Hi all,

 

I'm the new owner of a 2021 Octavia VRS here in Australia and was just wondering what the consensus is regarding petrol types. The handbook says 95 petrol (min) but when I picked up the car the dealer said I have to fill it up with 98. Just wondering if 98 petrol is required? (Especially with the current fuel prices... I don't want to be paying more if it isn't necessary.)

 

Thanks everyone for your help! 👍 

Welcome.

 

Did they put in 98 at the PDI?  Doubt it, and do they run demonstrators on 98?  Doubt it.

 

95 is required, that is the minimum.

and if you use that then try 98 ron you can decide.   That is up to the driver.

 

In the UK that would be 95 which is now E10 and then Super Unleaded comes in either 97 or 99 ron minimum and that is what you need to buy if you want E5.

4 minutes ago, roottoot said:

Welcome.

 

Did they put in 98 at the PDI?  Doubt it, and do they run demonstrators on 98?  Doubt it.

 

95 is required, that is the minimum.

and if you use that then try 98 ron you can decide.   That is up to the driver.

 

In the UK that would be 95 which is now E10 and then Super Unleaded comes in either 97 or 99 ron minimum and that is what you need to buy if you want E5.

Thank you!

 

Yeah... I'm doubtful if they put 98 in when I left the dealership but I just thought I better double check and see what others recommend. I've since filled it with 95 but I'll try 98 when I next fill up and see if I notice any difference (probably not...)

As long as I'm not doing any damage by filling it with 95 - then happy days!

 

Thanks again for your help and quick reply. 😊 

Lots of threads on here on 'Posh fuel's,  Super unleaded, some say Premium Fuels. 

 

The higher Octane is going to be worth using if you think the car runs better, gets better fuel consumption or not,  or just because you want to run it. 

2 minutes ago, roottoot said:

Lots of threads on here on 'Posh fuel's,  Super unleaded, some say Premium Fuels. 

 

The higher Octane is going to be worth using if you think the car runs better, gets better fuel consumption or not,  or just because you want to run it. 

That's fair enough. I'll give it a go and see if there's a big difference, otherwise I'll just stick with 95.

 

Thanks again for you help. Much appreciated!

I'm using 95 in Lithuania, because 98 is hard to find and usually more expensive and I don't care enough about potential performance. Fuel economy gains are definitely lost in the price difference.

Fellow Aussie here.

I have an RS Wagon.

I put 95 in it and it runs just fine.

I have never done the experiment of putting 98 in to see if I can notice the difference.

 

On 31/03/2022 at 05:59, DaveFromSydney said:

Fellow Aussie here.

I have an RS Wagon.

I put 95 in it and it runs just fine.

I have never done the experiment of putting 98 in to see if I can notice the difference.

 

Hi mate, 

 

Thanks for the reply. I assumed 95 would be fine as that was what it says in the owners manual but the dealer was adamant that I had to put 98 in… 

 

I’m going to fill it with 98 this week (seeing as petrol prices have come down a little bit) and see if there is any difference in performance/ fuel efficiency. Like others have mentioned it’s probably a negligible amount anyway. 
 

Just good to know I’m not doing any damage by using 95. 👍

6 hours ago, FillNill said:

Hi mate, 

 

Thanks for the reply. I assumed 95 would be fine as that was what it says in the owners manual but the dealer was adamant that I had to put 98 in… 

 

I’m going to fill it with 98 this week (seeing as petrol prices have come down a little bit) and see if there is any difference in performance/ fuel efficiency. Like others have mentioned it’s probably a negligible amount anyway. 
 

Just good to know I’m not doing any damage by using 95. 👍

 

Picked up my RS in November last year, dealer put 98 in and I continued doing so up until about a month ago. Haven't noticed any differences whatsoever since filling it with 95. 

The person at the dealer you spoke to was a salesman so believe the manufacturer's recommendations over his .

The euro sourced engines are generally optimised to offer best performance and economy on the fuel stipulated for the official consumption and emission tests in Europe, which is 95 RON.

 

In line with our vehicle emission standards (currently Euro 5), Australian fuel standards are considered 3rd world in regard to allowed sulphur content with 150ppm for 91 RON and 50ppm for 95 and 98 RON. European and US standards are 5ppm. The government was giving a billion or so dollars to the local refineries to upgrade so we should meet international low sulphur standards in the next year or so.

 

DO NOT fall into the trap of using our local very cheap10% Ethanol fuel which was once touted as being 94 RON. It is just the high sulphur 91RON with 10% ethanol added to raise the RON. The trouble is that independent testing of the fuel has shown that the quantity of ethanol added varies and sometimes has no Ethanol at all (warning stickers on pumps in SA) so you may inadvertently put in low octane rubbish. Euro/UK standard 95 RON fuel now has 10% ethanol stipulated but I am more confident in their quality control than our producers, also UK 99 RON or higher octane fuels often only have 5% ethanol or less so the higher octane fuel actually has more calories for potentially slightly better power/consumption. Our 95 and 98 fuels with no ethanol would have the same calorific values.

 

A known exception is the Mazda 2.5 turbo engine available on some of their cars here, it was principally designed for the US and can happily run on their equivalent of our 91 Ron fuel through to 98 RON. I remember reading that Mazda claims that the sensors on the engine allow the higher rated fuel to produce an extra 12kw power.

