V Power Petrol Prices

[Will]

My gut feeling is that Shell rely on the beliefs of some that it’s a magic product to justify a markup of 25p per litre above other premium 99 RON fuels.

I also think that in the real world a saving of £££s of £££s per year could be better spent on other aspects of car maintenance in a cost/benefit way.

If I knew it was worth the extra then I would happily pay it, but I honestly don’t believe it is.

I was drinking some wine last night, and we had a few bottles…one of them was £50 - it was fine but you wouldn’t have noticed.

Emperor’s new clothes and all that perhaps?

 

[markjay]

My gut feeling is that Shell rely on the beliefs of some that it’s a magic product to justify a markup of 25p per litre above other premium 99 RON fuels.

I also think that in the real world a saving of £££s of £££s per year could be better spent on other aspects of car maintenance in a cost/benefit way.

If I knew it was worth the extra then I would happily pay it, but I honestly don’t believe it is.

I was drinking some wine last night, and we had a few bottles…one of them was £50 - it was fine but you wouldn’t have noticed.

Emperor’s new clothes and all that perhaps?

A point I have made before, is that we should look at this in context.

If you're running an airport shuttle (or otherwise do many miles a year), then it makes sense to buy the cheapest fuel you can get, and drop into the tank a bottle of fuel additive evey now and then.

But at the other end of the scale........ my Suzuki does 2000 miles a year. The 47L tank is good for 400 miles in town, that's 5 tankfuls a year. At 25p per L, the difference is £11.75 per tank, or £58.75 per year. So about the price of one good bottle of wine at Will's favourite restaurant....

The bottom line is that the less annual miles you do, the smaller the difference in cost in absolute terms.


BTW, the calculation above is purely theoretical... The nearest Tesco petrol station to my house is 7 miles away, about 45 minutes in London traffic. The Shell garage, on the other hand, is at the end of my street.....

 

[GeeJayW]

My gut feeling is that Shell rely on the beliefs of some that it’s a magic product to justify a markup of 25p per litre above other premium 99 RON fuels.

I also think that in the real world a saving of £££s of £££s per year could be better spent on other aspects of car maintenance in a cost/benefit way.

If I knew it was worth the extra then I would happily pay it, but I honestly don’t believe it is.

I was drinking some wine last night, and we had a few bottles…one of them was £50 - it was fine but you wouldn’t have noticed.

Emperor’s new clothes and all that perhaps?

Shell do what other businesses do; "charge what the market will stand".

If the customer is prepare to pay 25p/litre more, then that's what they're going to charge. The cost benefit analysis is for the customer to do.

As far as I know Shell have never claimed that the differences/benefits of V-Power are 'worth it' or 'value for money'. Other premium fuels are available and customers/motorists are free to make their own choice.

 

[Will]

A point I have made before, is that we should look at this in context.

If you're running an airport shuttle (or otherwise do many miles a year), then it makes sense to buy the cheapest fuel you can get, and drop into the tank a bottle of fuel additive evey now and then.

But at the other end of the scale........ my Suzuki does 2000 miles a year. The 47L tank is good for 400 miles in town, that's 5 tankfuls a year. At 25p per L, the difference is £11.75 per tank, or £58.75 per year. So about the price of one good bottle of wine at Will's favourite restaurant....

The bottom line is that the less annual miles you do, the smaller the difference in cost in absolute terms.


BTW, the calculation above is purely theoretical... The nearest Tesco petrol station to my house is 7 miles away, about 45 minutes in London traffic. The Shell garage, on the other hand, is at the end of my street.....

In your specific circumstances, the cost of fuel is pretty irrelevant - and the convenience factor makes total sense

But it’s not representative of most people’s usage. A bit like my 911 - I’ve done about 300 miles or so in it this month, it’s not a daily driver for me - just for weekends and evenings mainly.

