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I got my driver's license in Spring, 1972. One year later, I purchased my first brand new car, a 1973 Super Beetle. Gasoline was less than 40 cents a gallon for regular and the Volkswagen took about 10 gallons. It ran decently on regular until I noticed a horrific pinging and eventually, some serious misfiring and hesitation when accelerating. It was less than a year old and I was concerned enough to take it to the dealer. The diagnosis? The fuel injectors-less than 2 inches long and less than half a finger's width-were clogged with gunk from the fuel I'd been using. The cure? Use premium grade.

My experience with my first car sold me on the use of premium gas to the point that, through the gas crisis of the Carter years, right up until the mid 1990's, I only used premium gas. My friends thought I was crazy for putting the more expensive gasoline into my little economy cars, but performance was foremost in my mind.
Fast forward to October,2000 when my first new car in 12 years arrived. My PT Cruiser was my baby and the first few tanks it got were strictly premium. When prices started to rise, I was convinced by several people that I should be using regular as that is what the car is designed to run on. For the last 5 years I have done just that.
The addition of ethanol is again switching my thinking to going premium or, at the very least, mid-grade. The past few months I had been experiencing hesitation and horrible gas mileage. I decided to try filling the tank with midgrade fuel and lo and behold, the performance improved greatly. The gas lasted longer, the hesitation was minimal at its worst and the car was more responsive, instead of the embarrassing "cough" it would do when stepping on the gas in first gear.
In New Jersey, premium gas is well over $3 a gallon and may very well hit $4 next year. I am forced by budget to use regular grade most times, but the minute the hesitation starts, I use a higher grade. It helps that my boss will sometimes pay me for gas for running business errands and, when she does, I go for the more expensive gasoline. My car seems grateful.
I'd like to add as a final anecdote that the little VW lasted for 12 years and I truly believe that using only premium, coupled with regular visits to a good mechanic, kept that car running beautifully right up to trade-in. In fact, my mechanic once remarked that, although he could see nothing actually done to the engine, it was the fastest, smoothest Beetle he's ever worked on.

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