Skoda (VW) make no similar claim for their vehicles as far as I know but would not be surprised if there was some power benefits for specialist high revving engines produced by Porsche and other high performance cars.

 

There are also benefits using higher rated fuels for remapped engines tuned for its use.

 

However no harm in trying 98 RON for yourself and see how you go.

I tried it in my 1.4tsi when new and could not discern any difference in performance or consumption but some others in this forum swear by it

Edited 6 April, 20224 yr by Gerrycan

98 benefits are the cleaning properties it has over time and beter fuel/km ratio (but not with the prices they are at now). So cleaning injections regularly is good. But you can do that also with those bottles and is far cheaper than using 98. So i would say 95 and once in a while a cleaner with the gasoline for none modded cars.

Edited 6 April, 20224 yr by Omniking

@Omniking. So Germany can be different from other world regions including none EU European countries like the UK.   98 Ron has not been sold in the UK for a few years now and super unleaded is 97 or 99 Ron minimum and it is still E5.   95 Ron is now only available as E10.      If people want fuels with detergents or more detergents / packages then they might well buy the higher octane fuel.  But then you can buy 100-102 octane for motorsports which has no detergents.   Not available at UK filling stations as 100 plus octane as it is available in places on continental Europe.  It is  Location location location that matters.   Then as far as winter formulation I imagine that Australia has a different of the year for that being distributed than Europe / EU / UK.  

Edited 6 April, 20224 yr by roottoot

7 hours ago, Gerrycan said:

The person at the dealer you spoke to was a salesman so believe the manufacturer's recommendations over his .

The euro sourced engines are generally optimised to offer best performance and economy on the fuel stipulated for the official consumption and emission tests in Europe, which is 95 RON.

 

In line with our vehicle emission standards (currently Euro 5), Australian fuel standards are considered 3rd world in regard to allowed sulphur content with 150ppm for 91 RON and 50ppm for 95 and 98 RON. European and US standards are 5ppm. The government was giving a billion or so dollars to the local refineries to upgrade so we should meet international low sulphur standards in the next year or so.

 

DO NOT fall into the trap of using our local very cheap10% Ethanol fuel which was once touted as being 94 RON. It is just the high sulphur 91RON with 10% ethanol added to raise the RON. The trouble is that independent testing of the fuel has shown that the quantity of ethanol added varies and sometimes has no Ethanol at all (warning stickers on pumps in SA) so you may inadvertently put in low octane rubbish. Euro/UK standard 95 RON fuel now has 10% ethanol stipulated but I am more confident in their quality control than our producers, also UK 99 RON or higher octane fuels often only have 5% ethanol or less so the higher octane fuel actually has more calories for potentially slightly better power/consumption. Our 95 and 98 fuels with no ethanol would have the same calorific values.

 

A known exception is the Mazda 2.5 turbo engine available on some of their cars here, it was principally designed for the US and can happily run on their equivalent of our 91 Ron fuel through to 98 RON. I remember reading that Mazda claims that the sensors on the engine allow the higher rated fuel to produce an extra 12kw power.

Skoda (VW) make no similar claim for their vehicles as far as I know but would not be surprised if there was some power benefits for specialist high revving engines produced by Porsche and other high performance cars.

 

There are also benefits using higher rated fuels for remapped engines tuned for its use.

 

However no harm in trying 98 RON for yourself and see how you go.

I tried it in my 1.4tsi when new and could not discern any difference in performance or consumption but some others in this forum swear by it

That was interesting. A lot of it was news to me. It does make it plausible that here in Australia we might have a different situation that warranted a different response from owners in other countries. However, if it really was an issue I imagine that we would all get that advice more formally on taking delivery of our cars - an extra guide with the handbook, a sticker on the windscreen, or near the fuel filler. Since we do not, I think it is safe to follow the manufacturers recommendation and stick with 95, rather than taking the advice of a salesman.

 

On the other hand, I do follow the advice given by the NRMA man who came to get me going when our other VW-group car conked out with a flat battery after less than 2 years. He blamed it on auto stop/start. So, in addition to just finding it annoying and a safety issue, I have an extra incentive to turn off auto start/stop on every trip. These batteries are much more expensive than those on my previous cars.

 

Good advice from the NRMA man.

Having driven regularly in Sydney I know how heavy the traffic can be and the stop/start can activate many times in a short distance, plus the the battery is drained as the ventilation fans keep running when the engine is stopped. They were rentals so I didn't really care then.

None of my old cars have stop/start but I am quite willing to switch off the engine with the key when I know I am going to be still for more than a minute (some of the lights have very long cycles). Saves a bit of petrol and saves the ventilation system sucking in fumes from surrounding idling vehicles. Unlikely to happen more than a couple of times in my trips anyway. 

I usually get about 5 to 6 years out of standard (Australian made) car batteries.

I will willingly admit I am using an environmentalist excuse for being a tight-arse  

Edited 6 April, 20224 yr by Gerrycan

The Stop / start is faulty if the load / demand from the car from fans AC is such that they are running and the engine has stopped and not fired up again when the car is stationary and the ignition is on.