Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations

tjc78 · June 2020

imidazol97 said:
Question for the techies: If someone uses Brave as their browser on the android phone and accesses gmail through the browser as a website, does the information still flow to Google to aggregate?

I have Brave as my browser on my PC and it blocks the ads. They do offer to have me participate in some kind of payment plan from Brave where they let some ads come through, but I declined. I assume they are sharing part of the revenue from letting the ads be shown using Brave.

I would say yes it does.

driver100 · June 2020

imidazol97 said:
I just finsihed a book by Grisham named Camino Winds. It's about a Florida hurricane but it involves a person deep into the book selling business, so I thought of @driver100.

It's a good mystery IMHO. Of course the hurricane added lots of flavor to the book. Only in Florida.

Thanks imid, I like the book seller angle, not so sure about being in a hurricane in Florida. John Grisham writes extremely good books, or incredibly bad books...I only like the ones with 4 or 5 stars.
Don't know if you know the story, Grishams first book was probably his best, A Time to Kill, but it was too good - a literary masterpiece, won awards but didn't sell very well. Grisham went back to the drawing board and checked out best sellers to see what the formula was to write a best seller. He wrote The Firm and he was a huge success.

roadburner · June 2020

graphicguy said:
Finally got around to watching “Ford vs Ferrari” last night. Excellent movie.

I was watching it in my full blown Home Theater, in my basement set up. While the credits were running at the end, my Pioneer Elite AV Receiver (SC-27) weny into protect mode (which usually means there was either too much heat inside the unit).

Although the receiver is 11 years old, it was the best Pioneer made at the time. It lacks some of the newest decoding (e.g. Dolby Atmos), but handled everything else quite well.

Given it was not cheap, I decided to do some inspection/surgery. This Receiver uses Band and Olufsen sourced digital amps, which run cool and efficiently. I didn’t ask it to do any sort of video processing (used my sources connected directly to my TV for that), it did all audio processing and amplification.

These things are beasts. And, at the time, used best in class components. Kind of odd it would fail. Fail it did, though....at the hands of a some sort of bug carcass at the back of the Receiver. Not sure what kind of bug.

But, pealing off the receiver cover, there was a couple more of some sort of the same carcasses of what may, or may not have been, centipedes...about an inch long. How they got into my home, or even more perplexing, how they got into my receiver, is a mystery. What is for certain, they suffered a “shocking” death.

So, cleaning the dead from my receiver, I inspected and generally did some house cleaning inside the receiver. These things are an amazing example of excellent electrical engineering. I couldn’t revive it. I hate to give this thing up for dead....especially the inglorious way it went into ICU.

But, maybe it’s an opportunity to get a new one with all the new lossless sound options and up-to-date technology.

I'm tempted to upgrade my Denon 2808 7.1 AVR when I finally pick up a 75" TV and 4K BD player. I'll probably go with Denon again, or possibly Marantz. Then the Denon and Kuro Elite will move to my downstairs gaming/casual viewing system.

jipster · June 2020

Honda's owner manual "highly recommends" tier 1 gasoline, and also states to use 87 octane "or higher." .The "or higher" suggests there are benefits to higher octane gasoline with my 1.5 liter turbo engine.

Do most turbos require premium gas? If it helps the the engine last longer, could be worth the added expense. Performance wise it shouldn't matter?

I've been using BP with Invigorate 87 octane gasoline, which BP says exceeds tier 1 requirements.
Car runs great. But, I want my baby to have the best! So midgrade or premium?

Michaell · June 2020

jipster said:
Honda's owner manual "highly recommends" tier 1 gasoline, and also states to use 87 octane "or higher." .The "or higher" suggests there are benefits to higher octane gasoline with my 1.5 liter turbo engine.

Do most turbos require premium gas? If it helps the the engine last longer, could be worth the added expense. Performance wise it shouldn't matter?

I've been using BP with Invigorate 87 octane gasoline, which BP says exceeds tier 1 requirements.
Car runs great. But, I want my baby to have the best! So midgrade or premium?

We use midgrade in the Outback and Premium in the MINI, which has a turbo engine.

I used midgrade in my 1.4T Jetta

oldfarmer50 · June 2020

jipster said:
Honda's owner manual "highly recommends" tier 1 gasoline, and also states to use 87 octane "or higher." .The "or higher" suggests there are benefits to higher octane gasoline with my 1.5 liter turbo engine.

Do most turbos require premium gas? If it helps the the engine last longer, could be worth the added expense. Performance wise it shouldn't matter?

I've been using BP with Invigorate 87 octane gasoline, which BP says exceeds tier 1 requirements.
Car runs great. But, I want my baby to have the best! So midgrade or premium?

A lot of high performance engines can run fine on 87 because the computer adjusts timing but you get more horsepower on 91+. My Mustang would get 5% more on premium over regular.

I have to use 91+ in it now because of the mild tune but the rest of my fleet do fine on 87. I try to use top tier but I admit I usually shop price.

https://www.autolist.com/guides/top-tier-gas

snakeweasel · June 2020

jipster said:
Honda's owner manual "highly recommends" tier 1 gasoline, and also states to use 87 octane "or higher." .The "or higher" suggests there are benefits to higher octane gasoline with my 1.5 liter turbo engine.

Do most turbos require premium gas? If it helps the the engine last longer, could be worth the added expense. Performance wise it shouldn't matter?

I've been using BP with Invigorate 87 octane gasoline, which BP says exceeds tier 1 requirements.
Car runs great. But, I want my baby to have the best! So midgrade or premium?

