Originally Posted by ELEVENS

I guess that depends upon your perspective.

I'm all for drilling for oil here (every other country does anyway, except for US), opening ANWR, building the pipeline, opening new refineries, fracking, and revisiting nuclear. Our current presidents' energy policy is officially "all of the above", but of course nothing could be farther from the truth. It doesn't even include coal, our most abundant energy resource. Natural gas is also a tremendous resource but all the current administration is interested in is subsidizing "Green Tech". The problem with "all of the above" is that it conveniently avoids making hard decisions. We critically need to change presidents. Time is running out for US.

Originally Posted by mothership324

Just picked up my 2012 Q5 2.0t yesterday and didn't know it took premium gas. What are your thoughts on using regular now and then? How important is it to use top tier detergent gas?

Originally Posted by NABS4

I found some Audi Technical documents and 91 octane is "recommended for maximum performance". That being said, you'll cause no harm to the engine by running lower octane gas (87 or higher) given the amount of electronic nannies on the car. In my case, I'll use regular in the winter and premium in the summer. Premium gas for a premium car is BS. I also have a F150 Ecoboost which gets along just fine with 87 octane. The EB has a higher specific output than the 2.0T. Also, Hyundai/Kia state that 87 is fine with their 4-cyl DI turbo engines. In higher temperature/high load conditions timing can be retarded and a few ponies will be lost, that's why I'll use 91 in the summer. Also, I'm often in rural areas where the premium gas sits in the tanks without much turnover. I'd rather the engine be fed fresh 87 than stale 91. The conventional wisdom is that better fuel efficiency is gained with higher octane gas. There is as much heat energy in regular gas as there is premium, and timing adjustment results in lower power, not lower fuel economy. The reason why premium vehicle manufacturers state that premium gas is required is that they know that it is not a barrier to someone buying the car, and historically premium gas was required for high compression engines, so they continue with what they've always preached.

Originally Posted by agnirmal

I filled my Audi once with premium gas when regular was not available at station. I could feel the difference immediately in pick up and performance. Mileage also shot up by 30% mitigating large portion of additional cost. I would recommend premium.