A lot of cars and trucks made over the last twenty years do better with higher octane fuel. To a point. A lot of cars continuously adjust the timing by computer and will be right on the edge of pinging. This is the point of best fuel economy, but is annoying as hell and IMO not good for engine bearing and piston life. I have seen several pingers that spun bearings at about 50-70K, even though they were well serviced.
I had an 86 camaro that Would ping on 87 and the knock sensor (think of a microphone that listens for knocks) would kick the timing back (retard it) some certain number of degrees for so many seconds when it did. I think it was seven degrees. This was enough to make the car very sluggish. One of the known "hop up" tricks at the time was to run 92 or 94 octane and advance the timing 7-9 degrees over stock when you set it manually, and then you HAD to run 92-94 octane to keep it from pinging. In my car, it really woke it up, it was much quicker taking off and ran cooler too, and got about 1MPG better gas milage. In the colder weather I could run it 9 degrees advanced, in summer I had to back it down to 7 more than stock.
Twice while I had it, the kock sensor failed, and the car ran like crap. The test was kind of funny. Start the engine, take a screwdriver or wrench and tap the top of the engine. If it shook after you did it, the sensor was bad. The first time i did it, it almost killed the engine.
My 03 Dodge Ram is the same way, it runs a little better on 92 than 89 (the recommended octane). I went to a "full serve" station about a year ago and the moron put 87 in and it pinged for the first time ever. Milage is slightly better on the expensive gas too, but it's main benefit seems to be how smooth the motor runs.
