Any harm in filling with 91 gas?

So which is it really (Top Tier): government or auto industry?

 

Both but it started with Government.

 

Haha haha not!
On July 29, 2011, President Obama announced an agreement with thirteen large automakers to increase fuel economy to 54.5 miles per gallon for cars and light-duty trucks by model year 2025. ... The agreement resulted in new CAFE regulations for model year 2017–2025 vehicles, which were finalized on August 28, 2012.

 

On August 2, 2018, President Trump announced the abandonment of Obama's ratcheted up targets, freezing them at 2021 figures.

Before Obama, President George W. Bush ratcheted up the CAFE numbers too, so you can't peg all the blame on Obama or any other single President. CAFE requirements have been pushed up several times over the decades.

 

During Obama the big switch was made to 0W-20 weight oil. Tell that to the owners of Gen3 and others models and makes that are now dealing with oil burning issues. Other countries are using much thicker oils.

 

But you said that the Obama CAFE numbers began for model year 2017. But 0W-20 began at least as early as Model Year 2010, for which CAFE numbers were established before Obama, i.e. under the Bush rules or even earlier.

 

In 1975, Congress enacted CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) in response to the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973-1974.

"The Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) is the sales-weighted harmonic mean fuel economy of a manufacturer’s fleet of new cars or light trucks in a certain model year (MY). First enacted by Congress in 1975, the standards for cars began in MY 1978 and for light trucks in MY 1979."
Fact #870: April 27, 2015 Corporate Average Fuel Economy Progress, 1978-2014 | Department of Energy
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I am NOT aware of any Chevron or any oil company doing head to head tests to prove superiority.

Doubtful any company will b/c:
1) costs money
2) results could be bad (no different than the competitor) to disastrous ("our gas is inferior vs the competitor")

Marketing, cute commercials, celebrity endorsements, etc, will sway the tide.

 

With a sibling and spouse-in-law that worked for other oil company refineries, I was aware of an industry belief that Chevron was the best back when they started their careers, decades ago, long long before Top Tier was created. My sibling worked for one aiming for a lower cost market, spouse for another, though buyouts / mergers / divestitures mixed things up over the years.

Well before retirement, I was hearing that all the majors had improved quite dramatically, the gap between best and lowest was greatly diminished, and even the low end was now much better than Chevron was way back then. The bulk of any 'difference' now is marketing puffery.

Retirement has since cut off my insider source updates, so subsequent changes to relative positionings are unknown.

 

Chevron has always been known to have the best additives on the market. So good that Detroit would ship their fuel into Michigan to do testing on their engines, and EPA testing.

 

Yes. Seriously. I can't quite decide if you are just trolling or just don't quite understand what you are saying.

Yes. You said it right there yourself: Top Tier is NOT a government standard. It is an "Auto industry" standard.

And CAFE standards said NOTHING about what kind of oil to use.

I quit. I suspect that you aren't listening.
And your weak political comment makes me think you aren't really capable of listening.

 

This is especially true since ALL of the refineries are now owned by.....what......maybe 4 companies.

 

"And CAFE standards said NOTHING about what kind of oil to use."


So you don't think CAFE Standards made manufactures to switch to thinner oil like 0W-20 weight oil?! HAHAHA

 

It didn't MAKE anybody do ANYTHING.
Just stop please.

 

In order to reach MPG numbers manufactures had to do everything from weight saving and lighter weight oils. So yes they did....

 

OMG!
A. To the OP, as you have already figured out, no filling with a higher octane gas won't hurt the vehicle. I wouldn't do it regularly or long term, but a single fill will not hurt your vehicle.

B. Top Tier standards are NOT a government standard. PERIOD.

C. I almost exclusively use Chevron gasoline. The reputation of Techron is good.
But if you haven't noticed, every brand proclaims to be the best. Exxon, Mobil, Shell, are all going to tell you their additive combination is the magic formula for engines.
Which one "cleans best"? If there is even a degree among quality gas where it makes a difference? Who knows?
Even though I use Chevron, my guess is you could probably run a vehicle for 8 years on Chevron, and a vehicle for 8 years on Costco Gasoline, and effectively have no difference in the ownership experience.

I take all claims about the wonders of a brands additives with a real HUGE grain of salt. I think it's worth it, to seek out "Top Tier" stations, and run a quality gasoline, which is why I use Chevron. BUT...I'm not really inclined to believe there is anything significantly different between Costco, Shell, Mobil or Chevron, in terms of average auto usage. Even though if you visit each brands websites you will be met with various campaigns proclaiming each individual brands superiority.

And yes, this is all just my opinion.

 

I'd describe it more as working hard to find the cheapest ways to do it. There were plenty more ways to not just reach the targets, but go well beyond if they had chosen to do so.

The Prius and various other hybrids went well beyond the targets. And that Scientific American article I linked years ago, written by a Honda executive, listed many other potential changes and their benefits, a sort of industry road map towards meeting significantly higher future targets. Some of those items are getting significant use now but are not yet universal. Others remain to be implemented.

And additional innovation since then should have added more potential choices to that road map.