Tesco Petrol - Momentum or not?

[artyman]

Sainsburys is the cheapest near me, so that's what it gets, I've never noticed any difference in fuels, apart from the price!

 

[Chrishazle]

Sainsburys is the cheapest near me, so that's what it gets, I've never noticed any difference in fuels, apart from the price!

My C270 gets the same treatment - cheapest diesel I can find! However, a few months ago I accidentally filled her with Vpower for a long run home from Somerset, blasting along the A303, M3, M25/26/20 - and showed 52mpg average at over 60mph average! Normally the best I see is 45mpg average, maybe 48 on a long run.

 

[blondebier]

Mrs W obtained money off vouchers - 5p per litre - for Tesco petrol ...

Did you know that you can now use 3 of these at any one time and get 15p off every litre.

We did a Tesco Wine order at the weekend and got 13 of them.

 

[Mike Walker]

Did you know that you can now use 3 of these at any one time and get 15p off every litre.

We did a Tesco Wine order at the weekend and got 13 of them.

I did because Mrs W told me about it. Never bought Tesco petrol in my life so thought why not give it a go on the basis of a previous post - how much different can it actually be

 

[Chrishazle]

Did you know that you can now use 3 of these at any one time and get 15p off every litre.

We did a Tesco Wine order at the weekend and got 13 of them.

I used 3 at Tesco Aylesbury on Saturday filling the c270 from nearly empty - excellent!

At £50 per voucher you've bought a lot of wine! We prefer to head for Calais when we need that size of stock-up, nice day out and the wine we get from Franglais is better value for money than anything we can get here!

Interesting that your wine order gets you one voucher per £50, whereas in store you only ever get one voucher per bill - irrespective of how far past £50 you go! I've contemplated splitting the trolleyful into £50 batches, but I think the credit card company might blow a fuse at 4 or 5 transactions in a short space of time!

 

[blondebier]

I used 3 at Tesco Aylesbury on Saturday filling the c270 from nearly empty - excellent!

At £50 per voucher you've bought a lot of wine! We prefer to head for Calais when we need that size of stock-up, nice day out and the wine we get from Franglais is better value for money than anything we can get here!

Interesting that your wine order gets you one voucher per £50, whereas in store you only ever get one voucher per bill - irrespective of how far past £50 you go! I've contemplated splitting the trolleyful into £50 batches, but I think the credit card company might blow a fuse at 4 or 5 transactions in a short space of time!

It was a nice surprise.

I bought 60 bottles of mulled wine for a Christmas party. I got 1 voucher for every £10...

They are also valid until the 18th of December. I was delighted! :bannana:

 

[markjay]

It's not the higher Octane rating that makes the difference - not unless the car has a highly-tuned engine with turbo charger - but premium fuels have detergents additives which will keep your intake valves and injectors clean. This is particularly helpful if the car only does short journeys when the engine is cold and the mixture is reach.

However the same cleaning effect can be achieved by regular use of 95 fuel with additives (Redex, Forte, etc), or just by occasional use of premium fuels.


Having said that, my mileage isn't high and the difference in fuel cost is small change compared to other costs (depreciation, insurance, VED, Council parking permit, servicing, tyres, and the occasional PCN...) that I just don't bother with saving on fuel. I used BP Ultimate and more recently Shell V-Power (the choice between the two had more to do with the location of the garages than with the fuel quality), nothing else. If it keeps the engine clean it's good for it...

 

[R.Sendout]

Are you for real?

IT ALL COMES FROM THE SAME HOLE IN THE GROUND! They all share the same loading bays at the depots...

Yes, all fuels are not the same

I live near Salisbury and have used the local Tesco for fueling my MB and previous Saab 9-5 as well as many other cars over several years of living here. There has never been an issue with any car when using petrol from here.

I can only assume that your "logic" is of the same standard as your spelling, grammar and syntax

Are you for real?
Do you seriously think I was judging fuel on the location of the pump that delivered it?

I fail to spell a word correctly and miss a letter from another
Everything I have ever known about high performance engines has just left my mind!!

 

[DSM10000]

Yes, all fuels are not the same



Are you for real?
Do you seriously think I was judging fuel on the location of the pump that delivered it?

Everything I have ever known about high performance engines has just left my mind!!

Dear boy, we are a British website, such American phrases as "Are you for real" do jar somewhat

You post your location as Salisbury(ish) I live near Salisbury and as you started by comparing fuel from Tesco to the renal output of a donkey my comment was apposite in so far as I regularly use Tesco Salisbury for my fuel purchases.

Tesco sell fuel to millions of customers so if, as you allude the fuel that they sell is of inferior quality I think we would have heard by now do you not think?

Tesco of course, like other fuel retailers will have national contracts with a number of refineries to produce petrol and diesel for there forecourt operation.

You then choose to castigate another major fuel supplier but with purely anecdotal evidence.

Jay was correct. Petrol is refined to a set standard and from bulk deliveries of crude oil, the only changes to the final products are those of detergents etc that some companies decide to add.

