scoobysnax wrote:
Sorry, indianrefining, I guess I should clarify myself about "using a cheaper grade of gas." The “grade” of gas is still 87, but, from what I understand, it’s now a “winter blend” in the summer months it’s a “summer blend.” The winter blend is generally cheaper and the summer is more expense (wont’ that be fun to pay for once they switch back over again.) I don't know if this is done in all states or just the northern states (I'm in NYC.)
From what I understand the summer blend is used b/c it’s cleaner (in terms of it’s emissions) and b/c there are more cars on the road in the summer time than the winter. The winter blend is not as clean and uses more additives to maintain the same “grade” like 87 or 89 and so on. The extra additives in the winter blend from what I understand actually give you worse gas mileage.
At the end of the day it doesn’t make any sense to me b/c if we have clean fuel we should use it all the time and not just in the summer but that’s the Government for you.
So am I totally off base with my statement above? It's only based on garage talk and reading other posts on this site. And should this post be in the mileage section?
The feedstocks and the catalytic cracking process remain largely the same. 87, 89, and 93 octane fungible gasolines are the same octane and "cleanliness" regardless of time of year. You'd be correct in saying that the additive packages are varied, somewhat, depending on the time of year, the altitude, etc., but I wasn't aware that there was any significant difference in the cost of one package versus another.