Michigan potholes:

Again - already mentioned that a lot of the luxury brands “require” it, even though that’s a conscious decision on the part of said luxury brand/OEM and its respective powertrain development team.

“The schema you’ve outlined is very popular amongst people who have just enough computing knowledge to be dangerous. The problem is that if you’re generating passwords using a deterministic process, the process itself becomes a vulnerability.”

Wouldn’t that mean that you would have to have an in-cylinder pressure sensor installed in the engine at all times in order to be able to pick up on the advanced (w.r.t timing/CA) pressure pulse which would indicate pre-detonation?

I find it difficult to think of a car built since around at least 2010 timeframe where the engine control unit (ECU) WON’T retard the timing in order to compensate for a lower AKI.

That’s interesting cuz I looked at a picture of the interior of the Mazda 3 and there is quite a bit of “dead space” (e.g. space that isn’t used for anything) in the center stack. Doesn’t seem like it’s a good use of interior space to me, but to each their own...

Not all harnesses are made equal.

Try the Focus ST if you get a chance.

My concerns about programs like that are:

Performance, yes.

I don’t know what to tell you only because what I say could get me into trouble.

Predominantly compression ratio - again.

Depends on whether you want to stay with a smaller, coupé or not.

Again....it’s a BMW, which has already been mentioned/covered by someone else. (likely due to the compression ratio of their engine)

It depends on the car. There are turbocharged vehicles that will run on regular. (2017 Lincoln MKX AWD with the 2.7L GTDI V6 runs on regular per fueleconomy.gov website).

To this comment and the one above:

What...in the world do you drive that requires premium?

Yeah, a fully loaded 2017 Ford Fusion Titanium Hybrid is $37160 US. The plug-in hybrid (which is what this 330e is), the 2017 Ford Fusion Titanium Energi fully loaded is $38690.

And there are days when I’m parked next to an Audi A8L at work - I look at my Fusion and I look at the Audi. I look at my Fusion again and I…

“Of course people have different needs, and I can’t make a blanket statement that applies to all people, duh. But in my experience, people are rarely honest with themselves about their true needs. They often go buy a BMW X5 or similar because they think it looks good, and they perceive it as cool or safe—even though…

For me - it comes down to two things that I can think of off the top of my head - planning and stability/control.