The only benefit to using higher than recommended octane is to the oil companies.

imidazol97 · June 2020

I hadn't checked the list of top tier companies for a couple years. When I checked recently there are
many more companies from this area on the list that didn't used to be there.

One still missing is Speedway, a subsidiary of Marathon Oil. Marathon's products are
meeting top tier, but the Speedway fuel doesn't.

I noticed that Valero is now on the list. Their differential between PUG and RUG
is 40 cents, while Shell is 80 cents and even more at some stations.
So if you're looking for PUG that meets octane and has additive packages
that are above minimum...

dino001 · June 2020

snakeweasel said:

jipster said:
Honda's owner manual "highly recommends" tier 1 gasoline, and also states to use 87 octane "or higher." .The "or higher" suggests there are benefits to higher octane gasoline with my 1.5 liter turbo engine.

Do most turbos require premium gas? If it helps the the engine last longer, could be worth the added expense. Performance wise it shouldn't matter?

I've been using BP with Invigorate 87 octane gasoline, which BP says exceeds tier 1 requirements.
Car runs great. But, I want my baby to have the best! So midgrade or premium?
The only benefit to using higher than recommended octane is to the oil companies.

Some people who put higher octane than required probably remember times when gasoline quality was much more spotty and PUG was more a quality assurance to them than anything else. A friend of mine does it, whenever his vehicle crosses certain mileage, as a cheap "extra protection" measure. I'm sure it doesn't really help the engine, but it helps my friend feel better. Today with both gasoline quality being much better and modern engines there is really no reason to put anything other than manufacturers says is needed.

One could actually put lower grade gas into engine with much less fear of long-term damage than 20-30 years before. They won't get any fuel economy (or hurt it) due to ECU adjusting timing and thus dropping mileage, but a real damage due to uncontrolled explosive combustion (knocking) is much less likely.

kyfdx · June 2020

jipster said:
Honda's owner manual "highly recommends" tier 1 gasoline, and also states to use 87 octane "or higher." .The "or higher" suggests there are benefits to higher octane gasoline with my 1.5 liter turbo engine.

Do most turbos require premium gas? If it helps the the engine last longer, could be worth the added expense. Performance wise it shouldn't matter?

I've been using BP with Invigorate 87 octane gasoline, which BP says exceeds tier 1 requirements.
Car runs great. But, I want my baby to have the best! So midgrade or premium?

"or higher" is for the people that take everything too literally.

"They are out of 87, I can't put 89 in!"

No benefit to 89 octane for your engine.

dino001 · June 2020

jipster said:
Honda's owner manual "highly recommends" tier 1 gasoline, and also states to use 87 octane "or higher." .The "or higher" suggests there are benefits to higher octane gasoline with my 1.5 liter turbo engine.

Do most turbos require premium gas? If it helps the the engine last longer, could be worth the added expense. Performance wise it shouldn't matter?

I've been using BP with Invigorate 87 octane gasoline, which BP says exceeds tier 1 requirements.
Car runs great. But, I want my baby to have the best! So midgrade or premium?

Tier 1 has nothing to do with octane - it's about quality control during production and distribution, quality of the facilities (gas stations), regardless of the fuel octane grade. It is also about certain additive content that helps the engine components stay clean (detergents).

Higher octane is required whenever engine's timing tolerances are such that combustion needs a good control. This includes high compression ratio naturally aspirated engines and high boost supercharged and turbocharged engines. Basically once the engines have all this fancy hardware that squeezes more torque, horsepower and efficiency from less displacement, the price you pay is that fuel needs to be very specific, or all that is defeated. For example my previous 2012 BMW 328i required minimum 89 octane, current 430 needs 91.

BTW, there are so called low-boost turbos that don't require premium gas. Volvo used to sell cars with those (nowadays they all are premium recommended).

graphicguy · June 2020

tjc78 said:

graphicguy said:
Finally got around to watching “Ford vs Ferrari” last night. Excellent movie.

I was watching it in my full blown Home Theater, in my basement set up. While the credits were running at the end, my Pioneer Elite AV Receiver (SC-27) weny into protect mode (which usually means there was either too much heat inside the unit).

Although the receiver is 11 years old, it was the best Pioneer made at the time. It lacks some of the newest decoding (e.g. Dolby Atmos), but handled everything else quite well.

Given it was not cheap, I decided to do some inspection/surgery. This Receiver uses Band and Olufsen sourced digital amps, which run cool and efficiently. I didn’t ask it to do any sort of video processing (used my sources connected directly to my TV for that), it did all audio processing and amplification.

These things are beasts. And, at the time, used best in class components. Kind of odd it would fail. Fail it did, though....at the hands of a some sort of bug carcass at the back of the Receiver. Not sure what kind of bug.

But, pealing off the receiver cover, there was a couple more of some sort of the same carcasses of what may, or may not have been, centipedes...about an inch long. How they got into my home, or even more perplexing, how they got into my receiver, is a mystery. What is for certain, they suffered a “shocking” death.

So, cleaning the dead from my receiver, I inspected and generally did some house cleaning inside the receiver. These things are an amazing example of excellent electrical engineering. I couldn’t revive it. I hate to give this thing up for dead....especially the inglorious way it went into ICU.

But, maybe it’s an opportunity to get a new one with all the new lossless sound options and up-to-date technology.
Oh no!! Any fuses? Any Google action for a key command for a hard reset?

