DD_545i

Here in Germany they introduced a new fuel type that sits along side the regular "95" unleaded called E10. It's basically the 95 unleaded + 10% Ethanol. There's been a lot of discussions in the media about which cars can run it and which can't. The manufacturers aren't really committing themselves either as far as I can tell. Mercedes and BMW have both said they're doing studies.

Trouble is, it's becoming harder to find gas stations that sell regular non-E10 95 unleaded. A lot of them have replaced their 95 unleaded with E10. So their offerings are Diesel, 92 Unleaded, E10 and 98 Super Unleaded Plus (which costs way more than 95 unleaded). In the cases where you can find 95 unleaded, it's 5-10% more expensive than the E10.

I've always used regular 95 unleaded in mine, I don't need the extra few HP that would come from using 98 (I've got 333 horses already).

What are others doing ? Is it in your country yet ?

tsaros

In Germany you really don't have to be in that situation since you have premium fuel available, shell v-power 100, etc.
In Sweden we will soon end up with only E-10, shell´s Swedish stations are sold to stp1 and they will not carry V-power according to the information i have got.

I know it dosent answer your question but if i where you i would feed the car with V-power 100 and not thing about it any more

DD_545i

Sounds like we still have it pretty good then compared to Sweden. For now. But for how long. I've never trusted Shell and their top octane fuels. They've screwed up in the past. Besides, I'm happy with 95 Unleaded when I can get it. The extra 5 horsepower (or however many it is) I'd get from 98 (or 100) is unlikely to be even noticeable. It's annoying paying more for regular 95 unleaded than the E10 95 unleaded though. They deliberately made it more expensive to put people off wanting to buy it, but every day you hear people saying E10 is bad for engines, and BMW aren't speaking up to say don't worry it's fine.

Iceman

According to BMW all !!! BMW's can use E10 fuel without problems.


No E10 for me! Always V-Power 100, only!
I'm not putting some poor kids food in my tank.........

DD_545i

I initially heard/read that too, so I started using it. Then I hear that people are complaining about it, and so Mercedes and BMW both decided to investigate whether there are any issues with it and if their cars are really as fine with it as they thought.

Now I've got the summer tyres on, and that top power range can get a workout, I think I'll step up to the big boys fuel too. There doesn't seem much point in winter though, when I already have too much power for the tyres to stick to the road (I'm often having to set off in second gear in winter or the tyres just spin like crazy). Also, my winters are max 210km/h (130mph) so I'm not getting much use out of any extra horses. I think it's wasting money putting top fuel in during winter.