95 RON fuel from Tesco, Sainsbury, BP, TOTAL etc would be indistinguishable in normal use in cars designed to run on that grade and as has been pointed out the use of higher octane rated fuel in an engine not designed to use it has no benefit as the mapping etc is not able to take advantage of it.

You started your response to the original thread with contentious and illogical arguments, why are you surprised when those are challenged?

 

[Mike Walker]

Dear boy, we are a British website, such American phrases as "Are you for real" do jar somewhat

You post your location as Salisbury(ish) I live near Salisbury and as you started by comparing fuel from Tesco to the renal output of a donkey my comment was apposite in so far as I regularly use Tesco Salisbury for my fuel purchases.

Tesco sell fuel to millions of customers so if, as you allude the fuel that they sell is of inferior quality I think we would have heard by now do you not think?

Tesco of course, like other fuel retailers will have national contracts with a number of refineries to produce petrol and diesel for there forecourt operation.

You then choose to castigate another major fuel supplier but with purely anecdotal evidence.

Jay was correct. Petrol is refined to a set standard and from bulk deliveries of crude oil, the only changes to the final products are those of detergents etc that some companies decide to add.

95 RON fuel from Tesco, Sainsbury, BP, TOTAL etc would be indistinguishable in normal use in cars designed to run on that grade and as has been pointed out the use of higher octane rated fuel in an engine not designed to use it has no benefit as the mapping etc is not able to take advantage of it.

You started your response to the original thread with contentious and illogical arguments, why are you surprised when those are challenged?

For the record I wish to note a minor spelling error in the above post at line 11 or thereabouts - "there" should read "their" IMHO. A good effort worth 9/10 and 1 gold star!

 

[Chrishazle]

There have been numerous letters and comments in the past in Honest John's pages of the saturday Telegraph about supermarket fuel, although I must admit I have not seen any for a while.

I have often used Tesco fuel in my cars - the Astra 1.8 estate that was replaced by the C270 3 years ago, and the 968 coupe that was replaced by the cabriolet this June. I've had no problems with any of the cars.

However, about 13 years ago I gave my 944S a tank of Tesco standard unleaded instead of the normal Texaco Clean System 95 RON - and she complained like crazy, took 2 full tanks of Texaco to get her running properly again.

 

[R.Sendout]

Dear boy, we are a British website, such American phrases as "Are you for real" do jar somewhat

I was repeating the phrase from my previous quote.

Tesco sell fuel to millions of customers so if, as you allude the fuel that they sell is of inferior quality I think we would have heard by now do you not think?

Beautiful use of the English language there (As it seems to be a competition)

You started your response to the original thread with contentious and illogical arguments, why are you surprised when those are challenged?

Hmmm, I don't agree with the first part and I am not surprised, nor have I seen any challenge. I am however a little disappointed at your attempt to belittle me before questioning the source of my knowledge. It is you that has clearly been misinformed. I could actually provide evidence of the differences in fuels and their (not there) effect on high performance engines but you don't appear interested in that.

 

[DSM10000]

I was repeating the phrase from my previous quote.



Beautiful use of the English language there (As it seems to be a competition)



Hmmm, I don't agree with the first part and I am not surprised, nor have I seen any challenge. I am however a little disappointed at your attempt to belittle me before questioning the source of my knowledge. It is you that has clearly been misinformed. I could actually provide evidence of the differences in fuels and their (not there) effect on high performance engines but you don't appear interested in that.

At no point have I tried to belittle you, possibly your ego is a little fragile and you do not take kindly to anyone holding differing views?.

I specifically stated that using high octane fuels in engines not designed to use them is of no benefit, I did not mention "high performance engines" although you have not defined what it is that you mean by that description.

No-one is disputing that there are differences in fuels, Clearly different manufacturers produce fuels of different grades in terms of RON for petrol or CETANE number in the case of diesel and also in terms of additives they may blend in. An engine requiring 95 RON fuel will run as well on any such fuel that meets that specification.

Octane rating does not relate to the energy content of the fuel. It is only a measure of the fuel's tendency to burn in a controlled manner, rather than exploding in an uncontrolled manner.

From memory of your first post you mentioned problems with a Nissan but I do not remember you telling us the model nor the fuel grade it requires.

 

[scillyisles]

This question of supermarket fuels versus the major fuel suppliers comes up quite a lot on motoring forums and it is amazing the lack of knowledge shown by some posters.
Firstly, a lot of modern engines (not necessarily high performance ones) have the ability to adapt the ecu settings to take advantage of the fuel quality they are using. Typically it takes some time for the ecu to adapt to the new fuel (1 tankful or two seems to be the norm) unless you reset the ecu by disconnecting the battery for 30 seconds or so.

