Petrol Prices

pdyson21

I normally fill my car up with petrol at Morrisons (roughly 124.9/125.9) and £20 normally does me a week. I am no car expert but some people have mentioned to me that they pay more (127.9/128.9) at other non-supermarket garages and they get a better fuel consumption and that i should consider it as my £20 would technically go further. Does anybody agree/disagree with this and how do you work out how many miles per gallon/fuel consumption etc?

Thanks

bengalknights

Shell are suppose to have a better fuel economy on there petrol/diesel range but ive never really noticed so dont think it actually makes a difference unless you drive a high performance car.

Shimrod

This question comes up regularly, and you'll get three answers:
1) Yes the branded fuel is better
2) There's no difference between branded and supermarket
3) Yes use the branded, but only if you have a performance car.

I see we've already had response 3, so I'll chip and say no difference between fuels of the same grade. My personal testing was 2,000 miles (approx 4 weeks driving) on each of ASDA petrol, Shell standard and Shell V-Power. No difference between the first two, and slight improvement (approx .5mpg) in the V-Power - not enough to cover the 5% increase in price and I didn't really see any change in the 'feel' of the car. I drive a diesel now, but I still just buy from whereever is cheapest.

(I'd also love to have £20 fuel last me a week - in the 325 that was 2 days driving!)

Tucker

I'm no Tesco's or supermarket fan, but I think the theory they have inferior fuel is load of nonesense and no more than an urban myth.

Show me the proof and I'll believe it, but all you hear is hyperthetical stories about it being poor quality. Yet the same tankers probably fill up other garages locally.

whatmichaelsays

In the majority of cases, the logo on the garage roof makes no difference whatsoever - the fuel tends to come from the same place regardless.

I know, for example, that the same tanker calls at the four service stations closest to me - one being ASDA, one Morrisons, one Shell and one BP.

Hammyman

One day I'm going to stand outside the Immingham Conoco refinery and film what goes in and out for an hour then post the video just to shut people up

pompeyfaith

All fuels have to conform to stringent regulations also and have to meet a minimum standard so on that point I fail to see how the fuel in certain forecourts can be different.

adamc260

pompeyfaith wrote: »

All fuels have to conform to stringent regulations also and have to meet a minimum standard so on that point I fail to see how the fuel in certain forecourts can be different.

1 Word: Additives

Strider590

http://www.thinkypedia.com/question/60174/

I used to work for this industry and can confirm that the supermarkets buy their petrol from the same refineries as the major brands such as Shell and Esso but, they are not the same petrol / diesel. It is the additives that differentiate between the branded products and the not quite so good quality supermarket own brands. I’m surprised to say there is no branding on the tankers you see delivering the petrol to your supermarket though. They are commonly branded with the name of a petrol company. This is because they are no longer owned by the petrol companies so can transport fuel for who ever they want and you frequently see branded tankers delivering to supermarkets but they do not contain the same fuel.

All fuels come from the same refinery (s) and are essentially the same, the difference is in the additives. At our local oil terminal at Buncefield in Hemel Hempstead (scene of the recent fire), petrol is received by pipeline from BP, Total/Fina and Shell refineries.
Each type of fuel is kept in the separate brands at the terminal, they don’t have special tanks for fuel destined for supermarkets.

The tankers are filled from the appropriate tanks regardless of their destination but the additives are added before the tanker leaves the depot. All fuels have additives included … the difference is that the branded petrol has additives that enhance the performance and the supermarket petrol has additives to make it cheaper. Mineral oil is often added to diesel fuel for example. There is a maximum level of contamination of mineral oil permitted and the supermarkets regard this as a standard and not a maximum.

If you think that supermarket petrol is the same as from your branded fuel supplier, remember the damage to people’s cars caused by using Tesco and Morrisons petrol last year. The reason for this was that it was made using reclaimed/scrap toluene solvent which had been used to wash PCBs in electronics factories. No reputable oil companies were involved in that scandal as I’m sure none of them would use a cut price additive such as this.

Also http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/180498-tesco-fuel-hidden-price-rise/

Post number 8

2010

This is similar to another age old question.

Which washing powder washes whiter.

Companies spend fortunes advertising their product but I agree there`s no difference between any when it comes to petrol.

reduceditem

Shimrod wrote: »

1) Yes the branded fuel is better

this is the correct answer