2008 BMW X5 4.8i: The price of a fill up

Looks like that would be the same price for any vehicle that you can put 21 gallons of superunleaded into..
 
How much to fill up the Tundra?

I just filled up today. It's $3.69 for regular unleaded in Michigan right now.
I can't believe people buy cars that run on premium only. I passed on a Vibe GT because it took premium.

$3.999 for premium! Where were you, Scott? I paid $4.039 for premium on Sunday.

I can't believe people complain about putting premium gas in a car... "OMFG THIS EXTRA 20 CENTS A GALLON IS PUTTING ME IN THE POOR HOUSE"

The moose in Alaska thank you for paying that.

chevy598, there's an old saying:
 
"You gotta pay to play." :o)
 
I haven't changed my driving one bit due to the increase in fuel prices. =Þ

cx7lover esspically at 4 bucks a gallon.
 
when regular was a buck, the 'good' stuff was 1.20.
 
So it was 20% more.
 
if now regular is 4.00, and premium is 4.20 thats only 5% more.
 
Go figure.
 
and a vibe needs premum gas? its only 160hp. seems odd

Any engine can easily make up the 15-20 cent difference if tuned properly.
 
Even if you're only getting 1mpg (realistically, you're probably looking at 3+) you'd save loads of money each year. Say gas is $4 (premium $4.15) and your vehicle gets 19mpg on regular (20 on premium).
 
15K miles / 19mpg * $4.00 = $3158
15K miles / 20mpg * $4.15 = $3112
And if we make the savings more realistic:
15K miles / 22mpg * $4.15 = $2829
 
That's a savings of $329 a year. Even with a 1mpg difference, you're still saving $46.
 
If gas does reach $5 this summer, that savings jumps to $436.

Uh, the Exxon off the Storke exit in Santa Barbara had regular for $4.06.

Wow your premium is only 10 cents more than regular.
Very tempting to buy a premium fuel vehicle.

I know I'll get shouted down on an 'enthusiasts' site for saying it but since Supply and Demand decide the price when you drive a vehicle that gets 16.6 mpg you are increasing the demand and thus the price they can charge.

I haven't seen Premium for under $4.20 anywhere within 5 miles of downtown, and I've NEVER seen it sell for less than 20 cents over Regular, regardless of price. You got a relative bargain!

until gas rationing starts i won't believe any of this shortage nonsense.

Opfreak,
 
I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that they recommend premium in the Vibe GT. I see your point about the percentage difference now that regular is so expensive. It did make a big difference when gas was $1.30/gal, but now it’s so minimal that it really doesn’t make a difference.
 
Tmanz,
 
You are taking a complex problem and way over simplifying it. One good or bad law by our government can have as much effect on gas prices as supply and demand does. Forcing refineries to use ethanol instead of MTBE in their gas mixtures is a perfect example. Supply and demand is only one of the reasons we are paying so much for gas.
   
One of the main reasons oil is expensive right now is because the US dollar has basically collapsed, and oil is traded in American dollars. If the American dollar was worth as much as it was 6 years ago we would be paying almost half as much for a barrel of oil right now.

chevy you might be right, and they might need preimum. very suprising to me, considering its a 2.5l engine, with 160hp...
 
very surprising to me,

There isn't a shortage of gas, there's a glut of currency chasing it. Next stop $5.
 
Rationing or price fixing to discourage additional supply would - and in the past, has - create a shortage overnight.

"There isn't a shortage of gas, there's a glut of currency chasing it"
 
You are correct. Speculators are driving the price, not demand or OPEC or the oil companies or China or whatever.
 
"OMFG THIS EXTRA 20 CENTS A GALLON IS PUTTING ME IN THE POOR HOUSE""
 
How about 56 cents per gallon? Here in Vancouver we are paying 14 cent per LITRE extra for premium. That sucks.

There is no shortage of gas.
Gas is being sold at market value.
$4 is what the market wants to pay, and we're just fine with that.
 
Love the X5. It deserves to drink as much as it does.

bilt9 thats a very simplistic veiw of gas prices.
 
and also miss guided. Its not really what the market will pay, but what the market is forced to pay... right now its price is controlled by too many things to simple say its market value.
 
Alot of people aren't fine with it...
america is using less fuel then last year. Companies are closing down because of the high cost of fuel, and people are lossing their jobs.
 
