Petrol is not just petrol any more

dawsond410078

Hi,

Has any one noticed that when the likes of Tesco do a discount offer - the milage you get per gallon really drops off?

In my Honda JAZZ I usually get about 47 mpg - but when I filled up at Tesco on the 5p offer it goes down to 41mpg. I've noticed this several time. (when I filled up at a non supmarket petrol station it goes back up to 47 (plus) mpg.
This is for the same journey to and from work.
:money:

ispartacus75

Dont know too much about that but I do know that when I was driving a cab I wouldnt put Sainsburys diesel in my Peugeot 406 because it would disappear like there was no tomorrow.

lovethymini

I think there's something in this theory; I always remember my dad did a study on this and said that the worst was Shell and the best was Jet - this was before the days of supermarket petrol, mind!

I would be interested to know if there was a difference in mpg between diesel and biodiesel, I plan to look into this next.

Incidently - Our BMW 5 series only did about 32mpg on a motorway run this weekend, it's usually higher (and we weren't driving into the wind). Funnily enough, I filled up at Tesco's......

Antispam

It would be interesting if some motoring organization or even which did article on this to dispel or confirm whether this is the case

Paul_Varjak

Tere are just too many factors that affect petrol consumption. This 'anecdotal' evidence is simply not enough.

I think scientific tests have been done comparing leaded and super unleaded petrol in normal cars. In the main, there was found to be no difference in output power at least. It was only higher performance cars where any increase in power was noted.

allydowd

I have noticed the same anomily with my Smart car and Tesco petrol.

Crabman

I've moved this thread to the Motoring Board

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Conor_3

dawsond410078 wrote: »

Hi,

Has any one noticed that when the likes of Tesco do a discount offer - the milage you get per gallon really drops off?

No. It has to conform to BSI standards so they can't go lowering the calorific value of it out of RON95 or RON99 spec without breaking the law. I reckon it's more to do with you driving differently when you're paying more.

Limey

There are different additives to the fuel you buy from different companies, however from what I've heard the base fuel itself comes from the same regional refinery. So the Tesco/ASDA/Shell fuel in Gosport will all come from the same refinery.

Wig

You would have to do a series of bench tests, driving your car will not get accurate results.

Feel free to run some measured tests on your lawnmower with blade removed, and come back to show us the results.

vikingaero

We've had a relatively mild winter/autumn so far and with the recent cold weather engines take far longer to reach operating temperature and with higher loads on the electrical system which results in more fuel being burnt.