I remember a stand up comedian had me laughing once when, having mentioned a scenario where a friend might say something stupid in particular, he advised the audience to roll up a newspaper, smack the friend on the nose with it, and yell, "NO!" That is how I feel about most people using premium gas.
Don't get me wrong -- I LOVED it when they bought premium at my gas station. Why? Because I knew that for about one or two cents difference in our cost we were making twenty to thirty cents more per gallon. That's a good markup in almost any business.
You MUST have heard this before, but it needs to be said again, newspaper at the ready: Unless you are driving a high performance vehicle you are wasting your money. Higher octane does not mean better gasoline. It means greater resistance to combustion, which nearly all cars do NOT need. High performance engines need it because they typically have higher compression ratios, making them more prone to pre-ignition (burning of the gasoline before the spark plug fires).
To add a twist of irony, I've seen spark plugs with deposits on them (not good) because the super-unleaded gasoline had so much detergent that it wasn't burning off in the normal compression engine of the car.
If you want the detergents of the higher octane gas you can just pour any name-brand fuel injector cleaner once a month or two. It will do a better job and cost less!
Interestingly, in reading up on Water Hybrid Engine Technology, I've found that it tends to both clean the combustion chamber AND reduce pre-ignition. You may want to look into it, too, since water sure cost a lot less than gasoline.
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