 But they have a really NEED for gasoline so they will pay whatever the price is. Its not like picking picking between two cerals. Theres no other gasoline you can use in your car.

$3.999 for premium!? What a bargain. $4.159 here.

As a small business owner, gas prices really do seem to affect what I am doing, although not greatly. My gas costs have gone up about $20 a week, roughly $100 a month. So in rough figures, I will probably spend about $1200 more in gas this year compared to last year. That hurts a little bit (plane tickets and a Disneyland park entrance for my family), but we make do.
 
As far as premium goes, I know the experts out there say it doesn't do any good, and I am not sure it does for my work van, but then again, I have never tried it. I know that for our car, I accidently filled up with premium for one tank on our last road trip and my MPG for that trip went up to almost 32 from the 30 MPG average that I was getting. It was only one tank though out of the several I used and I would have to do several tanks of premium to see if it was just an anomoly that included the right road conditions, or if indeed it really did make a 2 MPG difference...
 
For now I just stick with regular and average about 25-27 in our family car and my truck and work van get about 17 and 15 repectively.
 
BTW gas prices are average of 3.69 for regular and 3.93 for premium. Diesel is over $4. The Arco's are the cheapest at around $3.50 for regular... Just a few weeks ago they were $3.25ish...

estreka, 2 things - premium here is .30 more, everywhere. And I have yet to read a test where clear mpg advantages are demonstrated. My ES300 (premium recommended) gets 20 mpg with either. Some cars, maybe, pay to use premium, but it's far from a sure thing.

My Mustang and Bonneville both used to consistently get 2-3 mpg better mileage when I would run premium in them. I was too cheap to spring for it all the time, but when I did it would make a noticeable mileage difference. Back then it wasn’t worth it because you were paying 25% - 30% more for premium, and only getting a 10% increase in mileage.
   
Like estreka and opfreak have pointed out it almost pays to use premium with the percentage of cost difference being so small. I might have to give it a shot in my Impala and see if it makes as much difference as it did in my other cars.

This is why my next car is gonna be a diesel. Diesel is $4.39 by me and premium is 4.05. I just read that VW's new 2.0TDI is rated at 60 mpg. Even if I were to only get 50 mpg, that's an insane savings every month. I get 30 mpg with my cooper S.
 
1500 miles a month, 30 mpg (@$4.05) = $202
1500 miles a month, 50 mpg (@4.39) = $131
 
$850 a year and the cost of gas will only continue to climb.

absolutely DISGUSTING. I'm paying $50 to fill up my Mustang. Good thing I don't need to drive much. I don't anymore LOL.

blueguydotcom - we disagree from time to time.
 
but keep your hands off my jetta:
 
I just read that story about the jetta getting 60mpg.
 
i'd be moving from a car that just 30mpg on the freeway. That be a doubling of my fuel economy, even with the crazy prices for desiel i'd be saving money.
 
Cant wait to see it show up at the dealer so I can take one for a test drive.

Ya'll still stop at Exxon Mobil stations? Guess that Valdez (and the fact that Exxon STILL hasn't paid) don't mean anything to you.
 
And only 10 cents extra for premium? That's a real bargain. Last night, premium was $3.86 *I think*, while regular was $3.51. I would've thought it would be worse in California. And what kind of mileage is that beast getting?
 
I too am giddy at the thought of 60mpg in the new Jetta. Sign me up!

Im actually paying about $25-$30 every other day! im pretty sure now that the Flex-Fuel capability on my 07 tahoe is a marketing gimmick .... i average "exactly" 15.6 MPG

Premium is more than 20 cents over regular at most stations. While it is true that paying 40 cents more per gallong isnt going to break one's budget, the bottom line is that people are looking to pay as little as possible for gas. Premium fuel shouldn't be required on anything beyond high performance engines these days. Only a handful of domestic vehicles require premium and most of them are powerful V8s. The list of foreign branded cars that recommend premium is very lengthy according to this USA today article I saw a few days back.
 
I think we need to wait to see real EPA figures for this Jetta as well as the cost as well as the production numbers. My feeling is that the cost is going to be high and the volume is going to be very low which is going to mean people will have trouble getting their hands on one.

