Since my school is 50 miles away from where I live, I have to get up at 5:30 in the morning and ride 2 buses just to get to school by 8:15 A.M. And since I'm of driving age now, (in 7 months!) my parents are thinking of buying me a car to drive to school so I can wake up at a more reasonable time. I found a '96 B5 for a really low price ($3,699), but the owner says it requires premium gasoline, but that costs more than its weight in gold, so I can't get it if the owner is right. The car I'm looking at has the 2.8 liter SOHC 12 valve V6 with a 10.3 to 1 compression ratio. So my question is, is that compression high enough to require premium gasoline? Or is the owner just paranoid? Thanks for any answers. Also, how are the '96 A4s in terms of reliability? The used one I'm looking at has 140,000 miles on it, and the owner put a K&N cold air intake on it, 19 inch rims, and nopi headlights. Here's a pic of the actual car:

 

you dont NEED to. the car will adjust to keep things safe, but you will get crappier gas mileage so spending the extra dollar or so to get premium (its really not that much more expensive than regular), it will be worth it in the long run.

 

you can get by with 89 on the 2.8 engines especialy if you're doing highwaydriving. the 12v is a workhorse ans shouln't ever go wrong. ask him for maintenance records and when he did the timing belt and control arms.

 

The answers to all of your questions are in a sticky in the regular A4 section. You don't HAVE to run premium gas, but your car will be happier for it. And in fact, you'll probably end up spending about the same since if you run 87 (or 86, depending on where you are), your fuel economy will drop. That car looks pretty, but I don't know that I would recommend an Audi for a first car on a budget so tight that the cost of premium fuel is a deal breaker.

 

thats a sick car but when i got my car i put regular in it and it just didnt drive or sound good(even gave me a hard time starting up) but i put premium and it was better and gas mileage was alot better also.....$45 dollars to fill up on premium isnt bad at all

 

Thanks for all the replies! I didn't realize that I would get better gas mileage with premium, so it balances out then. And sineo, my budget isn't that tight, but here in Atlanta, premium is around $3.50 a gallon. But if I get better mileage, then I'll just spend a few more dollars and buy premium. And another question, do those octane boosters like this one actually work? If they do, can't I just pour one in a tank of 87 octane?

 

naw i've tried even the 10 dollar NOSkind and it doesn't work. it did work in my civic though lol. octane booster will giveyou about .1 octane per bottle. you do the math lol premium where i live is 3.43 so you're not suffering that much.

 

For your car is better to run premium. The idle will be smoother. If you gas with regular, you will notice hesitations, rpm fluctuations, hard starts, bad gas mileage..


+ if the old owner had the car on premium keep it that way. The car will appreciate it.

 

i was trying to do that because im 17 and its my second car then my dad told me if i dont want to buy premium gas sell the audi and buy a honda civic...whenever i have the erge to be cheap when it can effect the performance...so you gottah make your own descision mine was to have the 1000X better car than most of the people at my skool

 

Ok then. Thanks. Just wanted to make sure. So is there anything else I should know before becoming a B5 owner?