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[gwa]

Please bear with me on this; I live in Peterborough and have been working in Bicester since July and its just short of 100 miles door-to-door. I bought my Miggy in August and have travelled the same roads, same speeds etc etc but have noticed that one tank will return 23-25mpg and another 28-30mpg.

I have been running an experiment for the last month and I can definitely say that the variations are the difference between Tesco and BP fuel. If I fill with Tesco I get 23-25mpg and with BP 28-30mpg. So my question is not one of cost ‘cos with a 5p discount voucher Tesco will always be cheaper, no its more what’s happening to my engine.

To reduce the cost are Tesco not putting in the additives etc which keep the engine running sweet and thus the mpg is reduced?
Has any other member experienced the same difference?
Is my engine being damaged by using (potentially) inferior fuel?

I’d be interested in your comments   Weylung666 may also be interested

[markey mark]

i never use supermarket fuel for that reason its crap ! my grandad used to drive for bp and he said supermarket fuel was lower quailty  

[jonathanh]

agree.  I avod sumermarket petrol as well.  TBh my shell station is cheaper than tesco and I get 2% cashback with my egg card so it is cheaper anyway

[mantahatch]

I am led to believe that supermarket fuel does not have all the additives that other fuels have, hence they can sell it a bit cheaper.
The only problem with that is that all fuels seem to come from the same depot's and I can't imagine there being different tanks holding different qualities of the same fuel.
Unless the additives are added at the same time it goes into the delivery tanker.

Confused.

[gwa]

I am led to believe that supermarket fuel does not have all the additives that other fuels have, hence they can sell it a bit cheaper.
The only problem with that is that all fuels seem to come from the same depot's and I can't imagine there being different tanks holding different qualities of the same fuel.
Unless the additives are added at the same time it goes into the delivery tanker.

Confused.

Me too. But I'm going to stop the supermarket petrol and stick to BP as there are a lot along the A43. Thanks everyone  

[Martin_1962]

I use BP simply because it is the only decent petrol near home, and if I use Tesco it clogs the injectors, stick some BP ultimate or Shell Optimax through and it is fine.

But then my petrol consumption is minimal.

[chartz]

Same here in France.
I never use supermarket petrol or diesel nowadays.
I used to when I was a student, but I  learnt the hard way how bad petrol can damage an engine. It just reduces its life, period.
Mechanics with true knowledge will confirm this.
Whenever I fill up with bad fuel because I have no other choice, my cars (a 2.5 TD and a petrol Mégane) definitely don't like it at all, as if something was misaligned in the injection system. Cough !

[tunnie]

i take the train from Bicester to London every day  

But i too now only use BP fuel, and recently with the price drop, BP Ultimate looks cheap! so i stick that in.

I find it gives noticable improvement 3.5k rpm +

Its also totally silent on idle now, runs better too  

[Phil B]

I share your findings gwa, the highest mpg and smoothest running I get is from the BP ultimate, the difference is very noticeable.

I understand that additives are added to the fuel to the buyer's specification before despatch, and this is where supermarkets get their savings.

Phil

[feeutfo]

hmmm. I run my car on asda fuel as its nearest and cheapest. Had a couple of tech 2 sessions that show zero fuel trim error. And a rolling road day that showed same bhp output as sp32, a member on here. So not alot wrong i an thinking. I do have a bp i could use, ill give it a go, see what happens.

[TheBoy]

I use BP simply because it is the only decent petrol near home, and if I use Tesco it clogs the injectors, stick some BP ultimate or Shell Optimax through and it is fine.

But then my petrol consumption is minimal.

Must be, if you're still using Shell Optimax

[chrisdb]

How much of your journey is motorway speeds? I would have expected you to get 34-38 mpg at motorway speeds if all is well with engine and tyres... I get 35 -38 on Asda/Sainsbury petrol!

[gwa]

How much of your journey is motorway speeds? I would have expected you to get 34-38 mpg at motorway speeds if all is well with engine and tyres... I get 35 -38 on Asda/Sainsbury petrol!

Little of mine is motorway, but most is major dual carriageway. I use the cruise control to try and keep me from going too fast. I suppose from my 100 mile journey 60 is dual and and 30 is main A with the remaing 10 being local. HTMS  

[Rob James]

Has anyone tried Total Excellium? Total is the nearest garage to me so I would be interested if their fuel was as good as BP Ultimate or Shell V-Power.

Thanks,
Rob.

[gwa]

Has anyone tried Total Excellium? Total is the nearest garage to me so I would be interested if their fuel was as good as BP Ultimate or Shell V-Power.

Thanks,
Rob.

Hmmm, I feel a colaborative experiment coming on