Just wanted to say hi to my fellow Malibu owners.


I test drove the Malibu, Altima, Accord and Fusion over the past 4 weeks.

It was a toss-up between the Nissan and the Chev, with the current GM incentives I decided on the Malibu. My father is a GM guy, so he was doing some arm twisting too.

My initial impressions so far are this car looks fantastic and the BOSE system is great.

I've been reading through the owner's manual and it looks like they recommend 89 Octane gas (medium grade), what does everyone else use?

Do you have the 2.4L 4cy or the 6cy?

As from my manual on the 4cyl I believe it says 87.

Welcome to CMF.

I4, use 87.
V6 use 89.

I use 89. There's enough of a difference between 87 and 89 that it's noticeable, but when I've tried 93 I can't tell, and that's twice the difference of 2 in octane.

Sorry, I should've stated I have the 3.6 engine.

I'm going to use 89 octane, funny this wasn't mentioned by the dealer before the purchase though.

I use premium in my V6... primarily b/c of the gasoline available here.

IDK how thinks work in Ontario, but in Utah we only really have 2 grades of gasoline. Our "Regular" is 85 octane and "Premium" is 91. Some stations offer 87 and/or 89 but if you read the fine print these are actually blends or a mix of 85 and 91 to get whatever approximate octane is on the sticker. I don't want anything to do with blended gasoline, so I get premium.

I use premium in my V6... primarily b/c of the gasoline available here.

IDK how thinks work in Ontario, but in Utah we only really have 2 grades of gasoline. Our "Regular" is 85 octane and "Premium" is 91. Some stations offer 87 and/or 89 but if you read the fine print these are actually blends or a mix of 85 and 91 to get whatever approximate octane is on the sticker. I don't want anything to do with blended gasoline, so I get premium.

All gasoline is effectively a blend. Even some mid level race teams use pump to mix down needed octanes. I'd say that if its mixed and isn't over 10% ethanol you should be good.

Premium is the way to go, 4 or 6cyl though, given those two options :-) But have you considered going 50/50 yourself?