The difference is 4 HP. In the eaarly cars they were listed at 272HP with premium gas. In the later MY they were listed at 268HP on regular.

 

Lexus081:

are you positive about using the regular 87 for 2011?. if it is for image, for 2013+ models Lexus recommends regular octane fuel. There may be long term issues by not following the recommended octane level

 

Lexus changed the recommendation from premium to regular in 2011 and reduced the HP.

 

Last year, i did the test of running 87 octane for a whole 6 months on my 08, my oil regimen is always the same, mobil 1 synthetic and same oil fiter. I and my mechanic do notice a change in color at the oil change, the 87 octane do produce a darker color than the synthetic, what does that translate, i don't know.

My full consumption at that time was similar from 87 vs 91, no knocking noise what so ever. As for carbon built-up, i do not know but i return back to 91 until further notice.

 

We have 170K on our 07 ES350; always used 87 octane in soCal. A recent oil analysis on Mobil 1 Extended Synthetic oil with 11k miles showed it could have gone at least another 2k.

 

That is convincing, i was waiting for that kind of proof aside the engine that is exactly the same as the Toyota Camry V6.

 

I have always used 87 in my 2011. No issues whatsoever.

 

I run 87, 89, 91 and occasionally find 93.
I've not had a difference with any in my 2010 model.

If I have run a couple tanks of 87, I do like to run some higher octane just to make myself feel better.

 

Since new, been using 87 octane. Engine purs like a kitten . Low twenties on the city cycle and low to mid 30s on the highway. Even if you drive 500 miles a day, using 87 will not hurt it. It is made for it. Using 92 and above will not yield any tangible benefits. I want to say the ECU detects premium and tweaks the performance of the engine (someone correct me if I'm wrong), but I could be wrong. These functions are present in some Ford cars.

If the manual called for premium, well, then that is totally different.

 

Ok, so I recently bought a 2011 ES CPO. I understand 87 is recommended but will I see any benefit to using 93? Better HP/torque? And/or engine longevity? Or no difference?

 

See my post #2 above and if you can feel the HP difference then get premium.

 

Being that the lexus engine "requires" premium and is rated at 272 horsepower versus the 268 that the toyota engine has, I'd guess that it would only give you 4 extra horsepower.

I think that lexus required premium fuel for the extra 4 horsepower to set it apart from the camry. But as an owner, I really wish that they would just say that regular is ok for our models.

 

One of my techs owns an 07 and an 11. He doesn't run anything but 87 in either car.

 

Since we are on the subject, I did a trial of regular and premium for about 6 months. The only difference i've seen is when doing oil change that the regular fuel makes darker oil fluid.

 

I have an 07 with 90k miles . . .on highway trips, I get close to 2 mpg better with 91 . . .