On the other hand, would you drive 7 miles out of your way if Momentum was shown to be a better product? How good do you need your fuel to be? Would the Suzuki really have issues with any fuel with this sort of usage - I really doubt it

 

[Will]

Shell do what other businesses do; "charge what the market will stand".

If the customer is prepare to pay 25p/litre more, then that's what they're going to charge. The cost benefit analysis is for the customer to do.

As far as I know Shell have never claimed that the differences/benefits of V-Power are 'worth it' or 'value for money'. Other premium fuels are available and customers/motorists are free to make their own choice.

I was actually wondering how much money they make on the V-power. I wonder if due to the cost (and cost of fuel in general in recent times), people are turning away from this premium product and hence they need to charge more to cover the costs (and the ongoing cost of marketing/advertising - that must be considerable too!)

In the analogy of the restaurant above - if you’re eating out in an expensive restaurant, you’d think little of buying expensive wine to go with the meal. If you were in an everyday place, you might not want to spend as much on the drinks.

Those who can afford to spend £100k on a car and lose £10/20k a year in depreciation won’t worry about a few hundred £££s more per year on their fuel bill.

Funny enough, I don’t often shop in Tesco - but I guess they may price their fuel to attract customers for shopping too. Like Costco and their £1.50 hot dogs or whatever

I’m sure regular fuel stations want to do the same to a point - but that’s where the 95RON stuff comes in I guess!

 

[markjay]

Would the Suzuki really have issues with any fuel with this sort of usage - I really doubt it

A port injection engine in a car that mostly does short journeys is the ideal candidate for fuel with aggressive detergents.

I never had a car that could benefit from the higher Octane of premium fuels, the only reason I use them is the improved additives pack.

For very many years I used to add Redex to the fuel tank, I still think it's great stuff, but as I got older I got fed up with measuring the right amount etc and started using premium fuels instead, far more convenient.

Originally I used BP Ultimate 98 (and collected Nectar points - back in the day when I was driving around the UK for my work), and Texaco Supreme 97. These days I use Shell V-Power 99.

If you read the marketing blurb:

V-Power unleaded Fuel | Shell UK

Introducing our latest-generation Shell V-Power Unleaded fuel, contains 3x more cleaning molecules than Shell our regular Unleaded. Find out more here.

www.shell.co.uk

https://www.tesco.com/help/pages/tesco-petrol-filling-station-faqs/our-fuel/tesco-momentum-99

You can see that it's mostly about the fuel's claimed superior ability to clean the engine and remove carbon deposits.

Obviously, it's difficult to know who has the better additives pack, or to what extent the additives packs in premium fuels are more effective than the standard additives packs found in regular fuels.

Ultimately, if you don't trust fuel companies, then you can buy regular fuel and chuck into the tank a bottle of Redex/Forte/Millers/BG44K from time to time.

 

[GeeJayW]

I was actually wondering how much money they make on the V-power. I wonder if due to the cost (and cost of fuel in general in recent times), people are turning away from this premium product and hence they need to charge more to cover the costs (and the ongoing cost of marketing/advertising - that must be considerable too!)

In the analogy of the restaurant above - if you’re eating out in an expensive restaurant, you’d think little of buying expensive wine to go with the meal. If you were in an everyday place, you might not want to spend as much on the drinks.

Those who can afford to spend £100k on a car and lose £10/20k a year in depreciation won’t worry about a few hundred £££s more per year on their fuel bill.

Funny enough, I don’t often shop in Tesco - but I guess they may price their fuel to attract customers for shopping too. Like Costco and their £1.50 hot dogs or whatever

I’m sure regular fuel stations want to do the same to a point - but that’s where the 95RON stuff comes in I guess!

I've no idea how much money they make from V-Power, but bear in mind they sell V-Power formulations all around the world. Can't imagine they would do that if they weren't making significant money out of it. That said, retail fuels isn't where Shell makes its money.

 

[Will]

A port injection engine in a car that mostly does short journeys is the ideal candidate for fuel with aggressive detergents.

