Supermarket fuel v the rest

AdrianC

zagubov wrote: »

...and when using motorways use those websites that show where the nearest cheap supermarket petrol is.

Do you undertake MASSIVELY long journeys regularly, or does your car simply have an extremely short range? I have several vehicles with <200 mile ranges, and simple advance planning means I've not had to either use motorway services or divert for fuel in many years.

zagubov

AdrianC wrote: »

Do you undertake MASSIVELY long journeys regularly, or does your car simply have an extremely short range? I have several vehicles with <200 mile ranges, and simple advance planning means I've not had to either use motorway services or divert for fuel in many years.

Several times a year I drive 4-500 miles each way. I can feel a song coming on! There's Tescos or Sainsbobs near the motorway at Carlisle, Banbury, Shirley, Preston etc. for cheap grub and petrol.

oldagetraveller

Some entertainment for the premium Diesel fans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fKxLOTVEnI

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

motorguy wrote: »

This thread was specifically started about diesel fuel though.

Also dont confuse "premium" petrol with high octane petrol.

Hmm, thread police?

The point still stands, there are basic fuels and there are additive fuels, supermarkets sell them as well. With petrol there are also different octane ratings. A lot of the discussion I see compares a basic supermarket fuel with a branded premium additive fuel.

Most likely those who do find a difference are driving high performance petrol which have actually been designed to run better on high octane, premium additive fuel, indeed it may be the only way you can meet their performance stats that they declare.

A 1.2 Renault Clio is not going to deliver the same excitement for the premium price.

As to diesel, where there is no alternative running spec., I'm pretty convinced that it is almost entirely smoke and mirrors and any supposed benefits of running cleaner or whatever are so marginal that a heavy foot can readily overcome the marginal longevity gains of the additives. For example, I've been driving my Merc diesel for 4 years now and it does an atrociously bad driving profile for a modern diesel - it does lots of town journeys. I would have bought a petrol but such was the stock profile of year old ex-management Mercs that the diesel was about the same price and I wanted an auto (nobody with any sense would buy a manual Merc in their days of foot operated hand brakes). However, I don't floor it - don't need to, plenty of torque - and I've had no DPF issues with it. My presumption is it was properly designed and has had no maintenance issues. On this forum you see a steady stream of people with poorly designed (or diagnosed) cars that have continual DPF problems even though they declare to be driving the things as required. It's far more likely that poor maintenance, badly diagnosed faults or poor driving style will cause the vehicle to be in a poor state than using supermarket fuel - which the car is actually designed to use.

kmb500

Fifth Gear has tested this, you can find the video on youtube. Think they used a Golf GTI and they did demonstrate that Shell V Power and BP Ultimate produced a couple more whp / bhp than supermarket petrol.


in my own experience it doesn't make any difference. I mostly use morrisons as they are usually cheap. Can't say I've ever complained about my performance or mpg.

takman

kmb500 wrote: »

Fifth Gear has tested this, you can find the video on youtube. Think they used a Golf GTI and they did demonstrate that Shell V Power and BP Ultimate produced a couple more whp / bhp than supermarket petrol.

in my own experience it doesn't make any difference. I mostly use morrisons as they are usually cheap. Can't say I've ever complained about my performance or mpg.

Shell V Power and BP Ultimate are higher octane fuels and it can be shown scientifically why they produce more BHP, so they certainly make a difference to the right kind of car.

But Tesco also do a High Octane Fuel which has the same octane of Shell V Power. So this will produce more horsepower than any standard 95 RON petrol in the right car.

motorguy

takman wrote: »

Shell V Power and BP Ultimate are higher octane fuels and it can be shown scientifically why they produce more BHP, so they certainly make a difference to the right kind of car.

But Tesco also do a High Octane Fuel which has the same octane of Shell V Power. So this will produce more horsepower than any standard 95 RON petrol in the right car.

Exactly.

And we're back to talking about petrol when the initial post was about diesel.

Tesco actually do a 99RON fuel which is a higher octane that BP Ultimate which is 97RON.

We run our AMG A45 on BP Ultimate but only because it requires superunleaded otherwise it detunes itself slightly. I'd run it on Tescos 99RON but you cant get it here in NI.

motorguy

IanMSpencer wrote: »

Hmm, thread police?

Not at all. Just sticking to the point in hand. Otherwise we get in to the realms of people talking about "premium" petrol which is actually higher RON rated, and does improve performance in the right car.

.... and thats exactly what happened.

BP diesel = Tesco diesel, except BP stick different detergents and additives in. There may be long term advantages to that if you're car is old and a little clogged up, however the fuel itself is the same. You can achieve the same effect by adding a fuel additive like Millers and thus achieve consistency.

BP Ultimate Unleaded != Tesco Unleaded. Different RON rating.

motorguy

IanMSpencer wrote: »

Hmm, thread police?

The point still stands, there are basic fuels and there are additive fuels, supermarkets sell them as well. With petrol there are also different octane ratings. A lot of the discussion I see compares a basic supermarket fuel with a branded premium additive fuel.

Most likely those who do find a difference are driving high performance petrol which have actually been designed to run better on high octane, premium additive fuel, indeed it may be the only way you can meet their performance stats that they declare.

A 1.2 Renault Clio is not going to deliver the same excitement for the premium price.

And again, you need to differentiate between premium brand fuel versus supermarket brand fuel, eg BP standard unleaded versus Tesco standard unleaded and "premium fuel" such as BP Ultimate.

Maybe you can see why i was trying to keep the topic on diesel only....

AdrianC

takman wrote: »

Shell V Power and BP Ultimate are higher octane fuels and it can be shown scientifically why they produce more BHP, so they certainly make a difference to the right kind of car.

But Tesco also do a High Octane Fuel which has the same octane of Shell V Power. So this will produce more horsepower than any standard 95 RON petrol in the right car.

Important bit highlighted.

But, yes - there's two separate questions being confused.
1 - "Petrol retailer" brand versus supermarket brand - this is where the additive/detergent question comes in.
2 - 95RON Premium Unleaded vs 98+RON Super Unleaded.

For "premium" diesel products, point 2 does not apply.