That's a quality unit for sure. Probably worth having looked at as unless you spend major change you aren't getting the same quality today in most anything "mainstream"

I may have mentioned it before, but I'm still rocking my Yamaha RXV1. That thing is an absolute beast with some of the best D/A converters outside mega buck standalone units. Yes, it's outdated in it's processing but with my B&W's still rocks the house! Like you video switching just direct to TV

Last week I actually had the house to myself (family down the shore). U571 was on HBO.... I let the depth charge scene roll at 2/3 volume. Had to straighten all the pictures after!

Yeah...checked the fuse first. Didn’t look blown, but replaced it anyway. No go! And, good luck finding a service provider for these things. Pioneer and since merged with Onkyo. And, their customer service seems to be in the throws of.......integrating. Got a lot of “let me connect you with customer service” types of responses, but I never get someone on the phone from “customer service” after telling them, over and over, the model number, the serial number, what’s wrong with it, and that it’s no longer in warranty. I know all of that.

Shipping weight is 40 lbs so it’s not going to be cheap to ship it to where ever they decided their customer service dept is.

VERY NICE Yammy RXV1. That was one of the “top of the heap” AVRs. Looked at those pretty closely a little while back.

U571 will give your entire system a work out, particularly your sub(s).

If it was one of the amp modules, I could pull one board out and replace it with another (there’s 9 of them). If it was once of the speaker connectors, I could pull one and solder in a new one. If it’s a CAP, it’s DOA. I give it another 24 hours to see if I can find a service facility.

I’m already starting to look at new units (maybe refurb). I like the Yamaha 3080, the Denon X8500, Anthem MRX 1120 (which Anthem has on sale for 20% off right now) or a Marantz SR8012. Given the Pioneer-Onkyo marriage snafus, I’ll steer clear of them.

But, my surgery on the old unit is not over....yet!

stickguy · June 2020

Jip, it’s designed for regular so just use that and save the money. But definitely try to stay with the tier 1 and other higher quality stations.

bwia · June 2020

My birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. And on top of my gift list is the $235,700 Bentley Bentayga Speed - The World's Fastest SUV. Enjoy the sights and sounds of this 4 minute video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOgQKdYdSVw

tjc78 · June 2020

graphicguy said:

tjc78 said:

graphicguy said:
Finally got around to watching “Ford vs Ferrari” last night. Excellent movie.

I was watching it in my full blown Home Theater, in my basement set up. While the credits were running at the end, my Pioneer Elite AV Receiver (SC-27) weny into protect mode (which usually means there was either too much heat inside the unit).

Although the receiver is 11 years old, it was the best Pioneer made at the time. It lacks some of the newest decoding (e.g. Dolby Atmos), but handled everything else quite well.

Given it was not cheap, I decided to do some inspection/surgery. This Receiver uses Band and Olufsen sourced digital amps, which run cool and efficiently. I didn’t ask it to do any sort of video processing (used my sources connected directly to my TV for that), it did all audio processing and amplification.

These things are beasts. And, at the time, used best in class components. Kind of odd it would fail. Fail it did, though....at the hands of a some sort of bug carcass at the back of the Receiver. Not sure what kind of bug.

But, pealing off the receiver cover, there was a couple more of some sort of the same carcasses of what may, or may not have been, centipedes...about an inch long. How they got into my home, or even more perplexing, how they got into my receiver, is a mystery. What is for certain, they suffered a “shocking” death.

So, cleaning the dead from my receiver, I inspected and generally did some house cleaning inside the receiver. These things are an amazing example of excellent electrical engineering. I couldn’t revive it. I hate to give this thing up for dead....especially the inglorious way it went into ICU.

But, maybe it’s an opportunity to get a new one with all the new lossless sound options and up-to-date technology.
Oh no!! Any fuses? Any Google action for a key command for a hard reset?

That's a quality unit for sure. Probably worth having looked at as unless you spend major change you aren't getting the same quality today in most anything "mainstream"

I may have mentioned it before, but I'm still rocking my Yamaha RXV1. That thing is an absolute beast with some of the best D/A converters outside mega buck standalone units. Yes, it's outdated in it's processing but with my B&W's still rocks the house! Like you video switching just direct to TV

Last week I actually had the house to myself (family down the shore). U571 was on HBO.... I let the depth charge scene roll at 2/3 volume. Had to straighten all the pictures after!
Yeah...checked the fuse first. Didn’t look blown, but replaced it anyway. No go! And, good luck finding a service provider for these things. Pioneer and since merged with Onkyo. And, their customer service seems to be in the throws of.......integrating. Got a lot of “let me connect you with customer service” types of responses, but I never get someone on the phone from “customer service” after telling them, over and over, the model number, the serial number, what’s wrong with it, and that it’s no longer in warranty. I know all of that.

Shipping weight is 40 lbs so it’s not going to be cheap to ship it to where ever they decided their customer service dept is.

VERY NICE Yammy RXV1. That was one of the “top of the heap” AVRs. Looked at those pretty closely a little while back.

U571 will give your entire system a work out, particularly your sub(s).

If it was one of the amp modules, I could pull one board out and replace it with another (there’s 9 of them). If it was once of the speaker connectors, I could pull one and solder in a new one. If it’s a CAP, it’s DOA. I give it another 24 hours to see if I can find a service facility.

I’m already starting to look at new units (maybe refurb). I like the Yamaha 3080, the Denon X8500, Anthem MRX 1120 (which Anthem has on sale for 20% off right now) or a Marantz SR8012. Given the Pioneer-Onkyo marriage snafus, I’ll steer clear of them.