I never had a car that could benefit from the higher Octane of premium fuels, the only reason I use them is the improved additives pack.

For very many years I used to add Redex to the fuel tank, I still think it's great stuff, but as I got older I got fed up with measuring the right amount etc and started using premium fuels instead, far more convenient.

Originally I used BP Ultimate 98 (and collected Nectar points - back in the day when I was driving around the UK for my work), and Texaco Supreme 97. These days I use Shell V-Power 99.

If you read the marketing blurb:

V-Power unleaded Fuel | Shell UK

Introducing our latest-generation Shell V-Power Unleaded fuel, contains 3x more cleaning molecules than Shell our regular Unleaded. Find out more here.

www.shell.co.uk

https://www.tesco.com/help/pages/tesco-petrol-filling-station-faqs/our-fuel/tesco-momentum-99

You can see that it's mostly about the fuel's claimed superior ability to clean the engine and remove carbon deposits.

Obviously, it's difficult to know who has the better additives pack, or to what extent the additives packs in premium fuels are more effective than the standard additives packs found in regular fuels.

Ultimately, if you don't trust fuel companies, then you can buy regular fuel and chuck into the tank a bottle of Redex/Forte/Millers/BG44K from time to time.

I do trust fuel companies to sell fuel that is of good enough quality for the purpose it is intended for - in fact I’ve never had an issue with any fuel that I can remember.

I don’t really get the anxiety with the additives though - all fuel has additives and the vast majority of people who drive cars don’t use any additional additives and will probably have no interest in what fuel they use either (probably purchased from the most convenient place). I’m sure most people will not have issues with any aspect of their fuel system as a result

I guess my question to those who refuse to use Momentum 99 over Shell is that do you just assume it’s what you need? Is there insufficient additives in Momentum 99 for your needs? Both are premium fuels with increased additives and higher octane ratings.

Shell make some great marketing claims of course (they need to justify the huge cost difference!) but they follow up every claim with this addendum:

No guarantees provided.

It’s very difficult to measure what you’re getting with fuel isn’t it? A 16% increase in fuel costs for most people is significant especially if you add it up over the years. Does V-power really justify itself to those - I can’t see the value there and I suspect it isn’t a good value for money product.

 

[GeeJayW]

I do trust fuel companies to sell fuel that is of good enough quality for the purpose it is intended for - in fact I’ve never had an issue with any fuel that I can remember.

I don’t really get the anxiety with the additives though - all fuel has additives and the vast majority of people who drive cars don’t use any additional additives and will probably have no interest in what fuel they use either (probably purchased from the most convenient place). I’m sure most people will not have issues with any aspect of their fuel system as a result

I guess my question to those who refuse to use Momentum 99 over Shell is that do you just assume it’s what you need? Is there insufficient additives in Momentum 99 for your needs? Both are premium fuels with increased additives and higher octane ratings.

Shell make some great marketing claims of course (they need to justify the huge cost difference!) but they follow up every claim with this addendum:



It’s very difficult to measure what you’re getting with fuel isn’t it? A 16% increase in fuel costs for most people is significant especially if you add it up over the years. Does V-power really justify itself to those - I can’t see the value there and I suspect it isn’t a good value for money product.

I refer you to #463 above.

They don't claim it to be a good value for money product.

 

[markjay]

I do trust fuel companies to sell fuel that is of good enough quality for the purpose it is intended for - in fact I’ve never had an issue with any fuel that I can remember.

I don’t really get the anxiety with the additives though - all fuel has additives and the vast majority of people who drive cars don’t use any additional additives and will probably have no interest in what fuel they use either (probably purchased from the most convenient place). I’m sure most people will not have issues with any aspect of their fuel system as a result

I guess my question to those who refuse to use Momentum 99 over Shell is that do you just assume it’s what you need? Is there insufficient additives in Momentum 99 for your needs? Both are premium fuels with increased additives and higher octane ratings.

