Experience with regular grade gas

[Its the wifes]

I know that Volvo says premium but the costs of it plus the short trips SWMBO does makes me want to get her to buy regular

Anyone have any experience with regular gas.

Its an 03

[BillAileo]

Do a search and you will find plenty of us use regular.....

Bill

[Aviator]

The main thing about premium fuel is that it burns slower, cleaner, and more completely in the combustion chamber. Unless you want to end up doing a cylinder head overhaul due to massive amounts of carbon buildup on your intake valves, then stick with using premium fuel. Sure it's more expensive, but that expense pales in comparison to a top end overhaul !!! Not to mention the performance decrease as a result of the carbon buildup.

Dave.

[wgriswold]

I don't know anything about combustion characteristic of premium versus regular. I use regular for two reasons. One, it is within the specs for fuel given by Volvo. Secondly, I get an average of 26 mpg with a mix of about 60% urban driving and 40% freeway. If the fuel were burned inefficiently I don't think my mileage would be so high. I do live at 6000 feet and that may help with using regular. I don't know how much the turbo can compensate for the altitude and reverse the detuning effects of driving at 6000 feet. I don't notice any difference in performance at sea level.

[nzoliver]

And...
Work out the cost difference per 100 miles at your average MPG, and you might be surprised at jst how little extra the better gas costs per year.

[wgriswold]

Yeah, I know. It's about 10 a month or less, but as my wife often complains, I am a tightwad. I think it comes from graduate school when we lived on almost nothing. Reminds me of my Dad who grew up during the depression and had a hard time spending money even when he was quite well off.

[tgwillard]

The new C30 also uses the 2.5T engine and Volvo says this about fuel grades for the C30:

The engine can be used with 91 to 98 RON unleaded gasoline.

For best performance and lowest fuel consumption 98 RON is recommended.

For normal driving 95 RON can be used.

91 RON should only be used in exceptional cases.

I believe that the 91 RON equates to our 87 octane number, 95 RON equates to 89 octane, and 98 RON equates to 91 Octane.

I use 89 octane in both the S80 and the XC70 and find performance is good as well as gas mileage. The latest fill up for the S80 yielded mileage of 28 mpg and for the XC70 I got 25 mpg. This is for a combination of city and highway driving.

[JRL]

The new C30 also uses the 2.5T engine and Volvo says this about fuel grades for the C30:

The engine can be used with 91 to 98 RON unleaded gasoline.

For best performance and lowest fuel consumption 98 RON is recommended.

For normal driving 95 RON can be used.

91 RON should only be used in exceptional cases.

I believe that the 91 RON equates to our 87 octane number, 95 RON equates to 89 octane, and 98 RON equates to 91 Octane.

I use 89 octane in both the S80 and the XC70 and find performance is good as well as gas mileage. The latest fill up for the S80 yielded mileage of 28 mpg and for the XC70 I got 25 mpg. This is for a combination of city and highway driving.

...which is the SAME for ALL Volvo engines.
The non tuirbos will run all day on 87.
The LPTs do fine on 89
The HPTs should run 93 but WILL run with no problems on 87.
You'll just get less performance and pprobably worse fuel mileage so it won't be too big a difference

[barrysharp]

I know that Volvo says premium but the costs of it plus the short trips SWMBO does makes me want to get her to buy regular

Anyone have any experience with regular gas.

Its an 03

Car will run just fine on 87 but as JRL says and from my experience on my '03 XC70 you will get less MPG and performance will be off some.

I run 87 on my '03 XC70 for around town trips and 91/92 for extended drives.