But, my surgery on the old unit is not over....yet!

All great units for sure. Yamaha probably the best value of the group, not sure if the others performance is worth the extra coin. For the price the distortion spec of 1% surprises me on the Anthem. How many speakers are you driving? Let me know what you decide.

Michaell · June 2020

I may have mentioined some friends of mine who race.

One of them had been suffering from some medical issues, and had been away from the sport for a while. He had an opportunity to get back in the car this past weekend, and ..... well, I'll let the video tell the tale:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcp7orSdPjM&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0oBLgLeI0InwGkBmBuGqlgjOQDpxZ99Rn1IvpUx-sZXehN4qrhyq86P1s

omarman · June 2020

Carl Reiner had a very good run by any measure of life and passed at age 98 yesterday. I'm not sure how many movies he did (in addition to TV) in front of and behind the camera. But in 1978 I went to see a Burt Reynolds movie called The End and found a very funny mix of characters ranging from Norman Fell to Carl Reiner.

Reiner played an eternal optimistic health nut providing death therapy for the suicidal Reynolds. For me the funniest scene in the whole movie is the untimely demise of Dr. Maneet shown in this trailer at 2:05.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaDHetXYZho

benjaminh · June 2020

jipster said:
Honda's owner manual "highly recommends" tier 1 gasoline, and also states to use 87 octane "or higher." .The "or higher" suggests there are benefits to higher octane gasoline with my 1.5 liter turbo engine.

Do most turbos require premium gas? If it helps the the engine last longer, could be worth the added expense. Performance wise it shouldn't matter?

I've been using BP with Invigorate 87 octane gasoline, which BP says exceeds tier 1 requirements.
Car runs great. But, I want my baby to have the best! So midgrade or premium?

Tier 1 87 octane is all you need for a Honda!++

jipster · June 2020

Thx for the comments. 87 it is. Technically BP isn't a member of tier 1 , as they think they are above tier 1 standards....the snobs. ;-) But, there's a station lose by, so Im good with BP. Before I've usually gotten Speedway gasoline. One thing I've noticed with a lot of these top tier gas stations ( Shell, Maraton, etc) is that many of them are older stations and pumps, privately owned I guess. So you have to wonder a bit about impuritys getting in the gas tanks. More than likely not a problem, just many don't look that " clean".

stickguy · June 2020

benjaminh said:

jipster said:
Honda's owner manual "highly recommends" tier 1 gasoline, and also states to use 87 octane "or higher." .The "or higher" suggests there are benefits to higher octane gasoline with my 1.5 liter turbo engine.

Do most turbos require premium gas? If it helps the the engine last longer, could be worth the added expense. Performance wise it shouldn't matter?

I've been using BP with Invigorate 87 octane gasoline, which BP says exceeds tier 1 requirements.
Car runs great. But, I want my baby to have the best! So midgrade or premium?
Tier 1 87 octane is all you need for a Honda!++

Or an Acura.

graphicguy · June 2020

tjc78 said:

graphicguy said:

tjc78 said:

graphicguy said:
Finally got around to watching “Ford vs Ferrari” last night. Excellent movie.

I was watching it in my full blown Home Theater, in my basement set up. While the credits were running at the end, my Pioneer Elite AV Receiver (SC-27) weny into protect mode (which usually means there was either too much heat inside the unit).

Although the receiver is 11 years old, it was the best Pioneer made at the time. It lacks some of the newest decoding (e.g. Dolby Atmos), but handled everything else quite well.

Given it was not cheap, I decided to do some inspection/surgery. This Receiver uses Band and Olufsen sourced digital amps, which run cool and efficiently. I didn’t ask it to do any sort of video processing (used my sources connected directly to my TV for that), it did all audio processing and amplification.

These things are beasts. And, at the time, used best in class components. Kind of odd it would fail. Fail it did, though....at the hands of a some sort of bug carcass at the back of the Receiver. Not sure what kind of bug.

But, pealing off the receiver cover, there was a couple more of some sort of the same carcasses of what may, or may not have been, centipedes...about an inch long. How they got into my home, or even more perplexing, how they got into my receiver, is a mystery. What is for certain, they suffered a “shocking” death.

So, cleaning the dead from my receiver, I inspected and generally did some house cleaning inside the receiver. These things are an amazing example of excellent electrical engineering. I couldn’t revive it. I hate to give this thing up for dead....especially the inglorious way it went into ICU.

But, maybe it’s an opportunity to get a new one with all the new lossless sound options and up-to-date technology.
Oh no!! Any fuses? Any Google action for a key command for a hard reset?

That's a quality unit for sure. Probably worth having looked at as unless you spend major change you aren't getting the same quality today in most anything "mainstream"

I may have mentioned it before, but I'm still rocking my Yamaha RXV1. That thing is an absolute beast with some of the best D/A converters outside mega buck standalone units. Yes, it's outdated in it's processing but with my B&W's still rocks the house! Like you video switching just direct to TV

Last week I actually had the house to myself (family down the shore). U571 was on HBO.... I let the depth charge scene roll at 2/3 volume. Had to straighten all the pictures after!
Yeah...checked the fuse first. Didn’t look blown, but replaced it anyway. No go! And, good luck finding a service provider for these things. Pioneer and since merged with Onkyo. And, their customer service seems to be in the throws of.......integrating. Got a lot of “let me connect you with customer service” types of responses, but I never get someone on the phone from “customer service” after telling them, over and over, the model number, the serial number, what’s wrong with it, and that it’s no longer in warranty. I know all of that.

