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Premium or standard fuel?

In today's economic climate paying that little extra for premium fuel can sometimes be difficult as most don't know the difference between the two.

Premium petrol has a higher RON (road octane number) than standard petrol and this has a number of benefits. Whilst standard petrol sits at 95 RON, premium petrol is slightly higher at 98. The road octane number of petrol is decided by a number of different factors of the fuel, but the most influential one is the fuel's octane rating. Having a higher octane rating means that the fuel burns easier in your engine cylinders and creates less engine knocks, these engine knocks send out shock waves that lessen the higher the octane rating.

As well as premium fuel causing less wear to your engine it also causes less pollution to both the air and your car. Premium petrol is looking quite good at the moment, whilst it makes your car run smoother and it's more eco-friendly it may be a better buy for some people. However Premium petrol does come at a cost at around an extra 10 pence per litre more than standard petrol. Only very old cars and turbo charged cars see a slight difference in performance by using it. Most don't see the value in buying it as it doesn't give you anymore extra miles to the gallon or benefit you in any huge way unless you are going to keep your car for a very long time.

When on your driving lessons Leeds you won't be able to tell what petrol the car uses by driving it as there is no change in performance unless you learn in a high performance car, and even then the difference is slight.

Some cars such as high performance cars with a turbo charged engine are recommended to be run on premium petrol as they perform better. You need to decide whether the benefits of using premium petrol outweigh the extra cost at the pump. The vehicle owners that will benefit the most from using premium petrol will be the drivers who own high performance car brands such as BMW and Porsche.

When learning how to drive you normally don't learn in high performance cars as they’re too powerful for a learner driver so your instructors won't use premium petrol. However it's important to know the difference between premium and standard petrol as you will need to make an informed decision of which one to use when you have your own car. If you want to know more about premium petrol then just ask when on your driving lessons in Leeds.

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