Toyota Camry’s are well known for being economical cars, but wondering whether or not it’s worth spending the extra money on premium gas is a common question! Whether you have a hybrid vehicle, an electric car, or a regular engine, you can still find something frustrating about the prices that seem to be higher than they should be.
With so many vehicles that focus on gas mileage as a selling point, there are a lot of different options available that allow you to pay less for gas and get the most out of your car. However, with different kinds of gas options, this can be a bit more complicated than it looks to be at first.
Premium, plus, and unleaded options allow you to chose which one gives your car the best performance on the road. Though you need to know which one your engine is made for, or else you could risk damaging it by using gas that is not made for your particular vehicle’s engine.
So, can a Toyota Camry take premium gas? While you can certainly put premium gas in a Toyota Camry, it is not required. In fact, Toyota themselves recommend using regular unleaded gasoline with a minimum octane rating of 87. The benefit of higher octane fuels is not worth their added cost.
Just because you could put premium gasoline in your Camry doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s worthwhile. Let’s take a look at some of these factors to break it down.
What is Premium Gas?
Premium gas is an option that has higher octane than the plus or unleaded gas options. This type of gas is made to withstand a higher amount of pressure before it will detonate.
Regular unleaded gas has an octane rating that is around 87 in many areas, but premium gas often has a much higher rating with a common rating being around the low 90s.
Some cars will require premium gas for use in the vehicle, others will recommend it, and others will recommend regular gas. It will likely depend on your specific vehicle.
Many vehicles that have a higher compression ratio will commonly recommend or require the use of premium gas to ensure the high performance of the car. This can also help you get the best fuel efficiency out of the vehicle as well.
What Gas Should You Use?
Each car comes with a recommendation or requirement for its engine that can be found in the owner’s manual of the vehicle. If you do not have the owner’s manual anymore, then you can check the inside of the fuel cap for the fuel type recommendation.
This will give you the requirement, if there is one needed, for engines that must have a certain type of gas to function at a high performance.
If there is no specific requirement, then a recommendation will be added to guide you to use the best option for the vehicle’s engine. However, it should be discussed that most cars on the road today are made to run on regular gasoline.
Can a Toyota Camry Take Premium Gas
The official recommendation for Toyota Camrys is to use regular unleaded gas, which means that you should use regular but you could likely use premium gas without any issues. However, premium gas does not offer any significant benefits to a vehicle owner over the use of regular gas.
Premium gas costs more per gallon and will raise the amount per year that you spend on gas significantly. However, because there are few benefits that will make a significant impact on the performance, it is not typically done.
For the amount of money that you will spend a year on regular gas, you will save lots of money without losing out on performance, so it doesn’t make much sense to spend more for the same driving experience.
Premium Vs Regular
What if your car can run on both types of gas? Is it better to use premium rather than regular?
Many people hold the belief that premium gas helps your car run cleaner and makes a difference in the performance of the vehicle. However, this is not entirely true.
The difference between premium and regular gas for cars that can run on both is so slight that most drivers are unlikely to notice any difference in their driving experience when they choose to fill up their tank with premium fuel.
Also, the belief that premium fuel will make your car run cleaner is not true either. In fact, premium fuel in a vehicle that doesn’t require it will have little to no effect at all.
This is because the octane level of the fuel is not the main factor here. Instead, the additives that are in the gas itself play a much bigger role in the performance and clean-running of your car than anything else.
Detergent Additive
A detergent additive is something that is added to the mixture of fuel to allow for higher performance and a cleaner engine. These are more important to the overall driving experience than the type of gas used because some fuels offer the same additives in both the premium and regular options.
For example, Chevron gas stations have the Techron included in the regular and premium fuels, so you are getting the additives no matter which one you fill up with.
If your engine doesn’t require premium, you will still get the additives you need for better performance in their regular fuel, but at a lower price.
Difference Between Requirement and Recommendation
When you are checking your owner’s manual for your fuel type, you will see one of these two words used. But what is the difference between a requirement and a recommendation when it comes to premium fuel?
Should you use premium fuel if your car recommends it? Or, should you skip the premium price tag and opt for the regular to save some money?
Well, the Toyota Camry recommends regular fuel, but you could choose to use premium if you wanted to. However, this will cost you more money for something that you don’t need.
This is true for other vehicles, and only in the case of a requirement for premium fuel would you want to use it every time you fill up your tank. If your car requires premium, you should use premium, but it won’t kill your engine to use regular fuel in most cases either.
Many newer vehicles are made to compensate for the lower performance that may come from a lower level of octane in an engine that should use a higher level. This will allow you to use regular fuel if there happens to be no premium available at the gas station you go to.
Though the performance may suffer a bit, and the fuel efficiency will be lowered, the overall difference will still be small. However, with a requirement, you want to use the type of fuel stated in any other case.
If the fuel you need is available, it is safer to use the required option to ensure that your engine works its best and lasts as long as possible. Although the use of regular fuel may not cause problems if you use it only a few times, you don’t want to use it regularly.
What is Your Preference?
As an average driver, you may not notice any issue with using premium fuel in your vehicle. For those who are avid drivers and like to drive vehicles with a specific performance, then you may notice smaller things more than others.
If your car can handle premium, then you will use the higher-priced fuel because you will be able to tell the difference between it and regular fuel. This is your personal preference because you can feel the difference when you are driving.
For those who are focusing on the pricing, then sticking with regular will get the job done with a lower amount of money spent. It all depends on what your car can take, and what you like to use the most.
However, as I mentioned earlier, you can use regular fuel that still has the additives that help your car run cleaner. This does come with a slightly higher price tag though, so if money is the main factor for you, then even getting this type of regular gas might still not sit well with you.
Knowing the amount that you are willing to spend on your car and how well you want it to run will make your final decision easier because you will know exactly what you want.
Bottom Line
Having a Toyota Camry as a vehicle is smart because they are inexpensive and have a great performance that will last a long time. However, knowing which fuel to use in the car is important for the performance and durability of the engine.
So, now that you know that you should use regular fuel but that you can use premium if you’d like, you can decide which choice feels right to you.
However, if you want to use regular fuel to save money and be able to get pretty much the same performance as you would with premium gas, you can choose to do that as well.
You want your Toyota Camry to last a long time, and using the fuel that is recommended will be your best bet overall.