Shipping weight is 40 lbs so it’s not going to be cheap to ship it to where ever they decided their customer service dept is.

VERY NICE Yammy RXV1. That was one of the “top of the heap” AVRs. Looked at those pretty closely a little while back.

U571 will give your entire system a work out, particularly your sub(s).

If it was one of the amp modules, I could pull one board out and replace it with another (there’s 9 of them). If it was once of the speaker connectors, I could pull one and solder in a new one. If it’s a CAP, it’s DOA. I give it another 24 hours to see if I can find a service facility.

I’m already starting to look at new units (maybe refurb). I like the Yamaha 3080, the Denon X8500, Anthem MRX 1120 (which Anthem has on sale for 20% off right now) or a Marantz SR8012. Given the Pioneer-Onkyo marriage snafus, I’ll steer clear of them.

But, my surgery on the old unit is not over....yet!
All great units for sure. Yamaha probably the best value of the group, not sure if the others performance is worth the extra coin. For the price the distortion spec of 1% surprises me on the Anthem. How many speakers are you driving? Let me know what you decide.

The Anthem specs are a little surprising...I agree. Won't buy it just because it's on sale. And, I'm kind of going on their past reputation a little bit. But, the last time I did that, I bought a B&K AVR many years ago. That was rated highly but was an unmitigated disaster because they couldn't figure out why the audio was cutting in and out constantly. They kept wanting me to constantly tear down my installation and take the unit to a local service provider, who could never fix it. They didn't want to refund me, so I let AMEX go after them and take care of it for me.

All the rest are pretty much "top of the line" for each brand. I like that Yamaha unit. But, both the Marantz and Denon have the Audyssey room/speaker correction, which is one of the best in the biz.

Still, have the Pioneer "uncovered" and am swapping out parts. Good thing Parts Express is only a 45 minute drive away. My soldering skills are rusty, though.

Got a 7.2 system set up (2 subs). Not really thinking of upgrading to Dolby Atmos, at least not near term.

Will let you know.

isellhondas · June 2020

Back in my younger days I took my VW Beetles and Busses to a small Indy Shop that was owned by two Germans. Klaus and Dieter. to say they were old school and stubborn would be an understatement. They were perfectionists and outstanding mechanics who would fire customers who complained about what they charged or didn't maintain their VW's as they thought they should. Actually they were very reasonable in their pricing and would do extra stuff for free.

They were very vocal about their feelings that premium gas should be used in all Volkswagens! They said they would run cooler have more power and just run better. He was right! I would use the good stuff but once in awhile I would run a tank of regular and I could tell the difference in spite of suggestions from other VW owners that it was a placebo effect.

ronsteve · June 2020

benjaminh said:

jipster said:
Honda's owner manual "highly recommends" tier 1 gasoline, and also states to use 87 octane "or higher." .The "or higher" suggests there are benefits to higher octane gasoline with my 1.5 liter turbo engine.

Do most turbos require premium gas? If it helps the the engine last longer, could be worth the added expense. Performance wise it shouldn't matter?

I've been using BP with Invigorate 87 octane gasoline, which BP says exceeds tier 1 requirements.
Car runs great. But, I want my baby to have the best! So midgrade or premium?
Tier 1 87 octane is all you need for a Honda!++

Unless there's an Acura badge on the car, and suddenly it's premium recommended. It's not like the 3.5 V6 in the 2nd-gen RDX has any higher compression or makes any more power than the 3.5 in the Accord. I'd love to see a 150K tear-down comparison to know if the premium really makes a long-term difference or not.

My Volvo was premium-recommended, and by the time the price difference was more than a MPG difference made up for, I was solidly over 100K so I figured I would be nice to it. And I use premium in the RDX anyway, because my Costco membership sometimes gets the price difference to almost nothing ($2.55 today vs 2.39 for regular at other gas stations).

pensfan83 · June 2020

The difference of a few dollars per tank isn't enough to make me go back and forth between PUG and RUG on our vehicles that require, recommend or do not require PUG. PUG goes in all of them.

qbrozen · June 2020

Got around to seeking out, buying, and trying a product for the Charger's tired graphics. It worked fairly well. Well enough, at least. It is Turtle Wax black colored car polish. Here are my infomercial-inspired side-by-side pics.

fintail · June 2020

All my MBs will receive PUG, but I suspect my mom's Camry could run on a homebrew of kerosene, butane, and water. Cool thing about older MBs, they can run on unleaded without modification. Also, in this area, the spread seems to be seldom more than 30 cents.

snakeweasel · June 2020

bwia said:
My birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. And on top of my gift list is the $235,700 Bentley Bentayga Speed - The World's Fastest SUV. Enjoy the sights and sounds of this 4 minute video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOgQKdYdSVw

Doesn't the Jeep Cherokee Trackhawk beat those figures at a much lower price?

Not that I would advise driving either one at anywhere near their top speeds.

jmonroe1 · June 2020

Michaell said:
I may have mentioined some friends of mine who race.

