etiquette and privacy
Say someone you don't know very well lends you his car to drive about fifty miles. It occurs to you to top off the tank. It's a pretty nice car, so you expect it takes premium, but you don't know for sure. "Huh," you think. "I could check the driver's manual."
What do you do? Open up the glove compartment? Just give it premium? Figure it doesn't really matter and save a couple bucks with regular? Leave ten bucks on the seat?
The next day, he says, "Hey, I saw that you filled up the car. Thanks." Do you tell him what you put in to ease any worries?
(I checked the owner's manual, but didn't tell him.)
9 comments:
Well, I am super cheap and would probably NOT put premium in. But I suppose the RIGHT thing to do would be premium.
I think the right thing to do is check the owner's manual. If you lend me your car, you have invited me to look in the glove compartment. It's not like you're reading his diary--though if his diary were in the glove compartment, that would be fair game too.
I'd probably double-check the owner's manual if I wasn't sure. Or I'd ask him beforehand if it occurred to me. And if it did take premium, I'd probably say something like, "Just so you know, I put premium in it."
Judging from the title, I thought this post was going to be about Google Streets.
Premium is always safe to put in, although it's easy to understand wanting to save that few dollars if it's not necessary to spend it. And I'm with Master Fob on reading his diary, too. Be sure to post on anything juicy you find!
it's funny, this sort of happened to me in high school. i had borrowed a neighbor's BMW for an event and before returning it, topped it off with 93. i told him when i dropped off the car, but it was because i didn't want him to wonder if i had infected his machine with a low octane. this was at a time when premium fuels didn't require taking out a second mortgage. also, surprisingly enough, it isn't always safe to put in premium; many engines are not built for it.
Huh..It would never occur to me to be worried about what sort of gas someone put into my car. Of course, I don't even know how to check my car's oil, either, so it's not like I'm exactly mechanically savvy..
I'm 95% sure Cache is wrong about higher octanes damaging engines. All a higher octane does is raise the compression ratio at which detonation (pinging) occurs. So if you have an ordinary low-compression engine premium does nothing for you (but doesn't hurt), but if you have a high-compression sports car you need premium (as the manual will tell you) or else your engine will knock like crazy and damage itself.
yes, i think lunkwill was right. i was just going off what i had heard from "gearheads" a few times--but i think they were referring to octane well above 100, not the sort that you can pump into your car at 7/11.
"is" right!
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