustang runs on 87 octane
 
#5 ·
even at max .50cent differnce in 87 to 93 and 15gallons a week. its $53 for regular at 3.50 a gallon. $60 for premium. $365 extra a year. or a dollar a day. i thinks its worth it.
 
#9 ·
I wouldn't base the purchase of a car solely on octane requirement... Just doesn't make sense. If you're determined for that to be the case though, then here is what I recommend and why:

Mustang GT - Will run on regular and is fast. Regular gas + 300hp and decent handling potential with the right mods is a pretty solid choice IMO.

Mazda3 - Not that fast, but handles well, has a nice interior, and is quite fun to drive. DON'T even consider a Scion TC when you could get a Mazda3 for the same price. It's just as fast, but handles and brakes MUCH better, and has a nicer interior.

Altima 2.5s - A bit larger and more expensive, but good on gas, nice interior, and has solid power for a 4 cylinder.

I would go for the Mustang because it is by far the best bang for the buck performance wise, but gas mileage isn't that great. At a close second would be a Mazda3 wagon.



 
#10 ·
When regular was $1.20 and premium was $1.40, some people avoided those cars for the same reason -- "the gas is too expensive." I don't know anybody who wouldn't jump at the chance for $1.40 gas now, or $2.80 gas.

That's the thing -- whatever the going rate, people still think they're saving a fortune by going with the cheaper choice. It's a perceived savings but if you're going to buy a sporty car and attempt to drive it like one, you might as well get a car that'll do what you want it to.

Turbo cars are ideal for gas mileage. Drive without boost and it's easy to do upper 20s on the highway. If you need power, it's there at the press of the pedal.

A friend has a diesel Excursion that gets ~ 16 mpg in town (btw, my Ram gets 10). He's buying a new Civic coupe (non-Si) to save money on gas. I wonder if he's calculated how long it'll take to get that investment back even if the Civic gets 25 mpg in town. "You know, gas is expensive. I'll spend another $16,000 now so I can save it in $20/wk increments."
 
#11 ·
A friend has a diesel Excursion that gets ~ 16 mpg in town (btw, my Ram gets 10). He's buying a new Civic coupe (non-Si) to save money on gas. I wonder if he's calculated how long it'll take to get that investment back even if the Civic gets 25 mpg in town. "You know, gas is expensive. I'll spend another $16,000 now so I can save it in $20/wk increments."
I know a lot of people that have made similar decision... My buddy is doing it right now. Going to sell his Dodge Ram (which is upside down on by about $5,000, so that he can finance a newer and more expensive 6 cylinder truck/suv that will only get maybe 5mpg better.
He rolled debt from his last car into his Ram, and now is going to roll the debt from his Ram into an even more expensive car, lol. A $15,000 Jeep is going to be financed for nearly $24,000 all said and done!!!!! Just to save 5mpg on gas :rotfl:
I love the guy though... he's my best friend, but just bad with this stuff.

I don't even try explaining it to people anymore. Some people are just born with financial common sense and others are not. It is hard to explain it to someone because they usually already have their mind made up and only listen to what they WANT TO hear.

This is why I want to go into financial management and planning, so I can b!tch slap some sense into these people making retarded financial decisions because in their "mind" it makes sense, but they never actually sit down to do the dirty work and calculate numbers, balances, and cost-benefit analysis'.



 
#12 ·
In my automotive engineering class my last year in college we studied the perceived benefit of buying a fuel efficient hybrid. Because of the premium price of a hybrid versus a regular civic or accord, you would need to be paying an average of over $8.00 a gallon over the life of the car (15 years) to make it viable. Or you would need to own the car for something like 55 years at the current price of gas/national inflation to make the gas savings worth while. If you're concerned about fuel economy and octane requirement, there' really only one car you should be considering

Click for fuel savings...
 
#13 ·
Your best option would be "IT" because it gets 300 mpg and im pretty sure it doesnt run on premium....even if it did, you'd get your moneys worth....
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