I agree with the post that the SEC needs to do its job and stop the speculators from profitering on oil prices. I work for an airline and the Airline Transport Association has asked Congress to do just that but Congress so far has not done anything. Congress changed the law about 20 years ago and ended the requirement that you actually particpate in the commodity markets (actually take possession of or deliver). Now we have speculators making tremendous profits by manipulating the markets The Financial reform act did nothing to limit this gambling in the stock and commodity markets as the speculators are huge contributors to campaign.
As to the poster that just purchased a Jag that requires a minimum of 91 octace. Are you aware that any car made after the mid 70s can burn any kind of gas. Performance will be slightly reduced by using regular gas over premium, but for most driving where you are not really getting into the throttle you will never know the difference. The reason you do not need higher octane is that all cars now have an accostic anti-knock detector that retrads the timing when it hears the engine begin to knock. Higher octane fuel does not have more energy per gallon, as a matter of fact there is less energy per gallon in higher octane fuel but it does have anti-knock additives, either alcohol or lead or MTBE.
Not sure why Lexus tells us to run premium fuel---suspect it is to get the total performance that the engine can provide but it also might be you are driving a premium car so you should use premium fuel. As for me I will save that 30 cents per gallon and use Regular which I have done in all my Lexus over the years. I do put premium in my 61 Porsche 356, which does not have the accostic anti-knock detector.
