How important is the gas station you choose to buy your gas from ?

I always use Sunoco, 94, in ALL my cars.

 

Ooh gas stations! One of my favorite rants!

1) Here in Michigan, fortunately, stations are required to post if the fuel they sell has ethanol in it (up to 10% can be blended with gas and sold as "gasoline"). At least here in Michigan, Sunoco uses ethanol in all octane ratings. This isn't generally good for us for several reasons. Ethanol has a lower heating value than gas, reducing power and fuel economy to the tune of 2.5%. It effectively leans out your mixture. At part throttle, a fuel injected car will compensate, but not at WOT. It also attacks fuel system materials, including hoses and aluminum, and can swell some plastics. Ethanol is to be avoided.
2) You can spare me the lecture on how gas pipelines work, I'm concerned about the flow of money here--contrary to the facts presented in an email going around, my research indicated that Citgo was buying Iraqi oil back when Saddam was in power, Marathon/Speedway and others were buying from nations with popular support for terrorists. BP and Shell didn't buy any from such countries. This was based on information available from the Dept of Energy website www.doe.gov (?) taking a sample of June 2000 (?) and Aug 2001. That left out a lot of brands, most of what I took from it was that I wanted to buy Sunoco, BP or Shell based on where they imported gas from. See above for why I don't buy Sunoco!
On a side note, Shell just had a problem in the Southeast with fuel with a high sulfur content getting into the system and fouling people's fuel senders. There have also been reports of fouled senders in Kentucky and Canada (Ontario?) in the past few months. A puzzling new trend...
Don
Boy are my posts boring!

 

I have always used Amoco (now sold at BP stations) in all my cars.

Whenever I took my east-coast Hondas to Seattle, I could never find a regular gasoline out there that worked as well as Amoco regular. The service advisor at the local Honda dealer, who was originally from NJ, was of the opinion that Amoco was the best gas you could buy, and my own experiences have done nothing to disprove that.

Now I use Amoco premium in both my Civic SI and my 328 and they both run like a charm.

 

This is a topical subject in England to and popular wisdom from the car mags says put the top quliaty fuel in as it contains far less substances likely to be corrosive to various engine parts and has greater lubricity. I use Shell Optimax as it's the highest octane low sulpher fuel so it adds performance or mpg, depending how you drive.

On cost, spare a thought for those of us that are hit with stupendously high tax on fuel. I just filled up this morning the cost per gallon was £3.92 so I spent over £65.00 on a tank. According to my paper's published exchange rate that's $6.90 a gallon - $114.40 to fill up!

 

That's a pretty hefty increase in just a short time. I was in England in November and filled up twice (with regular gas, admittedly) at about 78p per liter, which at the time translated into just exactly $5.00 per gallon. And I thought THAT was extravagant!

 

Optimax has been around 81p per litre for a long while but has shot up in the last few weeks due to the crude price rises.

You can still buy some fuels around 83p which I use in everything other than my Ferrari.

I was working on $1.76= £1.00 for my calcs

Steve

 

That´s not boring, that is pretty interesting. Good move! I´ll keep that in mind next time, thanx for the facts!

 

A long time ago, I was told that the "no-name" brands get their oil from the bottom of the tanker, where the sediments accumulate. This may be obsolete, and the refining process might make it moot, but I still try to avoid nameless gas.

But I always log every fill-up in a small notebook I keep in the car. Twice in 25 years I've gotten a tank of bad gas in the Alfa. (The Spica injection requires a very fine filter, so it doesn't take much contamination to foul it.) I keep track of where my gas comes from so I can warn a station when they're despensing bad gas -- and avoid that place until they've fixed it. (It also warns me when a specific pump is a bit out of calibration -- three more gallons for the same miles as any other pump?) A sudden change in fuel mileage also can warn of a mechanical issue.

I also log tire changes, tire pressure changes, oil changes and additions, etc. The log provides a history on the car ... and of fuel prices over the years.

 

Here's something I learned a long time ago, and it applies to all brands of gas:

If the tanker truck is in the station filling the tanks, don't go there! The act of filling the tanks tends to stir up any sediment that may have accumulated in the bottom of the tanks; normally that sediment is not a problem unless it has been stirred up.

Unfortunately it probably takes some time for the sediment to settle again after the truck leaves, and you probably won't know if that has just happened.

 

In California, all of the gas is supposedly made to the same specifications, unique to California. Still, there are differences. In an effort to avoid MTBE, Union 76 has been using ethanol to meet spec. MTBE will destroy flexible fuel line components worse than ethanol. I have found that ARCO pings in any car that I have ever burned it in. A local independent Ferrari mechanic tells me that when he removes the heads on cars that use Shell, the official fuel of Ferrari, he finds more deposits on the valves and pistons. He recommends Chevron, which adds Techron to its formula.

 

Well I wish we had 94 here in CA. I also use Chevron supreme at 91 octane, I think it is the best here at least I tried shell trying to be supportive and I thought i noticed a difference (for the worse). BTW it was $2.61 yesterday, the price of fun oh well!!!