I just bought an 02 Pathfinder and love it. I keep reading that I should use premium gas. What has been your experience? Does the engine knock or are there other problems with regular? I don't want to screw up my new car, but I don't want to waste money either.

Thanks and be kind if I posted wrong - this is my first new post.

If regular gas screwed up cars, there wouldn't be as many mechanics closing up shop.

I use premium in my 01 Pathfinder because the owners manual says to do so. My wife has, without my knowing it until after the fact, filled it with regular and I did not notice any difference. I would say that if you fill it with regular just listen for any knocking or pinging. If you hear any thing upgrade the gas to special or premium. The 3.5 V6 is making some good horsepower for it's size so you may lose just a bit of power with regular gas.

I've pretty much used regular since I bought my 01 new. The only difference I could tell was my average milage with regular is 17 mpg and Premium is 19 mpg. IMO 20 cents per gal is not worth 2 mpg. no knocking, no big power loss, no problems and almost 100k miles . Nissan recommends premium, not requires premium. My g35 requires premium and they are very clear on this.

doesn't the 01 say require premium. the 05 recommends for better performance. this has been an issue. look on car review sites, and they say it requires premium. just use midgrade if you really care about gas prices that much. it's only an extra few dollars everytime between regular and premium anyway.

doesn't the 01 say require premium. the 05 recommends for better performance. this has been an issue. look on car review sites, and they say it requires premium. just use midgrade if you really care about gas prices that much. it's only an extra few dollars everytime between regular and premium anyway.
Nope, just went downstairs to double check. It says "premium fuel is recommended for maximum performance".

if you bought it used, have the previous owners used premium or regular? if they used premium, might as well keep using premium. no point in changing in the middle of the life of a car.