"Im actually paying about $25-$30 every other day! im pretty sure now that the Flex-Fuel capability on my 07 tahoe is a marketing gimmick .... i average "exactly" 15.6 MPG"
 
do you mean Active Fuel Management? It only works under very specific conditions and those conditions are mainly on the highway when cruising.

Sorry, chevy, I don't go for 'my car did this', objective tests for mpgs are the only way to go. After some searching, all I can come up with from reliable sources is that premium isn't worth the money, mpg-wise:
 
The Federal Trade Commission, in a consumer notice, emphasizes: "(I)n most cases, using a higher-octane gasoline than your owner's manual recommends offers absolutely no benefit. It won't make your car perform better, go faster, get better mileage or run cleaner."
 
There is "no way of taking advantage of premium in a regular-grade car," says Furey.
 
"There is no gain. You're wasting money," insists Jim Blenkarn, in charge of powertrains at Nissan in the USA.
 
"No customer should ever be deluded into thinking there's any value in buying a higher grade of octane than we specify," says Toyota's Paul Williamsen, technical expert and trainer.

Im actually talking about the Ethanol Capability, i havent tried it yet but i read that it makes almost no difference cost-wise..

As for the Tahoe E85 capability, you'll take about a 30% mpg hit, so the E85 price had better be very good!

BTW, i also own an 04 530i, the onboard computer says that im getting 14 MPG.. that cant be right, can it? its a 3L I6!!

See the issue isn't necessarily the 20 cents in question. The big hit everybody is taking is the fact that gas is so expensive just from 2 years ago. When you add up the difference of paying 1.50 more per gal than I was 2 years ago and then the fact that I haven't gotten a raise in 2 years because of the economy tanking here in reno. that creates a pinch. Not to mention my heating oil going up, electric bill going up and so-on. But i'm not pushing for any regulation on gas... it's a private enterprise and it has to stay that way. That's the beauty of capitalism. And now we are catching up with the rest of the world and many new countries are enjoying the automobile world for the first time. We got to enjoy low gas prices for a long long time in comparison with the rest of the world. We are still paying less. What is europe paying $9 a gallon now?
 
I think this whole gas thing and the mortgage mess (different bag of crap I know) is going to serve as a big "gut check" to america. We all just need to evaluate between what we need and want. If we are willing to take a kick in the pants to drive what we want, then great. But I have no sympathy for people who gripe about fuel prices when their daily driver is a 2WD Chevy Tahoe with no kids, boat and never sees any dirt. If it's killing you at the pump than you need to ask whether its worth paying for to drive it.
 
In a couple years I'll have some insanely fast muscle car to complement my fuel effecient daily driver. Probably won't drive it much but it will be worth every drop of $4 a gal. gas to drive it :)

I have never objectively tested my mileage when using Premium, so I can't comment on that aspect. But I CAN say unequivocally that using Premium eliminates pinging in the engine -- at least, that has been my experience with the six cars that I've owned in my life.
 
So, to say that there is *absolutely* no benefit to using Premium in a car that doesn't require it, is simply not true. There is a benefit -- it just happens to be a superficial one.

MrF - Yours is the case where premium "is required". A pinging engine is always a good indicator that a higher-octane fuel is appropriate. I run mid-grade in my '95 Suburban for that exact reason - it's a lot cheaper to do that than to have the heads pulled for a carbon cleanout, the cause of the pinging.

It seems that some of you may be very, very bad at driving efficiently yet still complaining non stop about gas prices. You can't have it both ways...learn to shift at 2000RPM, cruise at 65MPH and coast 1/4 mile every time you see a red light or stop whining.

Texases, There is only one way to find out if premium is a better deal, and that is to try it. Next time you go on a long road trip wait until your gas tank is almost empty and fill it up with premium to see what kind of difference it makes.
 
My drive to work is 42 miles, and 40 of it are highway miles. That makes it a lot easier for me to do a comparison between both types of fuels. If you set the cruise and are not in heavy traffic you take most of the variables out of the equation.
 
Last week I drove past a gas station that carried E 85 and it was only $2.85. That’s got to be close to making up the difference in mileage losses. I wonder if it would be worth it to top of a half empty gas tank with E 85 when there is that much of a price difference.

Premium makes a huge mileage difference in my Yamaha V-star motorcycle. I get over 5 mpg more out of premium compared to regular. I really don’t see much difference in acceleration or smoothness in idling, but I do get a very noticeable difference in mileage.
 
