Does the Mazda CX-7 HAVE to use premium fuel, or is it just recommended?

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Wow C

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Want to buy this car, but afraid of the premium fuel costs. My next door neighbor has a Lincoln Town Car executive. The owners manual for him said he needs to use premium, he doesn't, and it lasted 9 years so far, a lot for a Lincoln! Another friend of mine has a Volkswagen Beetle cabriolet which also requires premium, but they don't fill it up.

If it does require premium, is there a problem with me putting regular in the car? What is it?

Thanks.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating

That explains octane.

Keep in mind, switching to regular is only going to save you around $100 a year.

Here's the math:

Figure 500 gallons used in a year. At 20mpg (average for a Cx-7), that's 10,000 miles. That's about average for a normal commuter. Maybe a bit low.

500 x 1.80 = 900.
500 x 2.05 = 1025.

Either way, if you go 10,000 miles in a year, you're spending around $1000. It really does NOT make that much of a difference.

If you want to buy an expensive vehicle like a CX-7, it's pretty foolish to complain about a difference of $100.

And if it does damage your engine, the repairs are in the thousands. Instantly destroying any amount you saved by going cheap.

Your neighbor? When he eventually fries the pistons in his engine, it will cost around $1500-2000 to fix.

At the rate he's going, he needs to drive for 15-20 years total, just to pay that off. And then he's back to $0 savings again.
 
the CX-7 uses Mazda's direct injected turbo four 2.3. Yes it recommended for premium and yes you will see a power and efficiency increase by using premium fuel. The jump in MPG with premium helps soften the blow of costly premium fuel.

But the direct injected engine adapts immediately to any pump octane you put in the tank.

So use regular when you want to and premium when you want a boost in power.
 
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