Gas companies and auto makers love it when you buy premium gas. They like it so much that they try to perpetuate myths about premium gas. Myths like premium gas will lead to better fuel economy. Myths like premium gas will make your car perform better. Why do the gas companies and auto makers like premium so much?

Gasoline refiners and retailers like premium gas because it's a lot more profitable for them than regular gas. You pay 20 cents more for premium gas while the retailer only pays about 8 cents more for that same gallon. That means the retailer makes an extra 12 cents on every gallon of premium gas he sells.

The refineries, when they sell fuel to it's distributors only make a few extra cents per gallon for high octane fuel. Remember though, this extra profit per gallon is multiplied by the thousands and thousands of gallons of fuel that refineries sell. That equates to thousands and thousands of additional profit dollars.

The refineries and fuel retailers aren't the only ones that get an advantage using high octane fuel. Vehicle makers use high octane fuel to increase their bottom line also. The car makers use high octane fuel to increase the perceived value of their vehicles.

They use this type of thought pattern:if a car can only use premium gasoline it must have a more expensive engine and since it has a more expensive engine naturally the vehicle must cost more. By using that logic, auto manufacturers can convince you that you should be spending extra dollars on their car.

Another way that vehicle manufacturers capitalize on high octane fuel is by designing engines to be specially tuned to take advantage of the anti-knock properties of high octane fuel. By doing that they can create "high octane engines" that actually do get a little more horsepower out of high octane fuel then they do from regular fuel.

Since these engines do have some horsepower gain it enables the auto makers to advertise bigger horsepower ratings for their "premium engines". Higher horsepower means more expensive auto which means more cost for you and more profit for the car manufacturers.

The optimized for premium engines do perform with a small increase in horsepower running on premium gas. Most engineers and car experts seem to agree that you can use regular in a premium engine and you probably can't tell the difference.

Premium gas does not increase fuel economy. Regular gas can be run in a so called premium engine without any noticeable effect. In the end it all comes down to money. By convincing you that you need to use premium gas they are able to take more money out of your pocket and put it in theirs.