Well, that sounds definitive.  I was hoping for a reply that would
enlighten me a little more, however.  VW clearly recommends minimum
octane 87.  Gasoline in the West is clearly lower octane than that (on
reasonable theoretical, and I suppose data driven, grounds).  Numerous
folks, including some with claimed technical expertise, state that the
waterboxer is subject to detonation knock (ping) and that the octane
value of the gasoline used is iffy in that regard.  Consequently these
folks recommend higher octane gasoline.  If they are wrong, I'd like to
know how we know that.  If they are right, I definitely don't want to
waste my money.  I'd just like to understand it a little better.  I
certainly believe that pinging would be less noticeable in a vanagon
than in a vehicle with the engine right in front of the driver.  For
driving in Oklahoma, I pay the extra for alcohol free gasoline.  Is that
a waste of money also?  Actually, for my other cars, I concluded that I
would pay up to but not more than $0.06 per gallon more.  That was
arbitrary.  Given the alleged propensity of the waterboxer to be
sensitive to gasoline quality (and VW's admonition in the manual to use
alcohol free gasoline if possible), for that vehicle, I always pay
whatever extra I have to to get alcohol free fuel, where it is
available.

Any explanation will be considered helpful.

David McNeely

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 12:18 PM , Richard A Jones wrote:

>> And, am I just wasting my
>> money, as most auto manufacturers state, when I pay extra for the
>> higher
>> octane stuff when out west?
>
> Yes.
>
> Richard