Unleaded 40 - 45 mpg
Premium 45 - 50 mpg

The frustrating thing with the regular vs. premium discussion is that the carmakers could quickly answer it by running each car through the EPA test twice. I guess they don't want two more mpg figures floating around.

It should be noted that the engine must be tuned to get any appreciable value out of premium. You can't simply throw it in there and expect better mileage (even though that does often happen).
 
I assure you any regular-fueled car will get at least 3mpg extra on premium if tuned properly.

I'd really like to believe the 3 mpg #, but where'd it come from? And as far as tune-ups, not much to do on a modern car, computer controls everything.

When you use premium in a car that doesn't need it, you can advance the ignition timing a bit to get more power from the same engine. Tuners with new cars seem to do it themselves, so I'm guessing the computer doesn't do it automatically; you have to know what you're doing.
 
And that's why so many cars are tuned (during the design phase) to run on premium. They get a few more hp without any compromises besides requiring premium... and the market supports that. Try running regular in those engines and you lose enough mpg that it's not worth it, and horsepower too (though your ECU tweaks the ignition so that you're not actually causing any harm).

"carmakers could quickly answer it by running each car through the EPA test twice."
 
texases, That's a damn good idea! They should be forced to give you both premium & regular mileage numbers.

"BTW, i also own an 04 530i, the onboard computer says that im getting 14 MPG.. that cant be right, can it? its a 3L I6!!"
 
Thats exactly why youre getting bad mileage. It's a tiny engine in a big heavy car.

elbee, I had the same 3.0 in my 330i (which was only a few hundred pounds lighter than his 530) and I consistently got 23-24 mpg combined. He's either hard on the gas, driving an automatic or there's an engine problem. BMW's inline 6s get quite good mileage.

"BTW, i also own an 04 530i, the onboard computer says that im getting 14 MPG.. that cant be right, can it? its a 3L I6!!"
 
That is probably right if you are doing only city driving. I have a V6 and get 14-15mpg in City driving. You cannot equal EPA city numbers if you do true urban driving. I dont count cruising on suburban roads with 40mph speed limits as "city" driving. driving in and around a congested major city where there are tons of stop lights and lots of volume is city driving. My last car was rated at 20mpg in the city under old EPA standards and I routinely got around 14mpg. I know someone with a four cylinder rated at 23mpg under current standards who gets about 17mpg in the city.
 
"BMW's inline 6s get quite good mileage."
 
You obviously are not doing the same type of driving that he is doing. Drive a 530 in Philly and you will not get close to 24mpg. Trust me. It has little to do with how you use the throttle or engine problems.

Argh! Americans have CHEAP gasoline! Where I live in Canada, gas is now $1.34 per litre for self-serve 87 octane regular. That's 5.04 per US gallon, or 6.08 per Canadian (Imperial) gallon. Our local price is expected to hit $1.50 per litre during the summer.
Oh, what you poor things must endure by paying 3.99 for premium gas.
My British friends pay way more than even we do, so I am not complaining about our price of gas, since they have it worse.

$1.31/litre in Vancouver this morning.
 
I chuckle when I hear Americans complain too.

gas here is cheap by world standards, but the increases here have been sudden and thus they are shocking. Gas right now is only slight more than inflation adjusted gas was in 1981 in spite of all the media hype. If these increases had been gradual the reaction would have been different, but gas was $1.50 a gallon 3 or 4 years back.

I read an article this weekend that said in Germany gas costs over $8/gal in US dollars.

1487 is quite correct to state that while gas in the US is cheap by world standards, it is the sudden increase in prices that is shocking to consumers.
In Canada, we are used to gas that is more expensive than in the US, but a sudden rise from $5/gal to, say, $7/gal would be a shock to us, just as the jump to $3.99/gal has been a shock to our American neighbours.

Not to sound like a complainer, but Canadiens (or is it Canadians?) also don't have many of the other costs Americans have, like medical for instance. While your gas prices are indeed high, I'd attribute much of that to taxation.

"I'd attribute much of that to taxation"
 
And you'd be correct. Like Europe, a high percentage of our gar price is tax.
 
I don't agree that we don't have costs like medical though. No matter what system you have, it still has to be paid for. The difference is we pay for it directly out of our taxes and avoid the huge greedy insurance companies that you have to deal with.