One of them had been suffering from some medical issues, and had been away from the sport for a while. He had an opportunity to get back in the car this past weekend, and ..... well, I'll let the video tell the tale:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcp7orSdPjM&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0oBLgLeI0InwGkBmBuGqlgjOQDpxZ99Rn1IvpUx-sZXehN4qrhyq86P1s

That’s what happens when “pedal-mashers” tailgate.

jmonroe

cdnpinhead · June 2020

It's interesting that the ten-cent spread from regular to mid-grade to premium lasted as long as it did. I think up until about five years ago it was still in place with three and four dollar a gallon gas. Well, they finally woke up and (as others have pointed out) the spread now runs 40 cents to nearly a dollar in some cases. Just got back from a one-week holiday in CO with the Forester, so it was nice to use regular, sometimes with 84 octane (elevations over 9K feet).

andres3 · June 2020

driver100 said:

abacomike said:

stickguy said:
I smell a new windshield in your future!

something is weird though. It is not that hard to get a windshield smooth and clean.
Fintail mentioned that he. too, is experiencing the same problem on his E Class.
Just turn the radio on louder
or
start listening to RAP music...you'll think it is just part of the sound.

Thinking too small... big picture solution is move out of Florida to some place it never rains, like Southern CA. Except yesterday morning, of course, it was raining.

oldfarmer50 · June 2020

bwia said:
My birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. And on top of my gift list is the $235,700 Bentley Bentayga Speed - The World's Fastest SUV. Enjoy the sights and sounds of this 4 minute video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOgQKdYdSVw

We’ll have one waiting for you when you get back from your island paradise.

oldfarmer50 · June 2020

jmonroe1 said:

Michaell said:
I may have mentioined some friends of mine who race.

One of them had been suffering from some medical issues, and had been away from the sport for a while. He had an opportunity to get back in the car this past weekend, and ..... well, I'll let the video tell the tale:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcp7orSdPjM&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0oBLgLeI0InwGkBmBuGqlgjOQDpxZ99Rn1IvpUx-sZXehN4qrhyq86P1s
That’s what happens when “pedal-mashers” tailgate.

jmonroe

Typical rush hour traffic.

andres3 · June 2020

ronsteve said:

benjaminh said:

jipster said:
Honda's owner manual "highly recommends" tier 1 gasoline, and also states to use 87 octane "or higher." .The "or higher" suggests there are benefits to higher octane gasoline with my 1.5 liter turbo engine.

Do most turbos require premium gas? If it helps the the engine last longer, could be worth the added expense. Performance wise it shouldn't matter?

I've been using BP with Invigorate 87 octane gasoline, which BP says exceeds tier 1 requirements.
Car runs great. But, I want my baby to have the best! So midgrade or premium?
Tier 1 87 octane is all you need for a Honda!++
Unless there's an Acura badge on the car, and suddenly it's premium recommended. It's not like the 3.5 V6 in the 2nd-gen RDX has any higher compression or makes any more power than the 3.5 in the Accord. I'd love to see a 150K tear-down comparison to know if the premium really makes a long-term difference or not.

My Volvo was premium-recommended, and by the time the price difference was more than a MPG difference made up for, I was solidly over 100K so I figured I would be nice to it. And I use premium in the RDX anyway, because my Costco membership sometimes gets the price difference to almost nothing ($2.55 today vs 2.39 for regular at other gas stations).

Acura's typically do run higher HP tunes than Honda's with the same engine. My advice is to no mess around with cheap gas unless you buy cheap cars. If you buy a premium car, get premium gas; it'll run better, and run longer. As to Honda turbos benefiting, it depends if the computer is both smart enough and programmed to take advantage of timing when it senses better gas. Typically, tuners (Stage 1) program the car to do this. However, it takes time and consistency for the car to take advantage of higher octane, while the effects of low octane will immediately cause the tune to make adjustments downward.

kyfdx · June 2020

cdnpinhead said:
It's interesting that the ten-cent spread from regular to mid-grade to premium lasted as long as it did. I think up until about five years ago it was still in place with three and four dollar a gallon gas. Well, they finally woke up and (as others have pointed out) the spread now runs 40 cents to nearly a dollar in some cases. Just got back from a one-week holiday in CO with the Forester, so it was nice to use regular, sometimes with 84 octane (elevations over 9K feet).

$0.60-$0.80 delta from RUG to PUG, here. 😕

andres3 · June 2020

roadburner said:
I decided to seriously cheat death today; I drove the Wrangler to go pick up lunch; it was raining and I kept it in 2WD. My knuckles were white as I fought to keep the Jeep from lurching into oncoming traffic. I about pulled over and walked home when I saw a completely demolished GLA lying on its side in a drainage ditch; if that CUV couldn’t cope with the road conditions what chance did I have?
But somehow I made it; it’s been 8 hours and only now is my pulse returning to normal.

You just like living dangerously!

We got a little rain yesterday morning, so I took out the Quattro A4 with 20% worn all-seasons instead of the TTS with half worn Cup 2's.

explorerx4 · June 2020

For my turbo vehicles, according to the manual, RUG is ok but will make more power on PUG.

tjc78 · June 2020

Volvo calls for 91. It gets 93... for as little as I drive it the extra cost is negligible.

Having said all that the wife put 87 in it by mistake early on and nothing seemed off. MPG is terrible either way.

Rated at 21/32 and the trip computer hasn’t broken 20.5

andres3 · June 2020

graphicguy said:
Finally got around to watching “Ford vs Ferrari” last night. Excellent movie.

I was watching it in my full blown Home Theater, in my basement set up. While the credits were running at the end, my Pioneer Elite AV Receiver (SC-27) weny into protect mode (which usually means there was either too much heat inside the unit).

