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Tesco fuel or branded

If you have a car that has a map for higher octane fuel, you will see a benefit in power (especially in Turbo engines where pinking becomes an issue). Otherwise you won't.

Some people say you get better MPG out of higher octane - I've never noticed any difference and all of the back to back tests I've ever seen tend to say the same.
 
Always an interesting debate and locally here is the chevron fuel depot where all the tankers come and fill up. Its quite funny to see Morrison's, sainsburys, Texaco, shell, bp, tesco etc all sat waiting to fill up from the same tanks. Believe what you want on whether a certain places fuel is better then the other for me I go on price.

Luckily for us the transport costs are low down here due to the depot being close so its reflected in the price of petrol which tends to be much cheaper then most places.
 
Aitch55 said:
If yours is anything like the RX-8 that I had, any problem is more cr@ppy engine related. Worst car I've ever owned and I've had some rubbish.

Tesco 99 (Millenium) produced the best RR figures in my Impreza especially with 10% methanol added :)

Hey nothing wrong with RX-8s ;-)
 
No one has mentioned ESSO on this post, I always use ESSO Diesel, never had a problem, good mpg and where I live its cheaper than Tesco
BAZZER1:thumb:
 
vealige said:
Always an interesting debate and locally here is the chevron fuel depot where all the tankers come and fill up. Its quite funny to see Morrison's, sainsburys, Texaco, shell, bp, tesco etc all sat waiting to fill up from the same tanks. Believe what you want on whether a certain places fuel is better then the other for me I go on price.

Luckily for us the transport costs are low down here due to the depot being close so its reflected in the price of petrol which tends to be much cheaper then most places.

Fuel tankers in a depot DO NOT fill up from the same tanks they fill up at gantries where their order code dictates what fuel is loaded on the truck. Branded fuel contains additives which are proven to keep engine and fuel system cleaner which is a GOOD thing. Unbranded and supermarket product is cheaper lower quality because same as they do with other suppliers (eg beef/horse) they dictate the prices they are prepared to pay and as the meat suppliers did the oil companies manufacture to the price. If u still feed your kids cheap burgers then keep feeding your car supermarket fuel :)
 
Unbranded and supermarket product is cheaper lower quality because same as they do with other suppliers (eg beef/horse) they dictate the prices they are prepared to pay and as the meat suppliers did the oil companies manufacture to the price. If u still feed your kids cheap burgers then keep feeding your car supermarket fuel :)


Strange thing is my kids won't eat burgers now. Turns out all their lives, they've liked horse. Now no-one sells horse.
 
I put in the cheaper fuel into my amg at a bp outlet (by mistake) never noticed any difference been tempted to carry on but thought I might ruin the engine.
 
Fuel tankers in a depot DO NOT fill up from the same tanks they fill up at gantries where their order code dictates what fuel is loaded on the truck. Branded fuel contains additives which are proven to keep engine and fuel system cleaner which is a GOOD thing. Unbranded and supermarket product is cheaper lower quality because same as they do with other suppliers (eg beef/horse) they dictate the prices they are prepared to pay and as the meat suppliers did the oil companies manufacture to the price. If u still feed your kids cheap burgers then keep feeding your car supermarket fuel :)

Can you prove any of what you're written there?

What is wrong with horse meat?
 
Bored with fuel threads, SLK55 AMG Shell V Power (Nitro) or Tesco Momentum both 99 Ron. CLS which ever diesel is cheapest......there's no advantage with"premium" diesel.

RR
 
Only premium diesel for me.

I'm worth it.
 
Fuel tankers in a depot DO NOT fill up from the same tanks they fill up at gantries where their order code dictates what fuel is loaded on the truck. Branded fuel contains additives which are proven to keep engine and fuel system cleaner which is a GOOD thing. Unbranded and supermarket product is cheaper lower quality because same as they do with other suppliers (eg beef/horse) they dictate the prices they are prepared to pay and as the meat suppliers did the oil companies manufacture to the price. If u still feed your kids cheap burgers then keep feeding your car supermarket fuel :)

On Guernsey,I am assured by local resident that there is only one giant diesel storage tank on the island,,but many different fuel stations. So ,if some fuel is different to others,it must be down to additives added by the driver.
One driver who works out of Fawley refinery,,also tells me that its all the same but plus sometimes additives
 
An interesting thing about diesel engines is the fact that back in the thirties an engine used some .65 lbs of fuel per H.P. per hour
The diesel engine uses the same amount today
 
Tescos for mine. Have tried V Power and the like and doesn't seem to make any difference with diesel anyway :).
 
Can you prove any of what you're written there?

What is wrong with horse meat?

Erm yes! (I've been in fuel retail for 20years)

And nothing wrong with it provided u know it is what it is and you are happy that it may not have identical nutritional benefits to beef!
 
Guernsey is an example where there are situations where it is more feasible for a supermarket or haulage company etc to use a higher grade of fuel where they have no choice due to the haulage cost of getting cheaper elsewhere. Additives are a key part of branded fuel and there is a cost to it but provided it is added to a fuel of a high grade to begin with then oil companies will sell it across brands. Most fuel depots also recycle uplifted fuel from closed sites or contaminated tanks etc and this is routinely resold to supermarket or other none brand contracts rather than being resold through branded sites. Using supermarket fuel is a tiny risk over long term and not using high octane super unleaded is probably not noticeable in the majority of even the highest performance cars but the difference is there even if imperceptible to you and I. For me it is a bit like if someone has worked in KFC they tend not to eat it because they know everything we don't. I work in the industry so I know enough not to want to use unbranded fuel.
 
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I'm a hateful engine geek and did quite a few tests on fuels with my 500e.

Essentially I had no performance improvement with regards to the butt dyno. I used to get a smoother hot idle from both Tesco 99 and V-Power and before that Optimax.

What I did see was a regular drop in mileage from 550 to 500km from a tank over many many tankfuls. I average pretty much bang on 21mpg when using V-Power and was pretty much exactly 10% less on Tesco 99. This was over about 5 tanks of each when I was doing the back to back testing, yes I was single at the time :p

Now my 110 Defender which currently has 218,000 miles on it, it is running well as i'm a diesel guy by trade and I only get minimal smoke when running into the governor or when off boost on a cold engine. I have run it on a 50/50 mix of Rapessed oil and diesel, Extreme winter fuel in the north of norway down to -36 Degrees, 5 litres of old engine oil after filtering and i've even run it with 5 litres of EP90 in the tank. This was all added to a nearly full tank of diesel. On all these mixes and once warm the engine never smoked. When I fill with Morrisons diesel though it will start smoking after just a couple of miles. Time and time again so now I never touch Morrisons diesel.

I did run a tank of BP Ultimate diesel when I first picked up the Defender which seemed to improve it but I think this was mainly down to giving it a long run at speed (Well 65mph for an old Defender counts as speed :D) more than the fuel itself.

There was a post on Pistonheads a long while back and one of the guys who designs the mixing system for the fuel. He explained very well how the base fuel is the same but the amount and quality of the additives changes quite a lot between tanker fills depending on who wants it.

Personally I fill up the Merc with V-Power and the Defender with whichever branded fuel station i'm closest to.

I think getting fuel from a station that needs regular fresh deliveries is also important as it can go off quite quickly.

Dave!
 
Interesting info Dave, thanks for being such a hateful nerd!! :bannana:
 
Defo shell for me..car runs a lot better and better mpg!
 

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