Shell make some great marketing claims of course (they need to justify the huge cost difference!) but they follow up every claim with this addendum:



It’s very difficult to measure what you’re getting with fuel isn’t it? A 16% increase in fuel costs for most people is significant especially if you add it up over the years. Does V-power really justify itself to those - I can’t see the value there and I suspect it isn’t a good value for money product.

Yes, many people use regular fuels, and many engines are chocked with carbon deposits. Are these two facts correlated? I don't know. But just because many people use regular fuels, it isn't necessarily proof of anything, one way or the other.

You say you trust fuel companies to sell fuel that is 'good enough'. But like most things in life, there's good enough, better, and best. All three have their markets.

Personally, I can't say if Tesco use better detergents than Shell in their premium fuels, but I do belive that premium fuels in general have more effective detergents than regular fuels.

Of course, those who hold the opposite beliefs to mine will ridicule me fo my beliefs. By definition, a belief is the illogical assumption that you are right and everyone else is wrong.

 

[Will]

I refer you to #463 above.

They don't claim it to be a good value for money product.

I didn’t say they did either - I’m just summing up from the perspective of a consumer

 

[Will]

Yes, many people use regular fuels, and many engines are chocked with carbon deposits. Are these two facts correlated? I don't know. But just because many people use regular fuels, it isn't necessarily proof of anything, one way or the other.

You say you trust fuel companies to sell fuel that is 'good enough'. But like most things in life, there's good enough, better, and best. All three have their markets.

Personally, I can't say if Tesco use better detergents than Shell in their premium fuels, but I do belive that premium fuels in general have more effective detergents than regular fuels.

Of course, those who hold the opposite beliefs to mine will ridicule me fo my beliefs. By definition, a belief is the illogical assumption that you are right and everyone else is wrong.

I think the thing is that comparing apples with apples, V-Power and Momentum 99, both offer a premium fuel with higher octane and increased detergent packages.

In the case of the pricing I posted links to, Momentum does all of that for 5p per litre less than Shell’s regular grade fuel.

So people could benefit from the increased additives/detergents and get a higher octane fuel for a better value price

 

[Spider10]

Tesco momentum £1,53 L filled the SLK55 up today for a run to matlock
Roof down obviously

 

[Fastcar155]

I use so little fuel now that it makes little difference to my annual fuel costs.
V power 99 octane first choice then what Esso has to offer.

 

[Will]

I picked a new car up at the weekend, travelling back down the A1 I passed a Shell garage on a roundabout. It didn’t seem like an off-junction ‘services’ but anyway it was 169.9p per litre for regular unleaded. I didn’t bother checking the price of V-Power

Stopped at a Tesco nearby literally a couple of minutes away from one junction - Momentum 99 150.9p

 

[E55BOF]

Most of my cars have used/use premium fuel, and if I had a Tesco petrol station conveniently situated I'd go there, but as it 'appens I 'aven't. I have an Esso/Tesco Express that is, not far from an Asda, so their fuel prices are competitive, and I use their 99+ (£1.58/litre last time I filled up). I'm prepared to believe premium petrols have 'better' additive packages than non-premium, but does it make much difference, since I need premium fuel anyway? I don't know how much is advertising puff, but whenever I see claims of "up to 100%" improvement for any product, I always think 'well, that includes 1%, doesn't it'.

 

[ToeKnee]

I don't know how much is advertising puff, but whenever I see claims of "up to 100%" improvement for any product, I always think 'well, that includes 1%, doesn't it'.

It's one of my bugbears when something is advertised as "up to" percentages! "Up to 50% off" invariably means only 10% off

 

[Will]

It's one of my bugbears when something is advertised as "up to" percentages! "Up to 50% off" invariably means only 10% off

And coupled with ‘No guarantees provided’

 

[NickW205C63]

Stuck a load of v power in as a Shell station was right opposite the dealer ... £1.74 I think it was

 

[ube63]

Shell is practicing the art of ripping off around where I live with a price difference of 25p/l compared to Tesco Momentum