Although the receiver is 11 years old, it was the best Pioneer made at the time. It lacks some of the newest decoding (e.g. Dolby Atmos), but handled everything else quite well.

Given it was not cheap, I decided to do some inspection/surgery. This Receiver uses Band and Olufsen sourced digital amps, which run cool and efficiently. I didn’t ask it to do any sort of video processing (used my sources connected directly to my TV for that), it did all audio processing and amplification.

These things are beasts. And, at the time, used best in class components. Kind of odd it would fail. Fail it did, though....at the hands of a some sort of bug carcass at the back of the Receiver. Not sure what kind of bug.

But, pealing off the receiver cover, there was a couple more of some sort of the same carcasses of what may, or may not have been, centipedes...about an inch long. How they got into my home, or even more perplexing, how they got into my receiver, is a mystery. What is for certain, they suffered a “shocking” death.

So, cleaning the dead from my receiver, I inspected and generally did some house cleaning inside the receiver. These things are an amazing example of excellent electrical engineering. I couldn’t revive it. I hate to give this thing up for dead....especially the inglorious way it went into ICU.

But, maybe it’s an opportunity to get a new one with all the new lossless sound options and up-to-date technology.

11 years is "best in class" longevity. I'm getting issues lately between years 3-4. Fortunately, the issues with the last one are so far "knock on wood" inconsequential. The Denon is a paperweight, and it's a shame, because it's just the digital circuit board that failed (analog sources play fine, amp is fine), but since I bought it at the end of its lifespan "on sale" Denon considered it obsolete and ancient, even though to me, it was less than 4 years old, for them it was like an ancient unsupported model; that they couldn't guarantee replacement parts would exist for!!!!!!

benjaminh · June 2020

jipster said:
Thx for the comments. 87 it is. Technically BP isn't a member of tier 1 , as they think they are above tier 1 standards....the snobs. ;-) But, there's a station lose by, so Im good with BP. Before I've usually gotten Speedway gasoline. One thing I've noticed with a lot of these top tier gas stations ( Shell, Maraton, etc) is that many of them are older stations and pumps, privately owned I guess. So you have to wonder a bit about impuritys getting in the gas tanks. More than likely not a problem, just many don't look that " clean".

Costo and Kroger are my favorites for Tier 1 gas. With my Kroger car I save about 50 cents on average at the Kroger gas pumps. Costco already saves you about 30 cents. If you aren't a member of Costo, you might consider looking into it. My family resisted it for years, but now we love it. The savings are real, and the quality is always very good.

benjaminh · June 2020

stickguy said:

benjaminh said:

jipster said:
Honda's owner manual "highly recommends" tier 1 gasoline, and also states to use 87 octane "or higher." .The "or higher" suggests there are benefits to higher octane gasoline with my 1.5 liter turbo engine.

Do most turbos require premium gas? If it helps the the engine last longer, could be worth the added expense. Performance wise it shouldn't matter?

I've been using BP with Invigorate 87 octane gasoline, which BP says exceeds tier 1 requirements.
Car runs great. But, I want my baby to have the best! So midgrade or premium?
Tier 1 87 octane is all you need for a Honda!++
Or an Acura.

Mostly agree. I don't think regular will in any way damage the engine of an Acura, but in some situations you'll give up about 10% of your horsepower.

I feel like on the RDX that you have so much extra power already with that type-R turbo that giving up 10% is not going to be noticed. But with the TLX 2.4 weighing 3500 pounds I want that extra 10% of power in some passing situations.

It does seem like the Acura owners who get 250k+ out of their cars seem to be putting premium gas in their vehicles. Is there a chance that the higher octane and the detergents in premium help the engine last longer? I really don't know. Probably not. But there's a small to medium chance maybe that it makes some difference in the long run? Difficult to say. And we'll probably never really know. But since I'm considering buying out my TLX and keeping it long term I think I'm going to stick with premium.

stickguy · June 2020

They get those miles because they drive a lot!

With the driving we do, I could lose 100HP and probably not notice. And remember, all that gain/loss is at the top end of the rev band. If you are bopping around town never breaking 3,500 RPM you aren’t getting into that theoretical tuner band extra anyway.

andres3 · June 2020

tjc78 said:

graphicguy said:
Finally got around to watching “Ford vs Ferrari” last night. Excellent movie.

I was watching it in my full blown Home Theater, in my basement set up. While the credits were running at the end, my Pioneer Elite AV Receiver (SC-27) weny into protect mode (which usually means there was either too much heat inside the unit).

Although the receiver is 11 years old, it was the best Pioneer made at the time. It lacks some of the newest decoding (e.g. Dolby Atmos), but handled everything else quite well.

Given it was not cheap, I decided to do some inspection/surgery. This Receiver uses Band and Olufsen sourced digital amps, which run cool and efficiently. I didn’t ask it to do any sort of video processing (used my sources connected directly to my TV for that), it did all audio processing and amplification.

These things are beasts. And, at the time, used best in class components. Kind of odd it would fail. Fail it did, though....at the hands of a some sort of bug carcass at the back of the Receiver. Not sure what kind of bug.

But, pealing off the receiver cover, there was a couple more of some sort of the same carcasses of what may, or may not have been, centipedes...about an inch long. How they got into my home, or even more perplexing, how they got into my receiver, is a mystery. What is for certain, they suffered a “shocking” death.

So, cleaning the dead from my receiver, I inspected and generally did some house cleaning inside the receiver. These things are an amazing example of excellent electrical engineering. I couldn’t revive it. I hate to give this thing up for dead....especially the inglorious way it went into ICU.