All fuels are not equal and anyone who thinks that they all come out of the same tank is wrong.
For example Shell V power is only produced at Stanlow refinery in Cheshire and is delivered from there by tanker.
Tesco Momentum is produced by GreenEnergy UK and again is refined at a specific refinery and stored/distributed from different facilities to the normal 95 stuff. It is true to say that normal 95 is mostly the same base product with different additives added by the tanker driver - just go to Buncefield and watch the tankers going in and out from all the major oil companies and supermarkets for normal 95.
There are independent tests out there showing the higher performance fuels do have a benefit even for mundane engines found in a Golf even more so if your engine management system is more advanced. Evo did one some time back as did Thorney Motorsport

 

[Mike Walker]

All joking aside I feel I have learned a lot following my original post so thanks to The Forum - a source of knowledge whether you like it or not.

 

[jaymanek]

All fuels are not equal and anyone who thinks that they all come out of the same tank is wrong.
For example Shell V power is only produced at Stanlow refinery in Cheshire and is delivered from there by tanker.
Tesco Momentum is produced by GreenEnergy UK and again is refined at a specific refinery and stored/distributed from different facilities to the normal 95 stuff. It is true to say that normal 95 is mostly the same base product with different additives added by the tanker driver - just go to Buncefield and watch the tankers going in and out from all the major oil companies and supermarkets for normal 95.
There are independent tests out there showing the higher performance fuels do have a benefit even for mundane engines found in a Golf even more so if your engine management system is more advanced. Evo did one some time back as did Thorney Motorsport

Yes this is what I meant... 95 RON is the same everywhere apart from any additives added by the brand. However these additives are usually added in such weak concentration, they have no effect at all really.

Of course V power etc are different as they are different fuels with higher Octane figures... but again the brands share these too...
So 97Ron V power (if it exists just for example) could be the same 97 RON you get at a supermarket 97 Ron pump.

Around here most fuel stations are supplied by Kings lynn no matter which brand.

We own an independent fuel station (which we no longer run) but the fuel is bought from the cheapest supplier... So some times we get Texaco fuel, sometimes shell, BP.. whoever is cheapest on the particular day.

Even when we were Texaco branded, our fuel would often come from some of the other suppliers.

 

[scillyisles]

Yes this is what I meant... 95 RON is the same everywhere apart from any additives added by the brand. However these additives are usually added in such weak concentration, they have no effect at all really.

Of course V power etc are different as they are different fuels with higher Octane figures... but again the brands share these too...

No Shell V power is different from other higher rated Octane fuels as it is produced specifically by Shell at the Stanlow refinery in Cheshire and is delivered by tanker from there. Shell do not share their V Power fuel with other brands.
The same applies to the Tesco Momentum fuel which is typically rated at a higher RON than V power (I think the TMS test showed it was around 100 RON i.e. above the spec of 99 whereas Shell V Power is typically 98+) This fuel is produced by GreenEnergy UK under a specific contract with Tesco and is not shared with others.
If we are talking about 97 RON then BP are well known to share their 97 RON around but all the tests I have seen of BP97 RON rate it as inferior to Shell V Power and Tesco Momentum 99

 

[DSM10000]

Yes this is what I meant... 95 RON is the same everywhere apart from any additives added by the brand. However these additives are usually added in such weak concentration, they have no effect at all really.

Of course V power etc are different as they are different fuels with higher Octane figures... but again the brands share these too...
So 97Ron V power (if it exists just for example) could be the same 97 RON you get at a supermarket 97 Ron pump.

Around here most fuel stations are supplied by Kings lynn no matter which brand.

We own an independent fuel station (which we no longer run) but the fuel is bought from the cheapest supplier... So some times we get Texaco fuel, sometimes shell, BP.. whoever is cheapest on the particular day.

Even when we were Texaco branded, our fuel would often come from some of the other suppliers.

Thank you, Common sense prevails. (for now!)

 

[Goldfish11]

I am pretty sure Tesco now manage all the supply to Murco and Total garages so I suspect it is the same stuff.

See this article from 12 months ago

Fuel firm Greenergy's bid could make Tesco top petrol retailer | Business | The Guardian

I suspect this is all done and dusted now. So Tesco momentum is probably just Total Excellium.

Also see this review by What Car on fuels. Bottom line is you get a small increase in performance but not worth the extra you pay unless you go to Tesco.

Quote
"However, even if you accept the official claims, only Tesco’s demonstrates an improvement in fuel efficiency that outweighs the extra cost of buying the superfuel. All the other official figures deliver smaller mpg gains than the extra cost of buying the fuel. BP, Esso and Total argue that the performance, emissions and engine cleaning benefits of superfuels should also be taken into account when considering the additional cost".



Are superfuels worth the cash? - How do superfuels stack up? - Car and Car-Buying News - What Car?

 

[Dieselman]

There are independent tests out there showing the higher performance fuels do have a benefit even for mundane engines found in a Golf even more so if your engine management system is more advanced. Evo did one some time back as did Thorney Motorsport

I thought their tests showed for most cars there wasn't an increase of performance, but for some highly tuned, typically turbocharged ones, there was as the knock sensor could advance the timing and increase boost.