TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Premium gas on island

Just bought a car that requires premium gas, is there anywhere on Dutch or French side to purchase high test premium gas.

All I have ever seen are regular and diesel.

All I have ever seen was regular gas and some "Eco gas". Your car has over 10 to 1 compression ratio? Because very few cars need 93 + octane anymore. If yours really does you will need to go to an auto parts store and buy some bottles of octane booster to add to each fill up.

Wendell

European cars tend to use hi test gas. Ask your BMW and Mercedes owners. In Europe the standard gas is hi-test or diesel, they do not have regular. So, use the gas in the pumps.

Ok yes, i bought a mercedes and it requires premium so may need to add booster, thanks.

If you bought it on island, you might ask who you bought it from where they got gas for it.

If the gas station has ethanol free gas just use that. That will be 90 octane and will work just fine in premium cars. That's what I use in my present BMW X6. I'm not sure (nor have I ever checked) if gas sold on SXM contains ethanol. Maybe someone out there can answer this question?

I’m shipping car from states.

Apparently, there have recently been questions regarding the octane of Dutch-side gas. I haven’t seen a follow up to this article.

https://www.soualiganewsday.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=26872:teatt-hire-company-to-test-fuel-quality-on-st-maarten&Itemid=451

LINK

I thought I recalled seeing "95"octane stickers on most pumps and wondered about it any time I did see it.

rural thanks for posting that link.

if you didn't already know, the rating used in the US (AKI) is different than the rating used in Europe (RON)...i assume SXM uses the EU rating...95 (RON) in EU is like 91 (AKI) in US

95 octane! On the cars that typically travel around St. Maarten that would be a huge waste of performance and cost. Luxury autos that require premium fuel will run just fine on 89 or 90 octane gas, especially in St. Maarten. There's no autobahn there where you'll need gas that rich. Personally, I would not bring a luxury auto to St. Maarten for a variety of reasons but would opt for a smaller SUV-type vehicle where you would sit up a little higher, have good visibility, and not have a trunk that you'd have to worry about being broken into. Something like a Toyota RAV4 or Subaru Forester would be a great vehicle to have here and require non-premium 87 octane gas.

Different strokes, Sammy.

Some rent a villa.
Some prefer timeshare.
Some prefer the least expensive hotel room that they can find.
Some want all-inclusive.
Some want a luxury experience.
Some buy a villa.

It's all good.

These days, it matters less to the vehicle than it does to the visitor, and the OP should be fine with whatever gas is available. The computers in modern cars will adjust to a lower than required octane. But, as you said, at a waste of performance. But also, if that's the vehicle that you want, then that's the vehicle that you import.