What Gasoline do you put in your E34?

[Traian]

CharlesAFerg - agree with ya, shouldn't be called 'premium', just because it's higher octane just means it's different. Depends whether your car needs it or not. But I guess the gas stations use words like premium so that people who need to put it in their cars feel better about their purchase, and uninformed old men can throw their money away Oh, and the manual for the 540 recommends 89 octane, so the base 87 is not valid for all the 5's. I put 91 anyway, because the word 'premium' just tickles me the right way. And Shell only, in fact, pretty much the same gas station all the time - I must've spend thousands there....

[Ross]

Ethanol is used to "stetch" the fuel. It's a lousy way though as ethanol has less energy and is also corrosive and hydrophillic.
A strong lobby for the industry in the midwest has convinced our politicians that it's good for the environment, blah, blah, blah.
Less is better for your car.

[J.DeFeo]

Whatever 87 is at whichever gas station I come across when I need fuel. I don't notice any difference between brands and there's no point in putting premium gas in the M30.

[Alexlind123]

I'm sure glad he likes throwing his money to Ahmed.

The US produces the largest percentage the oil that we use. Canada is second, and Mexico is third as the producers of oil that we use.

[wyldbil]

Texaco (or Chevron) 87. My '92 525it runs fine on it and the Techron seems to make my motor happy.

[BillionPa]

Shell V-Power 92 with 0% ethanol + acetone/fp60 mix.

[Paul in NZ]

91 RON, ussually shell cause they are the brand that usually drops the price first and run regular 5c off specials.I run a bottle of cleaner through a couple of tanks before an oil change.If i cant find a shell ussually BP but they all sem the same.Car does FEEL nicer and uses very slightly les fuel with 95 RON which i will use for auto crosses and driver training days(more throttle applied than normal)

[zhandax]

The tech in Ft Lauderdale who used to adjust the valves on my E12 in the mid 80s told me to only use Amoco in a BMW. Since he always shared the joint he lit before he adjusted the valves and still got the valves right, I have followed his advice for 20 years. Although I used 89 in the E28, I put 93 in the 540 because of the 10:1 compression ratio. The RON spec on the 300E (same 10:1 compression) I think translates to 90 octane and I alternated 89-93 and found it runs better on 93 with better mileage. Have not experimented on the 540.

For more logical brand reasoning, the Amoco station around the corner from work was bought by a Shell convenience chain a few years back when I still had the E28. I put a dozen tanks of Shell in the car and had to replace the O2 sensor. Never again.