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As many of you know, in Colorado regular gasoline is 85 octane; in most states, it's 87 octane. The topic of what octane to use at higher altitude has been hashed out here before, and I'd thought the matter was settled: Even john1701a - who I trust implicitly - says 85 octane is okay at high altitude.
However, I recently ran across a couple of local news articles that claim 85 octane is only better at high altitude for cars with carburetors, which the Prius, along with just about every other car, is not:
http://www.koaa.com/news/view.asp?ID=251
http://www.koaa.com/news/view.asp?ID=250
Of course, the Prius manual calls for 87 octane, without any provision for altitude (which would have been easy to include). And our salesman recommended 87 although, of course, he's a salesman, not a technician.
Does anyone know a definitive source for information on this? Meanwhile, I'm going to keep using 87 - I can make up the cost difference by slowing down a little.
However, I recently ran across a couple of local news articles that claim 85 octane is only better at high altitude for cars with carburetors, which the Prius, along with just about every other car, is not:
http://www.koaa.com/news/view.asp?ID=251
http://www.koaa.com/news/view.asp?ID=250
Of course, the Prius manual calls for 87 octane, without any provision for altitude (which would have been easy to include). And our salesman recommended 87 although, of course, he's a salesman, not a technician.
Does anyone know a definitive source for information on this? Meanwhile, I'm going to keep using 87 - I can make up the cost difference by slowing down a little.