Shell Regular Petrol VS V-Power Petrol

Feeder16 · 20 July 2008 at 9:15PM

Hey i was just wondering if anybody knew how much difference in MPG there is between Regular Petrol and V Power, in the newspaper today it said that V Power gave you more MPG and emissions were better! Although i was wondering if with the extra 5p you pay for it makes it better financially than regular petrol.

Apologies if this has been asked before.

Ta

Tom

Conor_3 · 21 July 2008 at 1:19AM

Depends on the car you use and whether the engine management adapts the timing to take advantage of the higher RON rating. If it doesn't, the simple answer is you won't see any improvement at all as you need to advance the ignition timing to improve economy. Some older cars like the Vauxhall Cavalier/Astra had a plug in the loom you would swap over which would alter the timing. Likewise on an older car with adjustable distributor, you would have to manually advance the timing to benefit.

If there's no way of advancing the timing, there's really no point.

BenL · 21 July 2008 at 11:23AM

My old 206 GTi was marginally better on Optimax than standard Shell.

I think Quentin Wilson wrote about it this weekend in the paper. Some cars get 8% better economy for 5p a litre on top. The difference lastnight was 6p near me between Esso standard and their premium stuff.

I keep meaning to try this in my Astra as well to see what the difference is but I wince when filling up with standard fuel never mind putting in a full tank of premium.

The other problem I have is my journeys vary so much.

This weekend was Leeds - Chatsworth House - Leeds then sunday Leeds- Filey - Leeds.

Next weekend will be over to Wirral so I can't get a good comparison between journeys on the full tank plus trying to make the tank go further by not using the car as much.

Feeder16 · 21 July 2008 at 12:39PM

Ah right, i currently drive a Nissan Micra *Cough* and to be honest its quite economical when not on motorways but as soon as i do anything over 60mph the petrol drains. Yes it was the article by Quentin Wilson i read too so was just curious because i'd also heard that the V power acts as a "cleaner" to the engine so to speak and clears some of the silt regular petrol tends to leave in the engine so though it might be more beneficial to try some. But by the sounds of things i'd be best off sticking to the cheap stuff until they let me start using cooking oil haha!

AdrianHi · 21 July 2008 at 12:51PM

Most modern cars with ECU's (Engine Control Units - computer controlled engine) will self adjust the timing for fuels in the 91 to 98 RON range, check the owners manual where it should tell you for your car.
The engine should be more economical and perform a little better on 98 RON fuel. Whether by enough to make it worth it is another question. Tesco's do a 99 RON fuel which has reviewed well in car magazines.

anewman · 21 July 2008 at 1:04PM

Isn't Quentin Wilson their advertising celebrity anyway? I doubt an article he writes for them is impartial.

Hintza · 21 July 2008 at 1:17PM

I found it helped a lot in the old Merc but that just resulted in faster acceleration and with my driving didn't help the fuel economy at all.

Although if I drove with a bit more care it would have.

Shell Regular Petrol VS V-Power Petrol

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