But, maybe it’s an opportunity to get a new one with all the new lossless sound options and up-to-date technology.
Oh no!! Any fuses? Any Google action for a key command for a hard reset?

That's a quality unit for sure. Probably worth having looked at as unless you spend major change you aren't getting the same quality today in most anything "mainstream"

I may have mentioned it before, but I'm still rocking my Yamaha RXV1. That thing is an absolute beast with some of the best D/A converters outside mega buck standalone units. Yes, it's outdated in it's processing but with my B&W's still rocks the house! Like you video switching just direct to TV

Last week I actually had the house to myself (family down the shore). U571 was on HBO.... I let the depth charge scene roll at 2/3 volume. Had to straighten all the pictures after!

I have an old HK beast that still sounds awesome and still works perfectly and is in the closet in favor of lesser "upgrades" with the latest processing prowess tech. It's like an old awesome car, I'm saving the "miles." A beast of that quality as you mentioned, doesn't exist today, or if it does, it costs a small fortune. I will use it again when my latest Onkyo dies.

qbrozen · June 2020

jmonroe1 said:

Michaell said:
I may have mentioined some friends of mine who race.

One of them had been suffering from some medical issues, and had been away from the sport for a while. He had an opportunity to get back in the car this past weekend, and ..... well, I'll let the video tell the tale:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcp7orSdPjM&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0oBLgLeI0InwGkBmBuGqlgjOQDpxZ99Rn1IvpUx-sZXehN4qrhyq86P1s
That’s what happens when “pedal-mashers” tailgate.

jmonroe

And what happens when you put a dumb sticker on your mirror. Self-fulfilling prophecy right there. I mean, I do see the driver in the mirror now.

No offense to your friend, but he needs to rethink that detail, and how close he wants to get to a large tight group of amateurs like that.

dino001 · June 2020

ronsteve said:

Unless there's an Acura badge on the car, and suddenly it's premium recommended. It's not like the 3.5 V6 in the 2nd-gen RDX has any higher compression or makes any more power than the 3.5 in the Accord.

I looked it up, to make sure:

2018 RDX, 3.5l: 252 lb-ft torque @ 4900 rpm, 290 hp @ 6200 rpm
2017 Honda Accord 3.5l: 252 lb-ft @ 4900 rpm, 278 hp @ 6200 rpm

So same peak torque (at same rpm), but 22 hp peak power difference at same rpm. This means there is tuning difference (perhaps just software, perhaps some hardware), which justifies premium gas. Basically it squeezes a bit of extra juice at high revs. It also means if you run RDX on regular, you'll see lower peak power, but otherwise it may be imperceptible to you and I'm not even convinced that the gas mileage would suffer.

stickguy · June 2020

12, not 22. But yeah, that was my point. The extra power you are giving up is at or near peak revs. So the “detuning” On RUG isn’t really across the board. More like the extra little at the top end (more timing advance?) isn’t there. So if you are staying, say, below 4K all the time, it’s very likely the tuning you are actually experiencing is identical.

stickguy · June 2020

Oh, on our V6 rdx, I went back and forth. I never noticed a drivability difference on regular (knocking, power, smoothness), and it was relatively overpowered to start with. And nothing MPG either. The couple best tanks I ever had on road trips were actually running RUG.

I’ve mostly put mid grade in the TLX as a compromise, but seems the same on regular.

Ditto on the new RDX but not enough miles on that yet to really tell.

Around here, lucky if you can find the delta below $.50. I miss the old days when each grade level added a dime!

driver100 · June 2020

For those who are curious the tennis guy traded his 2007 E Class for a 2020 Lexus ES300h.

He loves the fact he can drive through the city and there is no engine noise. OK. I would feel weird without engine noise, but I am slow to want to change...I like my gassers.

ronsteve · June 2020

dino001 said:

ronsteve said:

Unless there's an Acura badge on the car, and suddenly it's premium recommended. It's not like the 3.5 V6 in the 2nd-gen RDX has any higher compression or makes any more power than the 3.5 in the Accord.
I looked it up, to make sure:

2018 RDX, 3.5l: 252 lb-ft torque @ 4900 rpm, 290 hp @ 6200 rpm
2017 Honda Accord 3.5l: 252 lb-ft @ 4900 rpm, 278 hp @ 6200 rpm

So same peak torque (at same rpm), but 22 hp peak power difference at same rpm. This means there is tuning difference (perhaps just software, perhaps some hardware), which justifies premium gas. Basically it squeezes a bit of extra juice at high revs. It also means if you run RDX on regular, you'll see lower peak power, but otherwise it may be imperceptible to you and I'm not even convinced that the gas mileage would suffer.

My RDX is a '15, rated at 273 hp @6200 and 251 lb-ft @5000, while the same vintage Accord is rated for the same numbers you quoted for the '17.

That's why I have said more than once that I'd like to see if there's a real fuel-based difference if you were to tear down high-mileage J35 engines.

fintail · June 2020

The fuel quality entry in the fintail's owners manual - being a German car from that era, it is thorough:

andres3 · June 2020

driver100 said:
For those who are curious the tennis guy traded his 2007 E Class for a 2020 Lexus ES300h.

He loves the fact he can drive through the city and there is no engine noise. OK. I would feel weird without engine noise, but I am slow to want to change...I like my gassers.

Now that's a car that you must give due credit for the beautiful "insides" and not just judge the book by its cover.

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