Why are there so many options for vehicular gasoline at the pumps and what’s even the difference between them?
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Generally you have 2-4 options at a pump. 1 option is usually diesel, and of course thats for diesel cars.
Otherwise you generally have 3 gasoline options max, each with a different octane, primarily 87, 89, and 91 octane are the most common fuels (you will also see 92 or 93 in place of 91 in certain locations. In high altitude locations you may see 85 or 86 octane and they will often not carry 91 or higher, long story but altitude matters)
Different car motors are built differently. Certain motors, often those with more powerful engines, need more stable fuel so that it doesn’t explode prematurely and you get ‘engine knocks’ and poorer performance. These models usually use higher octane gas which thats what it is. A higher octane gas is less prone to lighting and exploding when its not supposed to. Many luxury and performance cars use 89 or 91 octane. Most economy cars use 87 octane.
A higher octane gas is not better. An engine is made in a highly specific way for a specific octane of gas for optimal use. Don’t consider these a scale of good better best, instead think of it as “we have options for all types of cars”. You should only use the fuel made specifically for your car. Your car manual will tell you which octane is the right fuel for your car
There’s also E85, which is a fuel that is a combination of gas + ethanol and can be used in place of pure gasoline in certain cars that are specifically designed for it, its adoption up and down
Edit: since this seems to be coming up a lot. This is for the US. There are different ways to measure octane so if you are in say Europe and used to 95 or 98 octane that’s the same as US 91 and 93.
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