Best place to fill up my car?

AdrianC

Sosumi wrote: »

It always amuses me how many people so picky about where they buy fuel in Britain head straight to the supermarket to buy it in France.

I've found MUCH bigger differences between fuel in the UK and fuel in France, no matter where it's bought from in each country.

Cars that I run happily on 95 in the UK invariably pink and run-on badly on French 95, so I tend to buy 98 over there. The standardised technical specifications are the same in both countries...

Sosumi

There’s also the fact that the volume of petrol (but not its weight) varies with temperature.

Filling your tank with the same number of litres on a cold day puts more energy into it than on a hot day. So your mpg will be different.

neilmcl

Can we please, please not get into yet another pointless argument about the difference, if any, between supermarket or branded fuel, as it's been done to death in recent threads.

I'm kind of suspecting this is exactly what the OP wanted though as he lit the touchpaper, then disappeared.

AdrianC

Sosumi wrote: »

There’s also the fact that the volume of petrol (but not its weight) varies with temperature.

Filling your tank with the same number of litres on a cold day puts more energy into it than on a hot day. So your mpg will be different.

Which is one reason why the storage tanks are fairly deep underground, ensuring a constant temperature. Any expansion across typical UK daytime ambients is absolutely minimal.

Rubidium

Feral_Moon wrote: »

I rarely use supermarket fuel. I get more mpg at my local garage (rural) which is only 1-2p a litre more than the supermarket 20 miles away. On the odd occasion I've needed to fill up in town I've got 20 miles per £10 less usage.

I'm currently paying 111.99 whereas nearest major supermarket is 109.99

Can you elaborate please.

£10 of branded fuel @ 111.99 = 8.929 litres

£10 of supermarket fuel @ 10999 = 9.092 litres

So you are saying that 0.163 litres less branded fuel gives you 20 more miles?

Really? What vehicle?

AdrianC

Rubidium wrote: »

Can you elaborate please.

£10 of branded fuel @ 111.99 = 8.929 litres

£10 of supermarket fuel @ 10999 = 9.092 litres

So you are saying that 0.163 litres less branded fuel gives you 20 more miles?

Really? What vehicle?

No, he's saying he saved himself a 20 mile round trip to the supermarket...

barbiedoll

As OP is a new driver, I'm assuming (s)he is probably not driving a top-of-the-range, brand new car with a huge engine.

If there is a Morrisons petrol station nearby, get a More card and get points when you fill up. It takes ages but every now and again, you get a £5 voucher. Which you can spend on Maltesers, wine gums and crisps, or whatever else you fancy. (I save mine for Christmas,being a good MSEer and all that)

Sorted!

Sosumi

AdrianC wrote: »

Which is one reason why the storage tanks are fairly deep underground, ensuring a constant temperature. Any expansion across typical UK daytime ambients is absolutely minimal.

I had in mind a wider context than typical UK daytime ambients but you’re right to pull me up on that point; my terminology was loose.

Either way, once the petrol is in the vehicle’s tank, its volume will vary with the vehicle’s temperature. So, the distance you can travel on a tankful of petrol will also vary.

If you fill the tank full on a hot August day in Santander before boarding the ferry, it won’t be full when you arrive the following afternoon on a cold day in Portsmouth!

And then, of course, the atmospheric pressure (particularly with altitude) is another variable in the volume of a fixed amount (by weight) of fuel...

I’ll get my coat. :wave:

Joe_Horner

Rubidium wrote: »

Can you elaborate please.

£10 of branded fuel @ 111.99 = 8.929 litres

£10 of supermarket fuel @ 10999 = 9.092 litres

So you are saying that 0.163 litres less branded fuel gives you 20 more miles?

Really? What vehicle?

Or, to put it another way, seeing as £10 is near enough exactly 2 gallons at the prices he quoted, he claims to get a full 10mpg more on "branded" fuel.

Can't help thinking if the difference was anywhere near THAT big there'd be plenty of hard and documented evidence out there by now rather than the anecdotal stuff we see. Not to mention that the branded fuel companies would be screaming it from the rooftops rather than offering an "up to / maybe / on a good day" 20 or 30 miles extra per tank!

Rubidium

Joe_Horner wrote: »

Or, to put it another way, seeing as £10 is near enough exactly 2 gallons at the prices he quoted, he claims to get a full 10mpg more on "branded" fuel.

Can't help thinking if the difference was anywhere near THAT big there'd be plenty of hard and documented evidence out there by now rather than the anecdotal stuff we see. Not to mention that the branded fuel companies would be screaming it from the rooftops rather than offering an "up to / maybe / on a good day" 20 or 30 miles extra per tank!

Yes I don't believe it for one minute myself either but this thread will run and run as usual with the predictable crap from the brand snobs!

:rotfl: