nissan vq40de

Here in the UK, it's common for petrol (gas) stations to offer both regular and "premium" unleaded petrol. What are the benefits of premium (high octane) petrol?

There aren’t really many advantages of the higher octane fuels unless your vehicle is capable of taking advantage of them. Your owner’s manual should tell you the proper octane to run in your vehicle. Going too low on the octane is risky business because it can lead to detonation (a.k.a. pinging) which will cause damage to your engine. Detonation is when the octane is low enough that the fuel air mixture ignites before it is supposed to ignite. And, ignition timing is absolutely critical to engine operation. The higher the octane, the slower the petrol/gasoline ignites and burns. The lower the octane, the faster and easier it ignites and burns. The higher octane fuel will give you more push if the engine is designed to take advantage of higher octane fuels. For example, the 2007 Nissan Frontier with the VQ40DE engine in the US can operate between 87 to 91 octane fuel. With 91 octane fuel, you will see a performance increase. However, it will still safely run with 87 octane. This is due to the fact that the engine has been designed to accommodate this range of fuel differences. In an engine that is not designed to take advantage of the higher octane fuel, you will be pretty much pissing money away. It would probably be better spent on a few pints at the local pub. The only time I would really advise running higher octane fuel in a vehicle that is not made to take advantage of it is if the vehicle is having a pinging issue or to mix in with suspected bad fuel. Fun tip: Octane and cetane are scales that go in opposite directions. The higher the cetane number in diesel fuel, the faster it burns. This is why the higher cetane diesel considered premium. It will ignite better in cold weather. NOTE: Edited to fix typos and autocorrect goof-ups.