Premium unleaded - worth it?

A._Badger

NeverEnough wrote: »

Branded medications are not the same as the generic medications sold for pence - .

Yes they are. Check the 'active ingredients' list. Ditto for fuel.

On the other hand, I have an unlimited supply of free range pixie fairy ground organic unicorn horn which might interest you for... well, more or less anything you care to place your faith in, really.

Shall we start a £1,000 an ounce?

cardinalbiggles

A._Badger wrote: »

Yes they are. Check the 'active ingredients' list. Ditto for fuel.

On the other hand, I have an unlimited supply of free range pixie fairy ground organic unicorn horn which might interest you for... well, more or less anything you care to place your faith in, really.

Shall we start a £1,000 an ounce?

They even come from the same factories, made for the supermarkets / chemists.

The poster who said they are different and have different quality control is talking absolute nonsense, but that's exactly what the premium brands want you to think so you cant blame them for being sucked in by the advertising.

Joe_Horner

Many years ago (around the time of the RB211 bankrupting them iirc) Rolls Royce dropped their car prices. As a low volume maker most of the cost per car was fixed overheads, so selling more at a lower price to spread those overheads over more units was a sure-fire way to increase profits. Basic economics said it couldn't fail.

Only, it did. Because the sort of people who bought Rolls Royces didn't worry about the economic facts, they just knew that quality must suffer if they were making them cheaper (it didn't btw). So they increased prices to higher than they had been before and orders more than recovered. It was a clear demonstration of the advertising value of "you get what you pay for".

Some people will remain stubbornly convinced that "expensive brand is better" even if you take them to the factory and actually show them the same products coming off the same line into two different boxes. Sometimes expensive is better, but more often it's nothing more than marketing on peoples' natural vanity about wanting (and being seen to afford) "the best".

EdGasket

Well that's not the case with fuel. I know people who's cars have been wrecked by persistently filling up with supermarket fuel. The branded makes have extra additives and exceed the minimum specifaction by far more than do the supermarkets. Fact.

Joe_Horner

EdGasket wrote: »

Well that's not the case with fuel. I know people who's cars have been wrecked by persistently filling up with supermarket fuel. The branded makes have extra additives and exceed the minimum specifaction by far more than do the supermarkets. Fact.

And the cars are designed to work perfectly well on the "minimum specification" - that's why its the minimum!

The trouble is, if someone uses supermarket fuel and one day their car explodes it almost automatically becomes "the fuel's fault".

That's completely unscientific - if they persistently filled up with supermarket fuel, how can they possibly know that the same wouldn't have happened using the other stuff that they never put in their tank and that it was really their driving style or some other factor? If "a garage that told them" was it by any chance the same garage that's been servicing it badly for all that time and is now shifting the blame?

In fact, the countless thousands (or probably millions) of other drivers who always use supermarket fuel without having their cars wrecked strongly suggests that the few who do are attributing it to the wrong factor.



eta: Just for the record, in the past 300k miles or so, the ONLY problem I've had with contaminated fuel was from a "brand name" station. While it didn't cause damage, limping down the M5 with the car coughing and spluttering because of water in the fuel was no fun. Does that mean that all fuel from them is sub-standard?

No, didn't think so!

Ranger8

I run my the wifes and my car (run of the mill petrol Corsa and diesel Verso) on Shell V-Power its only pennies difference and firmly convinced its one of the best fuels you can put in your tank and that the vehicles will run cleaner, better and for longer.
I will never subscribe to the ridiculous theory that all fuels are the same (base excepted)
As most things the you get what you pay for and fuel additives don`t come cheap.

Paradigm

Ranger8 wrote: »

I run my the wifes and my car (run of the mill petrol Corsa and diesel Verso) on Shell V-Power its only pennies difference and firmly convinced its one of the best fuels you can put in your tank and that the vehicles will run cleaner, better and for longer.
I will never subscribe to the ridiculous theory that all fuels are the same (base excepted)
As most things the you get what you pay for and fuel additives don`t come cheap.

Good for you

I'll continue to run my modded Saab on Tesco "!!!!!!" as I have for the past 5 years... strangely it's still running perfectly!

worried_jim

There was a show on ITV1 last night about the price of food and it featured a a family women who despite working could no longer afford to buy food and was relying on a local Church run food bank.
However as I watched she was being interviewed in front of a bookcase full of dvd's which must have been bought at between £5 and £10 a pop. Next we saw her washing up and bemoaning the price of food, but on her sink was Fairy and a bottle of Domestos both of these could have been bought in generic form from Aldi for pennies. I realised it wasn't the price of food but the power of advertising and brand loyalty and the fact that she is a fiscal moron unable to shop for her children.
I only ever fill up with V-Power for a few pennies more blah blah blah.....

Ranger8

Paradigm wrote: »

Good for you

I'll continue to run my modded Saab on Tesco "!!!!!!" as I have for the past 5 years... strangely it's still running perfectly!

And good for you too my friend, many more of them and think of all those pennies you`ve saved as well

Paradigm

Ranger8 wrote: »

And good for you too my friend, many more of them and think of all those pennies you`ve saved as well

I can't be bothered to work it out but over 5 years I reckon the saving is a lot more than "pennies"

This is a money saving website after all!