Finally got my UK Smart Car all NSW registered and it only took 7 f**king months. In the UK it took just normal 'Unleaded' petrol. Which petrol would it take here? There seem to be at least a couple of unleaded kinds? And then there's that enthanol stuff.

Sorry in advance for dimness of this question.

Unleaded 91

7 months? Why so long?


S

I think your ok with the cheap stuff. If it was the smart roadster you might need 98 or high octane. You can use the ethanol as well, its fine in modern cars.

3 months shipping.
1 month customs and clearance.
2 1/2 months registration.

6-7 weeks of the registration time was waiting for a "Vehical Indentity Inspection" becuase the blue slip guy couldn't find the engine number. Unbelievable.

Anyway. Cheers for the help. I've heard rumours that the cheaper Ethanol can cause long term engine damage. Anyone else heard that?

Welcome to Australia

No, the ethanol stuff is perfectly fine for newer engines. It's old ones you have to watch out for.


S

Don't even mention petrol! Had a blonde moment yesterday & filled our car up with half a tank of the wrong flippin stuff Text hubby & apologised profusely. Got the hand book out & even checked that just in case hubby had his facts wrong & I could redeem myself but no he was right (he is after all a mechanic). So after a phone call with him & me still apologising rather a lot I got sent back down the garage to fill up the rest of the tank with the highest octane I could. Fingers crossed it'll even out the mixture

Alison x

Ps. Sorry I'm no help on the OPs question & you probably wouldn't want to take my advice on it anyway

Apparrantly "unleaded" in the uk is 95 RON so if I just buy that here I won't go far wrong.

You'll need to go with the expensive one which is 98 or the slightly cheaper 95, The ethanol fuel is only 91 octane and will ***** your engine and it won't perform properly, I once put 91 in my BMW by mistake in the Ukraine and it ran really rough,

I use 95 in my current Mx-5 Turbo and it works fine but the handbook warns against the use of lower octane fuels, look inside your fuel filler cap and it should state the minimum octane for fuel used. it will be written as 95RON or 98RON 95 should be the minimum in a turbocharged vehicle though.

Except quite a few petrol stations, possibly the majority only do 91 or 98.... Still once you've found your favourite stations you should be alright.

I dont think you can harm most cars by running them on a higher octane level... open to correction on that one... so if in doubt move up.

Now you have all that sorted , the next thing is to go out on the road, and hopefully not get run over by A B- double semi, and have to be scraped off the road.........MM

Correct. Typically branded as premium here. In WA the 98 RON is moderately hard to find BP Ultimate being the best bet in my experience.

Running lower probably wont do any damage in the short term - it might "ping". On occasions I had to put 95 RON in my Jetta when I couldn't get 98 and had no ill effects

I've not seen a petrol station without the higher octane level in it over this way. I figured its a way for the stations to make money. In fact at times they are the only pumps open/available.

It's the middle one thats hard to get. I think they are colour coded as well.... Yellow handled pumps being 91... Red being 95 and Blue equals 98.... with Black being Diesel. Not sure whether that coding runs along all the different brands or just one or two. Reason I take an interest is my Datsun doesnt like 91 either... and I try and keep a mix in it, if I cant get 95. There is usually a 16 cents per liter price difference between the basic 91 and the high 98... Opps and Edit The Green handled pumps are generally an Ethanol mix... My Datsun runs ok on Ethanol for some reason...

Bloody thing stalls when hot in the middle of intersections if its on 91... now that is frigging dangerous. Theres no rule/advice book that I know of for the older leaded cars.


The premiums come under various names.... from Vortex to Ultimate and back again... stick with the colour coding is my advice.

I have 3.5litre petrol and was strongly advised to stick with stuff like Vortex and not put ethanol anywhere near it by the dealership.

95 Ron then if I can. If not then up to 98. Sounds like a plan.